Kharkiv Oblast

Encyclopedia : K : KH : KHA : Kharkiv Oblast

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Kharkiv Oblast Харківська область
Population Total (2004) Density	2,857,751 91/km²
Governor	Arsen Avakov
Area	31,400 km²
Raions	27
Cities	17
City districts	9
Urban localities	61
Villages	1,683

Flag of Kharkiv Oblast

Coat of Arms of Kharkiv Oblast

Kharkiv Oblast (Ukrainian: Харківська область, translit. Kharkivs’ka oblast’, Russian: , translit. Khar’kovskaya oblast’; also referred to as Kharkivshchyna - Ukrainian: Харківщина) is an oblast in eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the south-east, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the south-west, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the north-west. The area of the oblast is 31,400 km², corresponding to 5.2% of the total territory of Ukraine.

The oblast is the third most populous region of Ukraine, with a population of 2,857,751 (as of 2004), more than half (1.5 million) of whom live in the city of Kharkiv (Kharkov), the oblast's administrative center. While the Russian language is primarily spoken in the city of Kharkiv, elsewhere in the oblast most inhabitants speak a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian called Surzhik.

History

The territory was relatively sparsely inhabited until the 1630s, when large numbers of Ukrainians began to settle there before and during the Chmielnicki Uprising. Most of the settlers were migrants from the Dnieper region, many of whom were fleeing fighting between Cossacks, Poles and Tatars. They called the newly settled region the Sloboda Ukraine ("word sloboda means fortress, mostly made of wood") or Slobozhanshchina, as the area is still sometimes called, and ruled it from the newly established fortress-city of Kharkov (founded 1656). In 1654, the region was incorporated into Muscovy (and subsequently the Russian Empire) under the terms of the Treaty of Pereyaslav.

Over the next 340 years, the area became heavily Russified. Kharkov itself became the cultural and administrative centre of the Russian Empire in the mid-18th century, and served as the capital of the Ukrainian SSR from 1919 until 1934, when the Soviet authorities moved the capital back to Kiev. The modern Kharkiv oblast is a relatively recent creation, having been established on 27 February 1932. Kharkiv Oblast together with Kiev Oblast was two most suffering regions, during the man-made famine (Holodomor) of early 1930s. It saw major fighting during World War II in several Battles of Kharkov between 1941 and 1943.

Economy

External links

• [Kharkiv Oblast Facts & Figures]
• [Kharkiv Oblast statistics]

	Ukraine
	Subdivisions of Ukraine: Cherkasy Oblast | Chernihiv Oblast | Chernivtsi Oblast | Autonomous Republic of Crimea | Dnipropetrovsk Oblast | Donetsk Oblast | Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast | Kharkiv Oblast | Kherson Oblast | Khmelnytskyi Oblast | Kiev City | Kiev Oblast | Kirovohrad Oblast | Luhansk Oblast | Lviv Oblast | Mykolaiv Oblast | Odessa Oblast | Poltava Oblast | Rivne Oblast | Sevastopol City | Sumy Oblast | Ternopil Oblast | Vinnytsia Oblast | Volyn Oblast | Zakarpattia Oblast | Zaporizhia Oblast | Zhytomyr Oblast
	Administrative centers of subdivision units: Cherkasy | Chernihiv | Chernivtsi | Dnipropetrovsk | Donetsk | Ivano-Frankivsk | Kharkiv | Kherson | Khmelnytskyi | Kiev | Kirovohrad | Luhansk | Lutsk | Lviv | Mykolaiv | Odessa | Poltava | Rivne | Sevastopol | Simferopol | Sumy | Ternopil | Uzhhorod | Vinnytsia | Zaporizhia | Zhytomyr

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