Selsoviet

"Rural council" redirects here. For British councils, see Rural Community Council.

Selsoviet or selsovet (Russian: сельсове́т, short for се́льский сове́т), lit. rural soviet, was the lowest level administrative subdivision in rural areas in the Soviet Union. It was preserved in most of Russia. A selsoviet is an administrative division of a raion (district).

Larger settlements, both rural and urban-type had settlement councils (поселко́вые сове́ты), which were of the same administrative level as selsoviets.

Indication of the selsoviet was part of a rural postal address (notice the "upside-down" order of routing); for example:

БССР (Byelorussian SSR),

Могилевская область (Mogilev oblast),

Климовичский район (Klimovichi raion),

Савиничский сельсовет (Savinichi selsoviet),

д. Городешня (Gorodeshnya village)

ул. Ленинская (Lenin Street) (existed in virtually any sufficiently large settlement)

Смычкову Дмитрию (for Smychkov Dmitry) (quite often there were no street numbers)

The name coincides with the name of the local rural self-administration, Rural Soviet, a part of the Soviet system of administration. A selsoviet was headed by the Chairman of Selsoviet (председатель сельсовета).

Formally, a selsoviet was to be elected by a Rural Meeting (се́льский сход). However, the Chairman of the Selsoviet had to be appointed by higher administration.

For a considerable period of Soviet history passports of rural residents were stored in selsoviet offices, and people could not move outside their area of residence without the permission of selsoviet.

Selsoviets in the Russian Federation

Subdivision into selsoviets largely remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, in many Russian federal subjects the terminology changed to reflect local specifics:

• Local administrations (ме́стные администра́ции, mestnyye administratsii)
  • Republic of Karelia: used together with rural administrations (see below), rural settlement councils (see below), and volost administrations (see below)
• Naslegs (насле́ги, naslegi)
  • Sakha (Yakutia) Republic
• Okrugs (округа́, okruga)
  • Samara Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see below), selsovets, and volosts (see below)
  • Saratov Oblast
• Rural administrations (се́льские администра́ции, selskiye administratsii)
  • Altai Krai: used together with selsovets
  • Chita Oblast: used together with rural municipal entities (see below), rural okrugs (see below), rural settlements (see below), and selsovets
  • Chuvash Republic: used together with selsovets
  • Irkutsk Oblast
  • Republic of Karelia: used together with local administrations (see above), rural settlement councils (see below), and volost administrations (see below)
  • Khabarovsk Krai
  • Primorsky Krai
  • Sakhalin Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see below), rural territorial entities (see below), and selsovets
  • Samara Oblast: used together with okrugs (see above), selsovets, and volosts (see below)
  • Tula Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see below), rural territories (see below), and volosts (see below)
  • Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug
• Rural municipal entities (се́льские муниципа́льные образова́ния, selskiye munitsipalnyye obrazovaniya)
  • Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug
  • Chita Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural okrugs (see below), rural settlements (see below), and selsovets
  • Republic of Kalmykia
  • Karachay-Cherkess Republic
• Rural okrugs (се́льские округа́, selskiye okruga)
  • Republic of Adygea
  • Belgorod Oblast
  • Chita Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural municipal entities (see above), rural settlements (see below), and selsovets
  • Jewish Autonomous Oblast
  • Kaliningrad Oblast
  • Kaluga Oblast: used together with selsovets and territorial okrugs (see below)
  • Kamchatka Oblast
  • Kirov Oblast
  • Krasnodar Krai: used together with selsovets and stanitsa okrugs (see below)
  • Omsk Oblast
  • Ryazan Oblast
  • Sakhalin Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural territorial entities (see below), and selsovets
  • Smolensk Oblast
  • Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural territorial administrations (see below), rural territorial okrugs (see below), selsovets, and territorial okrugs (see below)
  • Tula Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural territories (see below), and volosts (see below)
  • Tver Oblast: used together with selsovets
  • Vladimir Oblast
  • Yaroslavl Oblast
• Rural representations (се́льские представи́тельства, selskiye predstavitelstva)
  • Murmansk Oblast: used together with rural territorial okrugs (see below)
• (Rural) settlement councils (поселко́вые сове́ты, poselkovyye sovety)
  • Republic of Karelia: used together with local administrations (see above), rural administrations (see above), and volost administrations (see below)
  • Orenburg Oblast: used together with selsovets
  • Udmurt Republic: used together with selsovets
  • Vologda Oblast: used together with selsovets
• Rural settlements (се́льские поселе́ния, selskiye poseleniya)
  • Chita Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural municipal entities (see above), rural okrugs (see above), and selsovets
• Rural settlements administrations (администра́ции се́льских поселе́ний, administratsii selskikh poseleniy)
  • Republic of North Ossetia-Alania
• Rural territorial administrations (се́льские территориа́льные управле́ния, selskiye territorialnyye upravleniya)
  • Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above), rural territorial okrugs (see below), selsovets, and territorial okrugs (see below)
• Rural territorial entities (се́льские территориа́льные образова́ния, selskiye territorialnyye obrazovaniya)
  • Sakhalin Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural okrugs (see above), and selsovets
• Rural territorial okrugs (се́льские территориа́льные округа́, selskiye territorialnyye okruga)
  • Murmansk Oblast: used together with rural representations (see above)
  • Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above), rural territorial administrations (see above), selsovets, and territorial okrugs (see below)
• Rural territories (се́льские террито́рии), selskiye territorii)
  • Tula Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural okrugs (see above), and volosts (see below)
• Somons (сомо́ны, somony)
  • Buryat Republic: used together with selsovets; somons cover areas which are more ethnic in population.
• Stanitsa okrugs (станичные округа, stanichnyye okruga)
  • Krasnodar Krai: used together with rural okrugs (see above) and selsovets
• Sumons (сумо́ны, sumony)
  • Tuva Republic
• Territorial okrugs (территориальные округа, territorialnyye okruga)
  • Kaluga Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above) and selsovets
  • Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above), rural territorial administrations (see above), rural territorial okrugs (see above), and selsovets
• Volost administrations (волостны́е управле́ния, volostnyye upravleniya)
  • Republic of Karelia: used together with local administrations (see above), rural administrations (see above), and rural settlement councils (see above)
• Volosts (во́лости, volosti)
  • Leningrad Oblast
  • Pskov Oblast
  • Samara Oblast: used together with okrugs (see above), rural administrations (see above), and selsovets
  • Tula Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural okrugs (see above), and rural territories (see above)

In modern Russia, local self-administration is not included into the governmental system of the state. Each subnational entity of the Russian Federation has its own statute that defines the scope of local self-administration, including selsoviets (if applicable).

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