Administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR

The raion system proved very difficult to administer wholly, and on February 27, 1932, they were grouped into five oblasts, though Moldovian ASSR was kept:

• Vinnytsia Oblast
• Odessa Oblast
• Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
• Kharkiv Oblast
• Kyiv Oblast

The latter three were soon partitioned in the same year to create the following two oblasts:

• Donetsk Oblast (from Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv) on 2 July 1932
• Chernihiv Oblast (from Kyiv) on 15 October 1932

It was during this configuration, that Ukraine underwent the first two five-year plans, (a consequence of which was the catastrophic Holodomor famine in 1933), and the collectivization and industrialization that they brought. In 1934 the capital moved to Kyiv, and on 30 January 1937, the Supreme Rada of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic adopted its version of the 1936 Soviet Constitution creating the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. To meet the economic and social demands, a restructure in the administrative division was initiated, and 22 September 1937 four more oblasts were added to the existing seven.

• Zhytomyr Oblast
• Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast with its centre in Proskuriv
• Mykolaiv Oblast
• Poltava Oblast

As the Donbas continued to grow both industrially and in population, on 3 July 1938, the Donetsk Oblast was effectively split into two:

• Staline Oblast
• Voroshylovhrad Oblast

In a further re-structure 10 January 1939 the twelve existing oblasts and one republic were joined by a further three:

• Zaporizhia Oblast
• Kirovohrad Oblast
• Sumy Oblast

After the Soviet invasion of Poland and the resulting annexation of its eastern half by the Soviet Union. The territorial administration was somewhat preserved converting Polish voivodeships into Soviet oblasts. Thus, six new oblasts were established in Western Ukraine on 4 December 1939:

• Volyn Oblast (with its centre in Lutsk, western part of Wolyn Voivodeship)
• Rovno Oblast (eastern part of Wolyn Voivodeship)
• Lviv Oblast (northeastern part of Lwow Voivodeship and northern part of Tarnopol Voivodeship)
• Drohobych Oblast (southeastern part of Lwow Voivodeship)
• Stanislaviv Oblast (Stanislawow Voivodeship)
• Tarnopil Oblast (southern part of Wolyn Voivodeship and most of Tarnopol Voivodeship)

In late June 1940 the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from the Kingdom of Romania. On the 28th of June 1940, the Moldavian SSR, a full Union republic was formed out of most of Bessarabia and Moldavian ASSR that Ukraine gave up. In return it gained the Northern Bukovina province and the southern Budjak region from Bessarabia. The new territories were integrated into Ukraine on 7 August 1940, as respectively:

• Akkerman Oblast
• Chernivitsi Oblast

The former was renamed to Izmail Oblast on 7 December 1940, and the centre moved to Izmail. Thus, in the prelude of Soviet Union's entry to World War II, Ukraine gained eight new Oblasts, which combined with the fifteen existing previously, brought a total to twenty three.

As the Red Army liberated Ukraine throughout 1943/1944, several changes were made including complete reinstatement of the existed oblasts prior to World War II. On 29 March 1944 the city of Chernivitsi was renamed to Chernivtsi as was the oblast. In a similar fashion Tarnopil became Ternopil on 15 April 1944.

The liberation left a German occupied zone in Crimea and Taurida. To facilitate the Crimean Offensive, on 30 March 1944, a new twenty fourth oblast was created in Taurida:

• Kherson Oblast

After the war ended, the Carpathian Ruthenia province of Czechoslovakia was passed to the USSR and on 21 January 1946, the territory was annexed to Ukraine as the

• Zakarpattia Oblast

During the post-war rebuilding the administrative division remained stable. However the political aftermath following death of Stalin in 1953 brought a number of re-organisation policies into Ukraine. Already, on 7 January 1954, a new entity was created in central Ukraine via donation of bordering raions from neighbouring oblasts, called

• Cherkasy Oblast

In the prelude to the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslavl on 4 February, the city of Proskuriv was renamed to Khmelnytskyi, after the historic Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, along with the oblast. On 19 February the Izmail Oblast was disbanded and merged with the Odessa Oblast. However, arguably the most significant change in 1954 was the transfer of Crimea from the Russian SFSR, and thus Ukraine gained the

• Crimean Oblast

After the political defeat of the so-called Anti-Party Group, consisting of famous politicians such as Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich, a nationwide renaming campaign was undertaken. To ensure further disturbances of such manner be avoided, in early 1958 Moscow passed a decree not to name any object or locale in honour of a living person, and on 5 March 1958, the city of Voroshylovhrad (bearing the name of its native, Kliment Voroshilov) was renamed to its historical name of Luhansk as was the oblast.

Drohobych Oblast, being a smallest in territory from the start, since its creation has been continuously reduce in size, ceding three raions to the Polish Committee of National Liberation in autumn 1944 (including the city of Peremyshl). Another raion (village of Medyka) followed in May 1948, and losing a further 480 km² of territory in 1951 to the now People's Republic of Poland. The rural oblast also proving to be economically inefficient and was thus disbanded and its territory merged into Lviv Oblast on 21 May 1959. The latter would be the last major change of internal borders of Ukraine's administrative divisions until present day, the oblast count would stay stable at twenty five all right up to the republic's independence in 1991.

Minor changes would continue nonetheless. The 22nd Congress of the CPSU initiated a cosmetic phase to the De-Stalinization programme by breaking Joseph Stalin's cult of personality. On 9 November 1961, the city of Staline was renamed to Donetsk and the oblast followed suit. Exactly a year later, the city and oblast of Stanislaviv was renamed to Ivano-Frankivsk in honour of the Ukrainian writer and poet Ivan Franko. Following the death of Kliment Voroshilov in December 1969, the city and oblast of Luhansk once again became Voroshylovhrad on 5 January 1970.

This arrangement would enter a stable phase right into the perestroika. On 4 May 1990 Voroshylovhrad would be once again reverted to Luhansk, along with the oblast. On 11 June 1991, the city of Rovno was renamed to Rivne, the oblast too. However, the most significant change took place on 12 February 1991, when the Crimean Oblast would re-establish as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which it held as part of the Russian SFSR until 18 May 1944, and would declare sovereignty on 4 September.

The present Administrative division of Ukraine have retained the Soviet-time arrangement, though legal formalities such as the Crimea's status as an Autonomous republic and the status of Sevastopol would be settled in the mid-1990s.