/ɒkrʊˈɡɑː/, U.S. /ˌɑkrəˈɡɑ/, okrugi Brit. /ˈɒkrʊɡi/, U.S. /ˈɑkrəɡi/.okrugn.
/ˈɒkrʊɡ/, /ˈɒkruːɡ/, U.S. /ˈɑkrəɡ//ɒkrʊˈɡɑː/, U.S. /ˌɑkrəˈɡɑ/, okrugi Brit. /ˈɒkrʊɡi/, U.S. /ˈɑkrəɡi/. In Russia and certain other countries of Eastern Europe: an administrative district or territory; spec. (in the Soviet Union and some countries formerly part of the Soviet Union) a low-level administrative division, smaller than an oblast (often a national or autonomous one for a small ethnic group). Cf. oblast n.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > in Russia and Bulgaria
okrug1874
1874 Jrnl. Amer. Geogr. Soc. N.Y. 5 185 Women are admitted as witnesses only in one free community, in the Darginski Okroog.
1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 69/2 Area and population of the Russian Empire... Okrugs, or otdyels (territories) under military government.
1935 B. W. Maxwell Soviet State i. i. 30 Russia, before the Revolution, was divided for purposes of administration into seventy-eight governments (guberniya), twenty-one regions (oblast), and one circuit (okrug).
1950 Soviet Stud. 3 121 The first culture base..became the administrative centre of the Evenki okrug.
1971 J. S. Reshetar Soviet Polity vii. 257 The least of the ethnic autonomous administrative units is the ‘national area’ (okrug). They have been established for the numerically small peoples of the Soviet Far North and Far East who inhabit large and sparsely populated areas.
1999 Encycl. Brit. Online (Version 99.1) at Khanty-Mansi The national okrug became an autonomous okrug in 1977. The okrug covers a vast, level, swampy area in the West Siberian Plain.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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