National Okrug

in the USSR, a form of realization of administrative autonomy. A national okrug is distinguished by the specific features of its nationality composition and the customs of the population; it is part of a krai or oblast.

There are ten national okrugs in the USSR, all located in the RSFSR: the Taimyr (Dolgan-Nenets) and Evenki national okrugs in Krasnoiarsk Krai, the Nenets National Okrug in Arkhangel’sk Oblast, the Komi-Permiak National Okrug in Perm’ Oblast, the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets national okrugs in Tiumen’ Oblast, the Ust’-Ordynskii Buriat National Okrug in Irkutsk Oblast, the Koriak National Okrug in Kamchatka Oblast, the Chukchi National Okrug in Magadan Oblast, and the Aga-Buriat National Okrug in Chita Oblast.

Most of the national okrugs were established in accordance with the resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Dec. 10, 1930, On the Organization of National Associations in Regions Inhabited by the Minority Nationalities of the North. The national okrug as a form of national statehood has made it possible to enlist minority nationalities that had formerly been economically and culturally backward in socialist construction and in the creation of favorable conditions for their development.

The Statute on National Okrugs is promulgated by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. The body of state power of a national okrug, the soviet of working people’s deputies (which in turn elects an executive committee), is elected by the workers of the okrug for a two-year term. Within the okrug these agencies exercise their rights and discharge their duties according to the Statute on National Okrugs, as well as to decisions of the corresponding krai or oblast soviet of working people’s deputies. Each national okrug is represented by one deputy in the Soviet of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.