a type of peasant settlement, along with the derevnia; a very old Slavic term denoting a settlement. During the feudal period, the selo was the administrative and economic center of a feudal landed estate, such estates often being described as “selo with derevni”; the residence of the feudal lord, known as the bol’shoi (big) house, was located in the selo. The fact that most such residences had churches located on the estate explains why later, in the 19th century, the term selo came to mean a large peasant settlement which had a church and which served as the economic and administrative center for the surrounding derevni. In Ukrainian, selo means a settlement in general.

In the USSR, a selo (village) is a lower level territorial and administrative unit, serving as the administrative center of a rural raion or of the territory under the jurisdiction of a village soviet. The body of state power in a selo is the village soviet of people’s deputies.