Historical regions in present-day Ukraine

This is a list of historical regions in present-day Ukraine.

For the modern subdivision of Ukraine, see Administrative divisions of Ukraine. For a modern political party in Ukraine and its parliamentary faction called "Regions of Ukraine", see Party of Regions.
Part of a series on the
History of Ukraine
Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, Johann Baptiste Homann (Nuremberg, 1720)
Prehistory
Early history
Early modern history
Modern history
Topics by history
flag Ukraine portal
Traditional regions

Main historical regions
Coat of arms Name Description
Black Sea Littoral Other names: Yedisan, Ochakov Oblast.
Budjak
Coat of arms of Bucovina Bukovina Other names: Shypyntsi Land.
Donbas Other names: Land of Cumans.
Coat of arms of Halychyna Halychyna Other names: Galicia, Cis–Carpathian (east of the ridge).
Coat of arms of land of Kyiv Kyiv land Other names: Duchy of Ruthenia, Ruthenia proper.
Coat of arms of land of Chernihiv Siveria[1] Other names: Chernihiv land, Chernihiv-Siveria.
Coat of arms of Podillia Podolia Podolia means "Lower Land".
Coat of arms of Sloboda Ukraine Sloboda Ukraine
Tavria Other names: Taurida.
Coat of arms of Carpathian Trans–
Carpathia		 Carpathian region beyond the main Carpathian ridge (west of the ridge). Other names: Carpathian Ruthenia, Carpathian Ukraine, Carpatho-Ukraine, Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Sub-Carpathia, Trans-Carpathian Ukraine, Zakarpattia.
Coat of arms of Volhynia Volhynia Other names: Vladimir, Volyn, Lodomeria.
Coat of arms of Zaporizhian Sich Zaporizhian Sich

Traditional regions

The traditional names of the regions of Ukraine are important geographic, historical, and ethnographic identifiers.

  • Over-Dnieper Ukraine, Great Ukraine
    • Land of Kyiv
      • Right-bank Ukraine (east of Zhytomyr Oblast, Kyiv Oblast, Cherkasy Oblast), Central Ukraine
      • Polesia, Land of Turov (north of Kyiv Oblast, east of Brest Oblast, west of Gomel Oblast), Northern Ukraine
    • Land of Pereyaslav (predominantly Poltava Oblast and east of Kyiv Oblast), southern part of Left-bank Ukraine, Little Russia, Central Ukraine
    • Land of Chernihiv (predominantly Chernihiv Oblast, west of Bryansk Oblast, east of Gomel Oblast), northern part of Left-bank Ukraine, Little Russia, Northern Ukraine
    • Severia (Sumy Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast)
    • Sloboda Ukraine (mostly Kharkiv Oblast)
  • Ruthenia, Kingdom of Rus, Western Ukraine, Western Oblast, Liitle Poland
    • Volhynia (Volyn Oblast, Rivne Oblast, west of Zhytomyr Oblast, north of Ternopil Oblast, north of Khmelnytsky Oblast), former principality
    • Chełm, Belz, San River, Przemyśl (east of Podkarpackie Voivodeship and Lublin Voivodeship), former principality and a constituent land of Ruthenia
    • Berestia (west of Brest Oblast, south of Podlaskie Voivodeship)
    • Galicia (Lviv Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ternopil Oblast)
  • Podolia (Khmelnytsky Oblast, Vinnytsia Oblast, north of Odesa Oblast, west of Kirovohrad Oblast), Little Poland
  • Zaporizhzhia (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, east of Kirovohrad Oblast), New Serbia, Central Ukraine
  • Pontic steppe, Wild Fields, New Russia
    • Donbas ("Donets Basin") (Donetsk Oblast, Luhanks Oblast), also known as Cuman Land, Slavo-Serbia, Eastern Ukraine
    • Azov Littoral (Zaporizhzhia Oblast, south of Donetsk Oblast, southwest of Rostov Oblast)
    • Black Sea Littoral, Southern Ukraine
      • Over-Buh, Yedisan, Transnistria (Odesa Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast)
      • Bugeac (Budzhak) (southwest of Odesa Oblast)
      • Tavria (Kherson Oblast)
  • Crimea (Krym), also known as Tavria, Taurida
  • Transcarpathia / Carpathian Ruthenia, Subcarpathian Rus, Carpatho-Ukraine and many others
  • Northern Bukovina (Chernivtsi Oblast)

Contemporary regions
  Gold – Central Ukraine
  Blue – Eastern Ukraine
  Light blue – Southern Ukraine
  Orange – Western Ukraine

Sometimes, more southern oblasts can be referred to as "Eastern Ukraine".

Geopolitical, historical, and cultural factors play a role in assigning different areas of Ukraine to semi-official regions. The map on the right shows the approximate locations of some broad-brush regions. The terms "Central Ukraine", "Eastern Ukraine", "Southern Ukraine", and "Western Ukraine" occur in common usage. There is no clear definition of the boundaries of such regions, but rather a general reference. Lists of what may constitute such regions might include:

  • Central Ukraine, a more vague term, often denotes what is not included in Western or South-Eastern definitions.
  • Eastern Ukraine may mean either the Don basin, Sloboda Ukraine, continental Taurida regions etc.
  • Southern Ukraine often includes the whole Taurida, the Kryvyi Rih basin, and the regions of Mykolayiv and Odesa oblasts. Alternatively it may include the Don basin, in particularly the adjacent land to the Azov Sea.
  • Western Ukraine may mean either the historic region of Galicia, or may also include Volhynia, Podolia, Transcarpathia, and/or Bukovina.

Other terms are rarely used – such as "South-western Ukraine", which can denote either Transcarpathia, or Budjak. Sometimes the term "South-eastern Ukraine" is used to define both regions of the Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Due to the shape of the country, in narrow definition, term "Northern Ukraine" is often used to denote either the bulge of Chernihiv/Sumy oblasts or, in broader terms, the whole of Polesia. "North-western Ukraine" almost exclusively refers to the historic region of Volhynia. This makes the term "North-eastern Ukraine" rarest of them all – it is either used as synonym for the narrow definition of Northern Ukraine, or as synonym for Sloboda Ukraine (particularly Sumy Oblast).

  • Central Ukraine
    Central Ukraine
  • Eastern Ukraine
    Eastern Ukraine
  • Northern Ukraine
    Northern Ukraine
  • Southern Ukraine
    Southern Ukraine
  • Western Ukraine
    Western Ukraine

Historical states
Main article: History of Ukraine

See also

References
  1. Русина О. В. Сіверська земля // Енциклопедія історії України: у 10 т. / редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. ; Інститут історії України НАН
  • Paul Robert Magosci, Ukraine: A Historical Atlas, 1985. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. ISBN 0-8020-3428-4
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.