Raion

For the manufactured regenerated fiber, see rayon

A raion (or rayon) (ra'jon; rayon; раён; რაიონი, raioni; rajons; rajonas; Romanian and raion) is one of two kinds of administrative subdivisions in languages of some post-Soviet states: a subnational entity and a subdivision of a city. In these senses the term is almost always translated as "district".

In the Soviet Union, a raion was a small territorial division for administrative purposes. and raion is still in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, all states that occupy the territory of the former Soviet Union. As an administrative subdivision, the term, of French origin, was introduced by the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929 that transformed many former volosts and uyezds of the Russian Empire into raions.

A raion is usually an entity two steps below the national level. It can be a subordinate part:

of a voblasts' (in Belarus);
of an oblast, a krai, a republic, an autonomous okrug, or a big city (in Russia);
of a small Soviet republic (SSR), oblast, krai, republic, or a big city of a large SSR (in the now-defunct Soviet Union);
of an oblast, a big city, or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (in Ukraine).

Raions have self-governance in the form of a elected district council (raysovet) and the local head of administration, sometimes elected and sometimes appointed.

Raions in the Russian Federation

Administrative raion

Subdivision into raions largely remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Raion can be an administrative division of a federal subject or of a big city. In some federal subjects, however, the terminology changed to reflect national specifics:

Sakha (Yakutia) Republic—ulus (улус)
Tuva Republic—kozhuun (кожуун)

Municipal raion

A municipal raion (municipal district) (муниципа́льный райо́н) is a type of municipal formation which comprises a group of urban and/or rural settlements, as well as inter-settlement territories, sharing a common territory. Municipal districts are commonly formed within the boundaries of existing administrative districts, although in practice there are some exceptions to this rule—Neryungrinsky Municipal District in the Sakha Republic, for example, is formed around the town of Neryungri, which neither has a status, nor is a part of any administrative district.