* In Bulgaria, a municipality () forms the first tier of local government and is part of an oblast.

The provinces east of the Oder and Neisse rivers ( the Oder-Neisse line ) were transferred to Poland, Lithuania, and Russia ( Kaliningrad oblast ); the 6. 7 million Germans living in Poland and the 2. 5 million in Czechoslovakia were forced to move west, although most had already left when the war ended.

Forests are also among the most significant assets of the oblast: about 20 % of the West Siberian forest resources are located in Tomsk Oblast.

Yaroslavl and its respective oblast are located in the central area of the East European Plain, which in areas to the northeast of Moscow is characterized by rolling hills and a generally uneven landscape ; however, most of these hills are no larger than in height.

The most common administrative division was the oblast ( province ), of which there were 25 upon the republic's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Klyazma and the Oka are the most important rivers of oblast.

In the period when they were the most important authority in the oblast ( 1937 to 1991 ), the following first secretaries were appointed

Due to the heavy casualties suffered during the World War II, they vanished as a separate ethnic group from most parts of the oblast.

With regard to birds, the most common species found in the oblast are black cocks, hazel grouses, quails, snipes, woodpeckers, wood grouses, and other.

With regard to fish, the most common species found in the oblast are daces, chubs, nerflings, rudds, tenches, pikes, catfish, and other.

In the period when they were the most important authority in the oblast ( 1944 to 1991 ), the following first secretaries were appointed,

While most of the oil and gas fields were hundreds of kilometers to the north of the city, near the towns of Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen was the nearest railway junction as well as the oblast administrative center.

The most populous town of the oblast is Gatchina, with 88, 659 inhabitants ( as of the 2002 Census ).

The territory of the oblast corresponded to the modern territories of the present-day Leningrad Oblast ( with the exception of the Karelian Isthmus and the territories along the border with Estonia ), Novgorod Oblast, Pskov Oblast, parts of Vologda Oblast, most of Murmansk Oblast, and the federal city of Saint Petersburg.

The most important modes of transport throughout the oblast are by railway and road.

Railroads are one on the most important component parts of the transportation system in the oblast.

The most important river of the oblast is the Ural.

The oblast has a total number of 177 rivers intersecting the region ; 13 reservoirs ( the most notable ones being Kiev Reservoir and the Kaniv Reservoir ), over 2000 ponds, and approximately 750 small lakes.

The oblast is the third most populous region of Ukraine, with a population of 2, 857, 751 (), more than half ( 1. 5 million ) of whom live in the city of Kharkiv, the oblast's administrative center.

While the Russian language is primarily spoken in the cities of Kharkiv oblast, elsewhere in the oblast most inhabitants speak Ukrainian.

The oblast is situated at a historical crossroad of the railway and highway routes connecting Central Europe to Black Sea coast and Russia ( with city of Shepetivka being the most important railway junction ).

The Khmelnyts ’ ka nuclear power plant in the city of Netishyn is the most important industrial company of the oblast.

Before World War I, most of the current Ternopil oblast was part of Austro-Hungarian province Galicia.

The Odessa oblast corresponds to the most westerly portion of " New Russia ".

Chernivtsi Oblast (, Chernivets ’ ka oblast ’, ) is an oblast ( province ) in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova.

Carpathian Ruthenia, Carpatho-Ukraine, or Zakarpattia ( Rusyn and Ukrainian: Карпатська Русь, Karpats ’ ka Rus ’; or Закарпаття, Zakarpattya ; ; Slovak and Czech: Podkarpatská Rus ; ; ; ); ( Russian: Подкарпатская Русь, Podkarpatskaya Rus ’; or Закарпатье, Zakarpatye, is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast ( Ukrainian: Zakarpats ’ ka oblast ’), with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia ( largely in Prešov kraj and Košice kraj ) and Poland's Lemkovyna.

The western part of the oblast drains into the Rybinsk Reservoir of the Volga.

The Smolensk Highland ( height — 279 meters ) lays in the western and north-western part of the oblast, while the Central Russian Highland-in the eastern part.

The Spas-Demensk ridge is located in the western part of the oblast on a glacial plain.

The area covered by marshes is relatively small — around 0. 5 % of the total territory, and there are fewer marshes in the east as compared to the western part of the oblast.

Smolensk Oblast was formed in September 1937 from the central and western districts of Western Oblast as the result of a reorganization of the latter oblast.

Only in the southwest does the oblast stretch onto the western slopes of the Ural Mountains.

Ivano-Frankivs ’ ka oblast ’; also referred to as Prykarpattia-or formerly as Stanislavshchyna or Stanislavivshchyna – Ukrainian: Станіславщина or Станиславівщина ) is an oblast ( region ) in western Ukraine.

L ’ vivs ’ ka oblast ’; also referred to as L ’ vivshchyna – ) is an oblast ( province ) in western Ukraine.

The south flowing Dnieper River with the hilly western bank and the plain eastern bank divides the oblast into two unequal parts.

Khmel ’ nyts ’ ka oblast ’; also referred to as Khmelnychchyna —) is an oblast ( province ) of western Ukraine.

After 1945 Soviet authorities also encouraged ethnic Russians to settle in territories newly annexed to the Soviet Union, including the Ternopil oblast, though western Ukraine remained considerably less Russian than eastern Ukraine.

Tivertsi, a. k. a. Tivertsy, Tiverians ( Тиверці in Ukrainian, Тиверцы in Russian ) is a tribe of early East Slavs which lived in the lands near the Dniester, and probably the lower Danube, that is in modern-day western Ukraine and Moldova and possibly in eastern Romania and southern Odessa oblast of Ukraine.

Khotyn (; see other names ) is a city in Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, and is the administrative center of Khotyn Raion within the oblast, and is located south-west of Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Slavuta (,,, ) is a city of oblast subordinance in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast ( province ) of western Ukraine, located on the Horyn River.

It remains a part of modern Ukraine, incorporated into the western Ukrainian oblast of Ivano-Frankivsk, roughly corresponding to the southern half of the oblast.

( a town of ) three mountains ) is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the western part of the oblast from Chelyabinsk.