Over the past twenty-five years, our country has experienced a lot of upheaval that directly affected its future. The first of these is the collapse of the USSR, which meant the demolition of the entire system of government, then the formation of a new country - the Russian Federation.
Administrative issue
Russia has always been a huge territorial entity, the effective management of which presents certain difficulties. The Russian empire kept itself at the expense of the autocratic power of the emperor, who controlled even the smallest processes with the bureaucracy apparatus, and quite frequent reforms of regional governance are associated with the country's vast scale. The first time this happened during the reign of Peter the Great, who divided the entire territory of the country into a province led by governors, while the heads of the regions were also accountable to special colleges, thus the king tried to introduce a three-stage system of government. However, some areas of the territory were equal to some European countries, so it was further divided into a larger number of provinces. In general, the reform streamlined management to a certain extent, and the center gained the opportunity of more operational control over remote regions. However, there was still no clear subordination.
Historical experience
Correcting the situation, the empress is conducting a new reform. In 1775, a decree was followed to divide Russia into 51 provinces, which, in turn, were divided into counties. At the head, as before, was the governor, but further significant changes were made. For control, the post of governor-general is introduced, which united several regions under its own leadership; in all, from 1775 to 1917, 20 governor-generals were created and a special administrative-territorial unit - the Caucasian governorate. As you can see, such a system is very similar to the federal districts of Russia, the composition of which has also repeatedly changed. The government of Catherine II did this in order to strengthen supervision of local authorities, to control the actions of governors and reduce the likelihood of popular protests and discontent. Indeed, this has significantly improved the efficiency of the administrative-bureaucratic apparatus.
Soviet management system
The revolution of 1917 made adjustments to the governance of the country. The Bolsheviks initially gave considerable power to the outskirts and remote territories. Which subsequently led even to the overthrow of Soviet power in some regions. Realizing his mistake, SNK quickly began to change the tactics and strategy of the managerial structure. During the formation of the USSR, federalist principles of state organization were declared, but in fact, party officials controlled all power, and if we draw an analogy with the Russian Empire, it will become clear that the essence has not changed. And only the name has changed. So, instead of governors and other regional administrators, party secretaries of different levels were introduced, who maintained iron discipline in the "estates" entrusted to them. The degree of centralization in the Soviet period reached its zenith and in its level was much higher than the imperial one.
How many federal districts are there in Russia?
The collapse of the USSR and the subsequent "parade of sovereignty" put the Russian Federation on the brink of collapse. Many parts of the state introduced their own legislation, which went against the federal one; the manageability of regions from the capital was practically zero. In this situation, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin decided to revive interregional governance with a clear and tough subordination scheme. In May 2000, a presidential decree “On Federal Districts” followed. A total of 7 units were created. That's how many federal districts in Russia were originally. The borders were taken by analogy with the division of the offices of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. A clear three-level system of administrative control begins to line up. The number of federal districts in Russia has changed more than once, this was due to political events and geographical convenience. The regulatory framework for these changes is represented by a wide range of federal laws. The appointment of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Federal District is made by the head of state.
Policy reasons for change and regulatory framework
And how many federal districts are there in Russia at the moment, given the recent transformations (in particular, the North Caucasian Federal District has been isolated from the Southern Federal District )? In March 2014, in connection with the political events in Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea, another federal district, the Crimean Federal District, was formed. Thus, we can say that there are 9 federal districts in total, answering the question of how many federal districts are in Russia. The creation of such a system of power made it possible to strengthen the control of the federal center over the regions without violating the basic principles of the asymmetric federation, which the Russian Federation is under the Constitution. The legal framework of the constituent entities of Russia has been brought into full compliance with federal law. The federal districts of Russia on the map of the country are highlighted in different colors, which allows you to quickly figure out where which district and which regions are included in this administrative-territorial unit.
The final picture of the administrative-territorial structure of the Russian Federation
We have already dealt with the number of federal districts, and now we will figure out which federal districts in Russia exist. And here is what it looks like:
- Central Federal District (Moscow).
- North-West Federal District (St. Petersburg).
- Southern Federal District (Rostov-on-Don).
- North Caucasian Federal District (Pyatigorsk).
- Far Eastern Federal District (Khabarovsk).
- Siberian Federal District (Novosibirsk).
- Ural Federal District (Ekaterinburg).
- Volga Federal District (Nizhny Novgorod).
- Crimean Federal District (Simferopol).
All these units are subordinate to the authorized representative of the head of state, who, in turn, is directly subordinate to the president of the Russian Federation. The scope of his competence includes oversight and control functions, for which an apparatus was created, consisting of different departments in different districts. Today it can be said that the federal districts of Russia (the composition of these units) correspond to the needs declared by the authorities.