The Russian Federation has a rather complicated administrative-territorial structure. This is due to both the huge areas and the multinational population, which includes 180 nations. This includes both indigenous (autochthonous, aborigines, natives) peoples, as well as immigrants who arrived on new lands with some changes in the state. In addition, the industrial and economic development of neighboring areas, the discovery of new deposits and many other factors have a great influence on the territorial reorganization of the country.
Causes of division
To answer the question of how many regions in Russia, it is necessary to consider the entire federal structure of the country, why it does not consist only of regions, or why they are present along with other territorial units.
The vast expanses of Russia suggest the dominant role of regional division. Many factors affect the formation of administrative, territorial and municipal entities, primarily ethnic, economic, political. Often, the structural division of a country is dictated by an improvement in the system of local authorities. There are unitary states, federations, confederations (associations of states). The goal of the optimal federal structure of the Russian Federation is to create the best conditions for the successful economic development of individual regions and the country as a whole.
More subjects except France
The question of how many regions in Russia can be answered as follows: the Russian Federation contains 85 subjects (6 species), of which 46 are called regions, in addition, there is 1 autonomous region, 22 republics, 9 territories, 3 cities federal significance and 4 autonomous districts. All these regions are included in 9 federal districts. Now all subjects in the legal sense are not very different from each other.
Most areas
It was indicated above how many regions in Russia. There are 46. They existed both in the Soviet Union and in the Russian Empire. In those ancient times, as a rule, they were called newly annexed lands. The name was temporary, and troops were always located in the regions, that is, these territorial units were located mainly in the border zone of the Empire.
How many regions in Russia were before the revolution? It must be remembered that Poland and Finland were then part of our country. At that time, in addition to provinces, there were 22 regions in Russia. There were 86 of them in the Soviet Union (including all republics). To the question of how many regions in Russia, if we mean Soviet Russia, we can answer - there were 35 of them.
Continuous territorial process
Territorial units at all times were modified, provinces were abolished, governorates were introduced, and vice versa. The process began to develop especially actively immediately after 1917. From the moment of perestroika, the administrative-territorial structure of the state does not stop.
The optimal options are selected that should strengthen the federal government, give more freedom and strengthen the responsibility of local authorities in order to strengthen the integrity of the state. Most of the territorial units described are located in the European part of our country, but the largest region in Russia - Tyumen - is located in Siberia. Large territorial entities of this type are Arkhangelsk, Irkutsk, Amur regions.
Autonomous Areas
The first autonomous regions first appeared within the borders of the RSFSR, then in the Soviet Union there were several. How many autonomous regions are there in Russia? The one and only Jewish autonomous region with the capital Birobidzhan, formed in 1934. Territories in the southeast of the country were granted to migrants, who never made up the majority of the population of the region. After the mass departure of Jews to Israel, no more than one percent remained in autonomy. The question is being raised of the abolition of this region and the annexation of the territory either to the Amur Region or to the Khabarovsk Territory. But the remaining insignificant part of the population actively protests against this decision. The issue is under consideration, which indicates that the process of territorial restructuring of the country is ongoing.
The list of regions in Russia can be represented by federal districts, which became 9 after the accession of Crimea. They were formed in 2000 and are not subjects of the federation. They are akin to military districts.
Regions and counties
The Central District of the Russian Federation includes 16 regions. The North-Western division includes 7 regions of this type. Only three out of 46 areas belong to the Southern Union. The North Caucasian and newly annexed Crimean Federal Districts of the region are not included at all.
The Volga division has 8 regions. The Ural branch owns 4 structural units of this type. 5 regions belong to the Siberian Federal District. Sakhalin, Magadan and Amur - only three regions are located on the vast territory of the Far Eastern Federal District. But these are rather large administrative-territorial units.
Regions, as well as territories, cannot enter other regions, in addition, they have their own charter. The region used to mean some kind of large space, but now some large areas, such as Chelyabinsk, Leningradskaya, exceed their size. The only significant difference is the prerequisites for the occurrence. The republic differs from both of them in that it has its own constitution, language, and a number of local laws and privileges.
The term itself has several interpretations - this is also the place in which something is located or a certain phenomenon is spread. For example, pain in the region of the heart, or the area of permafrost, or high blood pressure. A region is an administrative-territorial unit of the state. In addition, it may be some kind of space, part of the country, for example, the region beyond the Urals.