 The Russian Federation is obviously pretty well known to people in the English-speaking world. Many people still, however, even after the fall of the USSR, believe that Russia is a communist state, though the nation is in no way governed like any country in Western Europe or North America by any means. It is not a communist state. With that said, many parts of its governing, such as the political subdivisions, were indeed inherited from the USSR. Funny enough, in today's video, I will give a brief explanation and rundown of these different types of federal subjects in Russia. To start, let's establish what exactly the federal subject types are, and why there are different types. The most common type is oblast, followed by republics, cries, autonomous ochrogs, cities of federal importance, and the lone autonomous oblast. The difference in naming some of these regions does not have a direct effect on governance, as oblasts and cries are only different in name, and are legally treated the same. However, the three federal cities, four autonomous ochrogs, and 22 republics have different clauses in the constitution that affect how they govern themselves. So the first kind of federal subject I'll discuss is the most common, the oblast. The word oblast most nearly means area or province in English, so they're the pretty standard, run-of-the-mill subdivisions most of us know and love. The naming of the oblast usually has to do with the administrative center, or capital of the oblast, which also is usually the largest city. However, a few exceptions do exist, most notably in Leningrad and Moscow Oblast, in which neither has a capital, and what would be their capitals are in fact independent cities. Leningrad is not named for its capital, as it actually is a historical name for St. Petersburg, as most of you know, but what you may not know is about how the capital Sverdlovsk Oblast is actually Yekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia. By the way, Sverdlovsk is just another historical name. The only other odd case is with Sakhalin Oblast, which is named for its geography on the island of Sakhalin. With 46 oblasts, they collectively have most of Russia's population, with the ethnic population of all being majority Russian. Cries, meaning borderlands in Russian, are exactly the same legally as oblasts. This naming difference has to do with the historical notion that these regions were, or still are, on the borderlands of the Russian state. For some, like Perm and Krasnoyarsk, this is obviously not true, but for Primorsky and Kamchatsky, it makes a little more sense. The only autonomous oblast, the Jewish autonomous oblast, is unique in its position. Autonomous oblasts used to be a bit more numerous, but all former ones, like the Edidj, but all former ones have since become republics. Despite what the name may suggest, the population is in fact mostly Russian also. Autonomous Okrugs, or districts, are self-governing regions that are subordinate in other oblasts, in most cases. The reason these Okrugs are autonomous is due to a regional ethnicity having a greater than normal presence. For example, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is subordinate to Arkhangelsk Oblast, with Nenets being the titular regional ethnicity. Yamlou Nenetsy and Kantimansya are both subordinate to Tumen Oblast, which fun fact is one of the richest oblasts in GDP per capita, in part due to the resources found in the Okrugs. Chukokha Autonomous Okrug, while being once subordinate to Magadan Oblast, is now the only autonomous Okrug to not be subordinate to any other oblast, almost giving it pseudo-republic status, which is a perfect segue to discuss the republics of Russia. These 22 places have a titular ethnicity in their region, which is not necessarily the majority, but is at least a significant minority. Due to this, republics have their own regional leaders, usually called heads, and their own official languages, constitutions, and national anthems. The republics have a considerable amount of autonomy from the central government, and it was once said that they were just represented by the Russian government in international affairs, though this autonomy has decreased in recent years. Russia's 22nd Republic, Crimea, is also in disputed status, and is generally not considered to be part of the federation, along with the city of Sevastopol, which is a perfect segue to discuss the cities of federal importance. Including the disputed Sevastopol, there are three, the other two being Moscow and St. Petersburg. Funny enough, the latter two cities are the first and fourth largest federal subjects in population, respectively, despite being third and second smallest in land area. For the sake of time, I'll only focus on the two officially recognized federal cities. These cities function as inhabited localities within different oblasts, of which I mentioned earlier, and as separate federal subjects. As one can imagine, the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are pretty important, being the two largest cities in the country, and both being capitals of Russia at different times in history. That about sums up the way too simple explanation of this asymmetrical federation's different types of subjects. I'll be making a few more detailed videos about some of the categories of federal subjects soon, as well as more videos that discuss how the Russian government works as a whole. Till then, please like, subscribe, and share this video, and try out one of these videos here, or my second channel, which focuses on South Park.