microraion
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌmaɪkɹəʊˌɹaɪˈjɒn/
ipa: /ˌmaɪkɹoʊˌɹaɪˈjɔn/
rhymes: -ɒn
Forms: form: microraions
form: microraiony
Etymology: Borrowed from Russian микрорайо́н (mikrorajón), with the spelling of the first element influenced by micro- (prefix meaning ‘very small’). Микрорайо́н (Mikrorajón) is derived from микро- (mikro-, prefix meaning ‘very small’) + райо́н (rajón, “district; area, region”). By surface analysis, micro- + raion.
The plural form microraiony is borrowed from Russian микрорайо́ны (mikrorajóny).
Senses: examples: text: In Riga, for example, which has massive new residential developments on the periphery, the basic schools, nurseries, and local shops appear to be in place, but other higher-level services can only be found in the core districts, and not a single social service building has been opened in the microraions, as promised.
ref: 1983, Sigurd Grava, “Urban Transport in the Soviet Union”, in Henry W. Morton, Robert C. Stuart, editors, The Contemporary Soviet City, Armonk, N.Y.: M[yron] E[manuel] Sharpe, →ISBN, part III (Soviet Urban Services), page 182:
text: Raions in turn are divided into mikroraions, analogous to neighborhoods. […] Zheks and mikroraions emphasize citizen involvement on a cooperative, voluntary basis.
ref: 1985, E[manuel] S[teve] Savas, J[ohn] A[nton] Kaiser, “Introduction”, in Moscow’s City Government, New York, N.Y.: Praeger, →ISBN, page xxix:
text: I was responsible for the evacuation of a microraion. I co-ordinated the work of the police, housing and maintenance, and transport. What were we afraid of? Well, that there'd suddenly be a jam somewhere or panic. Let me tell you: the evacuation went through in a very organized way.
ref: 1989, Iurii Shcherbak, quoting Iurii Vitaliiovych Dobrenko, “The Evacuation”, in Ian Press, transl., Chernobyl: A Documentary Story […], Edmonton, Alb.: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, →ISBN, page 65:
text: Each mikroraion has its traffic-free housing areas, together with central shops, schools and recreational facilities. By 1990 Solntsevo’s population had grown to 67,500. However there are still problems:— • There are not enough shops in the mikroraions.
ref: 1992, David Flint, “Life in Towns”, in Janet De Saulles, Deb Elliott, editors, Living in Europe (Europe), Hove, East Sussex: Wayland, →ISBN, page 33, column 2:
text: Attempts by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s to create designated Jewish regions in Ukraine and Crimea were largely unsuccessful, in part because of hostility from the local population in these regions, although some nominally Jewish administrative sub-counties (mikroraiony) existed in southern Ukraine prior to the Nazi German invasion of the USSR in 1941.
ref: 2010, “Jewish Autonomous Oblast”, in Dominic Heaney, editor, Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia 2011, 11th edition, London: Routledge, →ISBN, →ISSN, part 2 (Country Survey), page 471, column 2:
text: The article analyzes the history of the emergence of the socio-spatial phenomenon of the suburbs in the Western world and in Ukraine. A comparison of suburbs in the Soviet Union (with regard to suburban villages, dachas and microraiony) and suburbs in the United States and Canada is presented.
ref: 2022, Roman Lozynskyi, “Suburb as a Socio-spatial Phenomenon and Post-socialist City”, in Human Geography Journal, volume 32, Kharkiv, Ukraine: V[asily] N[azarovich] Karazin Kharkiv National University, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2025, abstract:
text: City plans for both Ulaanbaatar (1963, 1971, 1986) and Darkhan (1963) devised by Moscow-based Giprogor institute all employed the organising unit of the microregion (microraion) as separate residential districts centred on residential blocks. Bawden described the newly constructed microraiony in Mongolia as a tabula rasa development—a new material environment, which had little in common with the Mongolia of the past.
ref: 2024, Nikolay Erofeev, “Building the Space of Internationalism: Socialist Assistance to Mongolia in the 1950s–1970s”, in Marcus Colla, Paul Betts, editors, Rethinking Socialist Space in the Twentieth Century (St Antony’s Series), Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, →ISSN, part II (Globalising Socialist Space), page 176:
text: As the protests were mounting in summer 2020, as a bird in a flock, Belarusian citizens aligned their actions copying the spatially closer communities, activating primarily within each dvory and then, progressively propelling more microraiony against the central government, especially to support their members in prison and resist government violence.
ref: 2024, Irene Patassini, “The Belarusian Political System: The Missed Democratisation of Belarus”, in A Comparative Study of the Role of Civil Society of Belarus and Georgia: A Window of Opportunity (Comparative History of Political Systems) (Masters in International Relations thesis), Rome: Luiss University, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2025, part I (The Role of Civil Society at the National Level), page 46:
related: word: mikroraion
synonyms: microdistrict
glosses: A residential complex in a current or former communist country, chiefly one which was previously part of the Soviet Union; a microdistrict.