An **oblast** (Russian: область) is a type of federal subject of the Russian Federation.

Politics
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Oblasts are political entities in a federal union. They have representation in the Federation Council. They serve as a first-level administrative division. Each oblast has a state government. It has control over its territory. They have a state legislature, the *Oblast Duma*. It is democratically elected. The Governor is the highest executive position of an oblast. He/she is elected by its people.

Subdivisions under oblasts
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Oblasts are divided into *raions* (districts), cities of oblast significance (district-equivalent independent cities), and autonomous okrugs. These are legally federal subjects equal to an oblast but are different from others. Two oblasts have autonomous okrugs: Arkhangelsk Oblast (Nenets Autonomous Okrug) and Tyumen Oblast (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug).

Naming
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The term *oblast* can be translated into English as "province" or "region". There are currently 46 oblasts (48 if counting Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts, which are internationally recognised as a part of Ukraine). It is the most common type of the 85 federal subjects of Russia. Most oblasts are named after their administrative center. It is the official term for a capital city in an oblast, which is usually the largest city. Exceptions to this include Leningrad Oblast and Moscow Oblast, which have no official capital. Sakhalin Oblast is named after an island. Leningrad Oblast and Sverdlovsk Oblast keep the old names of Saint Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

Demographics
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Oblasts are usually areas that are mostly populated by ethnic Russians and native speakers of the Russian language. They are mostly located in European Russia.

Statistics
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The largest oblast by size is Tyumen Oblast at 1,435,200 km2 (when excluding autonomous okrugs Irkutsk Oblast is the largest at 767,900 km2) and the smallest is Kaliningrad Oblast at 15,100 km2. The most populous oblast is Moscow Oblast at 7,095,120 and the least populous is Magadan Oblast at 156,996.

History
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In the Russian Empire, oblasts were a third-level administrative division. It was created in 1849. Oblasts split the larger *guberniyas* (governorates) within the first-level krais. 

### Soviet era

After the many changes during the Soviet era, the number of oblasts went up as they became the top-level administrative divisions of the Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). These oblasts held very little autonomy or power. 

### Post Soviet era

When the Soviet Union dissolved into sovereign states along the lines of the SSRs, they became the first-level administrative divisions. The oblasts of the Russian SFSR, which turned into the Russian Federation, became the first-level administrative divisions of the new country. They received greater devolved power.

On September 30, 2022, Russia annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts of Ukraine after a controversial referendum. These four regions are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.

List of Russian oblasts
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1. Amur Oblast Amur
2. Arkhangelsk Oblast Arkhangelsk
3. Astrakhan Oblast Astrakhan
4. Belgorod Oblast Belgorod
5. Bryansk Oblast Bryansk
6. Chelyabinsk Oblast Chelyabinsk
7. Irkutsk Oblast Irkutsk
8. Ivanovo Oblast Ivanovo
9. Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad
10. Kaluga Oblast Kaluga
11. Kemerovo Oblast Kemerovo
12. Kirov Oblast Kirov
13. Kostroma Oblast Kostroma
14. Kurgan Oblast Kurgan
15. Kursk Oblast Kursk
16. Leningrad Oblast Leningrad
17. Lipetsk Oblast Lipetsk
18. Magadan Oblast Magadan
19. Moscow Oblast Moscow
20. Murmansk Oblast Murmansk
21. Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Nizhny Novgorod
22. Novgorod Oblast Novgorod
23. Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk
24. Omsk Oblast Omsk
25. Orenburg Oblast Orenburg
26. Oryol Oblast Oryol
27. Penza Oblast Penza
28. Pskov Oblast Pskov
29. Rostov Oblast Rostov
30. Ryazan Oblast Ryazan
31. Sakhalin Oblast Sakhalin
32. Samara Oblast Samara
33. Saratov Oblast Saratov
34. Smolensk Oblast Smolensk
35. Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk
36. Tambov Oblast Tambov
37. Tomsk Oblast Tomsk
38. Tver Oblast Tver
39. Tula Oblast Tula
40. Tyumen Oblast Tyumen
41. Ulyanovsk Oblast Ulyanovsk
42. Vladimir Oblast Vladimir
43. Volgograd Oblast Volgograd
44. Vologda Oblast Vologda
45. Voronezh Oblast Voronezh
46. Yaroslavl Oblast Yaroslavl