Uchastok
An uchastok (, plural ), or dilyanka in Ukrainian usage (, plural ), was a territorial-administrative unit of the Russian Empire and early Russian SFSR. Throughout most of modern Russian history, "uchastoks", which numbered 2,523 throughout the empire by 1914, were a third-level administrative division, below "okrugs," "uyezds" and "otdels" (counties). In a literal sense, "uchastok" approximately corresponds to the English term plot, however, in practical usage it corresponds to a sub-county, section or municipal district. History. In 1708, an administrative reform carried out by Tsar Peter the Great divided Russia into guberniyas (provinces) with subordinate uezds, whereas "oblasts" (regions ) consisted of "okrugs" (counties), or "otdels" (Cossack counties), however, the counties of all were usually divided into either "uchastoks" or "volosts", with the exception of the "uezds" of the Black Sea Governorate which did not have any sub-counties. By the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929, most of the "uchastoks" were transformed into "raions" (districts), which corresponded in a similar land size, however, were subordinate directly to its Soviet republic rather than to any larger province or county. Administration. Uchastoks were coterminous with police districts—which were in the charge of the local police chief. A "selskoye obshchestvo" (), literally translating  to "rural community" were often the subdivisions of uchastoks, if not their equivalent, consisting of groups of geographically linked villages. A "magal" () is a similar sub-county which was less-commonly used but still equivalent to an "uchastok", however, a "stanitsa"—which was common in "otdels"—was always subordinate to an "uchastok". The equivalent of an "uchastok" in the Dagestan Oblast was a "nai-bate", which was ruled by a "naib" or local leader, who was a military deputy appointed by higher authorities (analogous to a "pristav", or military commandant)