Uezd
Historic Russian administrative subdivision
title: "Uezd" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["uezds-of-the-russian-empire", "local-government-in-the-russian-empire", "types-of-administrative-division", "russian-language-designations-of-territorial-entities"] description: "Historic Russian administrative subdivision" topic_path: "geography/russia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uezd" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Historic Russian administrative subdivision ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Subdivisions_of_the_Russian_Empire_in_1897_(uyezd_level).svg" caption="Uezds of the Russian Empire in 1897"] ::
An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; уе́зд (pre-1918: уѣздъ)), or povit in a Ukrainian context (), was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the Russian SFSR, and the early Soviet Union, which was in use from the 13th century. For most of Russian history, uezds were a second-level administrative division. By sense, but not by etymology, uezd approximately corresponds to the English "county".
General description
Originally describing groups of several volosts, they formed around the most important cities. Uezds were ruled by the appointees (namestniki) of a knyaz and, starting from the 17th century, by voyevodas.
In 1708, an administrative reform was carried out by Peter the Great, dividing Russia into governorates. The subdivision into uyezds was abolished at that time but was reinstated in 1727, as a result of Catherine I's administrative reform.
By the USSR administrative reform of 1923–1929, most of the uezds were transformed into raions (districts). In UkSSR, uezds were reformed into forty okruhas which were the primary-level of administrative division from 1925 to 1930.
Baltic governorates
In the Baltic governorates the type of division was known as Kreis in German, apriņķis in Latvian and maakond/kreis in Estonian.
Lithuanian governorates
In the Lithuania-Vilna Governorate, Kovno Governorate and Lithuania-Grodno Governorate the type of division was known as apskritis in Lithuanian.
Bessarabia
The uezds of Bessarabia Governorate were called Ținut or Județ in Romanian, which would translate as "county".
Ukraine
The Ukrainian word for uezd is povit (, plural ).
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