Oblasts of the Soviet Union explained

The oblasts of the Soviet Union were second-level administrative units of the Soviet Union, and first-level entities of the republics of the Soviet Union.

Terminology

Oblast is a Slavic term that exists in the Russian language. Russian was official in all republics along with national languages of other republics.

In the 1950s there were 10 oblasts in the three Baltic republics.

1953-04-28 Law on abolition of Pärnu, Tallinn and Tartu oblasts (Estonia) ^[1]
1953-04-25 Law on abolition of Riga, Daugavpils and Liepāja oblasts (Latvia) ^[2]
1953-05-28 Law on abolition of Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Šiauliai oblasts (Lithuania) ^[3]

In the 1950s there were 4 oblasts in two of the three Transcaucasian republics (only in Azerbaijan and Georgia).

Name in Russian	Republic	Established	Dissolved
Пярнуская область (ru)	Estonian SSR	1952-05-10	1953-04-28
Таллинская область (ru)	Estonian SSR	1952-05-10	1953-04-28
Тартуская область (ru)	Estonian SSR	1952-05-10	1953-04-28
Рижская область (ru)	Latvian SSR	1952-04-08	1953-04-25
Даугавпилсская область (ru)	Latvian SSR	1952-04-08	1953-04-25
Лиепайская область (ru)	Latvian SSR	1952-04-08	1953-04-25
Шяуляйская область (ru)	Lithuanian SSR	1950-06-20	1953-05-28
Клайпедская область (ru)	Lithuanian SSR	1950-06-20	1953-05-28
Вильнюсская область (ru)	Lithuanian SSR	1950-06-20	1953-05-28
Каунасская область (ru)	Lithuanian SSR	1950-06-20	1953-05-28
Бакинская область (ru)	Azerbaijan SSR	1952-04-03	1953-04-23
Гянджинская область (ru)	Azerbaijan SSR	1952-04-03	1953-04-23
Кутаисская область (ru)	Georgian SSR	1951-11-05	1953-04-23
Тбилисская область (ru)	Georgian SSR	1951-11-05	1953-04-23
	RSFSR	1928-05-14	1934-06-13
	RSFSR	1937-09-26
	RSFSR	1945-06-30	1954-02-19
	Ukrainian SSR	1954-02-19	1991-02-12
	RSFSR	1936-12-05	1937-09-26
	RSFSR	1944-03-07	1957-01-09
	RSFSR	1937-09-26	N/A
	RSFSR	1920-03-18	1924-02-13
	RSFSR	1936-12-05	1937-09-23
	RSFSR	1923-11-03	1934-01-17
	RSFSR	1944-08-23	1957-10-02
	RSFSR	1929-10-1	1937-09-27