Dictionary

raion en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɹaɪˈjɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (General-American) audio
• /ɹaɪˈjɔn/ (General-American)

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian райо́н (rajón), from French rayon. More recently influenced by the same name used in other post-Soviet states. Compare Ukrainian райо́н (rajón).

Meanings

1. An administrative unit of some Eastern European and Asian states.
   • Below the oblasts come cities of oblast subordination and raiony. At the bottom we find rural and settlement soviets. We should note that certain very small cities will be subordinate to the raion level. In larger cities there will also be urban raiony. In the republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaidzhan and Moldavia, there are no oblasts and thus the raiony and cities here will be subordinate to the Republic level. 1987, Cameron Ross, “Introduction”, in Local Government in the Soviet Union: Problems of Implementation and Control, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 8:
   • In 1923 Soviet Ukraine’s 102 povity were replaced by 53 larger okruhy (sing. okruha), and its 1,989 volosti by 706 raions. 2007, John D. Pihach, “Locating the Ancestral Home” (chapter 7, pages 83–123), in Ukrainian Genealogy: A Beginner’s Guide (paperback), Edmonton · Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, →ISBN, Administrative Divisions (pages 88–96), Soviet Ukraine (pages 95–96), page 95:
   • On the eve of the twentieth century, Veniamin Semënov-Tian’-Shanskii, Pëtr’s son, popularized the idea of dividing the Russian Empire into agricultural and industrial raiony. 2025, Stephan Rindlisbacher, “Gosplan: How to Achieve Spatial Homogeneity”, in Borders in Red: Managing Diversity in the Early Soviet Union, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 35:
   • Suffice it to mention that several thousand raion papers were replaced by “territorial administrations” organs, and that all transport papers were closed. 2000, Roman Szporluk, Russia, Ukraine, and the Breakup of the Soviet Union, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, page 119:
   • In Kirgiziia, which had thirty-four registered mosques in 1957, there were in that same year thirty-one raiony with none, and the ones which did exist did not answer the needs of the believer population either from the purely numerical standpoint or from that of their geographical distribution, and not only in raiony with no mosque. 2000, Yaacov Ro’i, “The Registered Mosques and Clergy”, in Islam in the Soviet Union: From the Second World War to Gorbachev, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, part II (Establishment Islam), page 182:

Forms

Relateds

region · mikroraion · microraion

Translations (13)

et rajoon (administrative unit) · izh raijona (administrative unit) · uk район (administrative unit) · fi piiri (administrative unit) · crh rayon (administrative unit) · fi piirikunta (administrative unit) · ug رايون (administrative unit) · ka რაიონი (administrative unit) · pl rejon (administrative unit) · de Rajon (administrative unit) · sah оройуон (administrative unit) · fi rajoni (administrative unit) · cs rajón (administrative unit)