Selsoviet or selsovet (Russian: сельсове́т, short for се́льский сове́т, Russian pronunciation: [ˈsʲelʲskʲɪj sɐˈvʲɛt]; Ukrainian: сільрада, sil'rada, short for сі́льська рада), lit. rural soviet (council), was the administrative division of lowest level in rural areas in the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was preserved as an administrative-territorial unit in some of the federal subjects of Russia or was replaced with municipal rural settlements (a unit of local government) in others.
A selsoviet is a rural administrative division of a district (raion).
Larger localities, both rural and urban-type had settlement councils (поселко́вые сове́ты, possovets), which were of the same administrative level as selsoviets.
Indication of the selsoviet was part of a rural postal address (notice the "upside-down" order of routing); for example:
ул. Ленинская (Lenin Street) (existed in virtually any sufficiently large settlement)
Смычкову Дмитрию (for Smychkov Dmitry) (quite often there were no street numbers)
The name coincides with the name of the local rural self-administration, Rural Soviet, a part of the Soviet system of administration. A selsoviet was headed by the Chairman of Selsoviet (председатель сельсовета).
Formally, a selsoviet was to be elected by a Rural Meeting (се́льский сход). However, the Chairman of the Selsoviet had to be appointed by higher administration.
For a considerable period of Soviet history passports of rural residents were stored in selsoviet offices, and people could not move outside their area of residence without the permission of selsoviet.
Selsoviets in the Russian Federation
Division into selsoviets as administrative-territorial units remained after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in many of the federal subjects of Russia. However, during the course of the municipal reform, they were replaced with municipal rural settlements, which serve as units of local self-government. During the period after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and before the municipal reform the terminology changed to reflect local specifics. The following are the names of the selsoviet-type units during that period of time, listed by federal subject:
Local administrations (ме́стные администра́ции, mestnyye administratsii)
Republic of Karelia: used together with rural administrations (see below), rural settlement councils (see below), and volost administrations (see below)
Republic of Karelia: used together with local administrations (see above), rural settlement councils (see below), and volost administrations (see below)
Chita Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural municipal formations (see above), rural settlements (see below), and selsovets
Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural territorial administrations (see below), rural territorial okrugs (see below), selsovets, and territorial okrugs (see below)
Tula Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural territories (see below), and volosts (see below)
Murmansk Oblast: used together with rural representations (see above)
Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above), rural territorial administrations (see above), selsovets, and territorial okrugs (see below)
Kaluga Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above) and selsovets
Tomsk Oblast: used together with rural okrugs (see above), rural territorial administrations (see above), rural territorial okrugs (see above), and selsovets
Republic of Karelia: used together with local administrations (see above), rural administrations (see above), and rural settlement councils (see above)
Samara Oblast: used together with okrugs (see above), rural administrations (see above), and selsovets
Tula Oblast: used together with rural administrations (see above), rural okrugs (see above), and rural territories (see above)
In modern Russia, local self-administration is not included into the governmental system of the state. Each subnational entity of the Russian Federation has its own statute that defines the scope of local self-administration, including selsoviets (if applicable).
