Poltava Oblast (Ukrainian: Полтавська область, romanized: Poltavska oblast), also referred to as Poltavshchyna (Ukrainian: Полтавщина), is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava. Most of its territory was part of the southern regions of the Cossack Hetmanate. Population: 1,352,283 (2022 estimate).[2]
During the Nazi Germany occupation in 1941–43, most of the region belonged to Kiew Generalbezirke (general district), while the rest was part of the German military rear area.[citation needed] After the withdrawal of German forces, the region was reinstated almost to the same borders. In the 1950s it lost some of its territories to Kyiv Oblast and the newly created Cherkasy Oblast. Some were submerged with the creation of the Kremenchuk Reservoir in 1959.[citation needed] In 2020, as part of a general Ukrainian administrative reform, Poltava Oblast reduced the number of its raions by increasing them in size.[citation needed]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the town of Myrhorod was bombed. However, there has been no ground fighting and the province remains completely under Ukrainian control.[citation needed]
Geography
Poltava Oblast is situated in the central part of Ukraine. Located on the left bank of the Dnieper, the Poltava region was part of the Cossack Hetmanate. It has an area of 28,800 km2. The oblast borders Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy and Kyiv oblasts. The oblast does not contain any notable landforms apart from the Dnieper river, the land is gently undulating.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, Ukrainian was the native language for over 90% of Poltava Oblast's population: it was the dominant language in all of the city, town, and village councils of the oblast.
Due to the Russification of Ukraine during the Soviet era, the share of Ukrainian speakers in the population of Poltava Oblast gradually decreased, while the share of Russian speakers increased.[8] Native language of the population of Poltava Oblast according to the results of population censuses:[9][10][11][12][13][14]
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Poltava Oblast.[16]
According to a poll conducted by Rating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 80% of the residents of Poltava Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 9% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 8% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 3% found it difficult to answer.[17]
On 3 December 2024, Poltava Oblast Council approved the «Programme for the Development and Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language in All Spheres of Public Life in Poltava Oblast for 2025—2030», the main objectives of which are to strengthen the positions of the Ukrainian language in various spheres of public life in the oblast and to Ukrainianize the refugees from other regions of Ukraine.[18][19]
According to the research of the Content Analysis Centre, conducted from 15 August to 15 September 2024, the topic of which was the ratio of Ukrainian and Russian languages in the Ukrainian segment of social media, 76.0% of posts from Poltava Oblast were written in Ukrainian (63.9% in 2023, 60.0% in 2022, 15.5% in 2020), while 24.0% were written in Russian (36.1% in 2023, 40.0% in 2022, 84.5% in 2020).[20][21]
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Poltava Oblast, as well as Ukraine as a whole, experienced a gradual Ukrainization of the education system, which had been Russified[22] during the Soviet era. Dynamics of the ratio of the languages of instruction in general secondary education institutions in Poltava Oblast:[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023—2024 school year, all 134,575 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Poltava Oblast were studying in classes where Ukrainian was the language of instruction.[30]
Age structure
0–14 years: 13.2% (male 99,444/female 93,949)
15–64 years: 69.9% (male 483,389/female 530,911)
65 years and over: 16.9% (male 81,435/female 164,861) (2013 official)
The oblast is a center of Ukraine's oil and natural gas industry, with many wells and pipelines situated here. There is a major oil refineryplant in the city of Kremenchuk. Important iron ore processing facilities also present. In general, there are 374 large industrial organization and 618 small industrial organizations.[citation needed]
Agriculture
In 1999 the gross grain yield was about 14,529 thousand tons, sugar beets – 1,002,900 tons, sunflower seeds – 166,200 tons, potatoes – 279,900 tons. The oblast also produced 120,500 tons of meat, 645,900 tons of milk and 423,200,00 eggs.[citation needed] At the beginning of 1999 there were 1,311 registered farms in the region.[citation needed]
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2023)
The oblast is divided into 4 districts and 60 hromadas.
The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Poltava Oblast Rada. The governor of the oblast is the Poltava Oblast Rada speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine.
The following data incorporates the number of each type of administrative divisions of the Poltava Oblast:
Note: Asterisks (*) Though the administrative center of the raion is housed in the city that it is named after, cities do not answer to the raion authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of raion statistics.
Nomenclature
Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers" (Ukrainian: обласний центр, translit.oblasnyi tsentr). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: Poltava is the center of the Poltavs'ka oblast' (Poltava Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Poltava Oblast, Poltavshchyna.
^Syvak, Nina; Ponomarenko, Valerii; Khodzinska, Olha; Lakeichuk, Iryna (2011). Veklych, Lesia (ed.). Toponymic Guidelines for Map and Other Editors for International Use(PDF). scientific consultant Iryna Rudenko; reviewed by Nataliia Kizilowa; translated by Olha Khodzinska. Kyiv: DerzhHeoKadastr and Kartographia. p. 20. ISBN978-966-475-839-7. Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
^Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December 1984): 1019-1039.
^«Статистичний щорічник України за 1998 рік» — К., 1999. "Джерело". pics.livejournal.com. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
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