Krai

Organised similarly on a territorial basis, their tasks were formulated as follows: ‘they should know by whom party propaganda is being conducted in the corresponding oblasti and kraia,[…]’

For example, in 1937 there were 11 union republics, 39 oblasti and kraia, 22 autonomous republics, 52 autonomous regions and okrugs, 3307 districts and 62,484 village soviets (Davies et al. 2003, xviii).

The heads of the newly established kraia within the RSFSR were in a rather privileged position. Nikolai Eizmont, party secretary in what would become North Caucasus Krai, laid claim to about 15,000 square versta (17,000 square kilometers) with approximately 600,000 inhabitants in eastern Ukraine.