Stanytsia

Stanytsia (станиця; Russian: станица; stanitsa). An administrative-territorial entity in Cossack territories within the Russian Empire (the Kuban region, Don region, and Terek region) from the 18th century until 1920. A stanytsia consisted of several Cossack villages and khutory. Settlements which had fewer than 60 households were governed by khutir administrations. Except for persons of non-Cossack status (inohorodni), all the inhabitants were members of the stanytsia community, which was governed by an assembly of householders. The assembly distributed the Cossack lands and obligations, and it managed the community storehouses and schools. It elected the stanytsia administration (an otaman, deputies, and a treasurer) and the stanytsia court. The stanytsia court ruled on petty criminal and civil suits. Non-Cossack residents paid a fee per sazhen for their home plot and for the use of farmland, pasture, and forest.

After 1929 the term stanytsia was used in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to refer to a rural settlement on former Cossack territories. It was governed by a stanytsia soviet of workers’ and peasants’ deputies.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]