Southwestern land

Southwestern land (Russian: Yugo-zapadnyi krai). An administrative territory set up by the Russian government in Right-Bank Ukraine in 1832. Known officially as Kyiv general gubernia, it consisted of Kyiv gubernia, Podilia gubernia, and Volhynia gubernia and existed until 1917. The designation ‘southwestern’ was in the context of the territory of the Russian Empire, and ‘Yugo-Zapadnaia Rossiia’ (Southwestern Russia) was also frequently used to refer to Russian-ruled Ukraine (eg, Arkhiv Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii). That centralist Russian viewpoint remained in the terminology of the Soviet administration, wherein names such as ‘Pivdenno-zakhidnyi ekonomichnyi raion SSSR’ (Southwestern Economic Region of the USSR) were used to refer to Ukraine.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]