

Northern Krai
Северный край
Krai of the Soviet Union
• Established
14 January 1929
• Disestablished
5 December 1936
Political subdivisions5 okrugs
1 autonomous oblast

Northern Krai (Russian: Северный край, Severny Krai) was a krai (a first-level administrative and municipal unit) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1929 to 1936.[1] Its seat was in the city of Arkhangelsk. The krai was located in the North of European Russia, and its territory is currently divided between Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kostroma, and Kirov Oblasts, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and the Komi Republic.


The krai was established on January 14, 1929 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The territory of the krai was formed from three governorates (Arkhangelsk, Vologda, and Northern Dvina) and the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast.[2]

On July 15, 1929 the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree splitting Northern Krai (with the exception of the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast, which remain as a single unit with the seat in Ust-Sysolsk, and the islands of Vaygach, Kolguev, Matveyev, Novaya Zemlya, Solovetsky Islands, and Franz Josef Land) into five administrative districts (okrugs)[3]

Before the krai was established, the division of its constituent governorates mixed the old division inherited from the Russian Empire (uyezds) with the new one (districts, or raions). The same decree established the division of the krai into districts. All okrugs and the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast were divided into districts, and the Arctic ocean islands remained subordinate to the Krai executive committee.

The following districts were established,[3]

Northern Krai on a 1930 map of European USSR

In July 1930, the Okrugs were abolished. The Nenets Okrug became an autonomous unit, the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast remained intact, and the districts which were part of the four other Okrugs became directly subordinate to the Krai government. By August 25, 1930 the Krai consisted of[2]

  • Cities of Arkhangelsk and Vologda;
  • Nenets National District (consisting of Bolshezemelsky, Kanino-Timansky, and Pustozersky districts);
  • Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast (Izhemsky, Priluzsky, Storozhevsky, Syktyvkarsky, Sysolsky, Troitsko-Pechorsky, Udorsky, Ust-Kulomsky, Ust-Usinsky, Ust-Tsylemsky, and Ust-Vymsky districts);
  • Fifty districts of central subordination: Bereznikovsky, Chekuyevsky, Cherevkovsky, Chyobsarsky, Gryazovetsky, Kargopolsky, Karpogorsky, Kharovsky, Kholmogorsky, Kichmengsko-Gorodetsky, Kokshengsky, Konoshsky, Kotlassky, Krasnoborsky, Kubeno-Ozersky, Lalsky, Ledengsky, Lensky, Leshukonsky, Mezensky, Nikolsky, Nyuksensky, Nyandomsky, Onezhsky, Oparinsky, Pinezhsky, Plesetsky, Podosinovsky, Primorsky, Priozyorny, Rovdinsky, Roslyatinsky, Shenkursky, Shuysky, Sukhonsky, Sverdlovsky, Syamzhensky, Tolshmensky, Totemsky, Ust-Kubinsky, Ustyansky, Velikoustyuzhsky, Velsky, Verkhnetoyemsky, Verkhovazhsky, Vilegodsky, Vologodsky, Vokhomsky, Vozhegodsky, Yemetsky;
  • Islands in the Arctic Ocean and Solovetsky Islands.

Between 1930 and 1935 there were constant changes in the district configuration, some districts were abolished, established, and renamed. On February 10, 1934, Novaya Zemlya, Vaygach, and a number of smaller islands in the Barents and Kara Seas were moved to the Nenets National Okrug. By 1936, the Krai included 65 districts.[2]

On March 5, 1936, Pechorsky Okrug which was a part of the Northern Krai was established. The Okrug included three districts, Izhemsky, Ust-Tsilemsky, and Ust-Usinsky, and a part of Troitsko-Pechorsky District. This was related due to the beginning of the coal mining in the North of what is now the Komi Republic.

According to the 1936 Soviet Constitution, Northern Krai was abolished, and its territory was divided between newly established Northern Oblast and Komi Republic. Northern Oblast included 54 districts and was in 1937 split into Arkhangelsk and Vologda Oblasts. Three of the districts of Northern Krai, Lalsky, Oparinsky, and Podosinovsky, as the result of some later administrative changes, ended up in Kirov Oblast. Pavinsky and Vokhomsky District were later transferred into Kostroma Oblast.


  1. ^ Справка об изменениях административно-территориального устройства и сети партийных и комсомольских органов на территории Вологодской области (1917-1991) (in Russian). Архивы России. Archived from the original on September 17, 2011. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Административно-территориальное деление Архангельской губернии в XVIII-XX вв" (in Russian). Архивы России. 2000. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  3. ^ a b Постановление Президиума ВЦИК от 15 июля 1929 года о составе округов и районов Северного Края и их центрах (in Russian). Retrieved June 4, 2011.

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