South-East, Russian SFSR

The South-East (Russian: Ю́го-Восто́к), also referred to as South-Eastern Krai (Ю́го-Восто́чный край) and South-Eastern Oblast (Ю́го-Восто́чная о́бласть) was a territory, and later an administrative division, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) which existed in 1920-1924.

Originally, the name "South-East" was used informally to refer to the territories of Don, Kuban-Black Sea, and Terek Oblasts, as well as those of Stavropol Governorate and Dagestan ASSR, which were governed by the Revolutionary Soviet of the Laborers' Army of South-East Russia (hence the name "South-East") established on August 7, 1920. While the Soviet itself was abolished in 1921, the name "South-East" stuck. Occasionally, the territory was also referred to as "South-Eastern Krai" and "South-Eastern Oblast", even though no official krai/oblast status was assigned to it at the time.

The system of the administrative and territorial division of the RSFSR was developing haphazardly in the beginning of the 1920s: it was inconsistent, expensive to maintain, and not very effective in practice. As a reaction to that, the 12th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on April 23, 1924 decided to test a new system of the administrative division in two experimental areas: one industrially developed and one agricultural. The South-East became a testing ground for the new system in the agricultural area. On February 13, 1924, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) officially defined the South-East as the area comprising the territories of Don and Kuban Oblasts, Terek and Stavropol Governorates, the city of Grozny, and Kabardino-Balkar, Karachay-Cherkess, Adyghe-Cherkess, and Chechen Autonomous Oblasts and mandated its division into districts (raions) by the end of 1924. On June 2, 1924, the Presidium of the VTsIK established a list of the new okrugs and districts into which the "South-Eastern Krai (Oblast)" was to be divided. At the same time, Kuban-Black Sea Oblast was abolished and replaced with four new okrugs, which were further divided into districts by the Executive Committee of Kuban-Black Sea Oblast on July 19, 1924.

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