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Chernivtsi Oblast Чернівецька область Chernivets’ka oblast’
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname:
Location of Chernivtsi Oblast (red) on the map of Ukraine (blue).
Official language(s)	Ukrainian,
Administrative center	Chernivtsi
Largest cities	Chernivtsi, Novodnistrovsk
Governor	Volodymyr Kalish (?)
Oblast council
– Chairman	Ivan Shylepnytskyi (FP)
– № of seats	?
Established	August 9, 1940
Subdivisions
– Raions	11
– Cities of oblast subordinance	2
– Cities (total)	11
– Towns	8
– Villages	398
Area	Ranked 25th
– Total	8,097 km²
– Land	? km²
– Water	? (?%)
Population	Ranked 26th
– Total (2006)	904,423
– Density	113 p/ km²
– Average salary	UAH 785 (?%)
Time zone	EET +2
– Summer (DST)	EEST +3
Abbreviations
– Postal code	58-60xxx
– ISO 3166-2	UA-77
– FIPS 10-4	UP03
– Telephone code	+380-37
– Licence plate	СЕ (ukr)
Official website	www.bucoda.cv.ua
Verkhovna Rada site	www.rada.gov.ua

Chernivtsi Oblast (Ukrainian: Чернівецька область, translit. Chernivets’ka oblast’), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova. It has a large variety of landforms: the Carpathian Mountains and picturesque hills at the foot of the mountains gradually change to a broad plain situated between the Dniester and Prut rivers. The region has beautiful forests. Its capital is the city Chernivtsi, with prevalent neo-classic architecture.

Detailed map of Chernivtsi Oblast.

The oblast, most of which is known by its ethnographic name Northern Bukovina, was created in 1940 by joining part of Bukovina, part of Bessarabia and the Hertza region, and attaching it to the Soviet Union, as an outcome of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It has a population (as of 2004-05-01) of 913,275 (with significant Romanian minority) and spans 8,100 km².

Geographically and historically, the region is composed of northern Bukovina, the northern half of the Khotin (Hotin) county of Bessarabia, and the Hertsaivskyi Raion (Herţa district), which prior to 1940 was part of Dorohoi County (presently Botoşani County) of Romania.

Northern Bukovina, together with southern Bukovina (most of the Suceava County in Romania), was ceded to the Habsburg Monarchy in 1775, when a portion of the Principality of Moldavia, was carved out and granted by the Ottoman Empire, under the provisions of the Treaty of Constantinople, to the Austrian Empire, and became part of the Habsburg hereditary lands. Bukovina was at first a closed Austrian military district, and following the Josephine reforms, was administered as the largest circle within the Habsburg constituent kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Following the 1848 Revolution, it became a separate Austrian duchy and crown land within the Empire. After the Compromise of 1867, when the Austrian Empire was reorganised into the Cisleithania (Austrian) and Transleithania (Hungarian), Bukovina was allotted to the Austrian portion of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. At the disintegration of Austro-Hungary in 1918, General Congress of Bukovina, the Romanians-dominated local legislative body passed in Chernivtsi a decision of "an indissoluble union with the Kingdom of Romania", which was swiftly used by Romania to send in the troops and occupy the area.

On June 28, 1940, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and Soviet Ultimatum Romania ceded Bessarabia, and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union. Hertza region, not included in the ultimatum was occupied by the Soviet Union at the same time. The Soviet take-over of Northern Bukovina was motivated as compensation of the belongings of Bessarabia to Romania from 1918 to 1940.

On August 2, 1940, out of some of the territories annexed on June 28, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed, the 15th Soviet republic. The remainder of the territories were included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic — the northern part formed the Chernivtsi Oblast, the southern part — Izmail Oblast, which later was included in the Odessa Oblast.

Historical regions outlined: red: northern Bukovina, blue: Hertza region, green: northern Bessarabia.

Unlike the Bessarabian population that was somewhat accustomed to Russian rule (as part of the Russian Empire before 1918), the Bukovinian population had never experienced Russian annexation, and staged many protests, without realising that that could provoke serious Soviet reprisals. In the winter and spring of 1941, the Soviet troops (NKVD) opened fire on many groups of locals trying to cross the border into Romania (for more, see: Fântâna Albă massacre).

Between September 17 and November 17, 1940, by a mutual agreement between USSR and Germany, 43,641 "ethnic Germans" from the Chernivtsi region were moved to Germany. As the total ethnic German population was however only 34,500, and as even of these, some 3,500 did not go to Germany, the obvious numerical discrepancy is accounted for by the inclusion of Romanians, Ukrainians and Poles within the numbers that the local German organisers had classed among the ethnic "Germans". (Possibly, many of these were partners in ethnically-mixed marriages in which one partner or parent was truly an ethnic German and the other was not.)^{[citation needed]} Upon their arrival, the Nazi government sent over half of those surplus to the correct number of ethnic Germans to concentration camps. Only some were freed after the protests of the Romanian government.

Throughout 1940-1941 several tens of thousands of Bukovinians were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan, of which some 13,000 alone on June 13, 1941. This and later deportations were based on social class difference, it targeted intellectuals, people employed previously by the state, businessmen, statemostly. The majority of those targeted were Romanians, but there were many representatives of other ethnicities, as well. Under the Romanian during the war (1941-1944), the Jewish community of the area was largely destroyed by the deportations to ghettos and concentration camps, where about 60% died. In 1944, when the Soviet troops returned to Bukovina, many inhabitants fled to Romania, with the result that the region was seriously depopulated. In demographic terms, these war-time factors changed the region's ethnic composition. In 1940, there was roughly a ratio of 476:282:110:58:52:27 between Ukrainians:Romanians:Jews:Russians:Germans:Poles. Today the number of Jews, Germans and Poles is statistically insignificant, while the number of Romanians has decreased substantially.

Since 1498, there has been a small Slavic population in Bukovina.^{[citation needed]} In 1775, Ukrainians (Ruthenians), and Poles taken together numbered some 8,000 (out of a total population of 75,000).^{[citation needed]} In 1918, as a result of (peaceful) migration from Galicia and Podolia, there were over 200,000 Ukrainians, out of a total of 730,000 (again, including the southern Bukovina, where there were fewer Ukrainians). Most of Ukrainians settled in the northern parts of Bukovina, especially between the Dniester and Prut rivers, where they became a majority.

The ethnic Ukrainians in the south-western mountain area of the Chernivtsi region belong to the Hutsul ethnic group, and inhabit an area in the Carpathian Mountains from the Bukovinian town of Putila, extending across the Ceremus River into southern Pokuttia (the southern part of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), and further into Northern Maramuresh (geographic region) (the eastern part of the Zakarpattya (Transcarpathian) region), until the town of Bychkiv.

Raions of Chernivtsi Oblast.

The Chernivtsi Oblast consists of 11 raions, as well as 2 cities directly subordinated to the oblast:

• Raions:
  • Hertsaivskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Герцаївський район, translit. Hertsayivs'kyi raion)
  • Hlybotskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Глибоцький район, translit. Hlybots'kyi raion)
  • Kelmenetskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Кельменецький район, translit. Kel'menets'kyi raion)
  • Khotynskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Хотинський район, translit. Khotyns'kyi raion)
  • Kitsmanskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Кіцманський район, translit. Kitsmans'kyi raion)
  • Novoselytskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Новоселицький район, translit. Novoselyts'kyi raion)
  • Putylskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Путильський район, translit. Putyl's'kyi raion)
  • Sokyrianskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Сокирянський район, translit. Sokyryans'kyi raion)
  • Storozhynetskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Сторожинецький район, translit. Storozhynets'kyi raion)
  • Vyzhnytskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Вижницький район, translit. Vyzhnyts'kyi raion)
  • Zastavnivskyi Raion (Ukrainian: Заставнівський район, translit. Zastavnivs'kyi raion)
• Cities:
  • Chernivtsi (Ukrainian: Чернівці), the administrative center of the oblast
  • Novodnistrovsk (Ukrainian: Новодністровськ, translit. Novodnistrovs'k)

Ethnic divisions in Chernivtsi Oblast with Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians, and Jewish areas depicted in white, blue, red, and yellow respectively.^{[1][original research?]}

According to the Romanian census of 1930, the territory of the future Chernivtsi Oblast had 805,642 inhabitants in that year, out of which 47.6% were Ukrainians, and 28.2% were Romanians. The rest of the population was comprised of 88,772 Jews, 46,946 Russians (among them an important community of Lipovans), around 35,000 Germans, 10,000 Poles, and 10,000 Hungarians^[2]

During the inter-war period, Cernăuţi county had a population of 306,975, of which 136,380 were Ukrainians, and 78,589 were Romanians. Storojineţ County had 77,382 Ukrainians and 57,595 Romanians. (The three other counties of Bukovina, which remained in Romania, had a total of 22,368 Ukrainians). The northern part of the Hotin County had approximately 70% Ukrainians and 25% Romanians. Herţa region, smaller by area and population, was virtually 100% Romanian.

In the immediate aftermath of the Soviet takeover (1940), and during the Second World War, major demographic changes occurred. The Soviet government deported or killed about 41,000 Romanians (see Fântâna Albă massacre), while at the same time further encouraging an influx of Ukrainians from the Ukrainian SSR. Most Poles were deported by the Soviet authorities, while most Germans forcebly returned to Germany. After Romania took control of the region during the war (1941-1944), the Jewish community of the area was largely destroyed by the deportations to ghettos and concentration camps.

According to Ukrainian Census (2001) data,^[3] Ukrainians represent about 75% (689.1 thousands) of the population of Chernivtsi Oblast. 12.5% (114.6 thousands) reported themselves as Romanians, 7.3% (67.2 thousand) as Moldavians, and 4.1% (37.9 thousands) as Russians. The other nationalities, such as Poles, Belarusians, and Jews sum up to 1.2%.

The separate categories for the Moldovans and Romanians as two etnicities has been criticized by Romanian organizations in Ukraine.^[4] However, all census respondents had to write in their ethnicity (no predetermined set of choices existed), and could respond or not to any particular census question, or not answer any questions at all.^[5] Also, no allegation of counting fraud were brought up. However, Interregional Union, one of Romanian communities in Ukraine criticised what they see as the continuous usage of Romanians and Moldovans as two separate ethnic groups, a practise reminiscent of the Soviet period.

The languages of the population closely reflect the ethnic composition with over 90% within each of the major ethnic groups declaring their national language as the mother tongue.

Eight of the 11 raions, and the city of Chernivtsi have a Ukrainian majority. The Ukrainians of the Putylskyi Raion and Vyzhnytskyi Raion are ethnically Hutsul, just as their neighbors in the southern part of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast and eastern part of Zakarpattia oblast.

In the Hertsaivskyi Raion, Romanians comprise about 95% of population, in Novoselytskyi Raion Moldovans represent about 60% of population, and in Hlybotskyi Raion Romanians and Moldovans sum up to 50%. Storozhynetskyi Raion has a compact Romanian population in the south, especiially around the village of Krasnoyilsk (Romanian: Crasna). Other raions have small Romanian populations, usually never exceeding more than a few hundred people. An exception is the Hotyn raion with 5,000 Romanians (7% of the raion's population) and Secureni raion with 1,500 Romanians (3% of the total raion population)^[6]

The bulk of the Russian minority (estimated at around 6%) lives in the city of Chernivtsi (Russian: Черновцы, Chernovtsy). The same is true for the Jews (1.5%) and the Poles (0.5%).

See also: Romanians of Chernivtsi Oblast

Administrative divisions of Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
Administrative center:  Chernivtsi
Raions	Hertsaivskyi · Hlybotskyi · Kelmenetskyi · Khotynskyi · Kitsmanskyi · Novoselytskyi · Putylskyi · Sokyrianskyi · Storozhynetskyi · Vyzhnytskyi · Zastavnivskyi
Cities	Chernivtsi · Hertsa · Khotyn · Kitsman · Novodnistrovsk · Novoselytsia · Sokyriany · Storozhynets · Vashkivtsi · Vyzhnytsia · Zastavna
Urban-type settlements	Berehomet · Hlyboka · Kelmenetsi · Kostryzhivka · Krasnoilsk · Luzhany · Nepolokivtsi · Putyla · more...
Villages	Bila Krynytsya · Boiany · Chornivka · Voloka · more...

v • d • e Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Capital: Kiev
Oblasts	Cherkasy · Chernihiv · Chernivtsi · Dnipropetrovsk · Donetsk · Ivano-Frankivsk · Kharkiv · Kherson · Khmelnytskyi · Kiev · Kirovohrad · Luhansk · Lviv · Mykolaiv · Odessa · Poltava · Rivne · Sumy · Ternopil · Vinnytsia · Volyn · Zakarpattia · Zaporizhia · Zhytomyr
Cities with special status	Kiev City · Sevastopol City
Autonomous Republic	Autonomous Republic of Crimea
Administrative centers	Cherkasy · Chernihiv · Chernivtsi · Dnipropetrovsk · Donetsk · Ivano-Frankivsk · Kharkiv · Kherson · Khmelnytskyi · Kiev City · Kirovohrad · Luhansk · Lutsk · Lviv · Mykolaiv · Odessa · Poltava · Rivne · Sevstopol City · Simferopol · Sumy · Ternopil · Uzhhorod · Vinnytsia · Zaporizhia · Zhytomyr