List of Administrative and Municipal Divisions of The Republic of Adygea

List Of Administrative And Municipal Divisions Of The Republic Of Adygea

The Republic of Adygea, an enclave within Krasnodar Krai located at the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, is a federal subject of Russia. It was originally established in 1922 as the Cherkess (Adyghe) Autonomous Oblast within the Russian SFSR for the Adyghe (Circassian) majority that lived in the area. As of the 2010 Census, Adyghe people accounted for 25.2% of the republic's population (107,048 people), while Russians accounted for the majority 63.6% (270,714 people).

Since establishing and maintaining the structure of the administrative divisions of the federal subjects is not explicitly specified in the Constitution of Russia as the responsibility of the federal government, this task falls within the scope of the responsibilities of the Republic of Adygea itself. Changes of the administrative-territorial structure of the Republic are authorized by the State Council (Khase).

The republic's administrative divisions remained largely unchanged from the structure used during the Soviet era, with the notable exception of selsoviets—a low-level administrative unit type abolished after the new law on the administrative-territorial divisions had been adopted in May 2000. As of 2011, the republic is divided into seven administrative districts (raions) and two republican urban okrugs. The districts have administrative jurisdiction over the inhabited localities located on their territory. Territories of the republican urban okrugs are separate from the districts and include a city/town of the republican significance, as well as one or several inhabited localities in their vicinity which had historically been administratively subordinated to that city/town.

The system of the local self-government, which Article 12 of the Constitution of Russia guarantees, is implemented on the republic's territory in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Law No. 131-FZ On the General Principles of the Organization of the Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation. While the law does not require any connection between the system of the administrative-territorial divisions of a federal subject and its municipal structure, Adygea's administrative districts are nevertheless incorporated as the municipal districts and the republican urban okrugs are incorporated as the municipal urban okrugs. On the lower level, the municipal districts are divided into municipal urban settlements, which combine an urban-type settlement and adjacent rural localities, and municipal rural settlements, which combine several neighboring rural localities.