An
administrative unit in
Russia, a
district or
region.
As well as the ordinary oblasts the country is divided into, there are some ethnically-based autonomous oblasts, which were one level of autonomy below the ASSR in the days of the USSR. Since its breakup, the ASSRs are called autonomous republics, and some of the autonomous oblasts scrambled to up themselves to republic status. Those that did this were Adygea, Altai, Karachai-Cherkessia, and Khakassia.
The one which did not, and which therefore holds the now unique status in Russia of Autonomous Oblast, is the peculiar far-eastern confection called the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, also called Yevrei (Russian form of Hebrew), or Birobidzhan (name of its capital). This is a small patch on the banks of the Amur, bordering Manchuria in China; created in 1928, its population is less than 6% Jewish.
The exact Russian form of the name is область óblast'. At a lesser level than an oblast is an okrug.