Krai

Not to be confused with Kraj.

For other uses, see KRAI.

A krai or kray (/kraɪ/; Russian: край, plural: края́, kraya) is one of the types of federal subjects of modern Russia, and was a type of geographical administrative division in the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR.

Etymologically, the word is related to the verb "кроить" (kroit'), "to cut".^[1] Historically, krais were vast territories located along the periphery of the Russian state, since the word krai also means border or edge, i.e., a place of the cut-off. In English the term is often translated as "territory". As of 2015^[update], the administrative usage of the term is mostly traditional, as some oblasts also fit this description and there is no difference in constitutional legal status in Russia between the krais and the oblasts.^[2]

See also

• Krais of the Russian Empire
• Krais of Russia
• Governorate-General (Russian Empire), a general term for Krais, Oblasts, and special city municipalities in the Russian Empire
• Oblast

Foreign terms (in relation to the Russian "Krai") with similar designation

• Kraj, an equivalent term used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• Krajina
• Marches (Mark, in German) compare to Denmark (literally the borderland of Danes).
• Name of Ukraine