During the Soviet time, each of the republics of the Soviet Union, including the Russian SFSR, had its own legislative documents dealing with classification of inhabited localities. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the task of developing and maintaining such classification in Russia was delegated to the federal subjects. While currently there are certain peculiarities to classifications used in many federal subjects, they are all still largely based on the system used in the RSFSR. In all federal subjects, the inhabited localities are classified into two major categories: urban and rural. Further divisions of these categories vary slightly from one federal subject to another, but they all follow common trends described below.
Urban localities
Cities and towns. Cities and towns are classified by their level of jurisdiction. The Russian language has no separate words for "town" and "city". Some translators prefer the word "city" for urban populated places with population of at least 100,000 persons.
Urban-type settlements is a type of smaller urban locality. This type of urban locality was first introduced in the Soviet Union in 1924, with the following subcategories:
Multiple types of rural localities exist, some common through the whole territory of Russia, some specific to certain federal subjects. The most common types include:
Villages
Selos, also translated as "village". Historically, a selo differed from a village in that it had an Orthodox church.
settlements, posyolok ; pl. посёлки ). The "rural-type" designation is added to the settlements the population of which is mostly occupied in agriculture, while posyolok proper indicates a mix of population working in agriculture and industry.
Stanitsas —historically, a Cossackrural locality. The name is still currently in use, with the basic meaning of "village".
Slobodas —historically, a settlement freed from taxes and levies for various reasons. The name is still currently in use with the basic meaning of "village".
Khutors —translated as "hamlet", "farmstead", or "village".
In some federal subjects, ethnic terminology is used in the Russian language. Such locality types include аул, аал, and кишлак.
Historical terms
Krepost, a fortified settlement
*A Kremlin , a major krepost, usually including a castle and surrounded by a posad
*An ostrog, a more primitive kind of krepost which could be put up quickly within rough walls of debarked pointed timber
Pochinoks —a newly formed rural locality of one or several families. Pochinoks were established as new settlements and usually grow into larger villages as they developed.
