A kraj ( ''kraje'') is the highest-level administrative unit in the Czech Republic and the

Slovak Republic Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. For lack of other English expressions, the Slavic term is often translated as " province", " region", or " territory", although it approximately means "(part of) country", or "(part of) countryside". A ''kraj'' is subdivided into ''

okres Okres (Czech and Slovak term meaning "district" in English; from German Kreis - circle (or perimeter)) refers to administrative entities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is similar to Landkreis in Germany or "''okrug''" in other Slavic-speaki ...

y'' ("districts"). The first ''kraje'' were created in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the reign of Charles IV in the 14th century and they lasted till 1862/68. ''Kraje'' were reintroduced in 1949 in Czechoslovakia and still exist today (except for the early 1990s) in its successor states despite many rearrangements. In Russia nine of the 85 federal subjects are called krais (''края, kraya''), coequal to oblasts. The toponym

Krajina Krajina () is a Slavic toponym, meaning 'frontier' or 'march'. The term is related to ''kraj'' or ''krai'', originally meaning 'edge'Rick Derksen (2008), ''Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon'', Brill: Leiden-Boston, page 244 an ...

refers to several historical regions in Slavic countries. Kraj is also a slang term used for Sauerkraut in European countries.

Kraje in the Czech Republic

Kraje in Slovakia

See also

References

External links