Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Ukrainian: Івано-Франківська область, translit. Ivano-Frankivs’ka oblast’; also referred to as Prykarpattia – Ukrainian: Прикарпаття or formerly as Stanislavshchyna or Stanislavivshchyna – Ukrainian: Станіславщина or Станиславівщина) is an oblast (region) in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As is the case with most other oblasts of Ukraine this region has the same name as its administrative center – which was renamed by the Soviets after the Ukrainian writer, nationalist and socialist Ivan Franko on November 9, 1962.

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is also known to Ukrainians by a deep-rooted alternative name: Prykarpattia (although some sources may also consider the southern Lviv Oblast including such cities as Stryi, Truskavets, and Drohobych, as also part of Prykarpattia). Pryarpattia, together with Lviv and Ternopil regions, was the main body of the historic region of eastern Halychyna; which in the 13th century was a part of the Kingdom of Rus and the Halych-Volyn Principality (see Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia). Along with the Lviv and Ternopil regions Prykarpattia is a component of the Carpathian Euroregion.

In the past the area was known as Stanisławów Voivodship (1918–1939) and Stanislav Oblast (1939–1962). Until the 20th century the major center of the region was the city of Kolomyia (which is a major cultural center of Pokuttya, the traditional name for the southern part of the oblast).