With more than 2,100 alphabetical entries on the states, regions, districts and capitals, this handbook provides a unique overview of the administrative territorial structure of the Soviet Union since 1917, the USSR 1922-1991, the GUS, and the Baltic up to the year 2007. Besides the official German and Russian designations of the administrative units, each entry contains the most important details on their emergence and development, such as structure, extension, designation changes or dissolution. Where necessary, the next-largest administrative units and all subdivisions are recorded and the details supplemented by a summary of the historical context, in order to clarify the frequent changes especially in the federate states. Herwig Kraus was born in 1938 and studied East European History, Slavonic Studies and cultural anthropology in Munich before working for almost 30 years at Radio Liberty as an expert on Eastern Europe, journalist and archivist.