Editing Village (section)

==Central and Eastern Europe==

===Slavic countries===
[[File:Lug village in northern Serbia.jpg|thumb|right|Lug, village in northern [[Serbia]]]]
''Selo'' ([[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]: село; {{langx|pl|sioło}}) is a [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] word meaning "village" in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Croatia]], [[North Macedonia]], [[Russia]], [[Serbia]], and [[Ukraine]]. For example, there are numerous ''sela'' (села; plural of ''selo'') called ''Novo Selo'' (Ново Село, "New Village") in [[Bulgaria]], [[Croatia]], [[Montenegro]], [[Serbia]], and [[North Macedonia]].

Another Slavic word for a village is ''ves'' ({{langx|pl|wieś, wioska}}; {{langx|cs|ves, vesnice}}; {{langx|sk|ves}}; {{langx|sl|vas}}; {{langx|ru|весь|ves}}). In [[Slovenia]], the word ''selo'' is used for very small villages (fewer than 100 people) and in dialects; the [[Slovene language|Slovene]] word ''vas'' is used all over [[Slovenia]]. In [[Russia]] and [[Bulgaria]], the word ''ves'' is archaic, but remains in idioms and locality names, such as [[Vesyegonsk]] and [[Belevehchevo]].

The most commonly used word for village in Slovak is ''dedina'' (dialectical also ''dzedzina''). The word's etymology may be (or may not be) rooted in the verb ''dediť'' ("to inherit"), referencing the inheriting of whole villages or properties within villages by noblemen or wealthy landowners. Another etymology could be related to the Sanskrit word ''deśá'' ('''देश''') similar to the Afghan ''deh'', Bengal ''desh'' and Indonesian ''desa''. The term ''ves'' appears in settlement names (mostly villages, but also some towns that evolved over time from villages). The dialect term for village in east Slovakia is also ''valal'' (or ''valala''). ''Dedina'' is unrelated to the rarer east Slavic term ''derevna'', which refers to a village with wooden (''derevo'') housing.

====Bulgaria====
{{Main|List of villages in Bulgaria}}
[[File:Kovachevitsa village in southern Bulgaria.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kovachevitsa]], a village in southern [[Bulgaria]]]]

In [[Bulgaria]], the different types of ''sela'' vary from a small selo of 5 to 30 families to one of several thousand people. According to a 2002 census, in that year there were 2,385,000 Bulgarian citizens living in settlements classified as ''villages''.<ref name="Bulgaria">{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/bulgaria/Bulgariahumansettlement2003.PDF|title=Human Settlement Country Profile, Bulgaria (''2004'')|publisher=[[United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs]] |access-date=30 November 2008}}</ref> A 2004 Human Settlement Profile on Bulgaria<ref>[https://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/bulgaria/Bulgariahumansettlement2003.PDF HUMAN SETTLEMENT COUNTRY PROFILE: BULGARIA]. United Nations (2004)</ref> conducted by the [[United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs]] stated that:
<blockquote>The most intensive is the migration "city&nbsp;– city". Approximately 46% of all migrated people have changed their residence from one city to another. The share of the migration processes "village&nbsp;– city" is significantly less&nbsp;– 23% and "city&nbsp;– village"&nbsp;– 20%. The migration "village&nbsp;– village" in 2002 is 11%.<ref name="Bulgaria"/></blockquote>

It also stated that
<blockquote>the state of the environment in the small towns and villages is good apart from the low level of infrastructure.<ref name="Bulgaria"/></blockquote>

In Bulgaria, it is popular to visit villages for the atmosphere, culture, crafts, hospitality of the people and the surrounding nature. This is called ''selski turizam'' ({{langx|bg|селски туризъм}}), meaning "village tourism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Detelina |first1=Tocheva |title=Explorations in Self-Sufficiency After Socialism |date=June 2015 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York and Oxford |isbn=9781782386964 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNGdBAAAQBAJ |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref>

====Russia====
[[File:Центр села Кичкальня.jpg|thumb|The village of ''[[Kichkalnya]]'', [[Tatarstan]]]]

In Russia, as of the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 Census]], 26.3% of the country's population lives in [[Classification of inhabited localities in Russia|rural localities]];<ref name="2010Census">{{ru-pop-ref|2010Census}}</ref> down from 26.7% recorded in the [[Russian Census (2002)|2002 Census]].<ref name="2010Census" /> Multiple types of rural localities exist, but the two most common are ''derevnya'' ({{lang|ru|деревня}}) and ''selo'' ({{lang|ru|село}}). Historically, the formal indication of status was religious: a city (''gorod'', {{lang|ru|город}}) had a [[cathedral]], a ''selo'' had a church, while a ''derevnya'' had neither.

The lowest administrative unit of the [[Russian Empire]], a ''[[volost]]'', or its Soviet or modern Russian successor, a ''[[selsoviet]]'', was typically headquartered in a ''selo'' and embraced a few neighboring villages.

In the 1960s–1970s, the depopulation of the smaller villages was driven by the central planners' drive in order to get the farm workers out of smaller, "[[Unpromising villages|prospectless]]" hamlets and into the [[kolkhoz|collective]] or [[sovkhoz|state farms]]' main villages or even larger [[town]]s and [[City|cities]], with more amenities.<ref>[http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0253/tema04.php "Российское село в демографическом измерении" (''Rural Russia measured demographically'')] {{in lang|ru}}. This article reports the following [[Russian Census (2002)|census]] statistics:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Census year
!1959
!1970
!1979
!1989
!2002
|-
| Total number of rural localities in Russia
|294,059
|216,845
|177,047
|152,922
|155,289
|-
| Of them, with population 1 to 10 persons
|41,493
|25,895
|23,855
|30,170
|47,089
|-
| Of them, with population 11 to 200 persons
|186,437
|132,515
|105,112
|80,663
|68,807
|}
</ref>

Most Russian rural residents are involved in agricultural work, and it is very common for villagers to produce their own food. As prosperous urbanites purchase village houses for their second homes, Russian villages sometimes are transformed into [[dacha]] settlements, used mostly for seasonal residence.

The historically [[Cossacks|Cossack]] regions of Southern Russia and parts of [[Ukraine]], with their [[fertile soil]] and absence of [[serfdom]], had a rather different pattern of settlement from central and northern Russia. While peasants of central Russia lived in a village around the lord's manor, a Cossack family often lived on its own farm, called ''[[khutor]]''. A number of such ''khutors'' plus a central village made up the administrative unit with a center in a ''[[stanitsa]]'' ({{langx|ru|станица|stanitsa}}; {{langx|uk|станиця|stanytsya|stanytsia}}). Such ''[[stanitsa]]s'', often with a few thousand residents, were usually larger than a typical ''selo'' in central Russia.

====Ukraine====
[[File:Маяки.jpg|thumbnail|[[Maiaky, Donetsk Oblast|Maiaky]], a village in [[Donetsk Oblast]], [[Ukraine]]]]In [[Ukraine]], a village, ({{langx|uk|село|selo}}, {{IPA|uk|selo|IPA}}), is considered the lowest administrative unit. Villages are under the jurisdiction of a [[hromada]] administration.

There is another smaller type of rural settlement which is designated in Ukrainian as a ''[[selyshche]]'' ({{lang|uk|селище}}). This type of community is often referred to in English as a "settlement". In the new law about [[populated places in Ukraine]] the term "selyshche", has a specific meaning. In the past the word "selyshche" was more ambiguous and there were distinction between rural ''selyshche'' and ''selyshche miskoho typu'' ([[urban-type settlement]]), abbreviated ''smt'' in Ukrainian. There we also ''[[dacha]]'', fisherman, etc. ''selyshches''

The ''[[khutir]]'' ({{lang|uk|хутір}}) and ''[[stanytsia]]'' ({{lang|uk|станиця}}) are not part of the [[administrative division]] any longer, primarily due to [[collectivization]]. ''[[Khutir]]s'' were very small rural localities consisting of just few housing units and were sort of individual farms. They became really popular during the [[Stolypin reform]] in the early 20th century. During the collectivization, however, residents of such settlements were usually declared to be [[kulaks]] and had all their property confiscated and distributed to others ([[nationalized]]) without any compensation. The ''stanitsa'' likewise has not survived as an administrative term. The ''stanitsa'' was a type of a collective community that could include one or more settlements such as villages, ''khutirs'', and others. Today, ''stanitsa''-type formations have only survived in [[Kuban]] ([[Russian Federation]]) where Ukrainians were resettled during the time of the [[Russian Empire]].{{original research inline|date=July 2022}}

===Ashkenazi Jewish culture===
{{See also|Shtetl|List of shtetls|Eastern European Jewry|}}
A ''shtetl'' (plural ''shtetlekh'') was a small market town or village with a majority Jewish population in central and eastern Europe. The word ''shtetl'' is Yiddish, derived from the word ''shtot'' (town) with the suffix ''-l'', a [[diminutive]]. Shtetlekh first began to appear in the 13th century, and were characteristic aspects of Jewish life in central and Eastern Europe until the 1940s. The shtetl occupies an important place in Jewish collective memory (particularly the history of Ashkenazi Jews) and has been depicted extensively in literature, visual art, theatre, and film, including such examples as the writing of [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]], [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]], and [[Sholem Aleichem]]. Sholem Aleichem's [[Tevye the Dairyman]] stories, set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka, were eventually adapted into the [[Fiddler on the Roof]] stage play (which itself was later adapted for film).

During the [[Holocaust]], most shtetlekh were depopulated of their Jewish communities through mass deportations or liquidations. Many are memorialized in [[yizkor books]], written testimonies that describe the histories of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust.