Before 1962, it was known as Velykyi Tokmak Raion (Ukrainian: Великотокмацький район).

[1] The raion had an area of 1,400 square kilometres (540 sq mi), with 1,103,000 hectares of arable land.

It was located within Melitopol Okruha [uk] of Yekaterinoslav Governorate in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

[2] The okruhas were abolished at the end of the 1920s, and Velykyi Tokmak Raion was assigned to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Tokmak was also designated a city of oblast significance - meaning that while it still served as the administrative center of the raion, it was no longer part of it, instead being subordinated directly to Zaporizhzhia Oblast.