Throughout most of modern Russian history, uchastoks, which numbered 2,523 throughout the empire by 1914, were a third-level administrative division, below okrugs, uezd and otdels (counties).
In a literal sense, uchastok approximately corresponds to the English term plot, however, in practical usage it corresponded to a municipal district.
[1] In 1708, an administrative reform carried out by Tsar Peter the Great divided Russia into guberniyas (provinces) with subordinate uezds, whereas oblasts (regions) consisted of okrugs (counties), or otdels (Cossack counties), however, the counties of all were usually divided into either uchastoks or volosts, with the exception of the uezds of the Black Sea Governorate which did not have any sub-counties.
[2][3] By the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929, most of the uchastoks were transformed into raions (districts), which corresponded in a similar land size, however, were subordinate directly to its Soviet republic rather than to any larger province or county.
[1] The equivalent of an uchastok in the Dagestan Oblast was a nai-bate, which was ruled by a naib or local leader, who was a military deputy appointed by higher authorities (analogous to a pristav, or military commandant).