Crimean Oblast in the context of "Ukrainian Naval Aviation"

Crimea (/kraɪˈmiːə/ kry-MEE-ə) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The population is 2.4 million, and the largest city is Sevastopol. The region, internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Called the Tauric Peninsula until the early modern period, Crimea has historically been at the boundary between the classical world and the steppe. Greeks colonised its southern fringe and were absorbed by the Roman and Byzantine Empires and successor states while remaining culturally Greek. Some cities became trading colonies of Genoa, until conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Throughout this time the interior was occupied by a changing cast of steppe nomads, coming under the control of the Golden Horde in the 13th century from which the Crimean Khanate emerged as a successor state. In the 15th century, the Khanate became a dependency of the Ottoman Empire. Lands controlled by Russia and Poland-Lithuania were often the target of slave raids during this period. In 1783, after the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), the Russian Empire annexed Crimea. Crimea's strategic position led to the 1854 Crimean War and many short lived regimes following the 1917 Russian Revolution. When the Bolsheviks secured Crimea, it became an autonomous soviet republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. It was occupied by Germany during World War II. When the Soviets retook it in 1944, Crimean Tatars were ethnically cleansed and deported under the orders of Joseph Stalin, in what has been described as a cultural genocide. Crimea was downgraded to an oblast in 1945. In 1954, the USSR transferred the oblast to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Treaty in 1654.

Balaklava (Ukrainian and Russian: Балаклава, Crimean Tatar: Balıqlava, Greek: Σύμβολον) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklavsky District that used to be part of the Crimean Oblast before it was transferred to Sevastopol Municipality. Population: 18,649 (2014 Census).

Massive renaming of Crimean toponyms by the Soviet government took place during the conversion of the Crimean ASSR into the Crimean Oblast, in four waves (in 1944, 1945, 1948, and 1949). Renaming occurred after the deportation in 1944 of Crimean Tatars and other non-Slavic peoples living in Crimea. The old names were mostly of Crimean Tatar origin, while the new ones were Russian. As a result of the renaming, over 1300 settlements in Crimea received new names (over 90% of the peninsula's settlements). A large part of the villages disappeared in the following decades. After 1990, three settlements returned to their historical names (Koktebel, Partenit, and Sarybash). The renaming is one aspect of de-Tatarization of Crimea.

In 1944, raions (districts) and raion centers of Crimea were renamed; in 1945, village councils and their centers; and in 1948 and 1949, the majority of settlements. This list includes only settlements (i.e., it does not list the renamed districts and village councils). Settlements are divided by districts of the Crimean ASSR with their names before the renaming in the 1940s.