A selsoviet (Belarusian: сельсавет, romanized: sieł'saviet; Russian: сельсовет, romanized: sel'sovet, IPA: [ˈsʲelʲsɐˈvʲɛt]; Ukrainian: сільрада, romanized: sil'rada) is the shortened name for a rural council (Belarusian: се́льскi саве́т; Russian: се́льский сове́т; Ukrainian: сільська́ ра́да) and for the area governed by such a council (soviet).
Selsoviets were the lowest level of administrative division in rural areas in the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they were preserved as a third tier of administrative-territorial division throughout Ukraine, Belarus, and many of the federal subjects of Russia.
A selsoviet is a rural administrative division of a raion that includes one or several smaller rural localities and is in a subordination to its respective raion administration.
The name refers to the local rural self-administration, the rural soviet (council), a part of the Soviet system of administration. A selsoviet was headed by a chairman, who had to be appointed by higher administration.
For a considerable period of Soviet history, passports of rural residents were stored in selsoviet offices, and people could not move outside their area of residence without the permission of selsoviet.