The lands of the modern Kirovohrad Oblast were first inhabited by
Scythians. In the Middle Ages, during the time of
Kyivan Rus', the East Slavic tribe of Ulichis lived here. After the liberation of the former Kyivan Rus' from the Tatars in the
Battle of Blue Waters and the unification of the principalities of Kyiv, Pereyaslav, and Chernihiv with the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, there was a need to protect the southeastern borders from attacks by the
Crimean Khanate, a remanent steppe horde formed after the collapse of the
Golden Horde at the end of the 15th century. For this,
Dmytro Vyshnevetsky founded the first
Zaporozhian Sich on the island of
Khortytsia, thus the Ukrainian Cossacs appeared. On the territory of the modern Kirovohrad region the Zaporozhians founded many villages. From 1569, the territory formed part of the
Kingdom of Poland within the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. These lands were under the rule of the Ukrainian Cossacks of
Hetmanate and
Zaporozhian Sich from XV to XVIII century. As a result of the
destruction of the Cossacks and the
serfdom imposed by the Russian government at the end of the 18th century, these lands came under the direct power of Russia. In 1752, the territory of
New Serbia was founded with the capital in
Novomyrhorod. In the 1800s, majority of the landed was owned by the noble
Skarżyński family. They played a large role in the development of the region. An emphasis was placed on the development of its agriculture and the Skarzynskis opened a school in
Migeya dedicated to this. The oblast was created as part of the
Ukrainian SSR on January 10, 1939 out of the northern raions of
Mykolaiv Oblast. Before establishment, its territory was part of
Kherson Governorate (most of it) and
Podolia Governorate (smaller portion) until 1925. Earlier before occupation of Ukraine in 1920s, in 1918 there were plans to introduce own Ukrainian administrative territorial division with territory of modern Kirovohrad Oblast being split between lands of Nyz (Lower land), Pobozhia (Boh land), and Cherkasy. During the
Soviet repressions, over 40,000 residents of the region were killed. During World War II, the oblast was under Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944 and was liberated as a result of
Kirovograd offensive. In 1954, the oblast lost some raions to the newly created
Cherkasy Oblast, but later that year received its western raions from the
Odesa Oblast. Between 1939 and 2016, the oblast administrative center, Kropyvnytskyi, was called Kirovohrad and was named after the First Secretary of the
Leningrad City Committee of the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Sergei Kirov. Kirovohrad Oblast was not renamed because as such it is mentioned in the
Constitution of Ukraine, and the Oblast can only be renamed by a
constitutional amendment by the
Verkhovna Rada. On 20 June 2018, the Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government of the
Ukrainian parliament backed the proposal to rename Kirovohrad Oblast to
Kropyvnytskyi Oblast. In February 2019, the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared constitutional the bill on renaming Kirovohrad Oblast to Kropyvnytskyi Oblast. The renaming was supported by the local Oblast Council in March 2021. The process then stalled in the parliament, with the oblast council asking the
Verkhovna Rada to speed up the process in September 2022. In August 2025, the Director of the
Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Oleksandr Alfiorov said that the changes to the Constitution are planned for both Kirovohrad and
Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts, but can be implemented only after
martial law is lifted. ==Demographics==