Etymologically
stan was formed from the verb ''''
(Russian: становиться) meaning to stay or stand. It has not been well-studied. However, Russian historians believe that unlike volost, which is thought to have evolved from tribal communities, stans were purely administrative structures, whose main function was to organize tribute collection, thus, a stan'' was the actual place where royal officials called and stayed in order to perform sovereign's will or collect taxes. Thus, in the largest locality of a certain area, they put up a house that was the place where an official should stay temporally. It is believed that unlike who ran the volosts for a long period under appointment, stans didn't have permanent administrators. It is also pointed out that, unlike volosts, which were composed mainly of
rural localities, stans were very connected to certain towns. In the 17th century stans domineered over volosts in size and number. It reflects stan's historical connection to towns, which were primarily military strongholds, where local gentry gathered for service or actually served, while volosts remained communities of mostly free peasants, who had later become royal serfs. Gradually, volosts had become subdivisions of stans. == References ==