Sloboda

Sloboda (Russian:слобода́), was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement". In modern Russia, the term is used to denote a type of a rural locality and is used in Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Ryazan, Tula, and Voronezh Oblasts.