Starost(a) (Cyrillic: старост/а, Latin: capitaneus, German: Starost) as a title designates an official or unofficial leader, used in various contexts through most of Slavic history. One can translate it as "senior" or "elder": the word comes from the Slavic root star-, "old". In Poland a starosta would administer a territory called a starostwo.
In the early Middle Ages, the starosta was the head of a Slavic community or of other communities: thus one finds designations such as church starosta, artel starosta, etc. The starosta also functioned as the master of ceremonies in traditional Carpatho-Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Polish weddings, similar to stari svat (стари сват) in Serbian weddings.
In Poland[edit]
From the 14th century in the Polish Crown, and later through the era of the joint state of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth till the partitions of Poland in 1795, the starosta was a royal official. His deputy was known as podstarości. There were several types of starosta:
- Starosta Generalny was the administrative official of a specific territorial unit: either the representative of the King or Grand Duke or a person directly in charge.
- Starosta Grodowy was a county-(powiat-)level official responsible for fiscal duties, police and courts, and also the one responsible for the execution of judicial verdicts.
- Starosta Niegrodowy was the overseer of the Crown lands.
Between 1918 and 1939 and 1944–1950, the starosta was the head of county (powiat) administration, subordinate to the voivode. Since the local government reforms, which came into effect on 1 January 1999, the starosta is the head of the county (powiat) executive (zarząd powiatu), and the head of the county administration (starostwo powiatowe), being elected by the county council (rada powiatu).
In other countries[edit]
- In Ruthenia (Kievan Rus) it was a lower government official.
- In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, starosta is the title of a mayor of a town or village (mayors of major cities use the title primátor).
- In Lithuania since 1991, starosta (Lithuanian: seniūnas) is the title of the head of a province.
- In Galicia and Bukovina under Austrian rule a starosta supervised the county administration.
- In Russia the word was used until the early 20th century to denote the elected leader of obshchina.
- In Ukraine during 1918 it was a post of an appointed official who represented the central government in regions. From 2015 is an official of a village that is a part of the united commune.