20th Century Russia’s History through Settlement Names

• Main Author: Lyudmila N. Mazur
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2011-12-01
• Series: Voprosy Onomastiki
• Subjects: Russian language; Baltic languages; Baltic-Finnish languages; substrate; hydronymy; areal; Russian northwest; reverse dictionary; etymology; comparative historical method; oikonymy; settlement names as a historic source; 20th century Russia’s history; character and reasons for re-nomination of oikonyms
• Online Access: http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/VO_2012_2(11)/Mazur-1.pdf

The article is devoted to research of settlement names as a primary source reflecting the history of the Russian 20th century society. Wide-scale cases of re-nomination testify to the deepness of social and mental transformations in society as a result of the revolution, Stalin’s cult of personality, collectivization and industrialization. Besides political and ideological factors, changes in names of rural communities and villages were entailed to a greater extent by a new perception of the countryside, which was formed under the influence of urbanization process. The article suggests a periodization of oikonymy transformation processes and considers the main reasons and general results of re-nomination.