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Soviet Toponymy: The History and the Present

Received: 16 June 2017    Accepted: 19 June 2017    Published: 17 July 2017
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Abstract

The article identifies the scales of the Soviet toponymy (macro-toponyms and toponyms as such) in Georgia and some geographical peculiarities of their territorial distribution. The study was undertaken in several stages: (1) identification and analysis of the general list of Soviet toponyms (according to the geographical background, naming circumstances and date of origination), (2) identification of the scales of Sovietization for different Regions of the country and territorial peculiarities, (3) development of the classification of Soviet toponyms, and (4) mapping the Soviet toponyms. A number of sources were used to achieve these goals, including territorial-administrative organization, general population census, cartographic sources, toponymic studies, etc. The study revealed that the process of “Sovietization” of the toponyms developed in several directions: by giving the names of memorial names to administrative units and settlements (regions, cities, settlements and villages); by giving the ideological Soviet names to the geographical objects; by partially changing the toponyms (by translating or adding epithets); by forming new objects of the Soviet revival and naming them.

DOI 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17
Published in Earth Sciences (Volume 6, Issue 5-1, October 2017)

This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenge for Geography: Landscape Dimensions of Sustainable Development

Page(s) 49-55
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Soviet Toponyms, Sovetization, Georgia

References
[1] K. Kharadze, Historical Geography of Georgia, a text-book for the university students with the specialty of geography, Tbilisi, 2003, p. 285 (In Georgian).
[2] Orthographic Dictionary of the Geographical Names of Georgia, Tbilisi, 1987; 1989 (In Georgian).
[3] General Census of the Population of Georgia, Tbilisi, 1989, 2002.
[4] Administrative-territorial division of Georgia, 1930, 1949; 1961; 1966; 1987 (In Georgian and Russian).
[5] Abkhazian ASSR. The Administrative-territorial division. Sukhumi: Gosizdat of Abkhazian ASSR, 1953 (In Georgian and Russian).
[6] Resolution of the Presidium of the High Council of Abkhazian ASSR (On Renaming Some Village Councils and Villages and Uniting Some Villages of the Abkhazian ASSR). August 20, 1948 (In Russian).
[7] Resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR On the Right Drawing of the Names of the Settled Areas dated by August 23, 1936 (In Russian).
[8] Protocol #43 of the Session of the Presidium of the High Council of Abkhazian ASSR (On Renaming Village Yermolovsk as Leselidze. June 12, 1944) (In Russian).
[9] Decree of the Presidium of the High Council of the USSR of September 11, 1957 On Organizing the Affair of Giving Names of the State and Public Figures to lands, Oblasts, Regions, as well as Cities and Other Settled Areas, Enterprises, Collective Farms, Establishments and Organizations”. Bulleting of the High Council of the USSR, 1957, #19, p. 194 (In Russian).
[10] Decrees of the President of Georgia: #14 dated by January 9, 2006; #91 dated by February 1, 2006; #4173 dated by December 27, 2007; #161 dated by March 27, 2008; #925 dated by November 16, 2010; #947 dated by November 20, 2010; #93 dated by February 18, 2011; #379 dated by July 14, 2011; #478 dated by August 30, 2011; #879 dated by December 31, 2011; #57 dated by January 24, 2012; #82 and #83 dated by February 3, 2012; #360 dated by May 3, 2012; #714 dated by August 15, 2012; #499 dated by June 25, 2013; #915 dated by November 15, 2013.
[11] 5-Verst Maps, XIX-XX cc. (In Russian).
[12] Geographical Sketches, Tbilisi, 1990 (In Georgian).
[13] Sh. Gogatishvili, Explanation of Geographical Names of Georgia, Tbilisi, 1981 (In Georgian).
[14] A. Songulashvili. “South Osetia” in Georgia?!” Tbilisi, 2009 (In Georgian).
[15] P. Tskhadaia, Explanatory Dictionary of Onomastic Terms, Tbilisi, TSU, 1988 (In Georgian).
[16] L. Chilashvili, Old Gavazi. Historical-Archeological Study, Tbilisi, 1975 (In Georgian).
[17] Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vo. 2, Tbilisi, 1977. p. 95 (In Georgian).
[18] Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 7, Tbilisi, 1984, p. 708 (In Georgian).
[19] Z. Chumburidze, How did a Word Appear? Tbilisi, 1978, p. 179 (In Georgian).
[20] Z. Chumburidze, What is Your Name? Tbilisi, 1982, pp. 133-141 (In Georgian).
[21] K. Kharadze, For Some Questions of the Comparative Study of Old and New Toponyms of Georgia. The Works of Geographical Society of Georgian SSR, XVI, Tbilisi, “Science”, 1985, pp. 137-143 (In Georgian).
[22] G. Khoranauli, Georgian Onomastics, Tbilisi, 2003 (In Georgian).
[23] Foreign and Georgian Terminology Denoting Georgia and Georgians, Tbilisi, 1993 (In Georgian).
[24] K. Kharadze, History of Geographical Knowledge in Old Georgia, Tbilisi, 1996 (In Georgian).
[25] S. Sartania, D. Nikolaishvili, Soviet Toponyms in the Map of Georgia, Tbilisi, 2014 (In Georgian).
[26] E. M. Murzaev, Geography in Names. Moscow: Publishing house “Nauka”, 1982 (In Russian).
[27] Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 7, Tbilisi, 1984, p. 708.
[28] Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, vo. 2, Tbilisi, 1977. p. 95.
[29] Abkhazia: the documents confirm, 1937-1953, Sukhum, “Alashara”, 1992 (In Russian).
Author Information
  • Department of Geography, Faculty of Exact and Natural sciences, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

  • Museum of TSU, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

  • Shota Rustaveli Institute of Gerogian Literature, Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

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  • APA Style

    Davit Sartania, Dali Nikolaishvili, Avtandil Ujmajuridze. (2017). Soviet Toponymy: The History and the Present. Earth Sciences, 6(5-1), 49-55. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17

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    ACS Style

    Davit Sartania; Dali Nikolaishvili; Avtandil Ujmajuridze. Soviet Toponymy: The History and the Present. Earth Sci. 2017, 6(5-1), 49-55. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17

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    AMA Style

    Davit Sartania, Dali Nikolaishvili, Avtandil Ujmajuridze. Soviet Toponymy: The History and the Present. Earth Sci. 2017;6(5-1):49-55. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17

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  • @article{10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17,
      author = {Davit Sartania and Dali Nikolaishvili and Avtandil Ujmajuridze},
      title = {Soviet Toponymy: The History and the Present},
      journal = {Earth Sciences},
      volume = {6},
      number = {5-1},
      pages = {49-55},
      doi = {10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.s.2017060501.17},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.s.2017060501.17},
      abstract = {The article identifies the scales of the Soviet toponymy (macro-toponyms and toponyms as such) in Georgia and some geographical peculiarities of their territorial distribution. The study was undertaken in several stages: (1) identification and analysis of the general list of Soviet toponyms (according to the geographical background, naming circumstances and date of origination), (2) identification of the scales of Sovietization for different Regions of the country and territorial peculiarities, (3) development of the classification of Soviet toponyms, and (4) mapping the Soviet toponyms. A number of sources were used to achieve these goals, including territorial-administrative organization, general population census, cartographic sources, toponymic studies, etc. The study revealed that the process of “Sovietization” of the toponyms developed in several directions: by giving the names of memorial names to administrative units and settlements (regions, cities, settlements and villages); by giving the ideological Soviet names to the geographical objects; by partially changing the toponyms (by translating or adding epithets); by forming new objects of the Soviet revival and naming them.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    AU  - Davit Sartania
    AU  - Dali Nikolaishvili
    AU  - Avtandil Ujmajuridze
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    AB  - The article identifies the scales of the Soviet toponymy (macro-toponyms and toponyms as such) in Georgia and some geographical peculiarities of their territorial distribution. The study was undertaken in several stages: (1) identification and analysis of the general list of Soviet toponyms (according to the geographical background, naming circumstances and date of origination), (2) identification of the scales of Sovietization for different Regions of the country and territorial peculiarities, (3) development of the classification of Soviet toponyms, and (4) mapping the Soviet toponyms. A number of sources were used to achieve these goals, including territorial-administrative organization, general population census, cartographic sources, toponymic studies, etc. The study revealed that the process of “Sovietization” of the toponyms developed in several directions: by giving the names of memorial names to administrative units and settlements (regions, cities, settlements and villages); by giving the ideological Soviet names to the geographical objects; by partially changing the toponyms (by translating or adding epithets); by forming new objects of the Soviet revival and naming them.
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