Mysticism on the Volga. On the right bank there are men's cities, on the left - women's

In Russia, in the Volga River basin, there is a strange mystical legitimacy. Here is an old map, which is about 150 years old. On the right bank - Kalyazin, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Plyos, Nizhny Novgorod, Kozmodemyansk, Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk), Khvalynsk, Volsk, Saratov, Kamyshin, Volgograd (Tsaritsyn). All these cities are masculine.



On the left bank - Kostroma, Kazan, Samara, Astrakhan. All these names are feminine. All these cities are old (dating back to the 16th century).

You may notice that there are much more cities on the right bank of the Volga than on the left. This is explained by the fact that, starting from the 16th century, Russia developed to the East, and the presence of cities on the right bank was a military necessity.

Of course, there are cities that are out of this model. However, if you look closely, in almost every such case, we again find confirmation of the idea.

Syzran (feminine) - on the right bank. Violation? Not at all, when the fortress appeared in 1688, it was called Syzran, and then it was softened by "changing the floor".

Engels (masculine gender) was called "Pokrovskaya Sloboda" (feminine gender) in medieval and modern Russian history, and only later it was renamed by the Soviet government.

Cheboksary (plural) - there are no rules without exceptions. But, this exception does not contradict the rule, it is just a city of neuter gender. And, in general, I mean Cheboksar (masculine).

Kineshma was a village, so this rule did not apply to her.

Togliatti appeared in 1737, and was called differently - Stavropol, that is, also in a masculine way. But, the initial plan for the construction of the city of a competent official and historian Vasily Tatishchev suggested a different name - Epiphany, and here we see the female gender. Why was it not named as it was intended? The era of Peter I, the 18th century, was underway, when they began to abandon the previous model.

But until the 18th century, indeed, the city on the right bank was given a masculine name, on the left - feminine.

Interestingly, this rule worked not only on the Volga! Bryansk, Oryol, Surgut, Vilyuisk (masculine) - right-bank. Moscow (judging by the Kremlin) and Kolomna (feminine) are left-bank.

And what do you think, dear members of the forum, why in ancient times in Russia there was such a pattern?

Thank.

my guess is that many of these cities started as forts, military encampments for the slavs. Since they were a masculine society in general, there were mostly men there. Naturally you would have females that would "take care" of the men. so eventually towns formed around the military. I would say that the Volga was a natural defensive position, and that the camps protected bridges to the frontier. As they expanded their empire west, south, and east they used the same methodology.

Camain

a reply to: camain

Yes, there is such a theory. But this also exists on other rivers. For example, on the Don River - on the right bank of Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don (masculine). On the Dnieper - on the right bank Smolensk, Mogilev, Kiev, Kherson (masculine). These are rivers from the west of Moscow, but men's cities are also on the right bank.
North of Moscow, on the Western Dvina River, the city of Arkhangelsk (male) is also on the right bank. And the river flows from south to north.

Given the high regard for these rivers by peoples of the time, it's possible the custom of male & female names for each side of the waterway was done out of respect for the custom of era. Different observances at different times of the year in different towns.

Rivers were a big necessity for not just travel, but life,so what is easy to put off as superstitions now, were taken very seriously back in history. To find a overall reason I think we'd have to dig into the older cultures for specifics.

a reply to: Caver78

Another feature is the high and rocky right banks of the Russian rivers. The left ones are gentle and flat.

I thought about the historical importance of Rivers for commerce and basic life support and immediately wondered about health matters. I wonder if the people up river were generally healthier than those downriver due to less effluent?

Interesting male/female demarcation by bank of river. It also occurs to me that English is nicely suited to the modern push for less gender demarcation as it doesn't have the masculine/feminine suffix.

Also wanted to mention that most of my dad's family were beheaded at the dinner table by Cossacks during a pogrom in Kiev at the turn of the last century... but no grudges held.

Off topic question for RT.

Was in a store today and saw a Russian beer named "Three Hills". Would you recommend it ?

Cheers

a reply to: Baddogma

I will try to answer you point by point:

1. Indeed, those peoples who lived at the source of the rivers, and it was mainly in the north. turned out to be more civilizationally capable southerners. It is a fact.

2. English is a flat language that consists of letters that represent letters. Sound is a letter .. This language is well suited for the modern two-character computer language, but it is completely unable to convey the full breadth of human feelings. That is why I respect the Israelis, they were able, although significantly modified, to preserve their ancient language - Hebrew. It's difficult. especially in the context of modern interiorization and digitalization.
Unlike modern Angilian, in ancient languages ​​(Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese ...) the letter means a word. This makes it possible to think not flat, but volumetric, critically and figuratively. It makes a person a person.

3. I don't know what happened to your ancestors. but there everything was mutual, and the Cossacks had reasons to do so. although it was a long time ago and has already been forgotten.

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

My friend, I don't like beer. I'm not an advisor here, I'm sorry)))

a reply to: RussianTroll

What do you mean by

“softened by "changing the floor".

I have enlisted a russian professor friend to see if she can help.