Reference and Bibliographic Resources

Gazetteers

Koverskiĭ, Edouard Avrelianovich, 1837-1916 , creator. *Karta Rossiĭskoĭ Imperii i sopredel'nykh s nei︠u︡ Gosudarstv sostavil k Desi︠a︡tiletii︠u︡ Komiteta Sibirskoĭ Zheleznoĭ Dorogi General-Leĭtenant Ė.A.Koverskiĭ 1892-1902.* [1902]. Original held by National Library of Russia. Available as a digital image through the Library's website.

A gazetteer essentially is an alphabetical list of geographic names that are currently applied or have been applied to places and features of the landscape. Varying in scope, depth, and quality, they are an invaluable resource for locating innumerable place and feature names that now exist or have become extinct. Often used in conjunction with historical maps, gazetteers enable researchers to identify sites of particular interest. Entries in a a gazetteer can, but do not necessarily include, the recommended name conforming to present-day usage, a feature designation, geographical coordinates, i.e latitude and longitude, variations in spellings as well as cognates, and information regarding the origin, history, and meaning of a name.

The Geography and Map Reading Room holds hundreds of gazetteers covering the landscape at the celestial, planetary, world, oceanic, continental, national, regional, state, county, and municipal levels. The gazetteers listed here fall into two broad categories: those that identify geographic features and places within the Russian Federation or those that identify features and places in independent countries that once were part of Imperial Russia or the Soviet Union. They are available in the Geography and Map Reading Room, while some may be held by the European Reading Room and others in the General Collections.

Virtually all gazetteers are listed on the Library of Congress online catalog. A subject browse search can involve general and more specific terms, as in the following examples: "Russia gazetteers"; "Sakhalin Sakhalinskaia Oblast Russia gazetteers"; "Armenia Republic Gazetteers"; "Belarus gazetteers"; "Hrodzenskaia voblasts' Belarus gazetteers"; "Semereche' Kazakhstan gazetteers"; and "Moscow Oblast Russia gazetteers."

Below are listed a few gazetteers, as well as a few additional titles on Russian geography and historical geography, that the author has found useful over the years.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Gazetteers of Russia

Spiski naselennykh mi︠e︡st Rossīĭskoĭ Imperīi. by Russia. T︠S︡entralʹnyĭ statisticheskiĭ komitet.
Call Number: HA1435 .A45
Published/Created: 1861-1885
Titled in English "Lists of Populated Places in Imperial Russia," this sixty-two volume gazetteer is the basic resource for the Russian Empire in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The gazetteer is organized by locality, initially by gubernia (province), then by uyezd (county), and by gorod (city) or derevinye (village). Each volume has a locality index. A set is held in the Library's general collections.
Russian-English geographical-encyclopedia. by Ina Telberg
Call Number: DK14 .T4
Published/Created: 1960
Condensed English translation of the second edition of M. S. Bodnarskii's "Slovar Geograficheskikh Nazvanii" (Moscow, 1958). Entry headwords are in Cyrillic, but entries themselves are in English; the gazetteer is preceded by an English index. Contains entries for most oblasts and republics, as well as many towns and villages, with descriptions of their general economic, industrial, and regional significance, in addition to population figures based on 1956 estimates.
Russisches geographisches Namenbuch. Begründet von Max Vasmer. by Bearb. von Ingrid Coper [et al.] Hrsg. von Max Vasmer und Herbert Bräuer.
Call Number: DK14 .R9
Published/Created: 1964 [i.e. 1962-64]-1989.
Comprehensive and authoritative eleven-volume gazetteer, in German, of all geographic feature names in Russia found both in pre-revolutionary and Soviet sources, initiated by Russo-German linguist, Max Vasmer, and completed after his death. The Russian-language edition was issued in 1964-73 as "Etimologicheskii slovarʹ russkogo iazyka" under the general editorship of O. N. Trubachev.

A complete edition of all eleven volumes is held by the Library's European Reading Room. The Geography and Map Division holds a few of the volumes, plus the accompanying atlas.
Wörterbuch der russischen Gewässernamen by A. Kernd'l, R. Richhardt und W. Eisold, unter Leitung von Max Vasmer.
Call Number: DK14 .V3
Published/Created: 1961- [c1960-
Comprehensive and authoritative three-volume gazetteer of all hydronyms (names of water bodies) in Russia, compiled under the direction of Russo-German linguist, Max Vasmer.
Placenames of Russia and the former Soviet Union : origins and meanings of the names for over 2,000 natural features, towns, regions, and countries by Adrian Room
Call Number: DK15 .R66 1996
Published/Created: 1996
Gazetteer emphasizing the origin and meaning of over 2,000 geographic feature names in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union. Entries include the headword in its standard English spelling; its Cyrillic equivalent; a brief description with its country and general location within that country; and the meaning of the name. Appendices identify common place name elements and the meaning of regional names. Not useful for locating most small towns and villages in Russia.
German-Russian handbook : a reference book for Russian German and German Russian history and culture with place listings of former German settlement areas by Ulrich Mertens ; translation by Brigitte von Budde and Alex Herzog ; edited by Allyn Brosz, Alex Herzog and Thomas Stangl.
Call Number: DK34.G3 M4813 2010
ISBN: 1891193635
Published/Created: 2010
A handbook for researching places settled by Germans in Russia and the Russian Empire. Includes a sizeable gazetteer of place names listing areas and communities in Russia founded, leased, or purchased by Germans or where Germans may have formed a majority. Entries, in English, can identify the country in which the place is located, its population at specific dates, its religious congregations, date of founding, and variations in the spelling of its name. Also includes addresses of archives and religious sources of information on Germans; a history of German deportation and resettlement in Russia; and ancillary information on the Communist Party, leaders, events, and organizations related to German Russians.

Gazetteers of Regions and Oblasts

Vsë Podmoskovʹe; geograficheskiĭ slovarʹ Moskovskoĭ oblasti. by Solnt︠s︡ev, N A
Call Number: DK511.M6 S585
Published/Created: 1967
Geographical dictionary of Moscow Oblast from the mid 1960s.
Gazetteer of Russian place names in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (Sakhalinskaya Oblastʹ) by U.S. Army Forces in the Far East
Call Number: DK771.S2 U5 1954
Published/Created: 1954
1954 (2nd) edition U.S. Army gazetteer of place names in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Entries include the Romanized Russian name, the feature designation, its latitude and longitude, and sometimes the corresponding name in Japanese. Another section includes a cross-reference of Japanese names for all known Russian names in areas formerly under Japanese occupation.
Gazetteer of Russian place names in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (Sakhalinskaya Oblastʹ) by U.S. Army Forces in the Far East
Call Number: DK771.S2 U5 1955
Published/Created: 1955
1955 (3rd) edition of the U.S. Army gazetteer of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. In two parts: part I covers populated places and part II includes physical and some cultural features. Entries include Romanized Russian place or feature name, with geographic coordinates, and occasional corresponding name in Japanese. Another section includes cross references of Japanese names with Russian names. Part II includes a glossary of English, Japanese, and Russian geographic terms.

Historical Geography of Russia

Russia, Mongolia, China; being some record of the relations between them from the beginning of the XVIIth century to the death of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, A.D. 1602-1676; rendered mainly in the form of narratives dictated or written by the envoys sen by John F. Baddeley
Call Number: DK68.A2 B3 1960z
Published/Created: 1919 / 1960 reprint
A somewhat dated but helpful collection of narratives and maps recording Russia's expanding relations with Siberia and China in the seventeenth century. Volume one contains a "Geographical Introduction" with text and facsimiles of maps indicating the development of Russia's geographic knowledge of Siberia and northern Asia from the 16th to the early 18th centuries. Among the maps discussed are those by Jenkinson (1562), Godunov (1667), the anonymous Ethnographical Map (1673), Witsen (1687), Remezoff (1696-1701), and J. G. Renat (ca. 1730s). Includes translations into English many of the archaic names and features found on the original maps. The 1919 edition of the title was reprinted by B. Franklin in the 1960s.
An Historical Geography of Russia by W. H. Parker
Call Number: DK17 .P3
ISBN: 0340069406
Published/Created: 1968
Old but venerable text on Russia's historical geography for the undergraduate English reader. Covers Russia's geographical and historical development from earliest times up until the mid 1960s. Extensively illustrated with maps, diagrams, and plates. Readers of Russian wishing to consult a more modern study are referred to I. A. Vodarskii's "Istoricheskai︠a︡ geografii︠a︡ Rossii, IX--nachalo XX veka : territorii︠a︡, naselenie, ėkonomika ocherk" (Moskva : Institut rossiĭskoĭ istorii RAN, 2013), while ancient Russia's historical geography is addressed in Vadim Makarenko's "Otkuda poshla Rusʹ? : novai︠a︡ geografii︠a︡ drevnego mira" (Moskva : Veche, 2003).
Atlas geograficheskikh otkrytii v sibiri i v severo-zapadnoi amerike XVII-XVIII vekov by A. V. Yefimov
Call Number: G2180 .A4 1964 folio
Published/Created: 1964
Historical atlas reproducing over 190 maps appertaining to Russian exploration of Siberia and northwest America in the 17th-18th centuries. Atlas consists of two sections: black-and-white reproductions of maps and plans; and commentary on each map, with citations. Covers major periods of cartographic development, including: influence of Russia data on western maps; the Remezov era of maps of Siberia; the first printed maps; data on map collected by Russian officials and expeditions; individual expeditions; investigation of the Chuckchee Peninsula; maps of Spitsbergen and the White Sea; expeditions from the latter half of the 18th century; and maps of north Asia and northwest America from the 19th century.

Geography of Russia

A Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors by Mikhail S. Blinnikov
Call Number: DK510.28 .B55 2021
ISBN: 9781462544615
Published/Created: 2021-02-17
Accessible undergraduate text on Russia and post-Soviet northern Eurasia. Includes thematic chapters on Russia's physical, historical and political, cultural and social, and economic geography, in addition to regional chapters emphasizing the nation's major regions and fourteen former Soviet republics.

Russia and its Empire in Eurasia: Cartographic Resources in the Library of Congress

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