Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti
Decrypting the German writings of Russian names is sometimes hard.
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I agree. In many cases it may be very hard even for Russian native speakers.
However, there are some regularities I've noticed which may be a little helpful.
1) The Germans used the letter 'es-tset' or 'double es' to mark an 's'-sound between vowels or at the beginning of words. So if you see a place name like 'Monassejno', 'Kolossowskoje' or 'Ssinjawino' you can be almost sure that in original Russian spelling it appears with a single 's' (i.e. Monoseino, Kolosovskoye and Sinyavino).
2) The names of Russian villages ending with '-ina' are barely exist. It is an '-ino' in almost all cases. So not 'Stalina' but 'Stalino', not 'Monassejna' but 'Monoseino', not 'Lepjachina' but 'Lepyakhino' etc.
Best regards,
Maksim