Questions tagged [toponyms]

Москва, Калуга, Пенза, Кострома All these toponyms end on -a and, as far as I know, they are all feminine. However, I know that in Russian some nouns ending on -a can be masculine: ябеда, неряха, голова, воевода, непоседа, жадина including some…

Here's a title I've found in today's news: "Крымские чиновники получили от 3 до 6 лет колонии". The thing is that actually the officials mentioned in crime chronicles are from russian city of Krymsk, not from Crimea. So, the question is - while…

I was surprised to find another city with the -gorsk ending: Железногoрск (Zheleznogorsk), formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-26. It sounded familiar, and I immediately looked up Iron (the metal), which is Железо. Notice there is no "н". So why does it…