Various questions about Russian names and accents, 1920s - 1940s

[yiskah]

Hi everyone, I'm working on a novel set in St. Petersburg/Leningrad broadly between the 1920s and 1942. I've done a lot of research, but am trying to iron out a few details, and would appreciate your help

Comments

[yiskah]

Thank you for commenting! That could work, but what I should have made clear in my original post is that one of the two characters is reluctant to give away where she's from - it's not a massive deal or anything, but she's a country girl trying to seem like a city-based sophisticate, so I was initially looking for a kind of unintentional 'tell' that could just slip out. (I should also have specified that I am not particularly picky about where the region is, just that it's somewhere that they could both identify one another as being from.)

[rosettanettle]

What about something simple like:

Character A (reluctant)
Character B (just making conversation)

B: I really like this part of the park--it reminds me of a churchyard back home in [Place name]
A: Oh, St. Specific!

(I freaked out a new coworker this way last week--as soon as she said what town she went to college in, I replied with name of college. It is not well-known outside the area. Basically the only people who have heard of it are from around there.)

[yiskah]

Ha, I have done that same thing myself, in terms of disconcerting people! I think I'm going to go with the Vologda accent suggested below, but thank you for the suggestion. :)

[fragesteller]

1.1. It depends on situation, the age and social status

[yiskah]

This is massively useful - thank you so much! I have a load of follow-up questions - I am sorry that this comment is so enormous

[transemacabre]

Does anyone know why Russian is so poor in dialects? I mean, it's a huuuuuuge country with lots of topographical variation (mountains, rivers, etc.), my assumption would be there'd be lots of different accents, but I've heard from a couple of people that that's not so.

I'm from the US Deep South, and there's a pack of different accents here, and English speakers haven't been here but a fraction of the time Russian speakers have been running around Russia.

[fragesteller]

1.1. Let me play this scenario: the female character is called Ekaterina Sergeevna Zvereva (ESZ) and the male one is Nikolai Petrovich Ostrozhenko (NPO

[yiskah]

Ack, thank you - I hadn't even realised this post was locked! It should be public now.

This is all hugely helpful - thanks so much again!

[elva_barr]

I tried to glance over the comments to answer anything that hadn't already been answered -- teachers would use diminutives for sure, particularly with younger students. As you get older, this decreases to an extent. If the professor knows you, though, they will probably refer to you in diminutive. A diminutive similar to Dima / Mitya is for Alexander, Shurik / Sasha, which sound different but are the same formality level. Shurik is less popular (although there was a cartoon with this name, too), but I know people who use it

[yiskah]

Thanks very much, this is very helpful! I'd got the impression that Shura / Shurik was more informal than Sasha, but evidently that isn't the case.

[elva_barr]

I would not say so - Sasha is simply more common, which is why you'd hear it more often. Sasha can also be gender-neutral, whereas I've only heard Shurik for men (but I could be wrong on this! It's only anecdotal evidence). I'm glad I could help!