History and culture in the mirror of the hydronymy of the Smolensk region
The article is devoted to the analysis of the names of water bodies on the territory of the Smolensk Territory and has the goal of considering one of the topical issues of regional onomastics - the problem of reflecting the historical and cultural realities of the life of people inhabiting this area in hydronyms. Of particular interest to the researcher is the study of toponymy and hydronymy of the Smolensk Territory, the territory of which is one of the most ancient inhabited lands. In addition, the Smolensk region is a watershed of the basins of such most significant rivers in the history of the Russian people as the Dnieper, Western Dvina and Volga. The article examines hydronyms that reflect both the ancient historical past of the region (belonging to the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks"), and later (the times of the Lithuanian-Polish expansion). In addition to the existing hydronyms, the names of the disappeared or renamed rivers living in the memory of the people have been analyzed. Some hydronyms are considered that indicate the social stratification of Russian society that has existed for many centuries. Using the analysis of a number of hydronyms as an example, it is shown how the names of water bodies reflect information about the economic activities of the local population.