''Pogost'' (russian: погост, from Old East Slavic: погостъ) is a historical term with several meanings in the Russian language. It has also been borrowed into Latgalian (''pogosts''),

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

(''pogosta'') and Latvian (''pagasts''), with specific meanings. The original usage applies to the coaching inn for princes and ecclesiastics with the word being similar to modern Russian ''gost (гость), "guest". It is assumed that originally ''pogosts'' were rural communities on the periphery of the ancient Rus` state, as well as trading centers (Old Russian: ''gost'ba'', гостьба). In the end of the 10th century ''pogosts'' transformed into administrative and territorial districts. ''Pogosts'' varied in size, ranging from tens to hundreds of villages in 11th—14th centuries. As Christianity spread in Russia, churches were built in ''pogosts''. In 1775 the last ''pogosts'' that served as administrative districts were destroyed. Since then they became known as city ''pogosts'' (погосто - место), functioning as parish centers. In the central ''

uyezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...

s'' of 15th-16th centuries ''pogosts'' were small settlements with a church and a graveyard, like

Kizhi Kizhi ( rus, Ки́жи, p=ˈkʲiʐɨ, krl, Kiži) is an island near the geometrical center of Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia (Medvezhyegorsky District), Russia. It is elongated from north to south and is about long, wide and is about ...

Pogost or

Kadnikov Kadnikov (russian: Ка́дников) is a town in Sokolsky District of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the bank of the Sodima River, southeast of Vologda, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History It traces its history ...

Pogost. In modern Russian, ''pogosts'' usually designate a combination of a rural church and a graveyard, situated at some distant place.

Usage in Finland and Latvia

The central village of the Finnish '' kunta'' (‘municipality’) of

Ilomantsi Ilomantsi ( krl, Il'manči or Ilomančči, sv, Ilomants) is municipality and a village of Finland. It is located in the North Karelia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population densi ...

is usually called the pogosta of Ilomantsi (''Ilomantsin pogosta''), the word being obviously a borrowing from Russian. The local dialect of Finnish shows strong Russian influence, and there is a strong presence of Orthodox Christians in the municipality. Even the name of the local newspaper is ''Pogostan Sanomat'' ("The Pogosta News"), and a certain viral disease is locally called the

Pogosta disease Pogosta disease is a viral disease. The symptoms of the disease usually include rash, as well as mild fever and other flu-like symptoms; in most cases the symptoms last less than 5 days. However, in some cases, the patients develop a painful arth ...

. In modern Finnish language, '' pogosta'' is also used in references to historical places, as a historical synonym for "

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

" or "

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

" in Karelian and Russian contexts. Pagasts is the name for a basic unit of local self-government in the Republic of Latvia. The word "pagasts" is a commonly used Latvian word equivalent to civil parish, rural municipality or small rural district, originating in the

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

''pogost''. There are 432 rural municipalities or ''pagasti'' in Latvia.

References

{{coord, 61.2, N, 42.0833, E, source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title History of the administrative divisions of Russia Rural geography Russian-language designations of territorial entities