Linguocultural identifying symbols of the Russian north

The present article deals with the phenomenon of a linguocultural symbol of a territory as a form of representing a specific region. Geographically, the study focuses on the Northern territories of the European part of Russia called Russian North. The author examines idioms containing a toponymic component: вологодское масло (vologodskoe maslo) , ракульская роспись (rakul’skaya rospis’) , уломские гвозди (ulomskie gvozdi) , etc.). It is highlighted that not all such units become ‘an emblem’ of a territory, but only frequent ones, in particular those which are ‘significant’ in terms of the meaning and image and are perceived by informants and locals as a ‘trademark’ of the region. Being used in idioms, toponymic adjectives can express judgement: they lose their geographical reference and get a general positive connotation (вологодское масло Vologda butter = butter of good quality). It is noted that the seme ‘product of high quality’ appears at the level of semantics, when the toponymic definition means ‘the best goods from those available on the market’. The trademark of a region is often some local products or one of the trades characteristic of this specific region. Besides the macrobrands, which are widely known not only in Russia but also abroad (like вологодское кружево Vologda lace), there are micro-brands, which are only known to the locals (like каргапольский рыжик saffron milk cap of Kargapolye). The article notes there is a tendency not only to the rebirth of linguocultural symbolism, based on the historical memory of the regions and their people, but also to the decay of a number of brands, connected with disappearance of some trades in the region (e. g. белослудские кушаки sashes of Belosludskiy stan).