most peasants had jewish names stemming from religious associations i e the apostles and early saints therefore that point means very little my point amongst other points was whether a peasant could spell or not didn't mean that they didn't have a name and that name for an unmarried lithuanian girl with the surname skavronskis would be skavronaite wikipedia english version says zhirinovsky's original last name was eidelshtein so it might not really be a blow to him besides you claimed not to track russian politics what's the truth now now mikka it's a sin to tell a lie incidentally i notice that neither you nor ghirl bothered to to respond to the mikhail muravyov aspect of my argument i truly believe his actions which were policy in imperial russia are representative of the problem and at the heart of the matter i e russification of names geographical locations etc and of its people and provinces so the historcal record would be skewed by this russification evidently this mentality did not die with imperial russia