Meaning Of Belarus And Russia’s West-2017 Opponents’ Names

The creators of the names for the Russian-Belarusian military maneuvers were in a delicate situation.

"The developers of the plan of the exercises not only cut off the "Belarusian" part of the "native Lithuania" (Lithuania propria) from the modern territory of Belarus on their maps, but also took recognizable Baltic names for the names of opponents," – the researcher of the Baltic heritage of Belarusians Ales Mikus writes for nn.by.

"So, who are the likely opponents for the Russian and Belarusian armies? "Veishnoria", "Vesbaria" and "Lubeniya."

The first two have clearly derived from the two-part Baltic names (such a two-part structure was inherited from Indo-European times and is well known due to Greek names, such as Archimedes, Aristotle, Heraclitus).

These are the names Vaishnor (in Lithuanian - Vaišnoras, in the ancient Prussian - Waisnor) - "the one who willingly treats" (hospitable), and Vizbar (in Lithuanian - Vizbaras, in the Prussian - Wissebar) - "the all-conquering". We have a village called Vaishnaryshki near Ashmiany, and there was a similar farm near Astravets.

"Lubeniya" also has links with the Baltic names. There is an Old Prussian name Lubene, there is the lake Lubāns in Latvia and the river Lubano in Prussia. These words derived from the Baltic, Indo-European root, which meaning is "rip off; break off; peel off." Threatening meaning, as you can see. By the way, the famous linguist Toporov also linked the Moscow name Lubianka with this root."