Pogost

(from the Old Russian pogostiti, “to be a guest”), originally, an inn used as temporary lodging by a prince, members of the clergy, and merchants igosti).

(1) A rural community and its center in the Russian state from the 11th to 18th centuries. The term gradually came to signify administrative territorial units, made up of a large number of villages, or their centers. With the conversion of Rus’ to Christianity, churches with cemeteries nearby were built in each pogost. The pogost was usually known by two names—that of the village itself and that of its church. Various obligations were frequently divided among the pogosty. The administrative units continued to exist until modern times in the northern districts of European Russia, where state and crown lands could still be found. Pogosty were officially abolished in 1775.

(2) Small settlements with a church and a cemetery in the central districts of the Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries.

(3) In oral folk tradition and in the literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a cemetery, usually one in a rural area.