REGION

Nature burns on the soul a print that does not wash off; it leaves its mark on the outer and inner appearance of the people. Even the language, though to a lesser extent, is also prone to such influence.
For example, many words related to the forest and snow are unknown to a Russian living in the southern part of the country. The psychological identity of an ethnic group mainly depends on the natural environment, landscape, and seasonal features. A Southern man cannot live without the vast steppes; a treeless vastness seems bare and uncomfortable to a Northerner.
The white nights at Solovki Island confuse even citizens of Central Russia.
    Perhaps because of that, they are so strong in the Russian folklore images of foreign and native landscapes. Interestingly, the alien side was always substantial and multifaceted in the popular imagination. When a girl got married, even a neighbouring village seemed to her at first foreign. More "foreign" becomes a faraway place when people leave to work as haulers. Soldiers' "foreign place" was always harsh and distant.
    Leaving for a faraway place, you must grudgingly fasten the heart; otherwise, you perish. "When visiting, be like people, but at home, as you wish," - says the proverb.
At home, the faraway place doesn't look so scary. However, when in a foreign land where "the birds sing differently, flowers bloom differently," the previous one, a little "foreign" place, a man will not call it a "foreign," but native.
An insult or ridicule suffered in a foreign land will not always be forgotten soon after the comeback. Good-natured mockery of the people's rumour is often manifested in such nicknames as "Permians - salty-ears," "Yaroslavsky waterslurpers," "Vologdian calves," and "Chud white-eyed." Yet mockery could reach only a specific target group, usually a travelling posse of workers, while a stranger was treated with reverence.