Toponymic palimpsest as a representative of Samara identity. The first article

The article examines the semiotic space of Samara and the composition of the toponymic palimpsest of the Samara text, evolving in accordance with the value orientations characteristic of certain periods in the history of the city. Founded in 1586 as a fortress city, in the middle of the XIX century Samara turned into a fairly large provincial city, known as the «grain capital of Russia»; during the Soviet period, the city of Kuibyshev became a major industrial center, during the Great Patriotic War – the «reserve capital», and in the post–war years – one of the leading centers of the aviation and rocket industry and, finally, in the post–Soviet period, receives an additional nomination – «resort city». Based on the conducted research of an array of currently existing inner-city topographic objects, whose proper names reflect the conceptual meanings of various periods, urbanonyms are identified that represent verbal elements of the symbolic capital of Samara, providing a picture of its territorial identity that develops over time. Our research has shown that the toponymic landscape of the city, which has changed its conceptual characteristics several times, reflects the semiotic codes of territorial identity relevant to each of the listed periods, which makes it problematic to form a territorial brand of Samara based on an unambiguous characteristic