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9 Apr, 2021 15:29

‘Gayduck’ goes straight? Russian Railways faces bill for signage change after Black Sea train station becomes butt of online jokes

‘Gayduck’ goes straight? Russian Railways faces bill for signage change after Black Sea train station becomes butt of online jokes

A train station in the southern Russian village of Gayduck is to change its name, after a picture of its bilingual platform sign went viral. However, according to railway administrators, no complaints were actually submitted.

A suburb of the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, Gayduck is named after Fedor Ivanovich Gayduk, the region’s first winegrower.

In English, the surname is normally transliterated as Hajduk, from the military bandits and outlaws originating in the Balkans. Other versions in English include Gaiduk and Heyduk.

It is unclear exactly which transliteration the new sign will have, but, due to the Russian alphabet, it will likely begin with a ‘G.’

“There have been no complaints, but we should probably change it, since it is wrong,” the press service of Russian Railways told newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “From the looks of it, it has been like that for a long time.”

Despite no official appeals from residents, and no suggestions of any ‘fowl’ play, the government-owned railway company is set to foot the bill for new signage.

In recent years, English transliterations have popped up at railway stations throughout the country. Gayduck is in the same region as the 2014 Winter Olympics host city, Sochi, which saw many signs updated in the run-up to the event.

The Russian village is not the first place in the world to change its signage after going viral. Last year, the Austrian village of Fucking decided to change its name to Fugging to dissuade the mass groups of tourists who had been taking photos with the city’s sign.

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