Balanda

Balanda stands on the river of the same name, a tributary of the Medveditsa in the lands west of Saratov. The river had already given its name to a Cossack yurt recorded in documents of the late sixteenth century. A village called Balanda was founded in 1680, as settlement spread across the river country between the Don and the Volga. Its name may derive from a local word describing the winding course of the river.