Svetlana Alpers

Svetlana (Cyrillic: Светлана) is a feminine given name of Russian origin, deriving from the Slavic word svet (Cyrillic: свет), meaning "light". Derived forms include Sveta, Svetlanka, Svetulya, Svetunya, Svetusya, Svetukha, Svetusha, Veta, Svetka, and Lana. Particularly unique among similar common Russian names, this one is not of ancient Slavic origin but was coined by Alexander Vostokov in 1802 and popularized by Vasily Zhukovsky in his eponymous ballad "Svetlana", the latter first published i…