Edward David Luft just now replied to my earlier query with this information:
I suggest that you look at a copy of the 11 + 1 volume Vasmer, Max, Russisches Geographisches Namenbuch, https://www.worldcat.org/title/russisches-geographisches-namenbuch/oclc/2075630  The names of the locations are mostly in Cyrillic letters with explanations in German so you may have to find someone to help you read the relevant entries if you know neither the Cyrillic alphabet nor the German language.  However, you should be able to plug information into a translator, such as GoogleTranslate or Babelfish, to help you.  This resource is far better, in my opinion, than anything available online.  The series of volumes lists absolutely all locations that ever existed in the Russian Empire or in the Soviet Union to 1962 when Vasmer died.  The location will be listed whether or not it still existed in 1962.

These volumes are very expensive so you will want to consult them in a library near you.  Since you are in Oakland, California, you can find copies of the relevant volumes at UC Berkeley Libraries, Berkeley, CA 94720.  That is only 5 miles from you.  Stanford University Libraries hold copies, but the library is 26 miles from you.

Please also see my articles on the subject.  Many libraries hold copies of Avotaynu, first published in Teaneck, New Jersey.  Gen Dobry! is only online. Rodziny is also in many libraries.  Ask a reference librarian in your local library for any help that you need for any of the other listed sources.

1.  “Using Max Vasmer’s Russisches geographisches Namenbuch to Find Locations in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union,” Gen Dobry!, Volume XVI, No. 1, 31 January 2015, pp. 2-6.  The article was reprinted with emendations in Rodziny:  Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, Chicago, Illinois, Spring 2015, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 9-13.  [CS49.P64].  Reprinted by the Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast at https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=891507844269
900&id=175145372572821 Reprinted in Facebook at  https://www.facebook.
com/permalink.php?story_fbid=801043563317506&id=171275172961018/.  Supplemented in “Letters to the Editor,” Gen Dobry!, Vol. XVI, No. 4, April 2015, pp. 3-4.  Further commented upon at http://news2.nemoweb.net/?Jid=BLU179-W94CBCA4D213201DF0185EFC40D0@...

2.  “Updates on sources by Kendler and Vasmer,” Gen Dobry!, Volume XVI, No. 4, 30 April 2015, p.  3.  See comment by Luft in “Letters to the Editor,” Gen  Dobry!, Volume XVI, No. 4, 30 April 2015, pp. 3-4 and at  http://news2.nemo
web.net/?Jid=BLU179-W94CBCA4D213201DF0185EFC40D0@...  See the Facebook note at  https://business.facebook.com/JewishGen.org/posts/
1029059357116219/.

3.  “Additional Resources to Locate Ancestral Towns in Eastern and Central Europe,” Avotaynu:  The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, Teaneck, New Jersey, Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, Spring 2021, p. 67.  Discusses works by Kendler and Vasmer, as well as the booklet, “European Rates of Fare” and online access to each, when available.

I plan to look at the work he lists at the UC/Berkeley library. If anyone has additional suggestions, I'd be glad to know. Thank you!
--
Carol Sicherman
Oakland,CA