I'm trying to get an idea of [Drinfeld's Zastava space](http://arxiv.org/abs/alg-geom/9707010). It seems to be an infinite-dimensional version of the flag variety, for affine Lie algebras. 


But, first of all, why is it called Zastava (Застава)? Sadly I don't understand Russian and I don't understand the connotation. Googling gave me [this Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava) about a car company first. But I don't think a car company has much to do with these spaces, or does it?


Apparently it means "outpost" in Russian. But why an outpost? Drinfeld seems to be Ukrainian (again, from Wikipedia) and zastava means "pledge"? 


Is it an outpost to a greater understanding of these spaces? Is it a pledge of mathematicians to understand more???



Why is Drinfeld's Zastava space called Zastava?
The term was coined by one Michael de Finkelberg during his visit to Croatia. The word is indeed Croatian and means ``flag''. I was happy to have a Croatian word in mathematics.
The strategy of giving a new notion an old name but in a different language is not perfect.


