While I was following the news about Brexit and the world's and American unrest, a word employed by Nabokov in ADA simply popped in my mind: "Severnïya Territorii: Northern Territories"*
The geographical meaning indicated by Darkbloom had prevalence until now. It stopped me from hearing "sever, severed"- here meaning "desunited territories" ... Nabokov only employed this verb once, in ADA, referring to Lucette's infatuation with Van:The romantic attachment she had formed, the infatuation she cultivated, could not be severed by logic.3,6
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*ADA: "General Ivan Durmanov, Commander of Yukon Fortress and peaceful country gentleman, with lands in the Severn Tories (Severnïya Territorii), that tesselated protectorate still lovingly called ‘Russian’ Estoty, which commingles, granoblastically and organically, with ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty, where not only French, but Macedonian and Bavarian settlers enjoy a halcyon climate under our Stars and Stripes." (p.9,ch.1)
p.9. Severnïya Territorii: Northern Territories. Here and elsewhere transliteration is based on the old Russian orthography. (Notes by Darkbloom)
Brian Boyd Ada Online: The Severn is the longest river in Wales and England... but neither this "Severn" nor "Tories" has anything to do with "Severnïya Territorii" (Northern Territories)...It may be possible, as Gerard de Vries suggests (private communication, 1994), that the Severn here alludes to the Comus (1634) http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/380911milton.htm (cf. Milton in 3.18n)