Hi, Alexander!  Awhile ago you wrote in a message to All:   
      
   ak>  This question is for native speakers.   
      
   ak>  When you read in a newspaper Russian second names, like   
   ak>  Dudikoff, Karloff, Degtereff where do you put an emphasis?   
   ak>  At the beginning of the name or at its end?   
      
      
              Not at the end, for sure.  I regard the suffix as akin to "-son" in   
   British names from the POV that the emphasis belongs on a syllable which helps   
   the listener make distinctions between, e.g., John's son & Jack's son....  :-)   
      
              Re polysyllabic British names, the emphasis is usually on the first   
   syllable... so native speakers of English may use that as a default with names   
   they haven't seen or heard before.  One can make generalizations from examples   
   if one has encountered enough *correct* examples.  I'm not sure, however, that   
   the examples I've mentioned are accurate from your POV because I haven't heard   
   them pronounced *by native speakers of Russian*.  Now that I've run a bunch of   
   examples through my head, I think I'm beginning to figure out where to put the   
   emphasis... but I must point out that my sources are North American here.  :-)   
      
              Boris Karloff... a British-born US actor with an apparently Russian   
   surname... was quite well known in North America during the middle of the last   
   century.  More two-syllable names with the accent on the first syllable, using   
   the pronunciation which my instructors in History 100 used:   
      
                Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky   
                /  -   /  -    /   -   
      
              WRT language, literature, and performing arts there are many famous   
   Russian names.  Tolstoy is another example, but the pronunciation is so simple   
   AFAIC... in view of the above... that I almost forget to mention it.   
      
              Polysyllabic names, however, are quite another matter.  We may feel   
   comfortable with a few names we have heard before and/or can easily look up...   
   Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Ignatieff... but unless we understand how   
   your language works we'll probably make mistakes now & then.   
      
              Seems to me one must develop an "ear" for suffixes which comes only   
   after a certain amount of exposure to a particular language.  (It is important   
   to realize... if you're looking for an example of how a typical North American   
   thinks... that I may not be very typical!)  Anyway, here's how I see it:   
      
                Horowitz, Asimov, Nabokov   
                /  -  -   / - -   /  - -   
      
                Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Moussorgsky   
                - - / -  -   /    -  -    -   - / -     -   /   -   
      
                Pavlov (from ed. psych.) & Pavlova (the ballerina)   
                /   -                      /  -  -   
      
      
   Hmm.  Now I am making an educated guess that you'd pronounce your surname with   
   the emphasis on the "(y)a".  I won't bore my audience with how I made the leap   
   from A to Z unless they're interested, but I think I'm onto something....  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)