Wikipedia
Starost(a) ( Cyrillic: старост/а, Latin: capitaneus, ) as a title designates an official or unofficial leader, used in various contexts through most of Slavic history. One can translate it as " senior" or " elder". The word comes from the Slavic root star-, "old". In Poland, a starosta would administer a territory called a starostwo.
In the early Middle Ages, the starosta was the head of a Slavic community or of other communities so one finds designations such as church starosta, artel starosta, etc. The starosta also functioned as the master of ceremonies in traditional Carpatho-Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Polish weddings, similar to stari svat (стари сват) in Serbian weddings.
Usage examples of "starosta".
But the lord was afraid of Visenka and even more afraid of her father, the famous starosta Snakey, the lord of Pomeshche-nitsa, so he decided to keep away from Grandma - at least for the time being.
And the chairman of the Soviet will take the place of the starosta, while life itself will go on in the old way.
Plokhoi rode up to the starosta and handed down to him a lantern out of his little house.
The village starosta himself stepped forward and joined the partisan band.
Old dark Josef took one more look over his shoulder, to the little house where the brave starosta clutched him and spoke his last wish.
Tomorrow she would try to rescue Leonid, she may die in the attempt along with this German and the old starosta.