In Russian, the gender of a words is not a thing to ascertain. It's the thing to remember.
Sure, if native Russian speaker see the word he/she can make a supposition depending on all known words. But his/her supposition can be wrong in some cases. :)
I can be mistaken but I think that the gender of the words arose at an ancient times of spiritualism when people believe every thing have their own spirit, their own soul thus the gender. For now it makes no sense but some contemporary languages keep the memory of that times.