History of the word russia

This article is about Rusʹ as a name. For information about the Rusʹ people, see Rusʹ people.

For other uses, see Rus.

Originally, the name Rusʹ (Cyrillic: Русь) referred to the people,^[1] regions, and medieval states (9th to 12th centuries) of the Kievan Rusʹ. Its territories are today distributed among Belarus, Northern Ukraine, Eastern Poland, and the European section of Russia. The term Россия (Rossija), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rusʹ, Ρωσσία Rossía—related to both Modern Greek: Ρως, romanized: Ros, lit. ‘Rusʹ’, and Ρωσία (Rosía, «Russia», pronounced [roˈsia]).

One of the earliest written sources mentioning the people called Rusʹ (as Rhos) dates to 839 in the Annales Bertiniani. This chronicle identifies them as a Germanic tribe called the Swedes. According to the Kievan Rusʹ Primary Chronicle, compiled in about 1113, the Rusʹ were a group of Varangians, Norsemen who had relocated somewhere from the Baltic region (literally «from beyond the sea»), first to Northeastern Europe, then to the south where they created the medieval Kievan state.^[2]
In the 11th century, the dominant term in the Latin tradition was Ruscia. It was used, among others, by Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Cosmas of Prague and Pope Gregory VII in his letter to Izyaslav I. Rucia, Ruzzia, Ruzsia were alternative spellings.
During the 12th century, Ruscia gradually made way for two other Latin terms, «Russia» and «Ruthenia». «Russia» (also spelled Rossia and Russie) was the dominant Romance-language form, first used by Liutprand of Cremona in the 960s and then by Peter Damian in the 1030s. It became ubiquitous in English and French documents in the 12th century. Ruthenia, first documented in the early 12th century Augsburg annals, was a Latin form preferred by the Apostolic Chancery of the Latin Church.

The modern name of Russia (Rossija), which came into use in the 15th century,^[3][4][5] is derived from the Greek Ρωσία, which in turn derives from Ῥῶς, the self-name of the people of Rusʹ.^[6]

A hypothetical predecessor of Kievan Rusʹ is the 9th-century Rusʹ Khaganate, whose name and existence are inferred from a handful of early medieval Byzantine and Persian and Arabic sources.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology[edit]

The most common theory about the origins of Russians is the Germanic version. The name Rus‘, like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden (*Ruotsi), supposed to be descended from an Old Norse term for «the men who row» (rods-) as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen (Rus-law) or Roden, as it was known in earlier times.^[7][8]
The name Rus’ would then have the same origin as the Finnish, Estonian, Võro and Northern Sami names for Sweden: Ruotsi, Rootsi, Roodsi and Ruoŧŧa.^[9] The local Finnic and Permic peoples in northern Russia proper use the same (Rus‘-related) name both for Sweden and Russia (depending on the language): thus the Veps name for Sweden and Swedish is Ročinma / Ročin,^[10] while in the Komi language spoken further east the etymologically corresponding term Roćmu / Roć means already Russia and Russian instead.^[11][12]
The Finnish scholar Tor Karsten has pointed out that the territory of present-day Uppland, Södermanland and East Gothland in ancient times was known as Roðer or roðin. Thomsen accordingly has suggested that Roðer probably derived from roðsmenn or roðskarlar, meaning seafarers or rowers.^{[13][page needed]} Ivar Aasen, the Norwegian philologist and lexicographer, noted proto-Germanic root variants Rossfolk, Rosskar, Rossmann.^[14]

George Vernadsky theorized about the association of Rus and Alans. He claimed that Ruxs in Alanic means «radiant light», thus the ethnonym Roxolani could be understood as «bright Alans».^[15] He theorized that the name Roxolani a combination of two separate tribal names: the Rus and the Alans.^[15]

Early evidence[edit]

In Old East Slavic literature, the East Slavs refer to themselves as «[muzhi] ruskie» («Rus’ men») or, rarely, «rusichi.» The East Slavs are thought to have adopted this name from the Varangian elite,^{[citation needed]} which was first mentioned in the 830s in the Annales Bertiniani. The Annales recount that Louis the Pious’s court at Ingelheim am Rhein in 839 (the same year as the first appearance of Varangians in Constantinople), was visited by a delegation from the Byzantine emperor. The delegates included two men who called themselves «Rhos» («Rhos vocari dicebant»). Louis inquired about their origins and learned that they were Swedes. Fearing that they were spies for their brothers the Danes, he jailed them. They were also mentioned in the 860s by Byzantine Patriarch Photius under the name «Rhos.»^{[citation needed]}

Rusiyyah was used by Ahmad ibn Fadlan for Varangians near Astrakhan, and by the Persian traveler Ahmad ibn Rustah who visited Veliky Novgorod^[16] and described how the Rus’ exploited the Slavs.

As for the Rus, they live on an island … that takes three days to walk round and is covered with thick undergrowth and forests; it is most unhealthy… They harry the Slavs, using ships to reach them; they carry them off as slaves and… sell them. They have no fields but simply live on what they get from the Slav’s lands… When a son is born, the father will go up to the newborn baby, sword in hand; throwing it down, he says, «I shall not leave you with any property: You have only what you can provide with this weapon.»^[17]

When the Varangians arrived in Constantinople, the Byzantines considered and described the Rhos (Greek Ῥῶς) as a different people from the Slavs.

The earliest written mention of the word Rus‘ appears in the Primary Chronicle under the year 912. When describing a peace treaty signed by the Varangian Oleg of Novgorod during his campaign on Constantinople, it contains the following passage, «Oleg sent his men to make peace and sign a treaty between the Greeks and the Rus’, saying thus: […] «We are the Rus’: Karl, Inegeld, Farlaf, Veremud, Rulav, Gudi, Ruald, Karn, Frelav, Ruar, Aktevu, Truan, Lidul, Vost, Stemid, sent by Oleg, the great prince of Rus’, and all those under him[.]»^{[citation needed]}

Later, the Primary Chronicle states that they conquered Kiev and created what is now called Kievan Rus’. The territory they conquered was named after them as were, eventually, the local people (cf. Normans).^{[citation needed]}

However, the Synod Scroll of the Novgorod First Chronicle, which is partly based on the original list of the late 11th Century and partly on the Primary Chronicle, does not name the Varangians asked by the Chuds, Slavs and Krivichs to reign their obstreperous lands as the «Rus'». One can assume that there was no original mention of the Varangians as the Rus’ due to the old list predating the Primary Chronicle and the Synod Scroll only referred to the Primary Chronicle if the pages of the old list were blemished.^{[citation needed]}

Other spellings used in Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries were as follows: Ruzi, Ruzzi, Ruzia and Ruzari. Sources written in Latin routinely confused the Rus’ with the Rugii, an ancient East Germanic tribe related to the Goths. Olga of Kiev, for instance, was called «queen of the Rugii» (regina Rugorum) in the Lotharingian Chronicle compiled by the anonymous continuator of Regino of Prüm.^[18]

Spread further east[edit]

The word for «Russian» can be reconstructed for Proto-Permic as *rôć [rotɕ]. Besides Komi-Zyrian роч / roć, this develops also into Komi-Yazva ruć, Udmurt ӟыч / dźuć.^[19] The word serves further as a source for exonyms of the Russians in several languages spoken in Siberia. The name surfaces in Mansi as roš, ruš, in Khanty as ruś, ruť, rüť depending on the variety, and in Selkup as ruš.^[20]

Alternate anti-Normanist theories[edit]

A number of alternative etymologies have been suggested. These are derived from the «anti-Normanist» school of thought in Russian historiography during the 19th century and in the Soviet era. These hypotheses are considered unlikely in Western mainstream academia.^[9]
Slavic and Iranian etymologies suggested by «anti-Normanist» scholars include:

• The Roxolani, a Sarmatian (i. e., Iranian) people who inhabited southern Ukraine, Moldova and Romania;^{[citation needed]}
• Several river-names in the region contain the element rus/ros and these might be the origin of the name of the Rus’.^[21] In Ukraine, the Ros and Rusna, near Kiev and Pereyaslav, respectively, whose names are derived from a postulated Slavic term for «water», akin to rosa (dew), rusalka (water nymph), ruslo (stream bed). (A relation of rosa to the Sanskrit rasā́- «liquid, juice; mythical river» suggests itself; compare Avestan Raŋhā «mythical stream» and the ancient name of the Volga River, Ῥᾶ Rā, from a cognate Scythian name.)^{[citation needed]}
• Rusiy (Русый), light-brown, said of hair color (the translation «reddish-haired», cognate with the Slavic «ryzhiy», «red-haired», is not quite exact);^{[citation needed]}
• A postulated proto-Slavic word for «bear», cognate with arctos and ursus.^{[citation needed]}

The name Rus‘ may have originated from the Iranian name of the Volga River (by F. Knauer, Moscow 1901), as well as from the Rosh of Ezekiel.^[22] Prof. George Vernadsky has suggested a derivation from the Roxolani or from the Aryan term ronsa^{[verification needed]} (moisture, water). River names such as Ros are common in Eastern Europe.^{[13][page needed]}

The Russian linguist Igor Danilevsky, in his Ancient Rus as Seen by Contemporaries and Descendants, argued against these theories, stating that the anti-Normanists neglected the realities of the Ancient Slavic languages and that the nation name Rus‘ could not have arisen from any of the proposed origins.^{[citation needed]}

• The populace of the Ros River would have been known as Roshane;
• Red-haired or bear-origined people would have ended their self-name with the plural -ane or -ichi, and not with the singular -s’ (red hair is one of the natural hair colors of Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples);
• Most theories are based on a Ros- root, and in Ancient Slavic an o would never have become the u in Rus‘.^{[citation needed]}

Danilevskiy further argued^{[citation needed]} that the term followed the general pattern of Slavic names for neighboring Finnic peoples—the Chud’, Ves’, Perm’, Sum’, etc.—but that the only possible word that it could be based on, Ruotsi, presented a historical dead-end, since no such tribal or national name was known from non-Slavic sources. «Ruotsi» is, however, the Finnish name for Sweden.^[23]
Danilevskiy shows that the oldest historical source, the Primary Chronicle, is inconsistent in what it refers to as the «Rus'»: in adjacent passages, the Rus’ are grouped with Varangians, with the Slavs, and also set apart from the Slavs and Varangians. Danilevskiy suggests that the Rus’ were originally not a nation but a social class, which can explain the irregularities in the Primary Chronicle and the lack of early non-Slavic sources.^{[citation needed]}

From Rus’ to Russia[edit]

In modern English historiography, common names for the ancient East Slavic state include Kievan Rus or Kyivan Rus (sometimes retaining the apostrophe in Rus‘, a transliteration of the soft sign, ь),^[24] Kievan or Kyivan Rus, and Kyivan or Kievan Ruthenia. It is also called the Princedom or Principality of Kyiv or Kiev, or just Kyiv or Kiev.^{[citation needed]}

The term Kievan Rus‘ was established by modern historians to distinguish the period from the 9th century to the beginning of the 12th century, when Kiev was the center of a large state.^[25]

The vast political state was subsequently divided into several parts. The most influential were, in the south, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and in the north, Vladimir-Suzdal and the Novgorod Republic.^{[citation needed]}

Northeast principalities[edit]

In the 14th–16th centuries most of northeastern Rus’ principalities were united under the power of the Grand Duchy of Moscow,^[26] once a part of Vladimir-Suzdal, and formed a large state.^{[27][clarification needed]} While the oldest endonyms were Rus‘ (Russian: Русь) and the Rus’ land^[28] or Russian land^[28] (Russian: Русская земля),^[29] a new form of its name, Rusia or Russia, appeared in the 15th century, and became common thereafter.^[3][4][5] In the 1480s Muscovite state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions «the sceptre of Russian lordship (Росийскаго господства)».^[30] In the following century Russia co-existed with the old name Rus’ and appeared in an inscription on the western portal of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Yaroslavl (1515), on the icon case of the Theotokos of Vladimir (1514), in the work by Maximus the Greek,^[31] the Russian Chronograph written by Dosifei Toporkov (?–1543/44^[32]) in 1516–22 and in other sources.^[33]

By the 15th century, the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Moscow had incorporated the northern parts of the former Kievan Rus’.^{[citation needed]} Ivan III of Moscow was the first local ruler to claim the title of «Grand Prince of all Rus'»^{[citation needed]} This title was used by the Grand Dukes of Vladimir since the early 14th century,^{[citation needed]} and the first prince to use it was Mikhail of Tver.^{[citation needed]} Ivan III was styled by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor as rex albus and rex Russiae.^{[citation needed]} Later, Rus’ — in the Russian language specifically — evolved into the Byzantine-influenced form, Rossiya (Russia is Ῥωσσία (Rhōssía) in Greek).^{[citation needed]}

Tsardom of Russia[edit]

In 1547, Ivan IV assumed the title of «Tsar and Grand Duke of all Rus'» (Царь и Великий князь всея Руси) and was crowned on 16 January,^[34] thereby proclaiming the Tsardom of Russia, or «the Great Russian Tsardom», as it was called in the coronation document,^[35] by Constantinople Patriarch Jeremiah II^[36][37] and in numerous official texts,^{[38][39][40][41][42][43]} but the state partly remained referred to as Moscovia (English: Muscovy) throughout Europe, predominantly in its Catholic part, though this Latin term was never used in Russia.^[44] The two names «Russia» and «Moscovia» appear to have co-existed as interchangeable during the later 16th and throughout the 17th century with different Western maps and sources using different names, so that the country was called «Russia, or Moscovia» (Latin: Russia seu Moscovia) or «Russia, popularly known as Moscovia» (Latin: Russia vulgo Moscovia). In England of the 16th century, it was known both as Russia and Muscovy.^[45][46] Such notable Englishmen as Giles Fletcher, author of the book Of the Russe Common Wealth (1591), and Samuel Collins, author of The Present State of Russia (1668), both of whom visited Russia, were familiar with the term Russia and used it in their works.^[47] So did numerous other authors, including John Milton, who wrote A brief history of Moscovia and of other less-known countries lying eastward of Russia, published posthumously,^[48] starting it with the words: «The Empire of Moscovia, or as others call it, Russia…».^[49]

In the Russian Tsardom, the word Russia replaced the old name Rus‘ in official documents, though the names Rus‘ and Russian land were still common and synonymous to it,^[50] and often appeared in the form Great Russia (Russian: Великая Россия), which is more typical of the 17th century,^[51] whereas the state was also known as Great-Russian Tsardom (Russian: Великороссийское царствие).^[38]

According to historians like Alexander Zimin and Anna Khoroshkevich, the continuous use of the term Moscovia was a result of traditional habit^{[citation needed]} and the need to distinguish between the Muscovite and the Lithuanian part of the Rus’, as well as of the political interests of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which competed with Moscow for the western regions of the Rus’. Due to the propaganda of the Commonwealth,^[52][53] as well as of the Jesuits, the term Moscovia was used instead of Russia in many parts of Europe where prior to the reign of Peter the Great there was a lack of direct knowledge of the country. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, the country was known under its own name, Russia or Rossia.^[54] Sigismund von Herberstein, ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor in Russia, used both Russia and Moscovia in his work on the Russian tsardom and noted: «The majority believes that Russia is a changed name of Roxolania. Muscovites («Russians» in the German version) refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia (Rosseia)».^[55] Pointing to the difference between Latin and Russian names, French captain Jacques Margeret, who served in Russia and left a detailed description of L’Empire de Russie of the early 17th century that was presented to King Henry IV, stated that foreigners make «a mistake when they call them Muscovites and not Russians. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond ‘Russac’, which means ‘Russians’, and when they are asked what place they are from, the answer is Moscow, Vologda, Ryasan and other cities».^[56] The closest analogue of the Latin term Moscovia in Russia was “Tsardom of Moscow”, or “Moscow Tsardom” (Московское царство), which was used along with the name «Russia»,^[57][58] sometimes in one sentence, as in the name of the 17th century Russian work On the Great and Glorious Russian Moscow State (Russian: О великом и славном Российском Московском государстве).^[59]

Official state names[edit]

Polity name	Timespan	Notes
Grand Duchy of Moscow	1263–1547	Also Muscovy. From the 15th century, the Grand Princes of Moscow increasingly started claiming the title «of all Rus'», and later «of Russia».
Tsardom of Russia	1547–1721
Russian Empire	1721–1917
Russian Republic	1917–1918	Government abolished in 1918 after the October Revolution.
Russian Democratic Federal Republic	1918	Name used in the 1918 constitution.
Russian Soviet Republic	1917–1918
Russian State	1918–1920	Located in Ufa.
Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic	1918–1936	Constituent republic of the USSR from 1922.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic	1936–1991
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics	1922–1991	Commonly known as the “Soviet Union”.
Russian Federation	1991–present	Official name defined in the 1993 Constitution of Russia.

From Rus’ to Ruthenia[edit]

Southwest principalities[edit]

In the 13th–14th centuries, many of southwestern Rus’ principalities were united under the power of the Kingdom of Rus’ (Latin: Regnum Rusiae), historiographically better known as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Roman the Great was variously named dux Rutenorum, princeps Ruthenorum or rex Ruthenorum by Polish chroniclers.^[60] Danylo of Galicia was crowned Rex Ruthenorum or «king of the Rus'» in 1253.^[61] Alternatively, Danylo and his brother Vasylko Romanovych were styled Princeps Galiciae, Rex Russiae, and Rex Lodomeriae in Papal documents, while the population of Halych and Volhynia was called Rusciae christiani and populus Russiae amongst other names.^[62] The Gesta Hungarorum (c. 1280) stated that the Carpathian mountains between Hungary and Halych were situated in finibus Ruthenie («on the borders of Ruthenia»).^[62]

Galicia–Volhynia declined by mid-14th century due to the Galicia–Volhynia Wars after the poisoning of king Yuri II Boleslav by local Ruthenian nobles in 1340. Iohannes Victiensis Liber (page 218) records the death of Boleslav as Hoc anno rex Ruthenorum moritur (…) («In that year the king of the Ruthenians died (…)»).^[63] The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus’, Samogitia became its successor state, and the Kingdom of Poland later absorbed Galicia as the Rus Voivodeship. The latter became the Ruthenian Voivodeship (or «Russian»; Latin: Palatinatus Russiae) in 1434.^{[citation needed]}

While in the Grand Principality of Moscow the rulers called their realm Rus, the residents of Western Rus lands called themselves Rusyny, Rusniaky or Rus’ki.^{[citation needed]}

White, Black, Red[edit]

While gradually most of the territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus’, Samogitia retained the name Rus‘, some of them got more color-specific names:

• «White Rus» (Russia (Ruthenia) Alba, Belarus, Ruś Biała). This would eventually become the name of the country Belarus.^{[citation needed]}
• «Black Rus» (Russia (Ruthenia) Nigra, Chorna Rus, Ruś Czarna)^{[citation needed]}
• «Red Rus» (Russia (Ruthenia) Rubra, Chervona Rus, Ruś Czerwona)^{[citation needed]}

Although the name Ruthenia arose as a Latinized form of the name Rus‘ in Western European documents in medieval times, Russia was still the predominant name for Western Rus’ territories up until 19th century.^{[citation needed]}

Modern Ruthenia[edit]

Later application of the name «Ruthenia» became narrowed to Carpathian Ruthenia (Karpats’ka Rus’), the northeastern part of the Carpathian Mountains, in the Kingdom of Hungary where the local Slavs had Rusyn identity. Carpathian Ruthenia incorporated the cities of Mukachevo (Hungarian: Munkács), Uzhhorod (Hungarian: Ungvár) and Prešov (Pryashiv; Hungarian: Eperjes). Carpathian Rus’ had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary since 907, and had been known as «Magna Rus'» but was also called «Karpato-Rus'» or «Zakarpattya».^{[citation needed]}

Little Russia, New Russia[edit]

In 1654, under the Pereyaslav Agreement, the Cossack lands of the Zaporozhian Host were signed into the protectorate of the Tsardom of Russia, including the Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine, and Zaporozhia. In Russia, these lands were referred to as Little Russia (Malorossiya). Colonies established in lands ceded from the Ottoman Empire along the Black Sea were called Novorossiya «New Russia».^{[citation needed]}

Ecclesiastical titles[edit]

Originally, there was a metropolitan based in Kiev (Kyiv) calling himself «metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus'», but in 1299, the Kyivan metropolitan chair was moved to Vladimir by Metropolitan Maximos, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus’. One line of metropolitans settled in Moscow in 1325 and continued titling themselves «of Kiev and all Rus'». Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 created two metropolitan sees with their own names (in Greek) for the northern and southern parts: respectively, Μεγάλη Ῥωσσία (Megálē Rhōssía,^[64] Great Russia) in Vladimir and Kiev and Μικρὰ Ῥωσσία (Mikrà Rhōssía, Russia Minor or Little Russia) with the centers in Halych and Novogrudok.^{[citation needed]}

After the 15th–16th century Moscow–Constantinople schism, the Muscovite church became autocephalous in 1589, renamed itself the Moscow Patriarchate (today better known as the Russian Orthodox Church) and switched to the title of «Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'». On the other hand, the southwestern territories of former Kievan Rus’ would undergo Polonisation and experience the 1596 Union of Brest, leading to the creation of the Ruthenian Uniate Church (Belarusian: Руская Уніяцкая Царква; Ukrainian: Руська Унійна Церква; Latin: Ecclesia Ruthena unita; Polish: Ruski Kościół Unicki). The primate of this church was titled «Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and all Ruthenia». The Annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv by the Moscow Patriarchate happened in c. 1685–1722.^{[citation needed]}

When the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church proclaimed itself in 1917, its primates styled themselves «Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine», thus replacing «Rus'» with «Ukraine», until 1936. From 1991 to 2000, two further patriarchs of the UAOC called themselves «Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus-Ukraine», but then «Rus» was definitively dropped from the name.^{[citation needed]} After the Unification Council of 2018 which established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine was first held by Epiphanius I of Ukraine. His rival Filaret (Denysenko) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) continues claiming the title «Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus’-Ukraine». Onufriy (Berezovsky) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP) also claims the title of «Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine», and in 2022 the UOC formally cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.^{[citation needed]}

See also[edit]

• Name of Ukraine

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

Different nations name Russia differently, but how did it get its original name?

Natalya Nosova

The answer to this question is far more complicated than you may have thought.

We rarely think about it but almost every country’s name traces back to something or someone often long forgotten. For example, France’s name derives from the Franks, the Germanic tribes who conquered the respective territory in the fifth century. And America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian traveler who was among the first Europeans to step foot on the New World.

What about Russia? All historians agree that its name originates from the word “Rus.” The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII was the first to refer to the land of Slavic tribes as “Rusia” (with one “s”) in the 10th century. The typical Greek/Latin suffix “ia” anchors something or someone to the land, so “Russ-ia” meant “the land of Rus.” But here’s the interesting part: to this day, no one knows for sure what the hell “Russ” actually means.

Russia = Sweden?

According to one train of thought, “Rus” originates from the Scandinavian languages and reflects the belief that the first rulers of ancient Russia were actually Vikings, or “Varangians.” “Varangians named us Rus after themselves,” said a 12th-century chronicler, quoted by historian Vasily Klyuchevsky.

If this version is true, “Rus” is just another term for “Sweden/Swedish,” like the Normans or Vikings were once referred to. “Rus” was used by foreigners to describe Slavic tribes ruled by the Vikings, and it stuck. “Rus” is close to today’s Ruotsi – which means “Sweden” in Finnish – so there’s some logic here.

Slavic and Sarmat versions

Of course, this version doesn’t satisfy everyone, especially given that many historians slam the idea of the Varangians ever ruling ancient Russia – they consider it a legend. So they found another explanation for the origin of “Rus” – the Ros River, a tributary of the Dnieper (now in Ukraine). Some Slavs settled there so people started calling them Rosskiye, which then turned into Russkie…

This may sound like a plausible theory but linguists doubt that the “o” morphed into a “u” for this ethnonym – something which almost never happens. But there’s an even more exotic version, that “Rus” originated from the Roksolani, a Sarmat people close to the Skifs who lived in Crimea from the second century BC to the first century AD. Allegedly, the Roksolani mixed with the Slavs and somehow shortened their name to “Rus.” Who knows – after all, several thousand years have passed since then.

‘Red people’?

Another hypothesis suggests that “Rus” originates from the Roman word ross, which means “red.” “The Byzantines call them [Slavic tribes] ar-rusiya, which means ‘red,’” wrote Al-Masdi, an Arabian historian from the 10th century. The red reference was fueled by their sunburnt faces. When the northerners, who were accustomed to a lack of UV rays, traveled south their faces often got sunburnt, making them the “red people” – Ross. This is quite a poetic version.

Exotic ‘Russias’

Historians could no doubt argue for eternity over what words “Rus” originated from. Whoever is right, Russia has been Russia for so many centuries that it’s impossible to imagine the country with another name. Most nations use a similar sounding name: Russia in English, Russland in German, La Russie in French, Rusiya in Arabic, and so on – the root remains the same. However, there are some interesting exceptions:

1)   Finnish – Venäja, Estonian – Venemaa. These languages, most likely, use the root based on the name of the Veneti, yet another ancient tribe who might have been the Slavs’ ancestors.

2)   Latvian – Krievija (yes, the Baltic states seem to like giving Russia non-banal names). Actually, it’s the same – the name originated from the Krivichs, a tribal union of East Slavs.

3)   Chinese –  俄罗斯 (pronounced Elosy). The name uses the classical “ros/rus” root but the Chinese don’t use “r” so they changed it to the more familiar “l.”

4)   Vietnamese – Nga. Yep, this is the strangest one. Linguists explain it like this: up until the 20th century the Vietnamese were using Chinese hieroglyphs, so Russia was the good old 俄罗斯. But the rules of reading were completely different so it sounded like Nga La Ty. After switching to the Latin alphabet, they dropped the two last syllables and now just call Russia Nga. But in case you want the Russians to understand what country you’re talking about, better to use something less exotic.

This article is part of the «Why Russia…?» series in which RBTH answers popular questions about Russia.

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The Old Russian State

Traditionally, the foundation of the Old Russian State is associated with the calling of Prince Rurik to reign in Novgorod in 862. This state included the territories of the southern Ladoga region (Staraya Ladoga, Veliky Novgorod) and the upper Volga (Beloozero, Rostov). The successor of Rurik — Prophetic Oleg — made Kiev the capital of the state.

In the middle of the 12th century, a period of fragmentation began. The largest Russian principalities were Vladimir-Suzdal, Galicia-Volyn, Polotsk, Ryazan, Smolensk, Chernigov, and Novgorod. Kiev continued to be considered the main town of Rus, but was quickly losing its influence.

Mongol invasion of Khan Baty (1237-1240) put an end to the history of the Old Russian State (Kievan Rus). All Russian lands were under the supreme authority of the Mongol Empire. The fragmentation of the Russian lands intensified.

In 1328, Moscow gained the upper hand in the struggle against Tver for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. Dmitry Donskoy caused several defeats to the Mongols (the Battle of Kulikovo, etc.), after which the new Khan Tokhtamysh recognized the Grand Duchy of Vladimir as the hereditary possession of the Moscow princes. By the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, almost all Russian lands were divided between the Moscow and Lithuanian Grand Duchies.

The Russian State

Great-grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III, significantly strengthened the Moscow principality by adding the vast Tver (1485) and Novgorod (1478) lands. After the accession of the Novgorod Republic, the power of Moscow spread to the coast of the Arctic Ocean and the Urals. According to the results of the Russian-Lithuanian war, Bryansk and Chernigov passed under the authority of Moscow in 1503. Grand Duke Ivan the Great also managed to restore Russia’s independence by severing vassal relations with the Golden Horde in 1480. His son Vasily III continued to unite Russian lands — Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514) and Ryazan (1521).

In 1547, the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan IV the Terrible became the first Russian tsar and conquered vast territories in the Volga region (in 1552 — the Kazan Khanate, in 1556 — the Astrakhan Khanate). Arkhangelsk, a strategic seaport, was founded on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The development of the Urals and Western Siberia began (Yermak’s campaign of 1581-1585). The Russian influence also spread to the North Caucasus (Cossacks, agreements with Kabarda). However, the Livonian War was lost and Russia could not get access to the Baltic Sea.

After the death of Ivan the Terrible, there was a period known as the Time of Troubles (the late 16th — the early 17th centuries), which was marked by natural disasters, civil war, Russian-Polish and Russian-Swedish wars, a severe state-political and socio-economic crisis.

To deal with the consequences of the Time of Troubles, the Zemsky Sobor of 1613 was convened, in which Mikhail Romanov, the first of the Romanov dynasty, was called to reign. The development of Siberia continued: Krasnoyarsk (1628), Yakutsk (1632), Chita (1653). The development of Siberia was carried out by Cossacks, explorers and industrialists. Russian colonization almost did not meet resistance. The only obstacle in the colonization of the Far East was China, with which, in 1689, the Nerchinsk Treaty was concluded.

In 1654, Cossacks leaded by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who raised the uprising against Poland, swore allegiance to the Moscow Tsar Alexei. This act led to the Russian-Polish war, as a result of which Kiev, Smolensk and a significant part of the Dnieper region fell under Moscow’s rule.

Streletskie riots of 1682 and 1696, boyar strife, as well as setbacks in the war against the Swedes (the Battle of Narva) lead Tsar Peter the First to the idea of the need for radical reforms with the aim of accelerated modernization of the country. Peter the Great created a modern fleet, reformed the army, opened educational institutions (St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences), encouraged the development of industry.

As a result of the Northern War, Russia gained access to the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. In 1703, St. Petersburg was founded on the new lands, where the capital of the state was transferred. In 1721, Russia was declared an empire.

The Russian Empire

After the death of Peter the Great, an unstable period began in Russia. In 1762, as a result of a palace coup, Catherine II came to power. During her reign, Russia acquired the Northern Black Sea coast (Novorossia, Kuban), the Crimea (1783), Byelorussia (1792), and Lithuania (1795). The Russians began to explore the American continent (Alaska).

The grandson of Catherine II, Alexander I, became the last emperor who came to power as a result of a palace coup. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the French Emperor Napoleon, after the bloody battle of Borodino, managed to capture Moscow. Nevertheless, during the counteroffensive, the Russian army, with the support of its allies, reached Paris (1814).

Russia initiated the creation of the Holy Alliance (1815) and gained the central Polish lands together with Warsaw. Also, the power of the Russian emperor spread to Finland (1809), Bessarabia (1812) and Azerbaijan (1813). The long war with the Caucasian highlanders began.

The ascension to the throne of Nicholas I (the brother of Alexander I) was marked by an uprising in December 1825. The failure of the uprising led Nicholas to a more conservative conviction. The uprising of the Decembrists was followed by the Polish Uprising of 1830, which consolidated Nikolai’s reputation as a strangler of freedoms.

The wars with Turkey were conducted with varying success. Admiral Nakhimov in the Battle of Sinop (1853) inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turkish fleet, but, after the entry of the English-French coalition into the Crimean War (1854), Russia began to conduct only defensive actions (the Bombardment of Odessa, the Defense of Sevastopol) and eventually recognized the defeat in the war.

The son of Nicholas, Alexander II (the Liberator), became a moderately liberal reformer. First of all, he abolished serfdom (1861), restored the autonomy of universities, expanded local self-government, reformed the army. In 1864, Chechnya and Dagestan became parts of the Russian Empire after the defeat of Imam Shamil. Russia waged successful wars against Turkey in the Balkans, which led to the liberation of the South Slavic peoples, in particular, in 1878, Serbia gained full independence and de facto — Bulgaria. During the reign of Alexander II, Russia annexed Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, but sold Alaska to the United States.

The son of Alexander II, Alexander III, became known as the Peacemaker. During his reign, for the first time in a long time, Russia did not lead large wars. The reign of Nicholas II was accompanied by a tragic incident at the Khodynka Field (1896), which killed more than 1,000 people. Another event that adversely affected his reputation was the unsuccessful Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, during which Russia lost the naval base of Port Arthur and half of Sakhalin.

The First World War again showed the ineffectiveness of the state. The successful offensive of the Russian army in East Prussia ended in defeat at Tannenberg (1914). Further war with Germany was conducted in the Russian territory. In 1917, in the third year of the war, dissatisfaction arose in society with both the war itself and the tsarist regime as a whole, which led to revolutionary events, the abdication of the emperor from the throne, the collapse of the country, and the civil war.

The USSR

The victory in the Civil War was on the side of the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin. After the end of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks were forced to abandon plans for the immediate implementation of the communist utopia and to declare a new economic policy — a market economy with a one-party dictatorship. This policy coincided with the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which initially included Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Transcaucasia (December 30, 1922).

In the late 1920ies, Iosif Stalin won the inner-party struggle for influence. Since 1928, accelerated industrialization and collectivization (the association of peasants in the collective farms for the conduct of mechanized agriculture) began in the USSR. The transition to a policy of state regulation of the economy coincided with the period of the Great Depression in the West. During the First Five-Year Plan, DneproGES, Turksib, metallurgical and machine-building plants in the Urals and in the Volga region (Uralmash, GAZ and others) were built. In 1935, the Moscow metro was opened.

On the eve of the war against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union had a number of border conflicts with Japan (the Battles on Khalkhin-Gol) and Finland (the Finnish campaign), and divided Eastern Europe with Germany under the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact (1939). As a result of these campaigns, the Karelian Isthmus was joined to the USSR with the towns of Vyborg and Keksgolm (1940), as well as the Baltic states, eastern Poland, Northern Bukovina, and Bessarabia.

June 22, 1941, the armies of the Third Reich invaded the territory of the USSR. The war continued until the final victory over Germany in May, 1945. It was won at the cost of huge losses (more than 20 million people). As a result of the war, part of East Prussia was annexed to Russia with the city of Koenigsberg (the Kaliningrad region). Also, in 1945, the Soviet Army defeated the Japanese army in Manchuria and Russia returned southern Sakhalin and captured the Kuril Islands.

After the war, a Soviet bloc was formed, which included Moscow-controlled states of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, GDR), as well as some Asian and African countries. The clash of the expansionist plans of the US and the USSR led to a conflict — the Cold War. The arms race began. In 1949, an atomic bomb was created and tested in the USSR.

Under Nikita Khrushchev, the first artificial Earth satellite (1957) was launched and the first human flight into space (1961) was carried out. The military consequence of the Soviet space program was intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear charge anywhere in the world.

The era of Leonid Brezhnev had conflicting characteristics. On the one hand, social welfare was provided for the broad masses of the population in the USSR (a relatively stable standard of living, accessible education, medicine), which made it possible to talk about achieving the level of so-called developed socialism. The Moscow Olympics was held in 1980. On the other hand, there was a stagnation in economic development. Inside the country, the dissident movement intensified. The Soviet Union was drawn into an unsuccessful war in Afghanistan (1979-1989).

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the country. He initiated deep and ambiguous changes in all spheres of life of Soviet society (perestroika) with the aim of reforming the USSR. On December 8, 1991, the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus signed the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Belovezhskaya Agreement), in which the three republics stated that “the Union of SSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist”.

The Russian Federation became an independent state and was recognized by the international community as the successor state of the USSR.

The Russian Federation

The first popularly elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin held radical liberal reforms (“shock therapy”) aimed at establishing a market economy. The state stopped regulating the prices of goods. Simultaneously, freedom of trade was proclaimed. Enterprises and citizens were granted freedom of economic activity.

The country experienced a severe crisis. The property stratification of the rich and poor increased manyfold, the mortality rate began to exceed the birth rate. Against the backdrop of public confrontation, numerous post-Soviet conflicts flared up, one of which was the First Chechen War (1994-1996). The North Caucasus turned into a region of increased terrorist threat.

In 2000, Vladimir Putin became the second president of Russia. In the 2000s, a number of socio-economic reforms were carried out. At this time, there was growth in the economy and an increase in real incomes of the population, which was largely due to the rapid increase in oil prices. There was a strengthening of the vertical of power in the country and the formation of the ruling party — United Russia, which supported the key decisions of the president and the government.

The Russian political system that developed in the first decade of the 21st century, in the opinion of many political scientists, is a kind of imitative democracy with elements of bureaucratic authoritarianism.

March 18, 2014, the Crimea joined the Russian Federation (Ukraine and the UN General Assembly regard these events as an occupation). This event was preceded by a large-scale socio-political crisis in the region, caused by the change of power in Ukraine. In December 2014, a new socio-economic crisis has begun in Russia as a result of the so-called “sanctions war” that followed the accession of the Crimea, the economic slowdown, the fall in oil prices, the currency crisis.