Great Russia, sometimes Great
Rus' (russian: Великая Русь, , , , , ), is a name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of
Muscovy and later
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
. This was the land to which the ethnic
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
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were native and where the ethnogenesis of (Great) Russians took place. The name is said to have come from the
Greek ,
used by
Byzantines for the northern part of the lands of
Rus'.
From 1654–1721, Russian Tsars adopted the word - their official title included the wording (literal translation): "The Sovereign of all
Rus': the Great,
the Little, and
the White".
The term is mentioned in the opening lines of the
State Anthem of the Soviet Union.
Similarly, the terms
Great Russian language (, ) and Great Russians (, ) were employed by ethnographers and linguists in the 19th century, but have since fallen out of use.
The area became, together with the
Volga-Ural region,
North Caucasus and
Siberia, the
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
, while
Little Russia and
White Russia
White Russia, White Russian, or Russian White may refer to:
White Russia
*White Ruthenia, a historical reference for a territory in the eastern part of present-day Belarus
* An archaic literal translation for Belarus/Byelorussia/Belorussia
* Ru ...
became the
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
and the
Byelorussian SSR respectively.
Related topics
*
All-Russian nation
The All-Russian nation (russian: общерусский народ, ) or triune Russian nation (russian: триединый русский народ, label=none, ), also called the pan-Russian nation ( uk, пан-руський народ, ), i ...
*
Etymology of Rus and derivatives: From Rus' to Rossiya
*
Greater Poland
*
Little Russia
*
Novorossiya (New Russia)
*
White Russia (disambiguation)
White Russia, White Russian, or Russian White may refer to:
White Russia
* White Ruthenia, a historical reference for a territory in the eastern part of present-day Belarus
* An archaic literal translation for Belarus/Byelorussia/Belorussia
* R ...
References
Rus
Geographic history of Russia
History of Ruthenia
{{Russia-stub