(Redirected from Russian (ethnicity))
'Russians' ( ) are an
East Slavic ethnic group, primarily living in
Russia and neighboring countries.
The
English term ''Russians'' is also used to refer to
citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity (see ''
demographics of Russia'' for information on other nationalities inhabiting Russia); in
Russian, this meaning is covered by the recently revived term ''Rossiyanin'' (Россиянин, plural ''Rossiyane''). According to 2002
census, ethnic Russians make up about 80% of the population of Russia
[25].
Origins
★ ''See the article about the old legend
Lech, Czech and Rus''.
★ ''See the article about the
Primary Chronicle''.
★ ''See the article about the
Book of Veles''.
Russians predecessors were the medieval
East Slavic nation Rus’, who were also the predecessors of
Belarusians and
Ukrainians.
Very little is known about the Russians and
East Slavs in general prior to approximately 859 AD, the date from which the account in the
Primary Chronicle (a history of the Ancient Rus from around 850 to 1110 originally compiled in Kiev about 1113) starts.
By 600 AD, the
Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along the Dnieper river in what is now Ukraine; they then spread northward to the northern Volga valley, east of modern-day Moscow and westward to the basins of the northern Dniester and the Southern Buh rivers in present-day Moldova and southern Ukraine.
Another group of East Slavs moved from Pomerania to the northeast, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established an important regional centre of Novgorod. The same Slavic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. Having reached the lands of the Merya near Rostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants.
The only document written before the 11th century dedicated to the history of ancient Slavs so far discovered is the
Book of Veles, but it's authenticity is disputed (and since the original planks are lost, there will probably never be a consensus about the book's authenticity among amateurs).
Emergence of Russian ethnicity
Early ancestors of the Russians were
East Slavic tribes who migrated to the
East European Plain in the early Middle Ages. Most prominent Slavic tribes in the area of modern European Russia included
Vyatichs,
Krivichs,
Radimichs,
Severians and
Ilmen Slavs. By the 11th century East Slavs assimilited
Finno-Ugric tribes
Merya and
Muroma and
Baltic tribe
Eastern Galindae who also used to populate the same area (modern
Central Russia).
Ethnic Russians known as
Great Russians (as oppose to
White Russians and
Little Russians) began to be recognized as a distinct ethnic group in the 15th century, when they were referred to as
Muscovite Russians, during the consolidation of Muscovy Tsardom as a regional power. Between 12th and 16th century Russians known as
Pomors migrated to Northern Russia and settled
White Sea coasts. As a result of the migrations and Russian conquests (following liberation from the
Mongol Golden Horde domination) during 15th-16th centuries Russians settled the
Volga,
Urals and
Northern Caucasus regions. Between 17th and 19th centuries Russian migrants settled the vast sparsely inhabited areas in
Siberia and
Russian Far East. A major role in these territorial expansions and migrations was played by the Russian
Cossacks.
According to most ethnologists ethnic Russians originated from the earlier
Rus' people (East Slavs of
Kievan Rus), and gradually evolved into a different ethnicity from the western Rus people who became the modern-day
Belarusians and
Ukrainians. Between 15th and 18th centuries modern Russian language gradually developed from the
Old East Slavic and
Church Slavonic languages.
Some ethnologists maintain that Russians were a distinct Slavic group even before the time of Kievan Rus. Others believe that the distinguishing feature of the Russians is not primarily their separation from Western Rus, but that ethnic Russians are a mix of East Slavic and non-Slavic (for example Finno-Ugric,
Germanic, and Baltic) tribes. However, the origin of the
Slavic peoples is itself a matter on which there is no consensus.
They were classified as a ''Narodnost'' in the
First All Union Census of the Soviet Union in 1926.
Population
Russians are the most numerous ethnic group in Europe and one of the largest in the world with a population of about 140 million people worldwide. Roughly 116 million ethnic Russians live in
Russia and about 20 million more live in the neighboring countries. A relatively significant number of Russians, around 3 million, live elsewhere in the world, mostly in the
Americas and
Western Europe, but also in other places of
Eastern Europe,
Asia and elsewhere.
Russians in traditional dress
Culture
Main articles: Russian culture.
Russian culture is one that is rich and colorful. Russians have a rich
cuisine.
Russian art is considered by some to be very interesting and unique. Russians are also known for their sense of
humour.
Russian literature was greatly influential to world literature. Russians also gave the
classical music world some very famous composers.
Language
Main articles: Russian language
'Russian' (
(·),
transliteration: '', ) is the most geographically widespread language of
Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the
Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of
Indo-European languages and is one of three (or, according to some authorities, four) living members of the
East Slavic languages, the others being
Belarusian and
Ukrainian (and possibly
Rusyn, often considered a dialect of Ukrainian).
Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards, and while Russian preserves much of East Slavonic grammar and a
Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of borrowed international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. Due to the status of the
Soviet Union as a
super power, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century, and is still one of the
official languages of the
United Nations.
Russian has
palatal secondary articulation of
consonants, the so-called ''soft'' and ''hard'' sounds. This distinction is found in almost all consonant
phonemes and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the
reduction, or drawling, of
unstressed vowels, not entirely unlike a similar process present in most forms of
English. Stress in Russian is generally quite unpredictable and can be placed on almost any syllable, one of the most difficult aspects for foreign language learners.
Religion
Main articles: Religion in Russia
Orthodox Christianity is a dominant faith among the Russian people. More specifically, the vast majority of Russian believers belong to the
Russian Orthodox Church, which played a vital role in the development of Russian national identity. In other countries Russian faithful usually belong to the local Orthodox congregations which either have a direct connection (like the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church, under the
Patriarch of Moscow) or historical origin (like
the Orthodox Church in America or a
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Even non-religious Russian people mostly associate themselves with Orthodox faith for cultural reasons. Some Russian people are
Old Believers: a relatively small
schismatic group of the Russian Orthodoxy that rejected the liturgical reforms introduced in the 17th century.
Despite continuing growth in religious observance since Soviet times, church attendance rates in Russia are relatively low.
Other world religions have negligible representation among ethnic Russians. The most prominent are
Baptists with over 85 000 Russian adherents.
[1] others are mostly
Pentecostals,
Evangelicals and
Seventh-day Adventists.
For the last decades the Slavic paganism seems to gain certain popularity and there are many web-sites dedicated to the study of the
Slavic mythology.
[2][3][4]
Russians outside of Russia
Main articles: Russian diaspora
Ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former
Russian Empire and
Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities such as
Lipovans who settled in
Danube delta or
Doukhobors in
Canada immigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority.
After the
Russian Revolution and
Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the
Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees. Many
white emigrés were participants in the
White movement, although the term is broadly applied to anyone who may have left the country due to the change in regime.
Today largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside of Russia live in former Soviet states such as
Ukraine (about 8 million),
Kazakhstan (about 4.5 million),
Belarus (about 1.2 million),
Latvia (about 700,000),
Uzbekistan (about 650,000) and
Kyrgyzstan (about 600,000). Over a million of
Russian Jews emigrated to
Israel during and after the
Refusenik movements, some brought ethnic Russian relatives along with them. There are also small Russian communities in the
Balkans, Eastern and Central European nations such as
Germany, as well as in
China,
Latin America and
Australia. These communities may identify themselves either as Russians or citizens of these countries, or both, to varying degrees.
The governments and the majority public opinion in
Estonia and
Latvia, which has the largest share of ethnic Russians among the
Baltic countries, hold the view that many of the ethnic Russians arrived in these countries as part of a Soviet-era
colonization and deliberate
Russification by changing the countries' ethnic balance. Among the many Russians who arrived during the Soviet era most came there for economic reasons, or in some cases, because they were ordered to move.
People who had arrived to
Latvia and
Estonia during the Soviet era, mostly Russians, were only provided with an option to acquire naturalised citizenship which required passing a test demonstrating knowledge of the national language as well as knowledge of the country's history and customs. The language issue is still contentious, particularly in Latvia, where ethnic Russians have protested against plans to educate them in the national language instead of Russian. Since 1992, Estonia has naturalized some 137,000 residents of undefined citizenship, mainly ethnic Russians 136,000, or 10 percent of the total population, remain without citizenship.
Ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union states
Although not among the largest immigrant groups, significant numbers of Russians emigrated to
Canada,
Australia, the
United States and
Brazil.
Brighton Beach, in the
New York City borough of
Brooklyn, is an example of a large community of recent Russian immigrants. Another one is in
Sunny Isles Beach, a northern suburb of
Miami. At the same time, many ethnic Russians from former Soviet territories have emigrated to Russia itself since the 1990s. Many of them became refugees from a number of states of
Central Asia and
Caucasus (as well as from the separatist
Chechen Republic), forced to flee during political unrest and hostilities towards Russians.
Both the
European Union and the
Council of Europe, as well as the
Russian government, expressed their concern during the 1990s about minority rights in several countries, most notably
Latvia. In
Moldova, the Russian-dominated
Transnistria region broke away from government control amid fears the country would soon reunite with
Romania. In June of 2006 Russian President
Vladimir Putin announced the plan to introduce national policy aiming at encouraging ethnic Russian to immigrate to Russia.
[26]
Russian Chinese
After the
Russian Revolution in 1917, many Russians who were identified with the
White army moved to
China — most of them settling in
Harbin. Many of these Russians had to move back to the Soviet Union after
World War II. Today, a big group of people in northern China can still speak Russian.
Russians (''eluosizu'') are one of the
56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China (as ''the Russ''), and there are approximately 15,600 Russian Chinese living mostly in northern
Xinjiang, and also in
Inner Mongolia and
Heilongjiang. See also
Harbin Russians and
China Far East Railway.
Contribution to humanity
Russian people have greatly contributed to the world of
science and
arts. Notable Russian
scientists include
Dmitri Mendeleev,
Alexander Stepanovich Popov,
Alexander Lodygin,
Pavel Yablochkov,
Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky,
Ivan Kulibin,
Vladimir Zworykin,
Sergey Korolyov,
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and
Mikhail Lomonosov.
Thanks to writers such as
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Leo Tolstoy,
Ivan Turgenev,
Anton Chekhov,
Alexander Pushkin, and many more,
Russian Literature is considered to be among the most influential
literature in the world. In the field of the novel,
Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky in particular were titanic figures, and have remained internationally renowned, to the point that many scholars have described one or the other as the greatest novelist ever.
[5]
Great
Russian composers include
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Dmitri Shostakovich,
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,
Sergei Prokofiev and
Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Russian composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the most famous works of ballet -
Swan Lake,
The Nutcracker, and
Sleeping Beauty.
Russian Ballet is considered to be the strongest in the world.
A fact which the Russian people are proud of is the large part, larger than anybody elses part, that the Russian people had in the victory over
Nazi Germany at
World War II. During the war, the Soviet Union lost around 27 million citizens (most of them Russian), about half of all World War II casualties and the vast majority of allied casualties. The Eastern Front contained more combat than all the other European fronts combined; the German army suffered 80% to 93% of all casualties there. It was on the Eastern Front that the war was won or lost, for if the
Red Army had not succeeded against all the odds in halting the Germans in 1941 and then inflicting the first major defeats at
Stalingrad and
Kursk in 1943, it is difficult to see how the western democracies, Britain and the US, could have expelled Germany from its new empire.
[6]
The Soviet Union, where Russians and Russian institutions dominated, pioneered space exploration. The first man (
Yuri Gagarin) and woman (
Valentina Tereshkova) in space were Russian. Almongst other achievements, they also launched the world's first artificial
satellite into space and the first
space station. The Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the
Earth aboard the first manned spacecraft,
Vostok 1.
See also
★
List of Russians
★
Russians in Australia
★
Russians in Ukraine
★
Russians in Kazakhstan
★
Russians in Japan
★
Russian culture
★
Baltic Russians
★
Russian colonization of the Americas
★
British Russians
★
Russian American
References and notes
1. Adherents.com statistics
2. A web-site with information about current pagan activity in Russia.
3. A site with a lot of information on Slavic Paganism.
4. A Slavic spiritualism site calling for returning to the roots.
5. "Russian literature." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 July 2007 .
6. WWII historian Richard Overy, We must not forget how war was won.
Online references
★
Russians left behind in Central Asia, by
Robert Greenall,
BBC News, 23 November 2005.
★
Latvia: Ethnic Russians Divided On Moscow's Repatriation Scheme, by
Claire Bigg,
Radio Free Europe, 15 August 2006.
★
CIA factbook - Russia
★
China Internet Information Center - The Russian Ethnic Group
★
Russians in London
★
Russian London
★
4.1. Population by nationality
★
Russians: short description
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