Etymology of Rus and its derivatives

Initially the Rus (Русь, Rus' ) was a medieval country and a State which was that of the Eastern Slaves is. The territories of this old Rus' are now distributed in the Fédération of Russia, the Bielorussia and the Ukraine. The texts medieval written in Latin translated Rus by Ruthenia as from the 12th century (what will give the French form later Ruthénie).

This old State " Rus " did not have a name itself; it was called by its inhabitants " РусскаяЗемля" ( ruskaya zemlya ), which can be translated by Rus'" ground; , " Rus" country; or " country of the Rus ". In the same way, the Poland is always called Polska (i.e. " polonaise" , in French) by its inhabitants, and the Czech Republic ( Česká republika ) is also described by an adjectival substantive.

To make the distinction the old State " enters; Rus" other States from which the name is derived from this one, it is rather called " Rus' of Kiev. "

In modern Russian, there are two adjectives which can be translated by " russe" , russky (русский), which refers to the Russian people and to his language, and rossiysky (российский), which refers to the Russian Federal state.

Etymology

According to the theory normandist , that most largely accepted by the Occident, the word " Rus' " was adopted by the Slavic ones starting from the root norroise roðr , roþs- ( roths- ), or directly of the Finnois Ruotsi . This root is the same one as English to row (in French to row ) and could be employed because Varègues generally rowed to go up the European rivers; cf the area of Sweden Roslagen , which means " districts navals".

Other theories were born ( anti-normandistes ) which give a Slavic direct origin to the word " Rus ". These theories are more popular among the scholars who fall under the Russian national historical thought. Possible origins of the word " Rus" include:

the Iranian tribe of the Roxolani , which lived the south of the Ukraine and Romania (of the Perse rokhs which signife light, white)
one of the rivers of Ukraine, the Ros and the Rusna (beside Kiev and of Péréïaslav), these names deriving from a presumedly Slavic term for Eau, connected with rosa (Rosée), rusalka (syrene), ruslo (River)
Rusiy (russet-red), one Slavic cousin of ryzhiy (redhead)
a presumedly proto-Slavic word for the Bear, cousin of arctos and ursus

Polish chroniclers of the Middle Ages would make derive Rus' from Latin Latin rus, ruris (" campagne"). Old Rus could have given the impression to the visitors of Byzance as being " rustiques" or " ruraux" - all the terms derived from Latin rus . And the name of the half-legendary founder of the old State Rus , Rurik, resembles curiously the case genitive of rus - ruris .

The word Rus' could also come from two convergent sources.

Old proof

In the old Eastern Slavic literature, the Slavic ones of the South indicate themselves like (muzhi) ruskie (“the Rus men”) or more rarely rusichi . It is thought that the Slavic ones adopted the name of the elites Varègue S, which is mentioned into 830 in the Annales of Saint-Bertin. These annals tell that the court of the emperor Louis II with Ingelheim, accepted in 839 (the same year as the first appearance of Varègues with Constantinople) a Byzantine delegation. In this delegation, there were two men who were called themselves Rhos ( Rhos vocari dicebant ). Louis asked them for their origin and learned that they were Swedish. Fearing that they were spies with the pay of their brothers, the Danish, it imprisoned them. They are also mentioned into 860 by the patriarch Photius under the name of Rhos .

Rusiyyah was used by Ibn Fadlan for Varègues beside Astrakhan, and by the Persian traveller Ibn Rustah which visited Novgorod and described how the Rus' exploited the Slavic ones.

Like Rus, they live on an island… and one takes three days to make the turn of it; she is covered with forests and thick vegetation; she is very unhealthy… They badger the Slavic ones, and use boats to reach them; they reduce them in slavery and sell them. They do not cultivate the fields, and live on what they can take with Slavic… When a son is born to them, the father moves towards the newborn with his sword in hand; he throws it by ground by saying " I will anything else give only this sword which will be used for you to get that to you of which you have besoin" (Ibn Rustah, according to National Geographic , March 1985)

When Varègues arrive at Constantinople, the Byzantines examine the Rhos (in Greek: Ρως ) and describes them like people different from the Slavic ones. De Administrando Imperio gives the names of the cataracts of the Dniepr in the two languages rhos and Slavic . The names rhos are:

Essoupi (Old norrois vesuppi , " do not sleep pas")
Oulvorsi (old norrois holmfors , " rapid of the île")
Gelandri (old norrois gjallandi , " shouting, sounding fort")
Aeifor (old norrois eiforr , " always féroce")
Varouforos (old norrois varufors , " rapid of the falaise")
Leanti (old norrois leandi , " bouillonnant" , or hlaejandi , " riant")
Stroukoun (old norrois strukum , " running rapide")

According to the Chronic first, a historical compilation allotted to the 13th century, the Rus was a group of Varègues which lived on the other side of the the Baltic, in Scandinavia. Varègues were driven out by it and started to dominate the Slavic and Finnish tribes of Novgorod:

the four tribes which had been forced to pay the tax in Varègues - the Chuds, the Slaves, the Mériens, and the Krivichs renewed Varègues with the sea, and refused to pay more, and decided to control themselves. But they did not have laws, and the tribes disputed one the other. From argument in argument, they came from there to fight the ones the others. They were said: “Let us find a prince who reigns on us and us judges according to the habit”. Then they went to seek Varègues on other side of the sea, the rus. These Varègues-là were called Rus, some named them Swedish, and others Normands and Angles, and others still Gotland ers. Chuds, the Slavic ones, Krivichs and the Ves said then to Rus, “Our country is large and rich, but the order does not reign there. Come to direct us, are our princes”. Three brothers are chosen. They were accompanied by all Rus and moved.

Later, the Chronicle first says to us that they conquered Kiev and created the Rus' of Kiev. The conquered grounds were named according to them as the Normandy was named according to the Normands.

In Europe at the 9th century and the 10th century, the terms use were: Ruzi , Ruzzi , Ruzia or Ruzari but more the current was Rugi , the name of an old Germanic tribe relationship of the Goths. Olga of Kiev, for example, was called in francic annals Regina Rugorum , i.e. “queen of Rugi”.

At the 11th century, the word dominating in the Latin tradition was Ruscia . It was used by Thietmar de Mersebourg, Adam of Bremen, Cosmas of Prague, and by the pope Gregoire VII in his letter with Izyaslav I. Rucia , Ruzzia , Ruzsia was equivalent terms.

At the 12th century, Ruscia was transformed into two other words, '' Russia '' and '' Ruthenia ''. Russia (or Rossia and Russia ) was the dominant Romance form, employed in first by Liutprand de Crémone into 960 and then by Pierre Damiani in 1030. It became the standard in the French and English documents of the 12th century. Ruthenia , initially found in the Yearly of Augsburg of the 12th century, was the preferred Latin shape of the pope (see Ruthénie for more details).

De Rus in Russia

In French modern historiography, the Rus' of Kiev is the name more running for the old Eastern Slavic state (by keeping the transcription with the apostrophe Rus' , to write the Signe wet, ь ), followed Russia of Kiev , the old State of Russia , and seldom, the Ruthénie of Kiev . It is called also the Principauté of Kiev , or right Kiev .

But makes of it Rus' of Kiev has two directions:

a small province around Kiev, which includes the towns of Vychgorod and Pereiaslav (approximately 200 km ² around Kiev)
a vast State political (starting from the territories referred to above), initially directed since Novgorod and then from Kiev.

The last territory was divided into several zones. That with the greatest influence was, in the south, that of the Rus' de Halych-Volyn; and, in north, that of the Rus' of Vladimir-Suzdal and the Republic of Novgorod. The southern part fell under the Polish catholic influence; the northern part, under the Mongolian weaker influence, and became a loose federation of principalities.

Hiérarques the Byzantines imposed their names in Greek for the zones north and south: respectively Μακρα Ρωσία ( Makra Rosia , Large Russia) and Μικρα Ρωσία ( Mikra Rosia , Small Russia).

At the 14th century, the sovereigns of the Moscovie (the Grand-Duchy of Moscow) joins together the zones of the north of old Rus' of Kiev. Ivan III of Moscow was the first local sovereign recognized like Large-Duke of all Rus . This title was used by the large dukes of Vladimir until the beginning of the 14th century, and the first prince to carry it was Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver. Ivan III was described by the emperor Maximilian I like rex albus (the white king) and rex Russiae (the king of Russia). Later, Rus' - in Russian - evolved to a form influenced by Byzance, Rossiya (Russia says Ρωσία in Greek).

De Rus in Ukraine

The territories of south-west were included in the Grand-Duché of Lithuania (whose complete name was Grand-Duché of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitie ). The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was controlled by Rus', he was inhabited mainly by Rus' and its noble was of origin Rus' and an alternative of the old Eastern Slavic language near to the Belorusse is the only language which remains in the official documents gone back to before 1697.

The territories of the south controlled by Lithuania have names connected in Russian and Polish, respectively:

Belorussia and Ruś Biała - Ruthénie white, White Russia or Bielorussia;
Chernaya Rus and Ruś Czarna - Ruthénie black, part of modern the Bielorussia; and
Chervonaya Rus and Ruś Czerwona - Ruthénie red, today a small strip of land in Poland (Przemyśl) and the remainder in Ukraine (Galicie). Poland calls this zone the “Voïvodat ruthene”.

Whereas the Russian descendants of Rus' were called themselves Russkiye , the inhabitants of these countries named themselves Rusyny , Ruthènes.

In 1654, according to the Treated of Pereïaslav, the grounds cossacks of Zaporozhian Host were under the protection of the Moscovie, including the Hetmanat of Ukraine of the left bank, and the Région of Zaporozhia. In Russia, these grounds are called Petite Russia ( Malorossiya ). The colonies installed in these territories, yielded by the Othoman along the Black Sea, were called Nouvelle Russia ( Novorossiya ).

In the last decades of the 18th century, the Russian Empire, the Prussia, and the Austriche cut up the Espace polono-Lithuanian in a series of partitions, and all Rus' histories, except the Galicie, belonged to the Russian Empire.

During the time of cultural rebirth after 1840, the members of a secret society of Kiev, the Fraternity of the Saints Cyrille and Method, made reappear the name of Ukrayina for the fatherland of the people of the " Small Russie". They chose a name which had been used at the 17th century by the Cossacks of the Ukraine. This name had appeared before at the 16th century on charts of Kiev and Rus' of Kiev. Ukrayina was a word into old Slavic Eastern meaning " ground frontière" , city already at the 12th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the name of Ukraine was largely recognized, and was used like official name of transitory the national République of Ukraine, national République of Western Ukraine and Hetmanat of Ukraine, like for the Ukrainian Soviet socialist République.

The use of the name " Ruthénie" ( Rus' ) with the subcarpatic Ruthénie is restricted ( Karpats' ka Rus' ), in the south of the Carpates in the kingdom of Hungary, where many Slavic buildings were regarded as Rusyns . Ruthénie subcarpatic included the towns of Mukachiv (in Rusyn: Mukachevo ; in Hungarian: Munkács ), Uzhhorod (in Hungarian: Ungvár ) and Presov ( Pryashiv ; in Hungarian: Eperjes ). Rus carpatic had belonged to the kingdom of Hungary since 907 and was known like Magna Rus or Karpato-Rus' or Zakarpattia .

External references

How Rusyns became Ukrainian , Zerkalo Nedeli ( Mirror Weekly ), July 2005. On line with in Russian and Ukrainian.
summons Us Russian than them: History of myths and feelings , Zerkalo Nedeli ( Mirror Weekly ), January 27th - February 2nd, 2001. On line with in Russian and Ukrainian.
a so disappointing triad , Zerkalo Nedeli ( Mirror Weekly ), 2 May 8th, 1998. On line with in Russian and Ukrainian.

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