Ruthénie

Ruthénie is the name given to areas of the Central Europe which are or were inhabited by Eastern populations Slaves, or to the various States which existed on these territories during the centuries. The word would be a Latin derivative of the old word Rus (see the article Étymologie of Rus and its derivatives ).

Today the historical territory of “Rus”, in the broad sense, includes territories of the Ukraine, Bielorussia, Russia, of a small portion of the North-East of the Slovakia and of a narrow band of the east of the Poland. Because of the absence of official definition, the Ruthénie term can have various significances according to the context in which this term is used.

Beginning of the Middle Ages

If the name Ruthénie has a relationship to the name Rus , one generally thinks in Occident that it comes from the Varègue S whose Slavic and Finnish primitive tribes were called Rus' , this name being derived from the root as old man norois roðs- or roths- , in reference to the action to row , and who still exists in Finnois and in Estonian in their Swede nomination, the Ruotsi and Rootsi . Later, the name had suddenly designated not only the Scandinavian nobility of Eastern Europe, but still the populations mixed in their fields.

Some modern scholars use the term Ruthénie when they speak about the period of the Middle Ages in Western texts. In fact, the old State of Rus' did not have a name itself, with share in morality zemlya ruskaya , and thus there was to indicate it various words in the various languages.

The term Ruteni appears initially in the form rex Rutenorum at the 11th century in the Annale S of Augsburg. It is rather a reflex based on an old tradition to name the cruel by the names found in classic authors Latin, for example to name the Danish the Germanic Daces and people the Teutons. In an identical way, Rus passed to name Ruteni , with a form influenced by the name of the one of the tribes of Gaulle mentioned by Jules César.

There exists in Latin a geography of the France of the 12th century which says that " Russia is also called Ruthénie, like says it the poet Lucain… " The Latin text original is: Polonia in uno sui capite contingit Russiam, quae is Ruthenia, of qua Lucanus: Solvuntur flavi longa stations Rutheni . Previously Rus had been called Rugi (of the name of the one of the tribes of Goths of this time) and Rutuli (a tribe of Latium mentioned by Virgile in the Énéide).

Towards the end of the 12th century, it is the word Ruthénie which is used, with alternative forms Ruscie and Russia , in documents in Latin by the Pape, to indicate the grounds under control of Kiev. At the 13th century, this term becomes the reference in the Latin documents to indicate Rus', in particular in those written in Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland.

End of the Middle Ages

At the 14th century, the Rus' state disintegrates in looser principalities, Vladimir-Souzdal and the République of Novgorod in north, under the Mongolian influence. Later, one of the principalities successors of Vladimir-Souzdal, the Moscovie, takes the control of the principalities of the north of Rus', and one continues to use the word " Rus'" to indicate the state in question. As it is an orthodoxe country , this one has only few contacts with papacy, and one seldom uses the term of Ruthénie to indicate it. The local populations use other forms of the name Rus, derived from the word Rus, to indicate their country, and some of these forms passed in Latin and French.

Domination of the Union of Poland-Lithuania

The territories of Galicie-Volhynie in the south fall under the Polish and Lithuanian catholic influence, and this is why they are usually indicated by the Latin term Ruthénie , because the pope prefers this form. It uses it for example when it proclaims one of the local kings " Prince de Ruthénie". But also of other forms are used in Latin, French and in other languages for this period.

The following territories of the south have their names corresponding in Polish:

Ruś Biała - Ruthénie white, White Russia or Bielorussia
Ruś Czarna - Ruthénie black, part of modern the Bielorussia
Ruś Czerwona - Ruthénie red, a small strip of land in Poland (Przemyśl), the remainder belonging to the Ukraine (Galicie). Poland calls this zone the Voïvodie ruthene.

modern times

Ruthenes of Carpathes or Rusyn

About 1918, the Galicians definitively abondonnèrent the name of Ruthène to the profit of that of Ukrainians. With this date, only the Rusyn, alive people in Ruthénie subcarpatic (with horse between the Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland modern, including the towns of Mukachiv /Mukachovo/Munk ács, Uzhhorod /Ungv ár and Presov /Pryashov (Priashouv) /Eperjes.) preserved their ancestral name. Consequently, the word Ruthénie and ruthene became synonymous with Ruthénie subcarpathic and rusyn.

This zone had belonged to the kingdom of Hungary since the end of the 11th century, and had been called " Magna Rus'" , " Karpato-Rus'" or " Kárpátalja" (see Ruthénie subcarpatic).

After its incorporation in the Czechoslovakia between the First World War and the Second world war, this zone tried to declare its independence as a " Carpato-Ukraine " at the end of the Second world war. The term Rusyn appeared then to indicate the language and the nationality of three groups of mountain dwellers of Carpates. The name of " Ruthénie" became similar to that of Ruthénie subcarpatic, that is to say the name indicating the area more in the west of the current Ukraine.

There remained a minority ruthene in the North-East of the Czechoslovakia (maintaining in Slovakia) after the Second world war. The populations of this area were quickly slovaquized , because their language resembled the Slovaque much, and that much refused to be identified themselves like Ukrainians, but want to preserve the name of Rusyns or Ruthènes like would have liked it the Communist government after 1953.

Belorusses

The Belorusses are often called themselves " Lituaniens" because they lived in the Grand-Duché of Lithuania, and the name of " Ruthènes" always did not apply to them.

A remarkable exception appeared shortly after the Second world war, in connection with the Belorusses of the Région of Kresy in Poland of pre-war period, who found themselves in camps of transit in the Western zones of the Germany of post-war period. At that time, the concept of nation Belorusse is not very well recognized in the West. Then, to avoid confusion between " Russes" and thus " rapatriation towards the Soviétique" Union; (which ratified the annexation of Kresy after the war), one used the terms of Ruthènes white , Blanco-ruthènes , and Kriviens . This last term derives from the name of the old Slavic tribe of the Krivichs, which lived the territory of Bielorussia before.

Ukrainians

The name of " Ruthénie" survived a little longer like name indicating the Ukraine. When the Austria-Hungary took the control of the province of Galicie in 1772, the official Austrians realized that the Eastern Slavic populations were different from the Poles and the Russians. The name that they gave each other, Rusyny , sounded like the German word used for the Russians, Russen . Then the Austrians adopted the designation of Ruthenen (Ruthènes), and continued to employ it until the fall of the empire in 1918.

From 1840, nationalists encouraged the populations to give up the name of " Small Rus" with the profit of the name of " Ukrayina ".

In the years 1880 and 1900, because of the diffusion of the name " Ukraine" like substitute of " Ruthénie" among Ruthènes/Ukrainian of the Russian Empire, the name of " Ruthènes" confined itself in the name of the populations of the Western Ukraine, a zone which belonged to the Austro-Hungarian state.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the name d'" Ukraine" was largely of use in Galicie /Halychyna and the name of " Ruthénie" became more current to indicate the southern zone of the Carpates of the kingdom of Hungary.

See too

External bonds

Why the " Russie" is it white?
Ruthénie

Reference

Norman Davies, Europe: In History . New York, Oxford University Close, 1996. ISBN 0060974680

Random links: