The Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) since December 1993.
Rossiyskaya indicates that the Russian Federation is not a nation state (otherwise it would have been
Russkaya) but a state that includes many nations. Previously the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, by far the largest of the fifteen union republics comprising the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the
Soviet Union (1936). Due to a change in ideological emphasis this title was adopted in place of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1918). Following the Revolution in February 1917 a
Soviet 'Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' was formed in Petrograd (now St Petersburg). The Provisional Government, also set up in February 1917, was overthrown in October (the October Revolution) and power seized by the Bolsheviks in the name of the Soviets. The country's name was changed to Soviet Russia. The Latinate Rossiya was not formally adopted until Peter I the Great
† did so when he changed the name of the Tsardom of Muscovy to the Empire of All Russia in 1721. According to one theory, Rus′ was the name given to the non-Slav Vikings (the Varangians) in Scandinavia, who migrated into the Slav-populated northern river valleys of Russia in the 9th century;
The Primary Chronicle suggests that they were invited by the quarrelling Slav tribes to come south and rule over them. The Rus′ agreed and established themselves around Novgorod in 862. The Rus' gave their name to the area in which they settled. By the beginning of the 10th century Kiev (now in Ukraine) had become the centre of the first Russian state. However,
The Primary Chronicle is considered to be unreliable by many Russian scholars; they have suggested that the Rus′ were a Slav tribe from the south-east who founded the state of Kievan Rus′; its existence, however, was brought to an end when it was almost completely destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. Gradually various principalities emerged of which the most important were
Muscovy, Novgorod, and Galich (Galicia). They expanded to encompass what is now western Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus — the Land of the Rus′ from which Russia takes its name. The meaning of the word Rus' has evoked considerable discussion. It has been suggested that it comes from
Ruotsi, the Finnish word for the Swedes, and therefore means 'Swedish Vikings'; or that it is a Viking word meaning 'oarsman'. Both have been disputed. See
soviet union.
