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In English, Ruthenia is a geographical exonym for a cross-border region of Eastern Europe. It can refer to significantly different and even mutually exclusive areas, dependent on the historical period and subject.
The word "Ruthenia" originated as a Latin rendering of the region and people known originally as "Rus'" – the same root word as Russia. In European manuscripts dating from the 13th century CE, "Ruthenia" was used to describe Rus': the wider area occupied by the Ancient Rus' (commonly referred to as Kievan Rus'). This historical territory corresponds to modern Ukraine and Belarus, as well as western Russia, eastern Slovakia and southern Poland. However, the geographical implications of "Ruthenia" and "Russia" began to diverge in meaning as early as the 14th century CE.
In modern usage, Ruthenia usually refers to a region centred on, but not restricted to, Zakarpattia Oblast (the Transcarpathian administrative region) of south-western Ukraine. It is strongly associated with areas inhabited by Rusyn minorities. There is considerable overlap between this usage of "Ruthenia" and a trans-border region also known as Galicia or Halychyna (Template:Lang-uk, Halychyna; Rusyn: Галичина; Template:Lang-pl; Template:Lang-ru, Galitsiya/Galichina; Template:Lang-sk), which takes in south-western Ukraine, south-eastern Poland and north-eastern Slovakia.
Early Middle Ages
Main article: Kievan Rus'If the name Ruthenia has any connection to the name Rus', a theory generally held in the West connects it to the Varangians whom the early Slavic and Finnic tribes called Rus', taking this name from the Old Norse root roðs- or roths- referring to the domain of "rowing" and still existing in the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi. Later the name came to denote not only the Scandinavian aristocracy in Eastern Europe but also the ethnically mixed population of their domains. But many other theories dispute this account. Russians themselves had never used the term Ruthenia. Olga of Kiev and Anna Yaroslavna the Queen of France had been mentioned as a queen (a princess) of Rugorum (Regina Rugorum). The term Ruteni first appears in the form rex Rutenorum ("king of the Ruteni") in the 12th-century Augsburg annals. The name most likely came from a reflex of the ancient tradition whereby learned writers called the various barbaric peoples by names found in Classical Latin authors. So (for example) chroniclers called the Danes Daci and the Germans Theutoni. Likewise, the Rus passed by the name of Ruteni, the form being influenced by one of the Gallic tribes mentioned by Julius Caesar.
A 12th-century writer, Gervase of Tilbury, wrote in his Latin geography that "Poland is bordered in one side with Russia, which is also called Ruthenia, as you may see from the following phrase of Lucan…" The original Latin text: Polonia in uno sui capite contingit Russiam, quae et Ruthenia, de qua Lucanus: Solvuntur flavi longa statione Rutheni.
By the end of the 12th century the word Ruthenia had come into use (among the alternative spellings Ruscia and Russia) in Latin papal documents to denote the lands formerly dominated by Kiev. By the 13th century the term became the dominant name for Rus' in Latin documents, particularly those written in Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland.
In 1253 in Dorohychyn on the Buh a papal archbishop crowned Danylo of Halych (reigned 1253–1264) as the first King of Rus' (Galicia–Volhynia).
Late Middle Ages
By the 15th century, two major states claimed their Rus ancestry: the Muscovy and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Natives used different forms of the name Rus' for their country, and some of these forms also passed into Latin and English.
By the 15th century Moscow principality (or Muscovy) established its sovereignty over a large portion of ancient Rus territory, including Novgorod, Pskov, and parts of Chernigov and Pereyaslavl principalities. Since 1547, it called itself the Tsardom of Rus (or Russia) and claimed the sovereignty over "all the Rus'". These laid the foundation of the modern Russian state. Muscovy population was Eastern Orthodox, and used the Greek transcription of Rus, "Rossia", rather than the Latin "Ruthenia".
In the 14th century, the southern territories of ancient Rus, including principalities of Galicia–Volhynia, Kiev and others, became a part of the Lithuania, which, in 15th century, united with Catholic Poland to form Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Therefore, they were usually denoted by the Latin Ruthenia. However, other spellings were used in Latin, English and other languages during this period as well.
These southern territories have corresponding names in Polish:
- Ruś Halicko-Wołyńska — Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
- Ruś Halicka — Galicia
- Ruś Biała — White Ruthenia, White Russia or Belarus
- Ruś Czarna — Black Ruthenia, part of modern Belarus
- Ruś Czerwona — Red Ruthenia, Galicia
- Ruś Podkarpacka — Carpathian Ruthenia
Modern age
Belarusians
After World War II, in relation to Belarusians from the Eastern Borderlands (Kresy) region of pre–World War II Poland who found themselves in displaced persons camps in the Western occupation zones of the post-war Germany. At that time the notion of a Belarusian nation met with little recognition in the West. Therefore, to avoid confusion with the term "Russian" and hence "repatriation" to the Soviet Union, the terms White Ruthenian, Whiteruthenian, and Krivian were used. The last of these terms derives from the name of an old Eastern Slavic tribe called the Krivichs, who used to inhabit the territory of Belarus.
Russians
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The most numerous population of the ancient Rus descendants, the Russians, still keep the same name for their nation (russkie), while the name of their state, Rus, was gradually replaced by its Greek transcription, "Rossia". Russian population dominates the former territory of Muscovy, Vladimir Rus, The Grand Principality of Smolensk, Novgorod Republic, and Pskov Republic, and they are also a significant minority in Ukraine and Belarus.
The Russian ethnos is not homogenous, though. It includes smaller groups like Pomors, Cossaks, and others. Also, the Russian language is spoken by a large portion of Ukrainians and Belarusians, as well as by non-Slavic peoples, which makes it difficult to define a "border" between them and ethnic Russians. The word "Russian" in English media usually refers to any person from Russia, disregarding their descent, which adds to confusion. Modern Russian has two different words to describe an ethnic Russian (russky, plur. russkie) and a citizen of Russia, of any descent (rossianin).
Ukrainians
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The use of the term "Ruthenia" on the lands of ancient Rus survived longer as a name used by Ukrainians for Ukraine. When the Austrian monarchy made Galicia a province in 1772, Habsburg officials realized that the local East Slavic people were distinct from both Poles and Russians, and still called themselves Ruthenians, until the empire fell apart in 1918.
In the 19th century the ethnonym "Ukrainian" was not in common use. Indeed, Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko despite using the word Ukraine for the area of ancient Rus, never uses the term Ukrainian as an ethnonym in any of his works, but rather uses the terms Kozak or Russian and "Malorussian" ("малороссийский"), which was according to the law and society norm made by Russian Empire.
In the Russian Empire by 1840 the superior term Малая Русь (or Малороссия), Little Rus', Rus Minora for Ruthenians become degradative and they began calling themselves Ukrainians for Ukrayina. In the 1880's and 1900's, the popularity of the ethnonym Ukrainian spread and the term "Ukraine" became a substitute for "Ruthenia" among the Ruthenian/Ukrainian population of the Russian Empire. In time the term "Ruthenian" became restricted to western Ukraine, an area then part of the Austro-Hungarian state.
By the early 20th century, the term "Ukraine" had replaced "Ruthenia" in Galicia/Halychyna and by the mid-1920s also in the Ukrainian diaspora in North America.
Rusyns
The term Rusyn is used to describe the ethnicity and language of Ruthenians who did not embrace the Ukrainian national identity.
After 1918, the name "Ruthenia" became narrowed to the area south of the Carpathian mountains in the Kingdom of Hungary, named Carpathian Ruthenia (It incorporated the cities of Mukachevo, Uzhhorod and Prešov) and populated by Carpatho-Ruthenians, a group of East Slavic highlanders. Galician Ruthenians considered themselves to be Ukrainians, and the Carpatho-Ruthenians were the last East Slavic people that kept the ancient historic name (Ruthen is a Latin deformation of the Slavic rusyn).
Carpatho-Ruthenia formed part of the Hungarian Kingdom from the late 11th century, where it was known as Kárpátalja. In May 1919, it was incorporated with nominal autonomy into Czechoslovakia. After this date, Ruthenian people have been divided among three orientations. First, there were the Russophiles, who saw Ruthenians as part of the Russian nation; second, there were the Ukrainophiles who, like their Galician counterparts across the Carpathian mountains, considered Ruthenians part of the Ukrainian nation; and, lastly, there were Ruthenophiles, who said that Carpatho-Ruthenians were a separate nation, and who wanted to develop a native Rusyn language and culture. On 15 March 1939 the Ukrainophile president of Carpatho-Ruthenia, Avhustyn Voloshyn, declared its independence as Carpatho-Ukraine. On the same day Hungarian Army regular troops started to occupy the new state. The Hungarian occupation regime was pro-Ruthenophile. In 1944 the Soviet Army occupied Carpatho-Ruthenia, and in 1946, annexed it to the Ukrainian SSR. Officially, there were no Rusyns in the USSR. In fact, Soviet and some modern Ukrainian politicians, as well as Ukrainian government claim that Rusyns are part of the Ukrainian nation. Nowadays the majority of the population in the Zakarpattya oblast of Ukraine consider themselves Ukrainians, however, a small Rusyn minority is still present.
A Rusyn minority that remained after World War II in northeastern Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) rapidly became Slovakisized.
Cognate word
The element ruthenium was isolated in 1844 from platinum ore found in the Ural mountains. Ruthenia is the Latin word for Rus'.
Fictional usage
In the movie The Assassination Bureau, the conference of European leaders being held to try and stave off the impending World War is held in a castle in Ruthenia.
In the game Crusader Kings 2, a kingdom of Ruthenia can be formed by accumulating enough lands corresponding roughly to today's Belarus, northern Ukraine and western Russia.
See also
References
- Magocsi, Paul Robert (1995). The Rusyn Question - Political Thought.
- Michael Taube. Russia in a pre-mongol time. http://www.unavoce.ru/library/taube_premongol.html
- Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium. Vol. 2. p. 765. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- All-Ukrainian population census '2001
- All-Ukrainian population census '2001Template:Uk icon wrote: "Also for the first time collected data that characterize ethnic groups and nationalities of individual synonymous with other names. Particular part of the Ukrainian nationality is an ethnic group - Ruthenians. Total area called themselves Rusyn - 10,1 thousand people."
- carpatho-rusyn.org
External links
- Why is the "Russia" White? - a book review of Ales Biely's Chronicle of Ruthenia Alba
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ruthenians" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- "Ruthenia - Spearhead Toward the West", by Senator Charles J. Hokky, Former Member of the Czechoslovakian Parliament (Book representing a Hungarian nationalist position)
- Norman Davies, Europe: A History. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-06-097468-0
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