Ruthenia

Ruthenia is a name applied to parts of Eastern Europe which were the populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, as well as to various states that existed in this territory in the past. Today this historical territory is divided among Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, the eastern one-third of Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland. Due to continuous political instability of this territory, the term Ruthenia may mean significanly different things, depending on who applies this term, when, why and to which period. The word Ruthenia is the Latin name for an old Slavic territory which didn't have proper name but was called by its inhabitants "Руськая Земля" ("ruskaya zemlya") which could be translated as "Rusian Land" or "Land of Rus". The difference between the two terms would be like the difference between, for example, "Germany" and "German Land" or "Land of Germans". The following entities may be referenced by term "Ruthenia", roughly in chronological order:

Table of contents

1 Early Middle Ages 2 Late Middle Ages 3 Modern age 4 External links

Early Middle Ages

By the 10th century, the term Ruthenia was used, among other spellings, in Latin Papal documents in the sense of Rus' the people or medieval state of Rus (Kievan Rus), and later became a dominant name for Rus in Latin. Some modern scholars use the Ruthenia spelling in English for this period.

Late Middle Ages

By 13th and 14th century, Kievan Rus had disintegrated into loosely united principalities. The Vladimir-Suzdal Rus and the Novgorod Republic in the north fell under Mongol influence. United by Muscovy, it reinstated wide use of word Rus' in sense of united country and nation, which was translated into English as Russia. Later, under the influence of the Greek language, these principalities started using the term Rossiya (the Orthodox Christian hierarch acclaimed their rulers as rulers of whole Rosia), but this change didn't influence most foreign languages, including English. The Halych-Volyn Rus in the south fell under catholic Lithuanian and Polish influence, and therefore were usually denoted by Latinized form of Rus - Ruthenia (its leader was acclaimed as "King of Ruthenia" by Pope). For these territories, usage of Ruthenia became common in English. These southern territories have corresponding names in Polish:

• Ruś Biala — White Ruthenia, White Russia or Belarus\n* Ruś Czarna — Black Ruthenia, part of modern Belarus\n* Ruś Czerwona — Red Ruthenia, small strip in Poland (Przemysl), rest part of Ukraine (Galicia). Poland called the area the Ruthenian Voivodship.

Modern age

\nThe Belarusians usually called themselves "Litvins" (living in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and being the core of it), and the name "Ruthenians" was usually not applied to them. However, it survived a bit longer for denoting Ukraine. In 1840, nationalistic movement led to change the name from "Little Rus" to Ukrayina. During the period of 1880s — early 1900s, "Ruthenia" was often used in reference to western Ukraine. In early 20th century, the name "Ukraine" was widely accepted in Galicia/Halychyna and the name "Ruthenia" became narrowed to the area south of the Carpathian mountains in the Kingdom of Hungary. Carpathian Ruthenia incorporated the cities of Mukachiv/Mukachevo/Munkács, Uzhhorod/Ungvár and Presov/Pryashiv/Eperjes. This area was part of the Hungarian kingdom since 907 AD, and had been known as "Magna Rus'", but was also called "Karpato-Rus'" or "Zakarpattya". After being incorporated into Czechoslovakia between World War I and World War II, the area tried to declare its independence as "Carpatho-Ukraine" at the dawn of World War II. The name "Ruthenia" then came to mean an area of eastern/northeastern Slovakia after World War II. The people of the region rapidly became Slovakisized.

External links

\nWhy is the "Russia" White? - a book review of Ales Biely's "Chronicle of Ruthenia Alba"