Global InformationLittle Russia information
| Little Russia Малая Русь | |
|---|---|
| Region of the Russian Empire | |
 A fragment of the “new and accurate map of Europe collected from the best authorities...” by Emanuel Bowen published in 1747 in his A complete system of geography. The territory around Voronezh and Tambov is shown as “Little Russia”. White Russia is located north-east of Smolensk, and the legend “Ukrain” straddles the Dnieper river near Poltava. | |
| Today part of | Belarus Russia Ukraine Moldova |
Little Russia (Russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, romanized: Malorossiya/Malaya Rossiya; Ukrainian: Малоросія/Мала Росія, romanized: Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (Russian: Малая Русь, romanized: Malaya Rus; Ukrainian: Мала Русь, romanized: Mala Rus), Rus' Minor (from Greek: Μικρὰ Ῥωσία, romanized: Mikrá Rosía), and the French equivalent Petite Russie, is a geographical and historical term used to describe Ukraine. Since 1334, Yuri II Boleslav, the ruler of the Ruthenian Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, signed his decrees Natus dux totius Russiæ minoris,[1] but the expression μικρὰ Ρωσσία is found as early as 1292, in the Byzantine writer Codinus.[2] The distinction between "Great" and "Little" Rus' probably originated among Byzantine, Greek-speaking clerics who wanted to separate the two Ruthenian ecclesiastical metropolises of Halych and Moscow.[3]
The specific meaning of the adjectives "Great" and "Little" in this context is unclear. It is possible that terms such as "Little" and "Lesser" at the time simply meant geographically smaller and/or less populous,[4] or having fewer eparchies.[3] Another possibility is that it denoted a relationship similar to that between a homeland and a colony (just as "Magna Graecia" denoted a Greek colony).[3]
The name "Little Rus'" went out of use in the late 15th century as distinguishing the "Great" and "Little" was no longer necessary since the Muscovite Rus' church was no longer tied to Kyiv/Kiev; in this period, the term Rus', including the Greek-influenced spelling "Rossiia", was used to refer to modern Belarus and Ukraine by their inhabitants. However, with the rise of the Catholic Ruthenian Uniate Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Orthodox prelates attempting to seek support from Moscow revived the name using Greek-influenced spelling: "Malaia Rossiia" ("Little Russia").[3] Then "Little Russia" developed into a political and geographical concept in Russia, referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine, especially the territory of the Cossack Hetmanate. Accordingly, derivatives such as "Little Russian" (Russian: Малоросс, romanized: Maloross)[a] were commonly applied to the people, language, and culture of the area. A large part of the region's elite population adopted a Little Russian identity that competed with the local Ukrainian identity. The territories of modern-day southern Ukraine, after being annexed by Russia in the 18th century, became known as Novorossiya ("New Russia").[5]
After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, and with the amalgamation of Ukrainian territories into one administrative unit (the Ukrainian People's Republic and then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), the term started to recede from common use. Today, the term is anachronistic, and many Ukrainians regard its usage as offensive.[6][7]
- ^ Ефименко, А.Я. История украинского народа. К., "Лыбедь", 1990, стр. 87.
- ^ Morfill, William Richard (1890). "The Story of Russia".
- ^ a b c d Kohut, Zenon Eugene (1986). "The Development of a Little Russian Identity and Ukrainian Nationbuilding". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 10 (3/4): 559–576. JSTOR 41036271 – via 563.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Solovwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Schlegel, Simon (2019). Making ethnicity in southern Bessarabia : tracing the histories of an ambiguous concept in a contested land. Leiden. p. 33. ISBN 9789004408029.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Russia rejects new Donetsk rebel 'state'". BBC News. 19 July 2017. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ Steele, Jonathan (1994). Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the Mirage of Democracy. Harvard University Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-674-26837-1. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
Several centuries later, when Moscow became the main colonizing force, Ukrainians were given a label which they were to find insulting. [...] The Russians of Muscovy [...] were the 'Great Russians'. Ukraine was called 'Little Russia', or Malorus. Although the phrase was geographical in origin, it could not help being felt by Ukrainian nationalists as demeaning.
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