Little Russia Малая Русь | |
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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, [lower-alpha 1] also known as Lesser Russia, Malorussia, Little Rus', [lower-alpha 2] and the French equivalent Petite Russie, is a geographical and historical term used to describe Ukraine.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the patriarch of Constantinople accepted the distinction between what it called the eparchies of Megalē Rosiia (Great Rus') and Mikrà Rosiia (Little Rus'). [1] [2] The jurisdiction of the latter became the metropolis of Halych in 1303. [1] 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, [3] or having fewer eparchies. [2] 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). [2]
The name term went out of use in the late 15th century as distinguishing the "Great" and "Little" was no longer necessary since the church in Moscow was no longer tied to Kiev. 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 the Greek-influenced spelling: Malaia Rossiia ("Little Russia"). [2] 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) [lower-alpha 3] 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"). [4]
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. [5] [6]
The toponym is adapted from the Greek term, which was used in medieval times by the patriarchs of Constantinople from the beginning of the 14th century. [7] The Byzantines accepted the distinction between Μεγάλη Ῥωσσία (Megálē Rhōssía – Great Rus'), [8] where the Russian Church would become independent after declaring autocephaly in 1448, and Μικρὰ Ῥωσσία (Mikrà Rhōssía – Little Rus’), which beginning in 1458 would have its own metropolitans who were approved by the patriarch of Constantinople. [9]
Initially Little or Lesser meant the nearer part, [3] as after the division of the metropolis (ecclesiastical province) in 1305, a new southwestern metropolis in the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia consisted of only 6 of the 19 former eparchies. [3] [1] It later lost its ecclesiastical associations and became a geographical name only. [3]
In the 17th century, the term Malorossiya was introduced into Russian. In English the term is often translated Little Russia or Little Rus’, depending on context. [10]
The Russian-Polish geographer and ethnographer Zygmunt Gloger in his "Geography of historic lands of the Old Poland" (Polish : "Geografia historyczna ziem dawnej Polski") describes an alternative view of the term "Little" in relations to Little Russia where he compares it to the similar term of "Little Poland". [11]
The expression μικρὰ Ρωσσία is found as early as 1292, in writings of Codinus. [12]
The term was used by Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople in 1361 when he created two metropolitan sees: Great Rus' in Vladimir and Kiev and Little Rus' with its centers in Galich (Halych) and Novgorodok (Navahrudak). [13] King Casimir III of Poland was called "the king of Lechia and Little Rus'." [13] Yuri II Boleslav used the term in a 1335 letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, where he styled himself as dux totius Rusiæ Minoris. [13] According to Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, Little Rus' was associated with the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, and after its downfall, the name ceased to be used. [14]
In the post-medieval period, the name Little Rus' was first used by the Eastern Orthodox clergy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, e.g. by influential cleric and writer Ioan Vyshensky (1600, 1608), Metropolitan Matthew of Kiev and All Rus' (1606), Bishop Ioann (Biretskoy) of Peremyshl, Metropolitan Isaiah (Kopinsky) of Kiev, Archimandrite Zacharias Kopystensky of Kiev Pechersk Lavra, etc. [15] The term has been applied to all Orthodox Ruthenian lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. [15] Vyshensky addressed "the Christians of Little Russia, brotherhoods of Lviv and Vilna," and Kopystensky wrote "Little Russia, or Kiev and Lithuania." [15]
The term was adopted in the 17th century by the Tsardom of Russia to refer to the Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine, when the latter fell under Russian protection after the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav, after which it was referred to as Malorossiia. [1] From 1654 to 1721, the official title of Russian tsars contained the language (literal translation) "The Sovereign of all Rus': the Great, the Little, and the White."[ citation needed ]
The term Little Rus' has been used in letters of the Cossack hetmans Bohdan Khmelnytsky [16] and Ivan Sirko. [17] [18] Innokentiy Gizel, Archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, wrote that the Russian people were a union of three branches—Great Russia, Little Russia, and White Russia—under the sole legal authority of the Moscow Tsars. The term Little Russia has been used in Ukrainian chronicles by Samiilo Velychko, in a chronicle of the Hieromonk Leontiy (Bobolinski), and in Thesaurus by Archimandrite Ioannikiy (Golyatovsky). [19] [20]
The usage of the name was later broadened to apply loosely to the parts of Right-bank Ukraine when it was annexed by Russia at the end of the 18th century upon the partitions of Poland. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Russian Imperial administrative units known as the Little Russian Governorate and eponymous General Governorship were formed and existed for several decades before being split and renamed in subsequent administrative reforms.[ citation needed ]
Up to the very end of the 19th century, Little Russia was the prevailing term for much of the modern territory of Ukraine controlled by the Russian Empire, as well as for its people and their language. This can be seen from its usage in numerous scholarly, literary and artistic works. Ukrainophile historians Mykhaylo Maksymovych, Mykola Kostomarov, Dmytro Bahaliy, and Volodymyr Antonovych acknowledged the fact that during the Russo-Polish wars, Ukraine had only a geographical meaning, referring to the borderlands of both states, but Little Russia was the ethnonym of Little (Southern) Russian people. [21] [22] In his prominent work Two Russian nationalities, Kostomarov uses Southern Rus and Little Russia interchangeably. [21] [23] Mykhailo Drahomanov titled his first fundamental historic work Little Russia in Its literature (1867–1870). [24] Different prominent artists (e.g., Mykola Pymonenko, Kostyantyn Trutovsky, Nikolay Aleksandrovich Sergeyev, photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, etc.), many of whom were native to the territory of modern-day Ukraine, used Little Russia in the titles of their paintings of Ukrainian landscapes.[ citation needed ]
The term Little Russian language was used by the state authorities in the first Russian Empire Census, conducted in 1897.[ citation needed ]
The name Ukraine was reintroduced in the 19th century by several writers making a conscious effort to awaken Ukrainian national awareness. [25] But it was not until the 20th century when the modern term Ukraine started to prevail, while Little Russia gradually fell out of use.[ citation needed ]
The term Little Russia is now anachronistic when used to refer to the country Ukraine and the modern Ukrainian nation, its language, culture, etc. Such usage is typically perceived as conveying an imperialist view that the Ukrainian territory and people ("Little Russians") belong to "one, indivisible Russia." [26] Today, many Ukrainians consider the term disparaging, indicative of Russian suppression of Ukrainian identity and language.
It has continued to be used in Russian nationalist discourse, in which modern Ukrainians are presented as a single people in a united Russian nation. This has provoked new hostility toward and disapproval of the term by many Ukrainians.[ citation needed ] In July 2021 Vladimir Putin published a 7000-word essay, a large part of which was devoted to expounding these views. [27]
The concept of "Little Russianness" (Ukrainian : малоросійство, romanized: malorosiistvo) is defined by some Ukrainian authors as a provincial complex they see in parts of the Ukrainian community due to its lengthy existence within the Russian Empire. They describe it as an "indifferent, and sometimes a negative stance towards Ukrainian national-statehood traditions and aspirations, and often as active support of Russian culture and of Russian imperial policies". [28] Mykhailo Drahomanov, who used the terms Little Russia and Little Russian in his historical works, [24] applied the term Little Russianness to Russified Ukrainians, whose national character was formed under "alien pressure and influence" and who consequently adopted the "worse qualities of other nationalities and lost the better ones of their own". [28] Ukrainian conservative ideologue and politician Vyacheslav Lypynsky defined the term as "the malaise of statelessness". [29] The same inferiority complex has been said to apply to the Ukrainians of Galicia with respect to Poland (gente ruthenus, natione polonus). [30] The related term Madiarony has been used to describe Magyarized Rusyns in Carpathian Ruthenia who advocated for the union of that region with Hungary. [28]
The term "Little Russians" has also been used to denote stereotypically uneducated, rustic Ukrainians exhibiting little or no self-esteem. The uncouth stage persona of popular Ukrainian singer and performer Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko is an embodiment of this stereotype; his Surzhyk-speaking drag persona Verka Serduchka has also been seen as perpetuating this demeaning image. [31] [32] Danylko himself usually laughs off such criticism of his work, and many art critics argue that his success with the Ukrainian public is rooted in the unquestionable authenticity of his presentation. [33]
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 2 in C minor, Op 17, is nicknamed the "Little Russian" from its use of Ukrainian folk tunes. [34] According to historian Harlow Robinson, Nikolay Kashkin, a friend of the composer as well as a well-known musical critic in Moscow, "suggested the moniker in his 1896 book Memories of Tchaikovsky." [35]
Ruthenia is an exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin, as one of several terms for Kievan Rus'. Originally, the term Rus' land referred to a triangular area, which mainly corresponds to the tribe of Polans in Dnieper Ukraine. Ruthenia was used to refer to the East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox people of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Austria-Hungary, mainly to Ukrainians and sometimes Belarusians, corresponding to the territories of modern Belarus, Ukraine, Eastern Poland and some of western Russia.
The history of Ukraine spans back for over thousands of years. Prehistoric Ukraine, as a part of the Pontic steppe in Eastern Europe, played an important role in Eurasian cultural events, including the spread of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, Indo-European migrations, and the domestication of the horse.
Ruthenian and Ruthene are exonyms of Latin origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common ethnonyms for Ukrainians and partially Belarusians, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term Rutheni was used in medieval sources to describe Eastern Slavs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as an exonym for people of the former Kievan Rus', thus including ancestors of the modern Belarusians, Rusyns and Ukrainians. The use of Ruthenian and related exonyms continued through the early modern period, developing several distinctive meanings, both in terms of their regional scopes and additional religious connotations.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the third-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the Latin Church and the Syro-Malabar Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
The Principality or, from 1253, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, also known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia or Kingdom of Rus, was a medieval state in Eastern Europe which existed from 1199 to 1349. Its territory was predominantly located in modern-day Ukraine, with parts in Belarus, Poland, Moldova, and Lithuania. Along with Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, it was one of the three most important powers to emerge from the collapse of Kievan Rus'.
Rusyns, also known as Carpatho-Rusyns, Ruthenians, or Rusnaks, are an East Slavic ethnic group from the Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn, an East Slavic language variety, treated variously as either a distinct language or a dialect of the Ukrainian language. As traditional adherents of Eastern Christianity, the majority of Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, though a minority of Rusyns practice Eastern Orthodoxy. Rusyns primarily self-identify as a distinct Slavic people and they are recognized as such in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia, where they have official minority status. Alternatively, some identify more closely with their country of residence, while others are a branch of the Ukrainian people.
The earliest known usage of the name Ukraine appears in the Hypatian Codex of c. 1425 under the year 1187 in reference to a part of the territory of Kievan Rus'. The use of "the Ukraine" has been officially deprecated by the Ukrainian government and many English-language media publications.
The Principality of Galicia, also known as Principality of Halych or Principality of Halychian Rus', was a medieval East Slavic principality, and one of the main regional states within the political scope of Kievan Rus', established by members of the oldest line of Yaroslav the Wise descendants. A characteristic feature of the Galician principality was the important role of the nobility and citizens in political life, and consideration a will which was the main condition for the princely rule. Halych as the capital mentioned in around 1124 as a seat of Ivan Vasylkovych the grandson of Rostislav of Tmutarakan. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky the realm of Halych was passed to Rostyslav upon the death of his father Vladimir Yaroslavich, but he was banished out of it later by his uncle to Tmutarakan. The realm was then passed to Yaropolk Izyaslavich who was a son of the ruling Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev.
The Conversion of Chełm Eparchy was the forced conversion of the Eparchy of Chełm–Belz that took place between January and May 1875. It was the last eparchy of the Ruthenian Uniate Church that remained on the territory of the Russian Empire following the partitions of Poland. The episcopal seat of the eparchy was in the city of Chełm (Kholm) in Congress Poland. Adherents and clergy were forced to join the Russian Orthodox Church.
The word Rus' referred initially to a group of Scandinavian Vikings, also known as Varangians, who founded the medieval state of Kievan Rus' in Eastern Europe in the 10th century. The term gradually acquired the meaning of the aforementioned dynastic polity itself, and also the geographic region of its heartlands Kiev, Pereiaslavl' and Chernihiv. Russia is a Hellenized rendition of the same word, and Ruthenia is its Latinized form.
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus', was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangian prince Rurik. The name was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev was at the center. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east, uniting the East Slavic tribes.
The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage allegedly founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the year 862. The Rurikids were the ruling dynasty of Kievan Rus' and its principalities following its disintegration.
The All-Russian nation or triune Russian nation, also called the pan-Russian nation, is the term for the Imperial Russian and later irredentist ideology that sees the Russian nation as comprising a "trinity" of sub-nations: Great Russia, Little Russia, and White Russia. Respectively, these sub-nations are contextually identified with Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Above all, the basis of the ideology's upholding of an inclusive Russian identity is centered around bringing all East Slavs under its fold.
The Little Russian identity was a cultural, political, and ethnic self-identification of a population of Ukraine who aligned themselves as one of the constituent parts of the triune Russian nationality. The Little Russian identity combined the cultures of Imperial Russia and Cossack Hetmanate.
The Metropolis of Halych was a metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was erected on the territory of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia in 1303 by Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople. The episcopal seat of the metropolis was in the city of Halych in the "Cathedral of the Assumption".
The Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus' was a metropolis of the Eastern Orthodox Church that was erected on the territory of Kievan Rus'. It existed between 988 AD and 1440s AD. The long lasting "tug of war" between bishops from the Great Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia and bishops of the Great Duchy of Moscow resulted in reorganization of the metropolis as the bishops from Moscow refused to recognize decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Canonically, it was under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The metropolitan seat (cathedra) was located in the city of Kiev until it was moved to Vladimir-na-Klyazme in 1299 and then Moscow in 1325.
The Ruthenian Uniate Church was a particular church of the Catholic Church in the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was created in 1595/1596 by those clergy of the Eastern Orthodox Church who subscribed to the Union of Brest. In the process, they switched their allegiances and jurisdiction from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Holy See.
The schism between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and part ofitsMetropolis of Kiev and all Rus occurred between approximately 1467 and 1560. This schism de facto ended supposedly around 1560.
The Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus' was a metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church that was erected in 1620. The dioceses (eparchies) included the Eparchy of Kiev itself, along with the eparchies of Lutsk, Lviv, Mahilioŭ, Przemyśl, Polatsk, and Chernihiv. The dioceses lay in the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was at war with the Tsardom of Moscow for much of the 17th century. Around 1686, the Kiev and Chernihiv dioceses became Moscow-controlled territory. At the same time, the metropolis transferred from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1686. It is a matter of dispute as to whether this de facto transfer was also de jure or canonical.
The Metropolis of Kiev is a metropolis of the Eastern Orthodox Church that was transferred to the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1685. From 988 AD until 1596 AD, the mother church of the Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus' had been the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Moscow Patriarchate was a Caesaropapist entity that was under the control of the Russian state. While nominally ruled by a metropolitan bishop, since its inception, the secular authorities of the Tsardom of Russia altered the territorial remit of the Kyiv metropolis, stripped it of its suffragan sees and transformed the office from an ecclesiastical province to an archbishopric to an honorific or empty title.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)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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