Russian people
The Russians (Russian: русские pron. rússkiye; singular русский pron. russki) are an East Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Russia and their neighboring countries. Russians are the largest ethnic group in Europe and one of the largest in the world with a population of around 140 million people worldwide. About 116 million Russians live in Russia and about 20 million more live in neighboring countries. A relatively significant number of Russians, about 4 million, live in other parts of the world, mainly in Western Europe and America (most of them in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina) although they are also found in other parts of Southern Europe. East, Asia, and to a lesser extent in Oceania.
Even though the majority of the population is of Russian origin, more than 100 nationalities live in Russia, of which 57 have their own territory and 95 do not. Among the different nationalities, the most numerous are Tatars and Ukrainians, followed by Belarusians, Germans, Chuvashians, Bashkirs and Jews.
There are currently an estimated 135 million ethnic Russians.
Name
The Spanish term rusos is also used to refer to the inhabitants of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity (see demography of Russia for information on other peoples living in Russia). In Russian, this meaning is covered by the recently revived politically correct term rossiyanin (россиянин, plural россияне - rossiyane). The word rossiyanin has no analogue in most languages (although in German there is russländisch, which comes from the name of Russia —Russland—, while for an ethnic Russian, русский, russisch is used). Ethnic Russians make up about 80% of the population of the Russian Federation.
Rise of the Russian ethnos
Russians began to be recognized as a distinct ethnic group in the 15th century, when they were referred to as Russians Muscovites, during the consolidation of the Grand Duchy of Moscow as a regional power. Between the 12th and 16th centuries, Russians known as Pomors migrated into northern Russia and settled on the shores of the White Sea. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, Russian migrants previously settled in most uninhabited areas in Siberia and the Russian Far East.
According to most ethnologists, the Russians originated from the first Rus' people who founded the Rus' Khaganate. (Dendrochronology suggests that the multi-ethnic settlement Aldeigjuborg, present-day Staraya Ladoga, was founded in 753, being dominated by Scandinavians calling themselves 'Rus' according to the "Annales Bertiniani", who would gradually be assimilated by the Eastern Slavs, i.e. "Slavicized", would later form Kievan Rus), and would gradually evolve into a different ethnicity from the Western Rus peoples who would become present-day Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some ethnologists claim that the Russians were a distinct Slavic group, even before the time of Kievan Rus'. Others believe that the distinguishing feature of the Russians is not primarily their separateness from the Western Rus', but that they are a mix of East Slavic and non-Slavic tribes (for example, Finno-Ugrics, Germans, Balts, and Turks). However, the origin of the Slavic peoples is itself a matter on which there is no consensus.
Religion
Russians are predominantly of the Orthodox Christian faith. According to the Center for Sociological Research at Lomonosov Moscow State University, 43.3% of adults consider themselves adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church, while 50.6% consider themselves simply Christian. Although non-religious Russians associate mostly with the orthodox faith for cultural reasons. Some Russians are Old Believers, a relatively small schismatic group within Russian Orthodoxy that rejected liturgical reforms introduced in the 17th century, the Nikon reform.
There are also minorities of Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, and Neopagan Slavs.
Russians outside of Russia
The largest communities of Russians outside of Russia live in ex-Soviet states, such as Ukraine (about 8 million), Kazakhstan (about 5 million), the Baltic states (approx. 2 million), Belarus (approx. 1 million), Uzbekistan (about 1 million), Kyrgyzstan (about 600,000), and Moldova (about 500,000). There are also small Russian communities in the Balkans, in central and eastern European nations such as the Czech Republic, as well as in China and Latin America. These communities may self-identify as Russian or as citizens of these countries, or both, to vary degrees.
A significant number of Russians emigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. Brighton Beach, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, is an example of a large community of recent Russian immigrants, but most of them are Russian Jews. At the same time, many Russians from former Soviet territories have immigrated to Russia itself since the 1990s. Many of them became refugees from various states of Central Asia and the Caucasus (for example, from the breakaway republic of Chechnya), forced to flee during the political disorder and hostilities towards the Russians).
South America was also a destination for many Russian emigrants, mainly during the XX and XXI, most of them targeting Argentina and to a lesser extent Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some Russians complained about discrimination in several newly independent countries. The government of Latvia, with the highest proportion of Russians in the Baltic, responded to these charges by complaining that many of the Russians or their ancestors had arrived as part of deliberate Soviet-era colonization and Russification in order to change the ethnic balance of countries. It should be mentioned, however, that many of the Russians who arrived during the Soviet era did so for military reasons, economic reasons, or in some cases, because they were ordered to move.
In line with this thinking, in independent Estonia and Latvia, many Baltic Russians are not granted citizenship automatically, but are first required to pass a demonstration test of knowledge of the national language, as well as knowledge of the national language. the history and customs of the country. The language issue is still contentious, particularly in Latvia, where Russians have protested against plans to educate them in the national language instead of Russian. In Lithuania, where the number of Russians was about 10 percent of the population, they were granted citizenship automatically.
The European Union and the European Council, as well as the Russian government, have expressed concern since the 1990s about minority rights in several countries, most notably in the Baltic countries, especially Estonia and Latvia. In Moldova, the Transnistria region, in which Russians and Ukrainians make up the majority of the population, was separated from government control due to fears that the country would be unified with Romania.
In France there are 115,000 Russians living and working in France.
Russians in China
Russians (俄罗斯族) are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China (as the Russ), and there are approximately 15,600 Chinese Russians living mostly in northern Xinjiang, and also in Mongolia Inland and Heilongjiang. The Russian Revolution, which caused the emigration of millions of its inhabitants abroad, also caused the settlement of numerous Russians and Belarusians in China, many of whom later emigrated to the US. The cinema shows this phenomenon in the film & #34;The Countess of Hong Kong".