Little Russia

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Little Russia, originally Little or Lesser Rus' (Russian: ; Ukrainian: Mala Rus’), was the name for the territory of Ukraine applied in the time of the Russian Empire and earlier. The term originates from the name given to the land by Byzantines who called the northern and southern part of the lands of Rus’ as: Μακρα Ρωσία (Makra Rosia, 'Great Russia') and Μικρα Ρωσία (Mikra Rosia, 'Little Russia'), respectively.

The term was adopted by Muscovy, to refer to the Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine, when it fell under Russian protection, after the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav. It was later applied to Right-bank Ukraine when it was gained from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The official title of Russian Tsars and Emperors gained the wording (literal translation): "The Sovereign of all Rus': the Great, the Little, and the White."

While the term Little Russia was the Russian name for the geographic territory since the middle of the seventeenth century, the modern name Ukraine (Ukrayina) has been used in different ways since the sixteenth century. For political reasons, Ukraine as a proper name for the nation became accepted only in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the term Little Russia mostly fell out of use.

Today, many Ukrainians consider the modern usage of Little Russia offensive, as it often implies the denial of a separate Ukrainian national identity, an opinion not uncommon among Russian nationalists. Another common interpretation, however, maintains that the term is in no way offensive, being an acknowledgement of the fact that the region served as the birthplace of the Russian culture, which grew very far beyond its original Kievan Rus borders.

The terms Little Russian (malorusskiy yazyk or malorosskiy yazyk) for Ukrainian language, which implies it being simply a dialect of Russian, and Little Russians (malorossy) for the Ukrainians, have fallen out of use as well.

Little Russia

See also