Research


When analysing Russia and its people, they often start by ignoring one detail. While in other languages, there is no separation between Russians as an ethnicity and citizens of Russia, as both are generally described with one term, the difference is notable when spoken in Russian. Russian as an ethnicity is represented by the common term ‘Russkiy,’ while the general citizen of Russia who does not necessarily have a Russian ethnic background is called ‘Rossiyanin.’ Creating a term acknowledging a difference would be a significant step in increasing the accuracy of analysis, far from when everything was called Russia, be it the Russian Tsardom, Russian Empire, or even the Soviet Union that did not have Russia or anything Russia-related in its name. It will be a reminder that being Russian as an ethnicity does not mean being part of the government and fully accepting it, especially since it is not a democracy. They are just the largest ethnic group in the territory of the Russian Federation.