Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, spanning eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries. With a population of over 140 million, Russia is the most populous country in Europe and the ninth-most populous in the world. It is a highly urbanised country, with three-fourths of its population living in urban areas. Moscow, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, is the capital and largest city of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and a major cultural centre.
Human settlement on modern Russian territory dates back to the Lower Paleolithic. The emergence of the East Slavs as a prominent group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD led to the establishment of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, which adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988. Following the disintegration of Kievan Rus' in the 12th century, the Grand Principality of Moscow became the dominant Russian principality and led the unification of Russian lands during the late medieval period, culminating in the formation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had expanded vastly through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers. It was proclaimed as the Russian Empire in 1721, which became the third-largest empire in history. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the abolition of the Russian monarchy and the creation of the Russian SFSR, the first socialist state. Following the Russian Civil War, Russia became the largest and principal constituent of the newly established Soviet Union in 1922. Amidst rapid industrialisation in the 1930s, millions died under Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front. During the Cold War, it emerged as a superpower and competed with the United States for geopolitical dominance. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements, including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space.
In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the Russian Federation. Following a constitutional crisis in 1993, a new constitution was adopted, establishing a semi-presidential republic. Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin, under whose leadership it has experienced democratic backsliding, transforming into an authoritarian regime. Russia has been militarily involved in numerous conflicts, including its war with Georgia in 2008 and its war with Ukraine since 2014. The latter has involved the internationally unrecognised annexation of Crimea in 2014 and four additional regions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, resulting in a full-scale war.
Russia is generally considered a great power and a regional power, possessing the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and having the third-highest military expenditure in the world. Its economy ranks among the largest in the world by both nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP, relying on its vast mineral and energy resources, mainly oil and natural gas. However, Russia ranks very low in measurements of democracy, human rights and media freedom, while having high levels of systemic corruption. As the successor state of the Soviet Union, it retains its seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and is a member state of several international organisations. Russia is also home to 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English name Russia first appeared in the 14th century, borrowed from Medieval Latin Russia, used in the 11th century and frequently in 12th-century British sources, in turn derived from Russi, 'the Russians' and the suffix -ia.
The oldest endonyms used were Rus' (Русь) and Russkaya zemlya (Русская земля, 'Russian land'). According to the Primary Chronicle, the word Rus' derives from the Rus' people, identified as Norsemen from present-day Sweden, from whom the Rurikid dynasty descended. The name is considered a borrowing from Finnic Ruotsi ('Sweden'), in turn derived from Old Norse rōþs- ('related to rowing'). The Greek form Rhōs (Ῥῶς), referring to a people, is first clearly attested in the Latin Annales Bertiniani under the year 839. In modern historiography, the early medieval East Slavic state is usually referred to as Kievan Rus', a name derived from its capital city. Another Medieval Latin name for Rus' was Ruthenia.
In Russian, the country's current name, Rossiya (Россия), derives from the Byzantine Greek term Rhōsía (Ῥωσία). This term is first attested in texts dating to the mid-10th century, particularly De Administrando Imperio, and subsequently became the usual Byzantine designation for Russia. The form Rosiya (Росия) in Cyrillic is first attested in 1387. It appears in Russian sources from the 15th century and began to replace the vernacular Rus' during the rise of Moscow as the centre of a unified Russian state. However, until the end of the 17th century, the country's inhabitants more commonly referred to it as Rus', Russkaya zemlya, or Moskovskoye gosudarstvo ('Muscovite state'), among other variations. The terms Russkoye tsarstvo ('Russian tsardom') and Velikaya Rossiya ('Great Russia') also became established in Russian usage during this period. In modern Russian, the name Rus' persists mainly in literary and poetic usage to refer to historical or traditional Russia.
In 1721, Peter the Great proclaimed the Russian Empire (Rossiyskaya imperiya). The name Rossiya was used as the designation for the multinational empire and then for the modern Russian state. Similarly, after the Russian Revolution and the proclamation of the Russian SFSR in 1918, the state title used rossiyskaya rather than russkaya to denote its multinational character. In December 1991, the Russian SFSR was renamed the Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya).
The Russian language distinguishes between ethnic Russians and Russian citizens, although the terms for both are translated into English as "Russian". The noun and adjective russkiy (русский) refer to ethnic Russians, while the adjective rossiyskiy (российский) denotes the Russian state, and by extension, Russian citizenship. The noun rossiyanin (россиянин) refers to a Russian citizen, regardless of ethnicity.
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of human settlement in what is now Russia dates to the Oldowan period during the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia. Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus. Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago. Fossils of Denny, an archaic human hybrid that was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave. Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.
The first trace of an early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in Western Siberia. The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000 years ago, was found at Kostyonki–Borshchyovo, and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years ago—both in western Russia. Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya. Ancient North Eurasian populations from Siberia genetically similar to Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Afontova Gora were an important genetic contributor to Ancient Native Americans and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers.
The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and Russia spread Yamnaya ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Eurasia. Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic. Remnants of these steppe civilisations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo, Sintashta, Arkaim, and Pazyryk, which bear the earliest known traces of horses in warfare. The genetic makeup of speakers of the Uralic language family in northern Europe was shaped by migration from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago.
In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars. The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin, ruled the steppes between the Caucasus in the south, to the east past the Volga river basin, and west as far as Kiev on the Dnieper river until the 10th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks.
The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe c. 1500 years ago. The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia (approximately between modern Moscow and Saint-Petersburg) in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. Prior to Slavic migration, that territory was populated by Finno-Ugrian peoples. From the 7th century onwards, the incoming East Slavs slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugrians.
Kievan Rus'
The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of the Varangians, Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from the Rus', named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev, which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars. Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar state, and launched several military expeditions to Bulgaria, Byzantium and Persia.
During the 10th and 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute Kiev's Golden Age. Through his political and religious reforms, Vladimir laid the foundations for the transformation of Kievan Rus' from a fragmented conglomeration of tributary groups into a more unified realm, connected by dynastic authority and shared religious and cultural ties. He adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that would define Russian culture for the next millennium. The reign of Yaroslav also saw the creation of the state's first written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.
Kievan Rus' was politically unstable due to weak centralisation and the absence of a stable succession principle. The rota system introduced by Yaroslav led to princely authority being distributed among members of the ruling Rurikid dynasty according to seniority. Intended to preserve dynastic unity, this system increasingly fostered rivalry among princes, leading to frequent infighting. As a result, political power fragmented among competing regional centres, marking a gradual shift toward decentralisation. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north, and Galicia–Volhynia in the south-west. By the 12th century, Kiev lost its pre-eminence and Kievan Rus' had fragmented into different principalities. Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev in 1169 and made Vladimir his base, leading to political power being shifted to the north-east.
Vladimir-Suzdal continued the tradition of strong princely rule, while the Novgorod Republic, which formally won its independence in 1136, was an exception. From the mid-13th century, the throne of Novgorod was held by the grand princes of Vladimir, although the prince's authority gradually diminished in favour of more republican-style governance, with political power increasingly held by the veche (popular assembly) and elected officials. Novgorod became a major commercial centre through the fur trade and an important centre of Russian culture. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, the Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle on the Ice in 1242.
As it was undergoing fragmentation, Kievan Rus' finally fell to the Mongol invasions of 1237–1238, which overran much of the region and later resulted in the sacking of Kiev in 1240 and other cities, as well as the death of a significant portion of the population. The invaders, later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which ruled over Russia for the next two centuries. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped foreign occupation after it agreed to pay tribute to the Mongols. Galicia–Volhynia would later be absorbed by Lithuania and Poland, while the Novgorod Republic continued to prosper in the north. In the northeast, the Byzantine-Slavic traditions of Kievan Rus' were adapted to form the Russian autocratic state.
Grand Principality of Moscow
The destruction of Kievan Rus' saw the eventual rise of the Grand Principality of Moscow, initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal. While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century, gradually becoming the leading force in the "gathering of the Russian lands". When the seat of the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved to Moscow in 1325, its influence increased. Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.
Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow gradually absorbed its parent duchy and surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.
Ivan III ("the Great") threw off the control of the Golden Horde and gained sovereignty over the ethnically Russian lands; he later adopted the title of sovereign of all Russia. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI, and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms. Vasili III united all of Russia by annexing the last few independent Russian states in the early 16th century.