The All-Russian nation or All-Russian people () or triune Russian people (), also called the triune Russian nation or pan-Russian nation, is the term for the Imperial Russian and modern Russian irredentist ideology that sees the Russian nation as comprising a "trinity" of sub-nations: Great Russia, Little Russia, and White Russia,Yas, O. Small Ruthenia (МАЛА РУСЬ). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. which are contextually identified with Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians respectively. Above all, the basis of the ideology's upholding of an inclusive Russian identity is centered around bringing all East Slavs under its fold.
An imperial dogma focused on nation-building became popular in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, where it was consolidated as the official state ideology; the sentiment of the triune nationality of "All-Russian" was embraced by many imperial subjects, including Jews and Germans, and ultimately served as the foundation of the Russian Empire.
Etymology English-language scholarly works refer to this concept as Greater Russia, All-Russian, pan-Russian or triune Russian nation.
In Russian, it is referred to as the Triyedinyi russkii narod (). In the 19th century, the idea was also referred to as an obshcherusskii (one-Russian or common-Russian) nationality. In Ukrainian, it is referred to as the () or ().Яковенко Микола. курс підготовки до зовнішнього незалежного оцінювання, Країна мрій, 2008 In Belarusian, it is referred to as the Tryjadziny ruski narod ().
Note that in this context the three East Slavic languages use the word narod, which translates as "people". Narod ("people") in these languages expresses the sense of "a lower-level, ethno-cultural agglomeration", whereas in English the word "nation" (as used by scholars) also refers to a large group of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history.
Nomenclature
The Slavs adapted the toponym Little or Lesser Rus from the Greek term, used by the Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople from the 14th century (it first appeared in church documents in 1335). The terms originated from the Byzantines, who identified the northern and southern parts of the lands of Rus as: Greater Rus (, Megálē Rhōssía) and Little Rus (, Mikrà Rhōssía). The terms were geographic in nature; the Byzantines used them to distinguish between the jurisdictions of the metropolitanates of Moscow and of Halych; "Little" (or "Inner") referred to the region closer to Byzantium, Galicia; "Greater" (or "Outer") to the regions further away and more remote, Muscovy.
In the Russian language, the word Russian (, Russkiy) is a single adjective to the word Rus ().Фёдор Гайда.Русские и россияне. In the period of the Russian Empire, from the 17th century to the 20th century, the word Russian often referred to the All-Russian (East Slav) peoples, as opposed to ethnic Russians, who were known as Great Russians. In this period, the All-Russian (Imperial) and Great Russian (ethnic) identity became increasingly intertwined and indistinguishable among the Russian population.
In the West, the name "Ruthenia" denoted the former lands of Rus' where those Eastern Slavs lived (many of whom later became subjects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) who included both Ukrainians and Belarusians. In the 17th century the term Malorossiya was introduced into the Russian language; in English the term is often translated Little Russia or Little Rus, depending on the context.Works of modern scholars that make such a distinction include:Paul Robert Magocsi "The Roots of Ukrainian Nationalism: Galicia As Ukraine's Piedmont", University of Toronto Press (2002), Serhii Plokhy, "The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus", Cambridge University Press (2006), Ukrainians, in varying circumstances, have called themselves Ruthenians (alternatively , , or ) and Little Russians (). Rusyns in western Ukraine have adopted the name "Rusnak". In more recent times, the term Little Russian began to acquire pejorative overtones, denoting both lesser importance and provincial backwardness; in contemporary Ukrainian the term has become entirely derogatory, associated with one who "lacks national consciousness" and with those who would identify as a branch of the all-Russian ethnos. Historically, Ukrainians have also used the term khokhol amongst themselves as a form of ethnic self-identification, visibly separate from the Great Russians; Russians commonly use this term as an ethnic slur for Ukrainians, and frequently use it in derogatory or condescending fashion.
As a matter of distinction, while Ukrainians widely were referred to as Ruthenians, members of the Ukrainian Russophile movement (also known as Muscophiles) were known as "Old Ruthenians", whereas Ukrainophiles were known as "Young Ruthenians".
History
Background
The disintegration, or parcelling, of the polity of Kievan Rus' in the 11th century resulted in considerable population shifts and a political, social, and economic regrouping. The resultant effect of these forces coalescing was the marked emergence of new peoples. While these processes began long before the fall of Kiev, its fall expedited these gradual developments into a significant linguistic and ethnic differentiation among the Rus' people into Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians. Сочинения: В 9 т. М., Т. І. Курс русской ис-тории. Ч. І. С. All of this was emphasized by the subsequent polities these groups migrated into: southwestern and western Rus', where the Ruthenian and later Ukrainian and Belarusian identities developed, was subject to Lithuanian and later Polish influence; whereas the (Great) Russian ethnic identity that developed in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality and the Novgorodian Russian north, an area also inhabited by Finno-Ugric, Slavic and Tatar-Turkic tribes, isolated from its Ruthene relatives.
Muscovite princes considered themselves to be rightful heirs of the "Kievan inheritance", and associated their survival with fulfilling the historical destiny of reunifying the lands of Rus'. This ideology was ostensibly seen in their given titles (grand princes and tsars) which defined themselves as rulers of "all Rus. In 1328 Ivan I of Moscow persuaded Theognost, the Metropolitan of Kiev, to settle in Moscow; from which point forward the title changed to "of Kiev and [all Rus']"—a title which was retained until the mid-fifteenth century. Later, in 1341 Simeon of Moscow was appointed Grand Prince "of all Russia" by the Khan of the Mongol Golden Horde. Ivan III, Grand Duchy of Moscow, considered himself heir to all former Kievan Rus' lands and in 1493 he assumed the title of gosudar, or "Sovereign of All Russia". This trend continued to evolve and by the mid-17th century transformed into "Tsar of All Great, Little, and White Rus, and with Peter I's creation of a Russian Empire, "Little Russian" came be a demonym for all inhabitants of Ukraine under imperial rule.
While the political reintegration of the Rus' can be seen in the politics of Russia's tsardom, the Kievan Synopsis, written in the 16th century by the Prussian-born archimandrite of the Kiev Caves monastery Innocent Gizel, contains a description of the ancient unity between the "Russian peoples". This is seen as the earliest historical record of a common Rus' ethnic identity.Юсова Н. Н. Давньоруської народності концепція // Енциклопедія історії України. У 5 т. / Редкол В. А. Смолій та ін. — Інститут історії України НАН України. — Київ: Наукова думка, 2003. — Т. 2. Г-Д. — С. 275–276. — 528 с. — 5000 экз. — Meanwhile, in the late 16th century, the word 'Ukraine' was used extensively to describe Poland's "borderland" region (cf. krajina), and local Ruthenian (Rus') inhabitants adopted the Ukrainian identity to "distinguish their nationality from the Polish". Ukrainian Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky also declared himself the "ruler of all Rus in 1648, after driving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth out of Ukraine in the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
18th century
Very shortly after Catherine II's ascension to the throne she issued the ukase of May 1763, declaring the Cossack Hetmanate to be administered according to 'Little Russian rights'. This prompted the Hetmanate's General Military Chancellery of Hlukhiv to be convened the following September by Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovskyi, at which the council accepted the imperial (All-Russian) narrative by demanding recognition of Peter I's decree of 1708 which stated that "no other people had such privileges as the Little Russian nation", and indicated their descent from and the loyalty to the 'Little Russian nation' (in whose ranks they included everyone except the peasants). Despite recognition of this apparent unity, the demands of the Hlukhiv council attempted to establish "a distinctive political, social, and economic system in the Hetmanate", and fulfill the vision by Ukrainian elites of a Little and Great Russia as separate countries united only by a familiar head of state.
The concept of the "All-Russian nation" gained in political importance near the end of the 18th century as a means of legitimizing Russian imperial claims to the eastern territories of the partitioned Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. 'Russianness' as an ethnic concept stressed the differences between the East Slav population from the rest. This concept extended to the ideas of being united within "Mother Russia" and having "one blood" (edinokrovnye). Russian culture in this period was also marked with an adoption of many western ideas, which made it attractive to others as progressive, rather than backward. Traditional customs and values in Russia were viewed as backwardness by the Western observers in 18th and 19th centuries.
19th century
In the 19th century the territory of Ukraine "became an object of a terminological war"; in Russia they were referred to as the "southwestern" or "restored" lands. Some favored repressive measures to 'cleanse the Russian soul of the Western borderlands from alien Polish influences' in order to "uncover the pure Russian nature" of the population. Proponents of the triune Russian nation saw the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages to be dialects of the Russian language; this view was official and dominated popular opinion in the 19th century. In the terminological battle, Poles called Ukrainians 'Ruthenians' () while (Great) Russians were called 'Muscovites' (); "stressing the ethnic difference between them". In the case of Galicia, Poles insisted on Ukrainians (Ruthenians) being a branch of the Polish people. Meanwhile, in Russia, Ukrainians were also known as Ruthenians (, "always with a double-s to stress belonging to the 'All-Russian unity") or more commonly as Little Russians (); Great Russians were known as , a term for all East Slavs under a common nation.