The name 

Russia is derived from Rus', a medieval state populated primarily by the East Slavs.[17] However, the proper
name became more prominent in later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Rus land".[18] In
order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus' by modern historiography.
The name Rus' itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, a group of Norse merchants and warriors who
relocated from across the Baltic Sea and founded a state centred on Novgorod that later became Kievan Rus'.[19]
A Medieval Latin version of the name Rus' was Ruthenia, which was used as one of several designations for East
Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions, and commonly as a designation for the lands of Rus'.[20] The current name of
the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Rus', Ρωσσία Rossía – spelled
Ρωσία (Rosía pronounced [roˈsia]) in Modern Greek.[21] The standard way to refer to the citizens of Russia is "Russians"
in English.[22] There are two words in Russian which are commonly translated into English as "Russians" – one is
"русские" (russkiye), which most often refers to ethnic Russians – and the other is "россияне" (rossiyane), which
refers to citizens of Russia, regardless of ethnicity.[23]

History
Main article: History of Russia

Early history
Further information: Ancient Greek colonies, Early Slavs, Huns, Turkic expansion, and Prehistory of Siberia
See also: Proto-Indo-Europeans and Proto-Uralic homeland
The first human settlement on Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million
years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia.[24] Flint tools, some
1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus.[25] Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova
Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago.[26] 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.[27] Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about
45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.[28]
The first trace of a early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in western Siberia.[29] The discovery of
high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000 years ago, was found
at Kostyonki and Borshchyovo,[30] and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years ago—both, respectively in western
Russia.[31] Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya.[32]

The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-

Europeans.[33]

Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.[34] Remnants of these

steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo,[34] Sintashta,[35] Arkaim,[36] and Pazyryk,[37] which bear
the earliest known traces of horses in warfare.[35] In classical antiquity, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe was known
as Scythia.[38] In late 8th century BCE, Ancient Greek traders brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums
in Tanais and Phanagoria.[39]
In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia, which was later overrun
by Huns.[40] Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a Hellenistic polity that
succeeded the Greek colonies,[41] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns
and Eurasian Avars.[42] The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin, ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the
Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.[43]
The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared
in the northeastern part of Europe ca. 1500 years ago.[44] The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia in two
waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another
from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the
population in western Russia,[45] and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finnic peoples.[40]

Kievan Rus'
Main articles: Rus' Khaganate; Kievan Rus'; and List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians,
the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.
[46]
 According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from the Rus' people, 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.[40] Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East
Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate,[47] and launched several military expeditions
to Byzantium and Persia.[48][49]
In the 10th to 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 the Golden Age of
Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, and the creation of the first East Slavic
written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.[40] The age of feudalism and decentralization had come, marked by constant
in-fighting between members of the Rurik dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the
benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-
west.[40]
Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240, which resulted in
the sacking of Kiev, and the death of a major part of the population of Rus'.[40] The invaders, later known as Tatars,
formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities and ruled the southern and central
expanses of Russia for over two centuries.[50]
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland, while the Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-
Suzdal, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian nation.[40] Led by
Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240,[51] as well as
the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242.[52]

Grand Duchy of Moscow

Main article: Grand Duchy of Moscow
Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst

Lissner

The most powerful state to eventually arise after the destruction of Kievan Rus' was the Grand Duchy of Moscow,
initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal.[53] 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 process of the Rus' lands' reunification and expansion of Russia.[54] Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic,
prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.[55]
Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow and helped by the Russian Orthodox Church, the united army of Russian
principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380.[40] Moscow gradually
absorbed its parent Vladimir-Suzdal, and then surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such
as Tver and Novgorod.[53]
Ivan III ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of northern Rus'
under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title title "Grand Duke of all Rus'". 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.[53]

Tsardom of Russia
Main article: Tsardom of Russia
See also: Moscow, third Rome

Tsar Ivan the Terrible, in an evocation by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897.

In development of the Third Rome ideas, the grand duke Ivan IV (the "Terrible") was officially crowned the first tsar of
Russia in 1547. The tsar promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal
representative body (Zemsky Sobor), revamped the military, curbed the influence of the clergy, and reorganised local
government.[53] During his long reign, Ivan nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three
Tatar khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga,[56] and the Khanate of Sibir in southwestern Siberia.
Ultimately, by the end of the 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains.[57] However, the Tsardom was
weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania (later the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), the Kingdom of Sweden, and Denmark–
Norway for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade.[58] In 1572, an invading army of Crimean Tatars were thoroughly
defeated in the crucial Battle of Molodi.[59]
The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik dynasty in 1598, and in combination with the
disastrous famine of 1601–1603, led to a civil war, the rule of pretenders, and foreign intervention during the Time of
Troubles in the early 17th century.[60] The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, taking advantage, occupied parts of
Russia, extending into the capital Moscow.[61] In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer
corps, led by merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky.[62] The Romanov dynasty acceded to the throne in
1613 by the decision of Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.[63]
Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks.[64] In 1654, the
Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian tsar, Alexis;
whose acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War. Ultimately, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper,
leaving the eastern part, (Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev) under Russian rule.[65] In the east, the rapid Russian exploration
and colonisation of vast Siberia continued, hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward
primarily along the Siberian River Routes, and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in eastern
Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.[64] In 1648, Semyon
Dezhnyov became the first European to navigate through the Bering Strait.[66]

Imperial Russia
Main article: Russian Empire

Russian expansion and territorial evolution between the 14th and 20th centuries.

Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one the European great
powers. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700−1721), securing
Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. In 1703, on the Baltic Sea, Peter founded Saint Petersburg as Russia's
new capital. Throughout his rule, sweeping reforms were made, which brought significant Western European cultural
influences to Russia.[67] The reign of Peter I's daughter Elizabeth in 1741–1762 saw Russia's participation in
the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). During the conflict, Russian troops overran East Prussia, reaching Berlin.
[68]
 However, upon Elizabeth's death, all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-
Prussian Peter III of Russia.[69]
Catherine II ("the Great"), who ruled in 1762–1796, presided over the Russian Age of Enlightenment. She extended
Russian political control over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and annexed most of its territories into Russia,
making it the most populous country in Europe.[70] In the south, after the successful Russo-Turkish Wars against
the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, by dissolving the Crimean Khanate,
and annexing Crimea.[71] As a result of victories over Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars, by the first half of
the 19th century, Russia also made significant territorial gains in the Caucasus.[72] Catherine's successor, her
son Paul, was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues.[73] Following his short reign, Catherine's
strategy was continued with Alexander I's (1801–1825) wresting of Finland from the weakened Sweden in 1809,
  and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812.[75] In North America, the Russians became the first Europeans
[74]

to reach and colonise Alaska.[76] In 1803–1806, the first Russian circumnavigation was made.[77] In 1820, a Russian
expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica.[78]
During the Napoleonic Wars, Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against France.
The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but eventually failed
miserably as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian winter led to a disastrous defeat of
invaders, in which the pan-European Grande Armée faced utter destruction. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Michael
Andreas Barclay de Tolly, the Imperial Russian Army ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the War of
the Sixth Coalition, ultimately entering Paris.[79] Alexander I controlled Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna,
which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.[80]

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow by Albrecht Adam (1851).

The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and attempted
to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825.[81] At the end of the conservative reign
of Nicholas I (1825–1855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe, was disrupted by defeat in
the Crimean War.[82] Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) enacted significant changes throughout the
country, including the emancipation reform of 1861.[83] These reforms spurred industrialisation, and modernised the
Imperial Russian Army, which liberated much of the Balkans from Ottoman rule in the aftermath of the 1877–1878
Russo-Turkish War.[84] During most of the 19th and early 20th century, Russia and Britain colluded
over Afghanistan and its neighboring territories in Central and South Asia; the rivalry between the two major
European empires came to be known as the Great Game.[85]
The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was assassinated in 1881
by revolutionary terrorists.[86] The reign of his son Alexander III (1881–1894) was less liberal but more peaceful.[87] The
last Russian emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), was unable to prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905,
triggered by the humiliating Russo-Japanese War and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday.[88][89] The
uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms (Russian Constitution of 1906),
including granting the freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalisation of political parties, and the creation of an
elected legislative body, the State Duma.[90]