Little Russia Totally Explained

Everything about Little Russia totally explained

Little Russia, originally Little or Lesser Rus’ (; ), was the name commonly applied to parts of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the twentieth century, at the time of the Russian Empire and earlier. Accordingly, the term's derivatives such as "Little Russians" and "Little Russian" were commonly applied at the time for the people, language, culture, etc.
As the area and its people underwent a significant stage of the nation-building in the last hundred years, the term, even in the historic context, can only loosely be considered as merely a contemporary equivalent for the proper modern terms such as Ukraine and its derivatives.
As the term has become an archaic one, its anachronistic usage in the modern context may be considered offensive by some Ukrainians, unlike the usage in the historic context which is widely accepted and non-controversial.

Etymology

The Russian and Ukrainian name that can be translated as Little or Lesser Rus’ is an adoption from the Greek name coined at the medieval times. The Byzantines called the northern and southern part of the lands of Rus’ as: Μακρά Ρωσία (Makra Rosia - Great Rus’) and Μικρά Ρωσία (Mikra Rosia - Minor Rus’ or Little Rus’), respectively.
In the seventeenth century the Russian usage of the name was extended and transformed to Malorossiya which means Little Russia rather than Little Rus’. In English the term Little Russia is often applied in both contexts although some authors do make a distinction and use Little Rus’ and Little Russia selectively, depending on the context.

Historical usage

The first recorded usage of the term is attributed to Boleslaus George II of Halych. He named himself «dux totius Rusiæ Minoris» in a letter to Dietrich von Altenburg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights in 1335.
   In the post-medieval period, the name of Little Rus’ is known to first be used by Eastern Orthodox clergy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, for example by influential cleric and writer Ioan Vyshensky (1600, 1608), Metropolitan Matthew of Kiev and All Rus’ (1606), Bishop Ioann (Biretskoy) of Peremyshl, Metropolitan Isaiah (Kopinsky) of Kiev, Archimandrite Zacharius Kopystensky of Kiev Pechersk Lavra, etc. The term has been applied to all Orthodox Ruthenian lands of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. and Ivan Sirko. The Archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Innokentiy Gizel wrote that the Russian people is a unity of three branches: Great Russia, Little Russia and White Russia under the only legal authority of the Moscow Tsars. The term Little Russia has been used in Ukrainian chronicle by Samiylo Velychko, in a chronicle of the Hieromonk Leontiy (Bobolinski), in "Thesaurus" by Archimandrite Ioannikiy (Golyatovsky).
   The usage of the name was later broadened to loosely apply also to the parts of the Right-bank Ukraine when it was annexed by Russia in the end of the eighteenth century upon the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 18th and 19th centuries Russian Imperial administrative units the Little Russian Governorate and eponymous General Governorship were formed and existed for several decades before being split and renamed in subsequent administrative reforms.
   Up until the very end of the 19th century Little Russia was a prevailing designation for the much of the modern territory of Ukraine controlled by the Russian Empire as well as for its people and their language as can be seen from its usage in numerous scholarly, literary and artistic works. For instance, "Little Russia" has been preferred by the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in his private diary (1857—1858). Ukrainophile historians Mykhaylo Maksymovych, Nikolay Kostomarov, Dmytro Bahaliy, Volodymyr Antonovych acknowledged the fact that during Russo-Polish wars "Ukraine" had only a geographical meaning of borderlands of both states but "Little Russia" was an ethnic name of Little (Southern) Russian people. Mykhailo Drahomanov titled his first fundamental historic work "Little Russia in its literature" (1867-1870). Different prominent artists (for example Mykola Pymonenko, Konstiantyn Trutovsky, Nikolay Sergeyev, photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, etc.), many of whom were natives from the territory of modern-day Ukraine, used "Little Russia" in titles of their paintings of Ukrainian landscapes.
   The term "Little Russian language" was used by the state authorities in the first Russian Empire Census conducted as late as in 1897.

From Little Russia to Ukraine

The term Little Russia (that traces its origin to the medieval times) used to be widely used as the name for the geographic territory. Since the middle of the seventeenth century the modern name Ukraine (Ukrayina) (first found in the twelfth century chronicles) was used sporadically, until it was reintroduced in the nineteenth century by a conscious effort of several authors concerned about the awakening of the Ukrainian national awareness. It wasn't until the twentieth century when the modern term "Ukraine" started to prevail while Little Russia gradually fell out of use.

Modern context

Although originally "Little Russia" was merely a geographic, linguistic and ethnological term, it's now archaic and its usage in the modern context to refer to the country of Ukraine and the modern Ukrainian nation, its language, culture, etc., is considered an improper anachronism. In Ukraine such usage is sometimes seen as an imperial view that the Ukrainian territory and people ("Little Russians") belong to "one, indivisible Russia". Many Ukrainians regard its usage today as an "older brother" attitude, reminding of imperial oppression of Ukrainian national idea, particularly as such term is sometimes deliberately misapplied in the Russian nationalist writings where modern Ukraine is presented as a break-away province of the former Russian Empire. Mykhailo Drahomanov, who used the terms Little Russia and Little Russian in his historic works, The same inferiority complex was applied to the Ukrainians of Galicia with respect to Poland ("gente ruthenus, natione polonus"). Similar term "Magyarony" was applied to Magyarized Ukrainians in Transcarpathia who advocated for union of that region with Hungary Andriy himself usually laughs off such criticism of his work and many art-critics point instead towards the fact that his success with the Ukrainian public is rooted in an unquestionable authenticity of Andriy's artistic image.

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