Editing Russian Blue (section)

== Origin ==
The Russian Blue is a [[Landrace|naturally occurring breed]] that may have originated in the port of [[Arkhangelsk]] in [[Russia]].<ref name="CFA">{{cite web|title=Russian Blue|url=http://www.cfainc.org/Breeds/BreedsKthruR/RussianBlue.aspx|work=Breed Profiles|publisher=The Cat Fanciers' Association|access-date=11 October 2013|quote=Many believe the Russian Blue is a natural breed originating from the Archangel Isles in northern Russia, where the long winters developed a cat with a dense, plush coat. Rumors also abound that the Russian Blue breed descended from the cats kept by the Russian Czars, which was rumoured to hunt the brown bear. Assuming the Russian Blue did migrate from northern Russia, it was likely via ship to Great Britain and northern Europe in the mid 1860s|archive-date=15 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015232413/http://www.cfainc.org/Breeds/BreedsKthruR/RussianBlue.aspx|url-status=dead}}.</ref> They are also sometimes called Archangel Blues.<ref>{{cite book|last=Alderton|first=David|title=Cats (Eyewitness Handbook)|publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]]|year=1992|page=182|isbn=1-56458-070-9}}</ref> It is believed that sailors took them from the Archangel Isles to Great Britain and Northern Europe in the 1860s.<ref name="CFA"/> The first reference to an Archangel Cat appears in British print in 1862.<ref>{{cite news | author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> | title=Puss in a New Character | work=The Leeds Mercury | location = Leeds, UK | date=7 June 1862 }}</ref> The first recorded appearance of one in a show was in 1872 at [[The Crystal Palace]] in England as the Archangel Cat. <ref>{{cite news | author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> | title=The Cat Show | work=The Times of London | location = London, UK | date=16 May 1872 }}</ref> However, [[Harrison Weir]] writing in 1895 reported that the early show cats under the Russian Blue name were British-bred grey tabbies, with separate grey cats arriving from Archangel in Britain in the 1800s with features consistent with the modern breed. <ref>{{cite book |last=Weir |first=Harrison |date= 1895|title=Our Cats and All About Them |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VzNEAAAAYAAJ |publisher= Houghton|page=66}}</ref>  The Russian Blue competed in a class including all other blue cats until 1912, when it was given its own class. The breed was developed mainly in England and [[Scandinavia]] until after [[World War II]].

Right after the war, a lack of numbers of Russian Blues led to [[Hybrid (biology)|cross breeding]] with the [[Siamese cat|Siamese]]. Although Russian Blues were in the United States before the war, it was not until the post-war period that American breeders created the modern Russian Blue that is seen in the United States today. American breeders combined the bloodlines of both the Scandinavian and British Russian Blues. The Siamese traits have now largely been bred out. The short hair and darker slate-grey/blue colour is often seen in mixed-breed cats, which can affect breeders and showers due to mislabelling a cat as a Russian Blue.<ref name="russianblue1">{{cite web|url=http://www.russianblue.info/is_it_a_rb.htm|title=Is my cat a Russian Blue?|publisher=Russianblue.info|access-date=6 October 2011}}</ref>

Russian Blues are plush short-haired, shimmering pale blue-grey cats with bright emerald green eyes or yellow-green eyes. Guard hairs are distinctly silver-tipped giving the cat a silvery sheen or lustrous appearance. They have been used on a limited basis to create other breeds such as the [[Havana Brown]] or alter existing breeds such as the [[Nebelung]]. They are being used in Italy as a way to make [[Oriental Shorthair|Oriental Shorthairs]] healthier and more robust called RUS4OSH in [[Fédération Internationale Féline|FIFe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yeswecat.net/#!rus4osh-crossbreed/c156w|title=Allevamento YesWeCat gatti Siamesi e Orientali|website=Allevamento YesWeCat gatti Siamesi e Orientali|access-date=25 February 2016}}</ref>

[[Russian White, Black, and Tabby|Russian Whites and Russian Blacks]] were created from crosses with domestic white cats which were allegedly imported from Russia. The first line was developed by Frances McLeod (Arctic) in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and the second line produced by Dick and Mavis Jones (Myemgay) in Australia in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.russianblue.org.uk/BAC/blackwhitejan14.htm|title=Russian Black & the Russian White in the UK|publisher=Russianblue.org.uk|access-date=30 May 2015}}</ref> By the late 1970s, the Russian White and Russian Black colours were accepted by cat fanciers in Australia ([[Australian Cat Federation|ACF]]) as well as in South Africa and now also in the United Kingdom ([[Governing Council of the Cat Fancy|GCCF]]) as Russian cats (in different classes). However, the [[Cat Fanciers' Association|CFA]] and FIFe do not recognise any colour variation of the Russian Blue.