Editing Russians (section)

==Ethnonym==
There are two [[Russian language|Russian]] words which are commonly translated into English as "Russians". One is {{lang|ru|[[wikt:русский#Russian|русские]]}} (''russkiye''), which in modern Russia most often means "ethnic Russians". The other one is {{lang|ru|[[wikt:россиянин#Russian|россияне]]}} (''rossiyane''), derived from {{lang|ru|[[wikt:Россия#Russian|Россия]]}} (''Rossiya'', Russia), which denotes "people of Russia", regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.{{sfn|Milner-Gulland|1997|pp=1–4}} In daily usage, those terms are often mixed up, and since [[Vladimir Putin]] became president, the ethnic term русские has supplanted the non-ethnic term.<ref name="KappelerBrothers">{{cite book|first=Andreas|last=Kappeler|author-link=Andreas Kappeler|title=Ungleiche Brüder: Russen und Ukrainer vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart|trans-title=Unequal Brothers: Russians and Ukrainians from the Middle Ages to the Present|year=2023|publisher=C.H.Beck oHG|place=München|isbn=978-3-406-80042-9|lang=de}}</ref>{{rp|26}}

The name of the Russians derives from the early medieval [[Rus' people]], a group of [[Norsemen|Norse]] merchants and warriors who relocated from across the [[Baltic Sea]] and played an important part in the foundation of the first [[East Slavic peoples|East Slavic]] state that later became the [[Kievan Rus']].<ref>{{cite book|title=Viking Rus|last=Duczko|first=Wladyslaw|year=2004|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|isbn=978-90-04-13874-2|pages=10–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA10|access-date=29 June 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414014750/https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA10|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Andreas|last=Kappeler|author-link=Andreas Kappeler|title=Russische Geschichte|trans-title=Russian History|year=2022|publisher=C.H.Beck oHG|place=München|isbn=978-3-406-79290-8|lang=de|page=13}}</ref>

The idea of a single "[[all-Russian nation]]" encompassing the [[East Slavs|East Slavic peoples]], or a "triune nation" of three brotherly "[[Great Russia]]n", "[[Little Russia]]n" (i.e. [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]]), and "[[White Ruthenia|White Russian]]" (i.e. [[Belarusians|Belarusian]]) peoples became the official doctrine of the [[Russian Empire]] from the beginning of the 19th century onwards.<ref name="KappelerBrothers" />{{rp|25-26}}