Editing Russians (section)

== Assimilation and immigration ==
{{sectstub|date=May 2024}}
Russians have sometimes found it useful to emphasize their self-perceived ability to [[cultural assimilation|assimilate]] other people [[Russification|to the Russian ethnicity]] - and as a historic great power with imperial expansionist tendencies the Russian state has sometimes encouraged Russian-centred monoculturalism. Steppe peoples, Tatars, Baltic Germans, Lithuanians and native Siberians in [[Kievan Rus'|Rus']], [[Muscovy (disambiguation)|Muscovy]] or the [[Russian Empire]] could in theory become "Russians" ({{langx |ru| русские}}) simply by accepting [[Russian Orthodoxy]] as their faith.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Nițescu
 |first1               = Julia
 |editor-last1         = Simon Dreher
 |editor-first1        = Simon
 |editor-last2         = Mueller
 |editor-first2        = Wolfgang
 |date                 = 15 December 2022
|chapter              = From Individual Destinies to an Emergent Community: Latins in Sixteenth-Century Moscow
 |title                = Foreigners in Muscovy: Western Immigrants in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Russia
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=PmmdEAAAQBAJ
 |publisher            = Taylor & Francis
 |isbn                 = 9781000802986
 |access-date          = 15 May 2024
|quote                = Conversion to Orthodoxy became a rather common means for accessing positions at the court or entering the service of the grand prince. As the Muscovite state grew, it became the preferred method for integrating non-Orthodox individuals, whether Latins or Tatars.
}} 
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Khazanov
 |first1               = Anatoly M.
 |author-link1         = Anatoly Khazanov
 |editor-last1         = T. V. Paul
 |editor-first1        = T. V.
 |editor-link1         = T. V. Paul
 |editor-last2         = Ikenberry
 |editor-first2        = G. John 
 |editor-link2         = John Ikenberry
 |editor-last3         = Hall
 |editor-first3        = John A.
 |editor-link3         = John A. Hall
 |date                 = 10 November 2020
|orig-date            = 2003
 |chapter              = A State without a Nation? Russia after empire
 |title                = The Nation-State in Question
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=-kP_DwAAQBAJ
 |publication-place    = Princeton
 |publisher            = Princeton University Press
 |page                 = 93
 |isbn                 = 9780691221496
 |access-date          = 15 May 2024
|quote                = Russian nationalists considered linguistic and even cultural assimilation insufficient. To them and even to the majority of the general public, the sine qua non of assimilation was conversion to Orthodoxy. The Russian literature is abundant with characters of non-Russian ancestry who refer to their profession of the Orthodox faith in order to prove their Russianness.
}} 
</ref>
The attitude of ready inclusivity is summed up in the popular phrase (sometimes attributed to Emperor [[Alexander III of Russia]]) - Хочешь быть русским - будь им! ({{translation| You want to be Russian - be that!}}).<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Koldovskaya
 |first1               = Mariya
 |year                 = 1998
 |chapter              = Хочешь быть русским - будь им!
 |title                = Voĭna i rabochiĭ klass
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=nSUtAQAAMAAJ
 |publisher            = Izd. gazety "Trud"
 |page                 = 11
 |access-date          = 15 May 2024
}} 
</ref>