Russia

Russian Federation
Russian Federation#English

A transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. Official name: Russian Federation. Capital and largest city: Moscow. It borders the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. Part of the Soviet Union from 1917 through 1991.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(historical, loosely) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a very common name, although more formally Russia, the RSFSR, was one of several constituent republics of the USSR).

Ukraine (“frontier”), the name formerly given to a district of European Russia, now comprising the governments of Kharkov, Kiev, Podolia and Poltava.

1911, “Ukraine”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

(historical) The Russian Empire; the tsarist empire in Russia lasting from 1721 to 1917.

(historical, dated) Kievan Rus; the medieval East Slavic state centered in Kiev.

Or rather if I be attaining a better autocratship than that of the Emperor of all the Russias — the empire over self.

1842, George Eliot, Selections from George Eliot's letters, Letter to Cara Bray, page 24:

Then there is White Russia and Red Russia, Great Russia and Little Russia, Russia of the Frozen North and Russia of the Far East — a Russia equally dangerous to every one of her neighbours […]

(dated, countable) Any of several East Slavic states descended from Kievan Rus, typically including Russia (Great Russia), Belarus (White Russia) and Ukraine (Little Russia).

en-proper noun

Russia (countable and uncountable, plural Russias)

→ Hindi: रशिया (raśiyā)

→ Malay: Rusia

→ Maori: Rūhia

→ Russian: Ра́ша (Ráša)

→ Thai: รัสเซีย (rát-siia)

→ Ukrainian: Ра́ша (Ráša)

俄罗斯

Ngò̤-lò̤-sṳ̆

1530s, from Medieval Latin Russi (“the people of Russia”), from Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ, “Rus”) (whence Arabic رُوس (rūs) and Byzantine Greek Ῥῶς (Rhôs)), which originally referred to a group of Varangians who established themselves near Kiev in the 9th century and ruled Kievan Rus; probably from Proto-Finnic *roocci, from Old East Norse *roþs- (“related to rowing”); related to Old Norse Roþrslandi (“the land of rowing”), an older name of Roslagen, where the Finns first encountered the Swedes. Ultimately from Old Norse róðr (“steering oar”), from Proto-Germanic *rōþrą (“rudder”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to row”).


Russia

Dull Russias will prove a good selling line for women according to the predictions of certain manufacturers.

1914, Shoe and Leather Journal, volume 27, page 36: