Pre-modern identity No. 6: the spread of the ethnonym 'Rus'' (23.08.2025)
The sixth episode of the cycle. Drawing on the works of the Ukrainian linguist Antin Hensiorsky (a scholar of the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle), Dribnytsya traces how, from the late 10th — early 11th century, the name “Rus’” spread from the middle Dnipro region to neighbouring lands (Chernihiv, Halychyna, Volhynia, Zakarpattia) and became a shared ethnonym. He separately considers the fate of the sevriuks (descendants of the Siverians) and the key linguistic distinction: “rusyn” is a noun-self-designation, whereas “russkiy” is an adjective that was substantivized only later. A source for the article on the formation of pre-modern identity.
Key moments
- 00:57 Antin Hensiorsky analyses the spread of the name 'Rus'' as both a toponym and an ethnonym in the sources
- 01:11 From the late 10th — early 11th c. the name 'Rus'' spreads to the neighbouring Chernihiv land
- 10:18 Zakarpattia: the ethnonym 'Rus'-Ruthenian' takes hold; 12th-c. Hungarian sources speak of a 'Ruthenian march'
- 13:31 Hensiorsky: over the 13th c. the term 'Rus'' in its ethnic sense came to cover all the south-western lands
- 15:28 'Rusyn' is a noun (substantive), 'russkiy' is an adjective (attributive) that later underwent substantivization
- 17:35 The first shared self-designation of Ukraine's population — Rus' (plural) / rusyn (singular), attested in the 13th c.