Russia (Russian: Россия, romanized: Rossiya, [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation

Etymology

Main article: Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia
The name Russia comes from a Medieval Latin name for Rus', a medieval state populated primarily by the East Slavs.^[18][19] In modern historiography, this state is usually denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city.^[20] The name Rus' itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, who were originally a group of Norse merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and first settled in the northern region of Novgorod, and later founded a state centred on Kiev.^[21] Another Medieval Latin name for Rus' was Ruthenia.^[22]
In Russian, the current name of the country, Россия (Rossiya), comes from the Byzantine Greek name for Rus', Ρωσία (Rosía).^[23] A new form of the name Rus', Росия (Rosiya), was borrowed from the Greek term and first attested in 1387,^[24] before coming into official use by the 15th century, though the country was still often referred to by its inhabitants as Rus' or the Russian land until the end of the 17th century.^[25][26] There are two words in Russian which translate to "Russians" in English – русские (russkiye), which refers to ethnic Russians, and россияне (rossiyane), which refers to Russian citizens, regardless of ethnicity.^[26][27]

History

Main article: History of Russia

Early history

Further information: Ancient Greek colonies, Early Slavs, Huns, Turkic expansion, and Prehistory of Siberia
See also: Proto-Indo-Europeans and Proto-Uralic homeland
The first human settlement on Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia.^[28] Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus.^[29] Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago.^[30] Fossils of Denny, an archaic human hybrid that was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave.^[31] Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.^[32]
The first trace of an early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in Western Siberia.^[33] The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000 years ago, was found at Kostyonki–Borshchyovo,^[34] and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years ago—both in western Russia.^[35] Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya.^[36] Ancient North Eurasian populations from Siberia genetically similar to Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Afontova Gora were an important genetic contributor to Ancient Native Americans and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers.^[37]

Bronze Age spread of Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry between 3300 and 1500 BC,^[38] including the Afanasievo culture of southern Siberia.
The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.^[39] Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and Russia spread Yamnaya ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Eurasia.^[40][41] Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.^[42] Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo,^[42] Sintashta,^[43] Arkaim,^[44] and Pazyryk,^[45] which bear the earliest known traces of horses in warfare.^[43] The genetic makeup of speakers of the Uralic language family in northern Europe was shaped by migration from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago.^[46] In classical antiquity, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe was known as Scythia.^[47] In late 8th century BCE, Ancient Greek traders brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria.^[48]
In the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns.^{[49][failed verification]} Between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies,^[50] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.^[51] The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin, ruled the steppes between the Caucasus in the south, to the east past the Volga river basin, and west as far as Kyiv on the Dnieper river until the 10th century.^[52] After them came the Pechenegs who created a large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks.^[53]
The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe c. 1500 years ago.^[54] The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in western Russia,^[55] and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finnic peoples.^[49]