Rethinking Rus’

FUKUSHIMA Chiho

This paper is dedicated to give a consideration to the historical region named “Rus’”- which had been dominated by the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then by the Russian and Austrian Empires, and eventually given birth to today’s Belarus and Ukraine. The special attentions are directed to the process, how the meanings and connotations of the word “Rus’” have changed and developed. This paper particularly concentrates on the difference between what “Rus’” connotes in the Polish & Russian historical contexts. And in relation with this, serious terminological problems in describing Early Modern Rusian lands, which comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, are to be pointed out.