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.