Russia definition | Dictionary.com

Rus⋅sia

[ruhsh-uh]

–noun

1.	Also called Russian Empire. Russian, Rossiya. a former empire in E Europe and N and W Asia: overthrown by the Russian Revolution 1917. Capital: St. Petersburg (1703–1917).

2.	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

3.	Russian Federation.

Russia leather

–noun

a fine, smooth leather produced by careful tanning and dyeing, esp. in dark red: originally prepared in Russia.

Also called russia.

Origin:
1650–60

Russian Federation

–noun

a republic extending from E Europe to N and W Asia. 147,987,101; 6,593,000 sq. mi. (17,076,000 sq. km). Capital: Moscow.

Also called Russia, Russian Republic.

Formerly (1918–91), Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

–noun

a former federal union of 15 constituent republics, in E Europe and W and N Asia, comprising the larger part of the former Russian Empire: dissolved in December 1991. 8,650,069 sq. mi. (22,402,200 sq. km). Capital: Moscow. Abbreviation: U.S.S.R., USSR

Also called Russia, Soviet Union.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Russia

Rus·sia (rŭsh'ə)

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A former empire of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Originally settled by Slavs from the third to the eighth century, the region was long a conglomerate of independent principalities until Moscow gained ascendancy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The empire achieved the height of its power and territorial influence under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great in the 17th and 18th centuries. The early 1800s were a period of reactionism, and although some liberal reforms were effected in the late 1800s, discontent remained and led directly to the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, an internal power struggle, and the formation of the USSR in 1922.
Officially Russian Federation Formerly Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. A country of eastern Europe and northern Asia stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It was proclaimed a republic in 1917 after the Russian Revolution, and as a constituent republic of the USSR (1922-1991), it constituted 75 percent of the country's total land area. In 1990 Boris Yeltsin became president of the Russian republic, and in 1991 he was reelected to the position in the republic's first popular election. When the Soviet Union disintegrated later that year, Yeltsin took control of the central government, and with Belarus and Ukraine, Russia formed (December 1991) the Commonwealth of Independent States, which was then joined by most of the other breakaway Soviet republics. In March 1992 Russia signed a treaty with most of the remaining Soviet republics, establishing the Russian Federation. Moscow is the capital. Population: 141,000,000.
See Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Russia

Rus"sia\, n. A country of Europe and Asia.

Russia iron, a kind of sheet iron made in Russia, having a lustrous blue-black surface.

Russia leather, a soft kind of leather, made originally in Russia but now elsewhere, having a peculiar odor from being impregnated with an oil obtained from birch bark. It is much used in bookbinding, on account of its not being subject to mold, and being proof against insects.

Russia matting, matting manufactured in Russia from the inner bark of the linden (Tilia Europ[ae]a).

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Russia

A vast nation that stretches from eastern Europe across the Eurasian land mass. It was the most powerful republic of the former Soviet Union; ethnic Russians composed about half of the population. It is the world's largest country. Its capital and largest city is Moscow.

Note: Russia was ruled by czars of the Romanov family from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.

Note: Peter the Great, a czar who reigned in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, attempted to westernize Russian government and culture.

Note: During the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks, under Lenin, took control of the government; communists governed from 1917 until 1991.

Note: Russia now occupies the seat on the Security Council of the United Nations formerly held by the Soviet Union.

Russia

1538, from M.L. Russi "the people of Russia," from Rus, the native name of the people and the country (cf. Arabic Rus, Med.Gk. Rhos), originally the name of a group of Swed. merchant/warriors who established themselves around Kiev 9c. and founded the original Russian principality; perhaps from Ruotsi, the Finnish name for "Sweden," from O.N. Roþrslandi, old name of Roslagen "the land of rowing," where the Finns first encountered the Swedes. Or perhaps related to the IE root for "red," in ref. to hair color. Russian city-states were founded and ruled by Vikings and their descendants. The Russian form of the name, Rossiya, appears to be from Byzantine Gk. Rhosia. Slang or colloq. Russki "Russian" (1858) is from Rus. Russkiy. Russian roulette attested from 1937.

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