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russian empire

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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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Cultural Dictionary

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.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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