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This article is about the Russian ethnic group. For all citizens of Russia, regardless of ethnicity, see Rossiyane. For all citizens of Russia, with regards to ethnicity, see Demographics of Russia. For other uses, see Russian (disambiguation).
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Total population
133–150 million (2003)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Russia: 111,016,896[2]
(census, 2010)
 Ukraine 8,334,141 (census, 2001)[3]
 Kazakhstan 3,793,764 (census, 2009)[4]
 United States
(Russian ancestry)
3,072,756 (census, 2009)[5]
 Uzbekistan 1,199,015 (estimate, 2000)[6]
 Belarus 785,084 (census, 2009)[7]
(Russian ancestry)
550,520 (census, 2011)[8]
 Latvia 520,136 (census, 2014)[9]
 Kyrgyzstan 419,600 (census, 2009)[10]
 Moldova 369,488 (census, 2004)[11]
 Estonia 324,431 (2013)[12]
 Turkmenistan 297,319 (census, 2000)[13]
(Russian ancestry)
(Russian citizens)
195,310 (estimate, 2011)[15]
 Lithuania 174,900 (census, 2009)[16]
 Azerbaijan 119,300 (census, 2009)[17]
(Country of birth)
115,000 (census, 2007)[18]
(immigrants between 1895 and 1946 )
 Georgia 91,091 (census, 2002)[20][21]
 Tajikistan 68,200 (census, 2000)[22]
 Australia 67,055 (census, 2006)[23]
(Russian speakers)
66,379 (estimate, 2013)[24]
(Russian ancestry)
 United Kingdom
(Russian citizens)
35,172 (2011)[26]
 Venezuela 34,600[27]
36,397 (census, 2002)[28]
 Czech Republic 31,941 (estimate, 2010)[29]
(Russian citizens)
25,786 (2009)[30]
(Russian citizens)
18,219 (census, 2001)[31]
 United Arab Emirates 18,000
Predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christianity
(Russian Orthodox Church)
Significant non-religious population. Minorities of Old Believers
Related ethnic groups
Other East Slavs (Belarusians and Ukrainians)[32]

Russians (Russian: русские, russkiye) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia,[33] who speak the Russian language and primarily live in Russia. They are the most numerous ethnic group in Russia constituting more than 80% of the country's population according to the census of 2010,[2] and the most numerous ethnic group in Europe.


There are two Russian words which are commonly translated into English as "Russians": "русские" (russkiye), which means "ethnic Russians" and "россияне" (rossiyane), which means "citizens of Russia". The first word refers to all ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in and irrespective of whether or not they hold Russian citizenship, and does not include members of Russia's ethnic minorities. The second word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, and does not include ethnic Russians living outside of Russia. English translations do not always distinguish these two words.


Three generations of a Russian family, ca. 1910

The modern Russian is formed from two groups, Northern and Southern, which were made up of Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches and Severians East Slavic tribes. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Poles, Slovenians, or Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians and Ukrainians than southern Russians are to northern Russians. Russians in northern European Russia share moderate genetic similarities with Uralic peoples,[32][34] who lived in modern north central European Russia and were partly assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards. Among those peoples were Merya[35] and Muromian.[34][36]

Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts.[37] It is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. The eastern branch was settled between the Southern Bug and the Dnieper Rivers in what is now Ukraine; from the 1st century AD through almost the millennium, they spread peacefully northward to the Baltic region, forming the Dregovich, Radimich and Vyatich Slavic tribes on the Baltic substratum, therefore having language features such as vowel reduction. Later, both Belarusians and South Russians formed themselves on this ethnic linguistic ground.[38]



In 2010 year the Russians population in the world was 129 million people (of which 86% in Russia, CIS and Baltic countries - 11.5%, other country - 2.5%).[39]

Russians are the most numerous ethnic group in Europe and one of the largest in the world with a population of about 150 million people worldwide.


Roughly 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, from which 80% lives in the European part of Russia and 20% of Russian citizens live in the Asian part of the country.

Russians outside of Russia[edit]

Ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union states in 1994
Main article: Russian diaspora

Ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by Tsarist and later Soviet government.[40] On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority.



Russian Orthodox Church in Shanghai around 1948

Over a million Russian Jews emigrated to Israel during and after the Refusenik movements; some brought ethnic Russian relatives along with them. Over a million Russian-speaking immigrants live in Israel,[41] around two-thirds of them Jewish.[42] There are also small Russian communities in the Balkans, including Lipovans in the Danube delta,[43] Central European nations such as Germany and Poland, as well Russians settled in China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina and Australia. These communities may identify themselves either as Russians or citizens of these countries, or both, to varying degrees.


Significant numbers of Russians emigrated to Canada, Australia and the United States. Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and South Beach, Staten Island in New York City is an example of a large community of recent Russian and Jewish Russian immigrants. Other examples are Sunny Isles Beach, a northern suburb of Miami, and in West Hollywood of the Los Angeles area.






Russian culture is varied and unique in many respects. It has a rich history and a long tradition in all of the arts,[46] especially in fields of literature[47] and philosophy, classical music[48][49] and ballet,[50] architecture and painting, cinema[51] and animation, all of which had considerable influence on world culture.



Main article: Russian language


Examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onwards, and while Russian preserves much of East Slavonic grammar and a Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of borrowed international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. Due to the status of the Soviet Union as a super power, Russian had great political importance in the 20th century, and is one of the official languages of the United Nations.


Russian has palatal secondary articulation of consonants, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found in almost all consonant phonemes and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels, not entirely unlike a similar process present in most forms of English. Stress in Russian is generally quite unpredictable and can be placed on almost any syllable, one of the most difficult aspects for foreign language learners.

  Russian language has official status.
  Russian language has official status, but lower than the state
  Russian language has no official status, but is known with much of the population.

Russian language – one of the six official languages of the UN. According to data published in the journal «Language Monthly» (№ 3, 1997), approximately 300 million people around the world at the time owned the Russian language (which puts this language in 5th place on prevalence in the World). 160 million considered Russian as native language (7th in the world). The total number of Russian speakers in the world on the 1999 assessment – about 167 million, about 110 million people speak Russian as a second language. In a sociological study of Gallup (Gallup, Inc), dedicated to the Russian language in the post-Soviet states, 92% of the population in Belarus, 83% in Ukraine, 68% in Kazakhstan and 38% in Kyrgyzstan, Russian language chosen to complete the questionnaire for the survey . Institute designated this section of the study as «Russian as the Mother Tongue». In the U.S. state of New York in 2009, an amendment to the electoral law, according to which in all cities in the state, home to over a million people, all related to the election process documents should be translated into Russian. Russian language has become one of the eight foreign languages in New York, which must be printed on all official materials of the campaign. Previously been included in the list of Spanish, Korean, Filipino, Creole languages and three dialects of Chinese.

Prior to 1991, Russian was the language of international communication of the USSR, fulfilling the functions of the state language. It continues to be used in countries formerly part of the Soviet Union, as the mother tongue of a significant portion of the population and as a language of international communication. In places of compact residence of immigrants from the former USSR countries (Israel, Germany, Canada, the United States, Australia, etc.) Russian-language periodicals, work stations and television channels are available, and Russian-language schools have been opened, where Russian is actively taught. In the countries of the Eastern Bloc in Central Europe, before the end of the 1980s, the Russian language was the main foreign language taught in schools. All astronauts working in the International Space Station are required to speak Russian.


Main article: Religion in Russia
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery, the resting place of many eminent Russian émigrés after 1917

As of a 2012 sociological survey on religious adherence, 58,800,000 people or 41%.[52][53][54] of the total population of Russia adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church. But other sources gave higher estimates between 63%[55] to over 80%[56] of ethnic Russians identify themselves as Orthodox. It has played a vital role in the development of Russian national identity. In other countries Russian faithful usually belong to the local Orthodox congregations which either have a direct connection (like the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, autonomous from the Moscow Patriarchate) or historical origin (like the Orthodox Church in America or a Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) with the Russian Orthodox Church.


Other world religions have negligible representation among ethnic Russians. The largest of these groups are Islam with over 100,000 ethnic Russian followers,[52] and Baptists with over 85,000 Russian adherents.[57] Others are mostly Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union various new religious movements have sprung up and gathered a following among ethnic Russians. The most prominent of these are Rodnovery, the revival of the Slavic native religion also common to other Slavic nations,[58] Another movement, very small in comparison to other new religions, is Vissarionism, a syncretic group with an Orthodox Christian background.


Despite enduring the Mongol occupation beginning in the 13th century, the genetic legacy of East Eurasians in Russians remain minimal despite the close proximity.


Russians show the y-DNA R1a with frequencies ranging from 33.4% in North Russia to 49% in rest of Russia.[32][59][60] R-M17 (and sometimes alternatively defined as R-M198), is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia.(Underhill 2009) [61] and in parts of India.[62] The percentages of Y-chromosome markers vary in ethnic Russian populations by latitude and region.

The top four Y-DNA haplogroups among the sample of 1228 Russians are:[32]

Eight Y chromosome haplogroup subclades, of West Eurasian origin, presented an average frequency greater than 1%, including R1a, N3, I1b, R1b, I1a, J2, N2, and E3b. All together, they account for >95% of the total Russian Y chromosomal pool. Of the 1228 samples, 11/1228 (0.9%) were classified up to the root level of haplogroups F and K. Only 9/1228 samples (0.7%) fell into haplogroups C, Q, and R2 which are specific to East and South Asian populations.[32]


The mitochondrial gene pool of Russians are represented by mtDNA types belonging to typical West Eurasian groups. East Eurasian admixture was shown to be minimal and existed in low frequencies in the form of Haplogroup M.[63][64] The same studies indicate West Eurasian haplogroups present at a frequency of 97.8% and 98.5% among a sample of 325 and 201 Russians respectively.[63][64]

Autosomal DNA[edit]

Autosomally, Russians are generally similar to populations in central-eastern Europe.[65]

Notable achievements[edit]

Yuri Gagarin, first human in space (1961)

Russians have greatly influenced and contributed to culture, arts, exploration, literature, business, philosophy, politics, architecture, music, mathematics, science and technology, cuisine, and sports, both historically and contemporary.





Russian people played a crucial role in the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Russia's casualties in this war were the highest of all nations, and numbered more than 20 million dead (Russians composed 80% of the 26.6 million people lost by the USSR), which is about half of all World War II casualties and the vast majority of Allied casualties.[67] According to the British historian Richard Overy, the Eastern Front included more combat than all the other European fronts combined. The Wehrmacht suffered 80% to 93% of all of its total World War II combat casualties on the Eastern Front.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Анатольев, Сергей (September 29, 2003). "Нас 150 миллионов Немного. А могло быть меньше.". Retrieved February 20, 2012. 
  2. ^ a b Ethnic groups in Russia, 2010 census, Rosstat. Retrieved 15 February 2012 (Russian)
  3. ^ Про кількість та склад населення України за підсумками Всеукраїнського перепису населення 2001 року (Ukrainian)
  4. ^ "(2009 census)". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^
  7. ^ (2009 census)[dead link]
  8. ^
  9. ^ [2]
  10. ^ "Ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan (2009 census)". Kyrgyz Statistical Agency. Kyrgyz Statistical Agency. 2009. Retrieved 2011-03-31. 
  11. ^ 2004 Moldovan Census and Transnistrian Census data.[dead link]
  12. ^ "Population by ethnic nationality, 1 January, years". Statistics Estonia. 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013. 
  13. ^ "CIA – The World Factbook". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  14. ^ "Câmara de Comércio Brasil-Rússia". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  15. ^ "Ausländische Bevölkerung am 31.12.2011 nach Geburtsort und ausgewählten Staatsangehörigkeiten" (in German). Statistisches Bundesamt. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  16. ^ "Gyventojų skaičius metų pradžioje. Požymiai: tautybė – Rodiklių duomenų bazėje". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  17. ^ Population by ethnic groups (2009 census)
  18. ^ "(2007 census)". 2012-07-06. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  19. ^ Cuadro de proyección Inmigratoria periodo 1895–1946 (Spanish)
  20. ^ (2002 census)
  21. ^ "The ethnic composition of the population of Abkhazia". 2003 Census (in Russian). Управление Государственной Статистики Республики Абхазия «Абхазия в цифрах», г. Сухум, 2005. 
  22. ^ "(2000 census)". 2000-01-20. Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  23. ^ "Australian Bureau of Statistics". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  24. ^ VSY. "(2013 estimate)". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  25. ^ "МИД России | 12/02/2009 | Интервью Посла России в Турции В.Е.Ивановского, опубликованное в журнале "Консул" № 4 /19/, декабрь 2009 года". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  26. ^ "Nationality and country of birth by age, sex and qualifications Jan - Dec 2013 (Excel sheet 60Kb)". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 11 June 2014. 
  27. ^
  28. ^ Informatii utile | Agentia Nationala pentru Intreprinderi Mici si Mijlocii (2002 census) (Romanian)
  29. ^ "(31.12.2010 – estimate)" (PDF) (in Czech). Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  30. ^ "Foreigner Citizens. Demographic Balance for the year 2009 and Resident Population on 31st December – All countries of citizenship Italy". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  31. ^ "(2001 census)" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  33. ^ "Slav." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 30 July 2011.
  34. ^ a b "Новости :: Ученые завершили масштабное исследование генофонда русского народа (Фотороботы)". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  35. ^ *Aleksey Uvarov, "Étude sur les peuples primitifs de la Russie. Les mériens" (1875)
  36. ^ [3][dead link]
  37. ^ The Primary Chronicle is a history of the Ancient Rus' from around 850 to 1110 originally compiled in Kiev about 1113
  38. ^ Pivtorak. Formation and dialectal differenciaton of the Old Rus language. 1988
  39. ^ журнал «Демоскоп Weekly» № 571 - 572 14 - 31 октября 2013. А. Арефьев. Тема номера: сжимающееся русскоязычие. Демографические изменения - не на пользу русскому языку
  41. ^ Study: Soviet immigrants outperform Israeli students at the Wayback Machine (archived June 19, 2006). 10/02/2008.
  42. ^ Q&A Lily Galili on 'The Russians in Israel'.
  44. ^ Bigg, Claire (2006-08-15). "Latvia: Ethnic Russians Divided On Moscow's Repatriation Scheme". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  45. ^ excerpted from Glenn E. Curtis (ed.) (1998). "Russia: A Country Study: Kievan Rus' and Mongol Periods". Washington, DC: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. Retrieved 2007-07-20. 
  46. ^ "Russia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
  47. ^ Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007. Russian Literature. Retrieved 2008-01-07. 
  48. ^ "Russia::Music". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-10-05. 
  49. ^ "A Tale of Two Operas". Petersburg City. Retrieved 2008-01-11. 
  51. ^ "Russia::Motion pictures". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-27. 
  52. ^ a b
  55. ^ "Опубликована подробная сравнительная статистика религиозности в России и Польше" (in Russian). 
  57. ^ "statistics". Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  58. ^ Victor Shnirelman. “Christians! Go home”: A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002.
  59. ^ Rosser et al. (2000)
  60. ^ Tambets et al. (2004).
  61. ^ Semino et al. (2000), "The Genetic Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant Europeans: A Y Chromosome Perspective"
  62. ^ F. Luca, F. Di Giacomo, T. Benincasa et al., "Y-Chromosomal Variation in the Czech Republic," American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132:132–139 (2007).
  63. ^ a b "Mitochondrial DNA variability in Poles and Russians". Annals of Human Genetics 66 (4): 261–283. April 2002. doi:10.1017/S0003480002001161. 
  64. ^ a b "Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes in Russian Populations". Human Biology 76 (6): 877–900. December 2004. 
  66. ^ "Russian literature." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 July 2007 <>.
  67. ^ Leaders mourn Soviet wartime dead, BBC News

External links[edit]