Ten things you didn't know about Russia

[Simon Franklin]

Not exactly. "Megale Rhosia" rather than "Makra Rhosia" for the "Great" 
version.. More importantly, "Mikra Rhosia" was not the "centre" as opposed 
to "colonies" (and certainly not by any analogy with Greece) but was used 
mainly in Byzantine administrative documents relating to Rus bishoprics 
under Lithuanian rule. For full citations from all the Greek sources on 
both forms see Mikhail Biblkov'a book "Byzantinorossica: svod vizantiiskikh 
svidetel'stv o Rusi" (2004), pp. 172-4, 403-5, 597, 600-601.

Simon Franklin

--On 19 March 2008 11:12:10 +0200 Maria Dmytrieva <xmas at UKR.NET> wrote:

> Borsht is actually not a Russian dish but a Ukrainian one.
>  
> The name Great Russia comes from the Byzantines who called the
> northern and southern part of the lands of Rus’ as: њ±єБ¬
> ЎЙГЇ± (Makra Rosia - Great Rus’) and њ№єБ¬ ЎЙГЇ± (Mikra
> Rosia - Minor Rus’ or Little Rus’), respectively, following the
> pattern used for Greece -- where Little Greece was the centre and Great
> Greece were its colonies.
> The very name Russia applied to Moscow Princedom was first introduced by
> Peter the Great (Butcher) who sent money to foreign ambassadors so that
> they called this country in their official papers Russia, not in any
> other way.
> With best regards,
> Maria
>
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_________________________________________________________
Professor Simon Franklin,
University of Cambridge, Department of Slavonic Studies,
Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA
_________________________________________________________

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