The Russian people ( , before 1917 Great Russians (Великороссы)) are an East Slavic ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.

The English term Russians is used to refer to the citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity (see demographics of Russia for information on other ethnic groups inhabiting Russia); in Russian, the demonym Russian is translated as Rossiyanin (Россиянин, plural Rossiyane). According to the 2002 census, ethnic Russians make up about 80% of the population of Russia CIA World Factbook

Origins

• See the article about the old legend Lech, Czech and Rus.
• See the article about the Primary Chronicle.

The modern Russian ethnicity is formed from two groups (Northern and Southern Russians) made up in past of Kriviches, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches and Severians East Slavic tribes. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Poles or Ukrainians. Russians in northern European Russia, however, also share moderate genetic similarities with Finno-Ugric peoples,[http://www.newsru.com/russia/28sep2005/russians.html Новости NEWSru.com :: Ученые завершили масштабное исследование генофонда русского народа (Фотороботы) ], who lived in modern north central European Russia and who were partly assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards. Among those peoples were Merya and Muromian.

Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD, the year from which the account in the Primary Chronicle starts. It's thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. Eastern one was settled between the Western Bug and the Dnieper River in what is now Ukraine; from the 1st century AD through almost the millennium they have been spreading peacefully northward to the Baltic lands assimilating indigents and 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. Pivtorak. Formation and dialectal differenciaton of the Old Rus language. 1988

Another group of Slavs moved since the 6th century from Pomerania to northeast of the Baltic Sea, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established the important regional center of Novgorod. This is possibly why Russians are known in Baltic-Finnic languages as Venedes, a name derived for West Slavs. The same Slavic ethnic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Finno-Ugric substratum they formed Kriviches and Ilmen Slavs; later known as Northern Russians, still speaking the North Russian dialect. Having reached the lands of the Merya near Rostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants only after some centuries of separation from other Slavs. However, the fundamental division of Russians into Northern and Southern still exists in culture, traditions and dialect. This difference between Northern and Southern Russians is much bigger than between Southern Russians and Belarusians, and that is why Southern and Northern Russians are considered by some Russian historians and ethnographers as separate nations. Just the placement of Moscow near the border of the Southern and Northern lands and creation of the literary language with some features from Northern dialect and some from Southern gave the ability to create the united nation called Russians.Dmitrii Zelenin. Russische (Ostslavische) Volkskunde