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Ruthenia
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<p><i>Ruthenia</i> is an <a href="/facts/Exonym/8pyd1nE9">exonym</a>, originally used in <a href="/facts/Medieval_Latin/gyLMjaCX">Medieval Latin</a>, as one of several terms for <a href="/facts/Kievan_Rus%2527/oYbNWrwR">Rus'</a>. Originally, the term <i>Rus' land</i> referred to a triangular area, which mainly corresponds to the tribe of <a href="/facts/Polans_(eastern)/SVjYCh9g">Polans</a> in <a href="/facts/Dnieper_Ukraine/rdHHJkI4">Dnieper Ukraine</a>. <i>Ruthenia</i> was used to refer to the <a href="/facts/East_Slavs/aNNxqGFq">East Slavic</a> and <a href="/facts/Eastern_Orthodox_Church/5n20Akh5">Eastern Orthodox</a> people of the <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchy_of_Lithuania/9czbKcfs">Grand Duchy of Lithuania</a> and the <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Poland/xwYbgG7x">Kingdom of Poland</a>, and later the <a href="/facts/Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth/Tt0zAlQD">Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth</a> and <a href="/facts/Austria-Hungary/9WPUPj0W">Austria-Hungary</a>, mainly to <a href="/facts/Ukrainians/393lUkjj">Ukrainians</a> and sometimes <a href="/facts/Belarusians/GXQdoLqy">Belarusians</a>, corresponding to the territories of modern <a href="/facts/Belarus/vweHwgob">Belarus</a>, <a href="/facts/Ukraine/Qof0uqAj">Ukraine</a>, <a href="/facts/Principality_of_Volhynia/9IqPdajS">Eastern Poland</a> and some of western <a href="/facts/Russia/jfkCwyxn">Russia</a>. </p><p>Historically, in a broader sense, the term was used to refer to all the territories under <a href="/facts/Kievan_Rus%2527/oYbNWrwR">Kievan dominion</a> (mostly East Slavs). </p><p>The <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria/VjREM5X7">Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria</a> (1772–1918), corresponding to parts of <a href="/facts/Western_Ukraine/8YgAlFj8">Western Ukraine</a>, was referred to as <i>Ruthenia</i> and its people as <i><a href="/facts/Ruthenians/auIjyfgV">Ruthenians</a></i>. As a result of a <a href="/facts/History_of_Ukrainian_nationality/SxoG1r0t">Ukrainian national identity</a> gradually dominating over much of present-day Ukraine in the 19th and 20th centuries, the endonym <i><a href="/facts/Rusyns/5IpGTxpJ">Rusyn</a></i> is now mostly used among a minority of peoples on the territory of the <a href="/facts/Carpathian_Mountains/I3TkYUjj">Carpathian Mountains</a>, including <a href="/facts/Carpathian_Ruthenia/rCWLraVf">Carpathian Ruthenia</a>. </p>