Russian

Russians (russkiye) are an East Slavic people and the largest ethnic group of Europe, descended from the Slavic tribes of Kievan Rus' and the principalities of Novgorod, Vladimir and Moscow, which grew into the Russian state from the 15th century and expanded across Siberia to the Pacific. The 2021 Russian census counted 105.6 million ethnic Russians, 71.7% of Russia's population (down from 111 million in 2010, partly because 16.5 million people gave no ethnicity). The name distinguishes russkiye (ethnic Russians) from rossiyane (all citizens of the Russian Federation, including Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens and some 190 other peoples). After the Soviet collapse in 1991, about 25 million ethnic Russians found themselves outside Russia, in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, the Baltic states and Central Asia; emigration waves followed the 1917 revolution, the 1990s and, after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of thousands left for Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Turkey, Israel and the UAE.

Russian culture centres on the family, the kitchen table and hospitality: bread and salt for guests, soups (borscht, shchi), pelmeni, blini at Maslenitsa, and tea. The dacha (summer cottage and garden) remains a national institution. Literature (Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov), music and ballet are points of deep pride, and New Year is the main family holiday, followed by Orthodox Christmas on 7 January and Easter. Most families are small, with one or two children; women carry a heavy double load of work and household, and grandmothers (babushki) often raise grandchildren. Victory Day (9 May) is the central civic ritual.

Most Russians call themselves Orthodox, but Orthodoxy is chiefly a marker of national identity: polls show 57-72% identify as Orthodox, yet only a small minority attend church monthly or take communion. Practice centres on baptism, Easter (blessing of kulich and eggs), icons in the home, lighting candles and visiting graves. Folk belief mixes with Orthodoxy (superstitions, the evil eye, astrology), and Soviet atheism left a large secular population, especially among the young and urban (42% of 18-24 year olds non-believers in 2023). Since the 1990s the Moscow Patriarchate has been closely tied to the state, and since 2022 it has backed the war in Ukraine. Protestants (Baptists, Pentecostals, charismatics) are about 1.5% and face legal pressure under the 2016 anti-missionary (Yarovaya) laws; Jehovah's Witnesses were banned in 2017.

Russians have the full Bible (Synodal translation of 1876 and modern versions), the Jesus Film, audio recordings and abundant Christian media, books, radio and websites in Russian. Orthodox churches are everywhere; Baptist, Pentecostal and other Protestant churches exist across Russia and the diaspora, though the 2016 Yarovaya laws restrict evangelism outside registered premises and Protestants are often viewed as foreign sects. The main barriers are nominal Orthodoxy tied to national identity, Soviet-era secularism and suspicion of Western churches.