Rus

Definitions

• A people made up of Scandinavian warrior merchants who travelled Eastern European river-roads from the eighth century, and whose settlements around Novgorod, Kiev and the Volga and Dnieper gave rise to the Russian principalities.
• The medieval East Slavic state established by these same warrior merchants in the 9th century, whose capital was first in Novgorod and then in Kiev; Kievan Rus.
• Any of the medieval East Slavic principalities ruled by this class, especially Kievan Rus.
• (poetic) The nation of Russia, especially in a transcendent or romantic sense referring to the history and culture of the country.