Little Russia: Difference between revisions

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All of these names implied a distinction from a Russia proper. Terms such as "Little" and "Lesser" at the time simply meant geographically smaller and/or less populous.<ref name="Solov"/> With time, "Little Russia" developed into a political and geographical concept in Russia, referring to most of the territory of modern-day [[Ukraine]] before the 20th century. Accordingly, derivatives such as "Little Russian" ({{lang-ru|Малороссы}}, {{lang|ru-Latn|Malorossy}}) were commonly applied to the people, language, and culture of the area. The Russo-Polish geographer and ethnographer [[Zygmunt Gloger]] in his "Geography of historic lands of the Old Poland" (Polish: "Geografia historyczna ziem dawnej Polski") explains that at the time the term "Little" was interchangeably with the word "new", and in his footnotes, he clearly states that, at least in 1903, Little Russia (Malorossia) was perceived in such manner. Prior to the revolutionary events of 1917, a large part of the region's élite population adopted a [[Little Russian identity]] that competed with the local Ukrainian identity.