This question can be interpreted in two ways:

1. "How to choose which nationality to write in an official document?"

Article 26 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states: "Everyone has the right to determine and indicate his nationality. No one can be forced to determine and indicate his nationality."

In case you yourself want to indicate your nationality or an official believes that Article 26 does not apply to his department, there is an "Alphabetical list of possible answers of the population for coding the answer to question 7 of the census form L of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census", approved by order Rosstat No. 74 dated January 27, 2010. It contains 1840 nationalities, including "man of the earth", "man of the world", "Americans", "Estonians Orthodox", "hoolies", "cosmopolitans", "Jews of Bukhara" , "Great Russians", "crossbreed", "Brest residents", "inhabitants of the universe", "bulbashi" and "Khokhols". Citizens of the Russian Federation are not required to choose the nationality of one of their parents and not change it to the grave. It remains to be hoped that the local authorities in your locality are aware of these "innovations".

2. "How to determine your nationality for yourself?"

Perhaps you are not ready to identify yourself in one word, by mom or dad. If so, then no big deal. Self-identification is a deeply personal matter, and the concept of nationality in its Russian version was invented by the Russian state bureaucracy over a hundred years ago for its own benefit. Therefore, it is better to free your consciousness and not confuse these things - after all, this is exactly what Leviathan wants from you.

Any state is a machine of subordination and coercion. The concept of nationality is one of the tools that this machine uses to control the population of Russia. In the history of the USSR and Russia, there were few cases when people or ethnic groups received prizes for "good" nationality. In 99% of cases, nationality does not affect a person's life. But in the 1% of cases when she plays a role, this role is almost always negative:
a person is deported because he is Latvian or Korean;
he is made a vassal of Kadyrov because he is a Chechen;
he is not given access to secret documents, because he is a Jew;
he is arrested on charges of extremism, because he is Russian and has spoken about it publicly too many times;
he is called names at school because he is a Tajik;
he is suspected of betrayal because he is Ukrainian.

Even if you have a real sense of community with people of some ethnic group, remember that the state will never allow this group to really defend their interests. After all, this is a zero-sum game: if the ethnic group has more rights and opportunities, then the official has lost them. The maximum that they will give you is an official from your ethnic group, so that he robs you with an understanding of local specifics and in a national costume.

So my advice is: define yourself as who you feel you are. If the one you feel like is not in the list of 1840 nationalities and this feeling of self does not fit in 2-3 words, it does not matter. For example, I define myself as a "Russian American non-religious half-breed Jew from Latvia" and do not worry that there are not enough people with such a self-identification to dance or fill a cattle car.

A few years ago in the Soviet Union, a lot depended on the nationality of a person, for example, getting a job, or entering higher educational institutions. Now we live in a democratic country where the nationality of a person essentially does not play any role, as well as throughout the world, because, regardless of the place of birth of a person and his “blood”, everyone has equal rights.

However, the question of nationality is quite interesting, because each person is interested in knowing what kind of person this or that person comes from, or he himself, so in this article we will try to figure out how to determine nationality, all the more, it can be useful, for example, for emigration. There are many ways to determine nationality, consider each of them.

How to determine nationality - the first way

Ask your parents if mom and dad are Kazakhs, then you will belong to this nationality, but it often happens that parents of different nationalities are married, for example, the mother is Tatar, and the father is Ukrainian. Then you must determine your nationality based on the general rules of a particular nation, for example, in Russia, nationality is determined by the father, while in Israel, nationality is determined by the mother.

How to determine nationality - the second way

It happens that a person does not know his true parents, for example, he was adopted or brought up in an orphanage. Then the nationality of this person will depend on his place of residence, following the traditions of this people and knowing perfectly the language of the country in which this person lives. For example, you live in Germany, but your native language is Hebrew, you also honor the traditions of Israel, observe all Jewish holidays, for example, Hanukkah, so you are a Jew.

How to determine nationality - the third way

By physiological signs, you can determine your nationality, although, most likely, this method can be subjective, not objective, because, for example, if you had a distant great-grandfather Armenian, and your mom and dad are Russians, then you can still manifest facial features inherited from a distant relative, such as eye color and nose shape. Below are the most common features of certain nationalities.
To begin with, let's recall school biology courses and consider the existing classifications of the race of people, which are determined by the place of residence: for example, dark skin contains more melanin, which protects from the debilitating sun.

• Caucasoid race - about half of the world's population belongs to this type. Distinguishing Features: Fair skin, soft or slightly wavy hair, narrow nose, thin lips, eye color may vary. The Caucasian race includes residents of Europe, Armenians, Tajiks, Ukrainians and others.
• Negroid race - most often found in Africa and America. People differ in dark skin, wide lips and nose, brown eyes (there are exceptions) and dark curly hair.
• The Mongoloid race makes up about 40 percent of the world's population. It is distinguished by a yellowish skin color, a straight forehead, a wide nose and narrow eyes. The Mongoloid race includes the inhabitants of China, Japan, Koreans and other peoples of Asia.
• Australoid race - inhabits Australia and the island of New Guinea. It is distinguished by dark skin color, wide nose, brown eyes and well-developed hairline.

But, thanks to the rapid growth of the world's population, now there has been a mixture of different races, which makes a person unique. It is enough to read about one or another nationality so that one can attribute oneself to it.

In general, it is not only interesting to study your own or someone else's nationality, it is also quite cool to learn the traditions of certain nationalities, for example, what holidays are celebrated by residents of different countries. As you can see, it is sometimes difficult to determine nationality, since in modern life people have a lot of blood "mixed".

With each year of his life, a person expands the choice of communication more and more, getting to know new people. In order for a new acquaintance to make contact with you, you need to make a pleasant impression on him. To avoid uncomfortable situations, it is important to know what nationality the person in front of you is in order to behave in accordance with the moral and ethical standards of his country. By most surnames, you can accurately determine the nationality of your friends, neighbors, business partners, etc.

Russians- use surnames with suffixes -an, -yn, -in, -skikh, -ov, -ev, -skoi, -tskoi, -ih, -ih (Snegirev, Ivanov, Voronin, Sinitsyn, Donskoy, Moskovskikh, Sedykh);

Belarusians- typical Belarusian surnames end in -ich, -chik, -ka, -ko, -onak, -yonak, -uk, -ik, -ski. (Radkevich, Dubrova, Parshonok, Kuharchik, Kastsyushka); many surnames in the Soviet years were Russified and Polished (Dubrovsky, Kosciuszko);

Poles- most of the surnames have the suffix -sk, -tsk, and the ending -ij ​​(-th), indicating masculine and feminine gender (Sushitsky, Kovalskaya, Khodetsky, Volnitskaya); there are also double surnames - if a woman, when getting married, wants to leave her surname (Mazur-Komorovskaya); in addition to these surnames, surnames with an unchanged form are also common among the Poles (Nowak, Sienkiewicz, Wuytsik, Wozniak). Ukrainians with surname endings in -y are not Ukrainians, but Ukrainian Poles.;

Ukrainians- the first classification of surnames of a given nationality is formed with the help of suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk (Kreschenko, Grishko, Vasilyuk, Kovalchuk); the second series denotes the kind of any craft or occupation (Potter, Koval); the third group of surnames consists of separate Ukrainian words (Gorobets, Ukrainians, Parubok), as well as a merger of words (Vernigora, Nepiyvoda, Bilous).

Latvians- a feature to the masculine gender is indicated by a surname ending in -s, -is, and to the feminine - in -a, -e (Verbitskis - Verbitska, Shurins - Shurin)

Lithuanians- male surnames end in -onis, -unas, -utis, -aitis, -enas (Pyatrenas, Norvydaitis), female surnames are formed from the husband's surname using the suffixes -en, -yuven, -uven and endings -е (Grynyus - Grinyuvene );

Estonians- Male and female genders are not distinguished with the help of surnames, all foreign surnames (mostly German ones) were Estonianized at one time (Rosenberg - Roozimäe), this process is still in effect today. for example, in order to be able to play for the Estonian national team, football players Sergei Khokhlov and Konstantin Kolbasenko had to change their names to Simson and Nahk;

French people- many surnames are prefixed with Le or De (Le Pen, Mol Pompadour); mostly dissimilar nicknames and personal names were used to form surnames (Robert, Jolie, Cauchon - a pig);

Romanians: -sku, -u(l), -an.

Serbs:-ich.

English- the following surnames are common: formed from the names of the place of residence (Scott, Wales); designating a profession (Hoggart - a shepherd, Smith - a blacksmith); indicating the outward appearance of character and appearance (Armstrong - strong, Sweet - sweet, Bragg - bragging);

Germans- surnames formed from personal names (Werner, Peters); surnames that characterize a person (Krause - wavy, Klein - small); surnames indicating the type of activity (Müller - miller, Lehmann - geomor);

swedes- most surnames end in -sson, -berg, -steady, -strom (Andersson, Olsson, Forsberg, Bostrom);

Norse- are formed from personal names with the help of the suffix -en (Larsen, Hansen), surnames can occur without suffixes and endings (Per, Morten); Norwegian surnames can repeat the names of animals, trees and natural phenomena (Blizzard - blizzard, Svane - swan, Furu - pine);

Italians- surnames are characterized by suffixes -ini, -ino, -ello, -illo, -etti, -etto, -ito (Benedetto, Moretti, Esposito), can end in -o, -a, -i (Conti, Giordano, Costa) ; the prefixes di- and- denote, respectively, the person's belonging to his genus and geographical structure (Di Moretti is the son of Moretti, Da Vinci is from Vinci);

Spaniards and Portuguese - have surnames ending in -ez, -az, -iz, -oz (Gomez, Lopez), surnames that indicate the character of a person are also common (Alegre - joyful, Bravo - brave, Malo - horseless);

Turks- most often, surnames end in -oglu, -ji, -zade (Mustafaoglu, Ekindzhi, Kuindzhi, Mammadzade), Turkish names or everyday words were often used in the formation of surnames (Ali, Abaza - a fool, Kolpakchi - a hat);

Bulgarians - almost all Bulgarian surnames are formed from personal names and suffixes -ov, -ev (Konstantinov, Georgiev);

Gagauz: -oglo.

Tatars: -in, -ishin.

Greeks- the surnames of the Greeks cannot be confused with any other surnames, only they have the endings -idis, -kos, -pulos (Angelopoulos, Nikolaidis);

Czechs- the main difference from other surnames is the obligatory ending -ova in female surnames, even if where it would seem inappropriate (Valdrova, Ivanovova, Andersonova).

Georgians- Surnames ending in -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si are common (Baratashvili, Mikadze, Adamia, Karchava, Gvishiani, Tsereteli);

Armenians- a significant part of the surnames of the inhabitants of Armenia has the suffix -yan (Hakopyan, Galustyan); Also, -yants, -uni.

Moldovans: -sku, -u(l), -an.

Azerbaijanis- formed surnames, taking Azerbaijani names as a basis and attaching Russian suffixes -ov, -ev to them (Mamedov, Aliyev, Hasanov, Abdullayev). Also, -zade, -li, ly, -oglu, -kyzy.

Jews- the main group consists of surnames with roots Levi and Cohen (Levin, Levitan Kagan, Koganovich, Katz); the second group originated from male and female Jewish names with the addition of various suffixes (Yakobson, Yakubovich, Davidson, Godelson, Tsivyan, Beilis, Abramovich, Rubinchik, Vigdorchik, Mandelstam); the third classification of surnames reflects the character of a person, the features of his appearance or belonging to a profession (Kaplan is a chaplain, Rabinovich is a rabbi, Melamed is a pestun, Schwarzbard is black-bearded, Stiller is quiet, Shtarkman is strong).

Ossetians: -ti.

Mordva: -yn, -in.

Chinese and Koreans- for the most part, these are surnames consisting of one, less often of two syllables (Tang, Liu, Duan, Qiao, Choi, Kogai);

Japanese- modern Japanese surnames are formed by the merger of two meaningful words (Wada - sweetness and rice field, Igarashi - 50 storms, Katayama - hill, Kitamura - north and village); The most common Japanese surnames are: Takahashi, Kobayashi, Kato, Suzuki, Yamamoto.

As you can see, in order to determine the nationality of a person, it is enough to accurately analyze his last name, highlighting the suffix and ending.

WHAT DO THE SURNAME ON "-IN" MEAN? SURNAMES ENDING IN -IN HAVE RUSSIAN ROOT OR JEWISH?

In the collection of the famous Slavist linguist B. O Unbegaun “Russian Surnames”, one can read that surnames with “in” are mainly the Russian type of surnames.

Why the ending "-in"? Basically, all surnames ending in "in" come from words ending in -а/-я and from feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant.

There are not a few examples of the erroneous addition of -in to the bases with a final solid consonant: Orekhin, Karpin, Markin, where -ov should have been. And in another case -ov turned out to be in place -in: Shishimorov from the basis of shishimora. It is possible to mix formants. After all, among Russians -in and -ov have been semantically indistinguishable for more than a thousand years. The meaning of the difference was lost even in the common Slavic language, the choice of -ov or -in depends only survivingly on the phonetic feature of the stem (Nikonov "Geography of Surnames").

Do you know how the surname of the famous leader of the people's militia of 1611-1612, Minin, came about? Minin had a personal nickname Sukhoruk, he did not have a last name. And Minin meant "son of Mina". The Orthodox name "Mina" was widespread in Rus'.

Another old Russian surname is Semin, also a surname on "-in". According to the main version, the surname Semin goes back to the baptismal male name Semyon. The name Semyon is the Russian form of the ancient Jewish name Simeon, meaning "hearing", "heard by God." On behalf of Semyon in Rus', many derivative forms were formed, one of which - Syoma - formed the basis of this surname.

The well-known Slavic linguist B. O. Unbegaun in the collection “Russian Surnames” believes that the surname Semin was formed from the baptismal Russian name according to the following scheme: “Semyon - Syoma - Semin”.

Let us give another example of a surname, which we studied in detail in the family diploma. Rogozhin is an old Russian surname. According to the main version, the surname keeps the memory of the profession of distant ancestors. One of the first representatives of the Rogozhins could be engaged in the manufacture of matting, or trade in fabric.

Rogozhey was called a coarse woven fabric from bast tapes. A bast hut (bast mat, bast mat) in Rus' was called a workshop where bast mats were woven, and a bast mat was called a bast weaver or a bast mat merchant.

In their close circle, Rogozhnik's household was known as "Rogozhin's wife", "Rogozhin's son", "Rogozhin's grandchildren". Over time, the terms denoting the degree of kinship disappeared, and the hereditary surname - Rogozhins - was assigned to the descendants of Rogozhin.

Such Russian surnames ending in "-in" include: Pushkin (Pushka), Gagarin (Gagara), Borodin (Beard), Ilyin (Ilya), Ptitsyn (Bird); Fomin (from the personal name of Thomas); Belkin (from the nickname "squirrel"), Borozdin (Furrow), Korovin (Cow), Travin (Grass), Zamin and Zimin (winter) and many others

Please note that the words from which surnames are formed on "in" mostly end in "-a" or "-ya". We will not be able to say “Borodov” or “Ilyinov”, it would be more logical and sonorous to pronounce “Ilyin” or “Borodin”.

Why do some people think that surnames ending in "-in" have Jewish roots? Is it really? No, this is not true, one cannot judge the origin of a surname by one ending. The sound of Jewish surnames coincides with Russian endings just by pure chance.

It is always necessary to research the surname itself. The ending "ov", for some reason, does not cause us doubts. We believe that surnames ending in "-ov" are definitely Russian. But there are exceptions. For example, we recently prepared a beautiful family diploma for a wonderful family named Maksyutov.

The surname Maksyutov has the ending "ov", common among Russian surnames. But, if you explore the surname more deeply, it turns out that the surname Maksyutov is formed from the Tatar male name "Maksud", which, translated from Arabic, means "desire, premeditated intention, aspiration, goal", "long-awaited, desired". The name Maksud had several dialect variants: Maksut, Mahsud, Mahsut, Maksut. This name is still widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs to this day.

“The surname Maksyutov is an old princely surname of Tatar origin. Historical sources speak about the ancient origin of the Maksyutov surname. The surname was first documented in the 16th century: Maksutovs (Maksutovs, obsolete Maksutovs, Tat. Maksutovlar) - the Volga-Bulgarian princely-Murzin family, comes from the Kasimov prince Maksut (1554), in the genealogical legend, Prince Maksut was called a lancer and a descendant of the prince Kashima." Now there is almost no doubt about the origin of the surname.

How to find out if the surname on -in is of Jewish origin or is it a native Russian surname? Always analyze the word that underlies your last name.

Here are examples of Jewish surnames ending in “-in” or “-ov”: Edmin (derived from the name of the German city of Emden), Kotin (derived from the Hebrew קטן- in the Ashkenazi pronunciation “kotn”, meaning “small”), Eventov (derived from Hebrew “even tov” - “precious stone”), Khazin (derived from the Hebrew “khazan”, in the Ashkenazi pronunciation “khazn”, meaning “a person leading worship in the synagogue”), Superfin (translated means “very beautiful”) and a lot others.

The ending "-in" is just an ending by which one cannot judge the nationality of a surname. You always need to research the surname, analyze the word that underlies it and try to search in various books and archival documents for the first mention of your surname. Only when all the information has been collected will you be able to establish with certainty the origin of your surname and find answers to your questions.

SURNAMES ENDING IN SKIY/-SKAYA, -TSKIY/-TSKAYA

Many Russians have a firm and unfounded conviction that surnames in -sky are necessarily Polish. From history textbooks, the names of several Polish magnates are known, formed from the names of their possessions: Pototsky and Zapototsky, Zablotsky, Krasinsky. But from the same textbooks, the names of many Russians with the same suffixes are known: Konstantin Grigoryevich Zabolotsky, roundabout of Tsar John III, late 15th - early 16th centuries; clerk Semyon Zaborovsky, early 16th century; boyars Shuisky and Belsky, close associates of Ivan the Terrible. Famous Russian artists Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Makovsky, Kramskoy.

An analysis of modern Russian surnames shows that forms in -sky (-tsky) exist in parallel with variants in -ov (-ev, -in), but there are fewer of them. For example, in Moscow in the 70s of the twentieth century, for 330 people with the surname Krasnov / Krasnova, there were only 30 with the surname Krasnovsky / Krasnovskaya. But rather rare surnames Kuchkov and Kuchkovsky, Makov and Makovsky are presented almost equally.

A significant part of the surnames ending in -sky / -skaya, -tsky / -tskaya are formed from geographical and ethnic names. In the letters of our readers who want to know about the origin of their surnames, the following surnames are mentioned in -sky / -sky.

Brynsky. The author of this letter, Evgeny Sergeevich Brynsky, himself sent the story of his last name. We give only a small piece of the letter, since it is not possible to publish it in its entirety. Bryn is a river of the Kaluga region, flows into a tributary of the Oka Zhizdra. In the old days, large dense Bryn forests stretched along it, in which the Old Believers took refuge. According to the epic about Ilya Muromets, it was in the Bryn forests that the Nightingale the Robber lived. We add that there are several settlements Bryn in the Kaluga and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The surname Brynski / Brynska found in Poland is formed from the name of two settlements Brynsk in different parts of the country and also, apparently, goes back to the names of the rivers Bryn, Brynica. There is no uniform interpretation of the names of these rivers in science. If the suffix -ets is added to the name of an inhabited place, then such a word denotes a native of this place. In the Crimea in the 60s - 70s of the XX century, the winegrower Maria Bryntseva was well known. Her surname is derived from the word brynets, that is, a native of the city or village of Bryn.

Garbavitsky. This Belarusian surname corresponds to the Russian Gorbovitsky (in the Belarusian language, the letter a is written in place of the unstressed o). The surname is formed from the name of some settlement of Gorbovitsa. In the materials we have, there are only Gorbov, Gorbovo and Gorbovtsy. All these names come from the designations of the terrain: humpback - hillock, sloping hill.

Dubovskaya. The surname is formed from the name of one of the numerous settlements: Dubovka, Dubovo, Dubovoe, Dubovskaya, Dubovsky, Dubovskoye, Dubovtsy, located in all parts of the country. To find out from which one, it is possible only according to the information preserved in the family, where the ancestors who received this surname lived, or where they came from to their place of further residence. Emphasis in the surname on "o": Dubovsky / Dubovskaya.

Steblivsky. The Ukrainian surname, corresponding to the Russian one, is Steblevsky; formed from the names of settlements Steblivka in the Transcarpathian region or Steblev-Cherkasy. In Ukrainian orthography, i is written in place of the second e.

Tersky. The surname comes from the name of the Terek River and indicates that one of the distant ancestors of this person lived there. There were the Terek region and the Terek Cossacks. So the bearers of the surname Tersky may also be descendants of the Cossacks.

Uryansky. The surname, apparently, is formed from the name of the settlement Urya. In our materials, such a name is recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Perhaps there are similar names in other places, since the name of the inhabited place is associated with the name of the river and with the designation of the Ur ethnic group, as well as with the name of the medieval Turkic people Uryanka. Similar names could be found in different places, since medieval peoples led a nomadic lifestyle and assigned the name of their ethnic group to those places where they lingered for a long time.

Chiglinsky. The surname comes from the name of the settlement Chigla in the Voronezh region, which, apparently, is associated with the designation of the union of the medieval Turkic tribes Chigili.

Shabansky. The surname is formed from the names of the settlements Shabanovo, Shabanovskoye, Shabanskoye, located in different parts of the country. These names come from the Turkic name Shaban of Arabic origin. In Arabic, Sha'ban is the name of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. The name Shaban is also attested in Russian peasant families in the 15th-17th centuries. In parallel with this, the spelling variant Shiban was noted in the Russian language - obviously, by analogy with the Russian shibat, zashibat. In the records of 1570-1578, Prince Ivan Andreevich Shiban Dolgoruky is mentioned; in 1584, the stirrup grooms of Tsar Theodore Ioannovich Osip Shiban and Danilo Shikhman Ermolaevich Kasatkins. The servant of Prince Kurbsky was called Vasily Shibanov - he was executed by Ivan the Terrible in 1564.

In addition, the name of the ethnic group of the Siberian Tatars, the Shibans, and the generic name of the Crimean Tatars, the Shiban Murzas, are known. In the Perm region there is a settlement of Shibanovo, and in the Ivanovo region - Shibanikha.

Different types of proper names are so closely related to each other: personal names, geographical and ethnic names, as well as surnames.

Over the past quarter century, the self-identification of the citizens of our country has undergone many changes and most often against the backdrop of political unrest. Well, over the past few years, it has even become fashionable to be “Russian”. No wonder it is believed that the nationality "Russian" is more than just the concept of "nationality", it is a state of mind. How many nationalities are there in the world, how did they form and how do they differ from citizenship? All these questions have become very relevant in recent times.

Origin of nationalities

Just a few centuries ago, such a concept as "nationality" did not even exist, only data on the speakers of a particular language were counted. Actually, this is happening now in many other countries of our planet. Mankind has always sought to divide itself into certain ethnic groups, for example, into tribes of the primitive communal system. Later, in the era of slavery and feudalism, the concept of nationality had already begun to take shape. And when society came to the bourgeois system, the concepts of "nation" and "nationality" appeared as the next stage in the development of ethnic groups. In most countries of the world, these definitions refer to the identification of citizenship, while in Russia and some other countries they have a broader meaning.

On a global scale

The concepts of "people", "nation" and "nationality" are almost identical, and it is difficult to isolate the main difference between them, because the division into ethnic groups has existed much longer than any of these definitions. Today, it is incredibly difficult to count all the nationalities of the world, because they are in constant dynamics, merging with each other, as a result of which many disappear. According to rough estimates, there are now about two thousand nationalities on the planet with a tendency to constantly decrease. This is somewhat more than self-identification on a linguistic or territorial basis, because in the presence of 251 official states in the world there are about six thousand languages, each of which is native to someone. Therefore, it is difficult to determine how many nationalities actually exist. In addition to the most common and well-known, such as Americans, British, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Bulgarians and others, there are small and little-known ethnic groups: Balochs, Golds, Ingris, Lappies, Mishars and many others.

Difficulties of definition

Nationality is usually called belonging to a particular ethnic group. It has a hereditary character, because its main features are the surname and appearance of a person, as well as some character traits that are defined as mentality. But the concept is rather arbitrary. In connection with the constant dynamics towards the mixing of ethnic groups in the pedigree of a person, the presence of representatives of a wide variety of nationalities is possible, which makes it difficult to determine nationality itself. Thus, despite the fact that in many countries the main feature of such a definition is citizenship or language, nationalities increasingly remain a concept of self-identification of an individual.

From Empire to Federation

In the Russian Empire in 1897, a census was held, then the citizen's belonging to a particular ethnic group was determined by linguistic and religious grounds. A little later, the concept of “nations” and “peoples” began to be applied, and the column “nationality” in passports appeared already in the Soviet Union in the 70s of the last century. The Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR had such a name for a more precise definition of the territorial entities represented in it (republics, autonomous regions and districts). Well, today the Constitution of the Russian Federation enshrines the right to self-determination in the choice of nationality.

Such different "Russians"

Many people are very interested in the question why all the nationalities of the world are nouns (Latvians, Poles, Romanians, Tatars and others), and only Russians have this adjective. It is difficult to answer this question for sure, and different scientists put forward different theories. You should start with the fact that this is the largest nationality in the world. Nationality "Russian" have, according to various estimates, from 130 to 150 million people around the globe, living not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Russians are the most numerous East Slavic ethnic group. This is the main part of the population and the indigenous people of Russia, as well as the majority of the population of the former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and others. But Russians are distributed not only in the post-Soviet space, in the USA, Germany, Canada and Brazil, as well as in other large states, they are represented by large diasporas. Russian is considered the national language. Some sub-ethnic groups of the Russian people in other countries have their own names: Goryuny (region of Ukraine), Lipovans (region of Romania), Albazins (region of China), Nekrasovites (region of Turkey). As for the territory of Russia itself, despite the common nationality "Russian", the population is also divided into narrower ethnic groups, such as Cossacks, Sayans, Tudovians, Pomors, Kolyma, Siberians, Markovites and many others, depending on the region of residence .

What defines a Russian?

It is believed that as a nationality, "Russian" is too condensed a concept. These are not just some anthropological features or surname endings in -ov / -ev. V. I. Dahl, the great Russian scientist, writer and lexicographer, had his own point of view on the definition of a person’s nationality, and there is undoubtedly a rational grain in this opinion. He believed that depending on what language a person thinks in, he belongs to that people. Russian is spoken by a huge part of the world's population and, in addition to Russia, by the vast majority of the population of some former republics of the USSR, while classifying themselves as other nationalities on a territorial basis. Russians are more than a nationality, they are a civilization, original and unique, uniting language, culture, mentality into a single whole.