Russians
Russians (Русские – Russkiye) are an East Slavic ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.
The English term Russians is also used to refer to citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity (see demographics of Russia for information on other nationalities inhabiting Russia); in Russian, this meaning is covered by the recently revived politically correct term Rossiyanin (Россиянин, plural Rossiyane). Ethnic Russians make up about 80% of the population of Russia.
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Population
Russians are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world with a population of about 145 million people worldwide. Roughly 116 million ethnic Russians live in Russia and 25 million more live in neighboring countries. A relatively small number of Russians, around 2 million, live elsewhere in the world, mostly in North America and Western Europe.
Religion
Most Russians are predominantly of the Orthodox Christian faith. More specifically, most belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, which played an important role in the development of Russian national identity. Some Russians are Old Believers a relatively small schismatic group of the Russian Orthodox that exists since 17th century.
Russians outside of Russia
Largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside of Russia live in former Soviet states such as Ukraine (about 10 million), Kazakhstan (about 5 million), the Baltic states (about 2 million), Belarus (about 1 million), Uzbekistan (about 1 million), Kyrgyzstan (about 600 000) and Moldova (about 500 000) . After the collapse of the Soviet Union Russians have been targeted and persecuted by the newly independent nationalist regimes in a number of former Soviet republics. In Latvia and Estonia Baltic Russians were denied citizenship and in Moldova Russians and Ukrainians broke away from the republic after a violent conflict. Russian-dominated Transnistria separatist region was created because Russians feared marginalization and discrimination from Romanian-speaking majority in Moldova. As a result during the 1990s many ethnic Russians from former Soviet republics immigrated to Russia. There are also small Russian communities in the Balkans, Eastern and Central European nations such as Czech republic as well as in Australia, China and Latin America.
China
Russians (俄罗斯族) are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China (as the Russ), and there are approximately 10,000 Russian Chinese living mostly in northern Xinjiang, and also in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. See also Harbin Russians and China Far East Railway.
History of Russians
Russians as distinct ethnic group was widely recognized since 15th century as Muscovite Russians. Some ethnologists point out that Russians were a distinct Slavic group even before time of Kievan Rus(see Rus' (people)). Others think that there is much more heritage in Russian ethnicity than isolation from Western Rus in Muscovy Czardom, but that Russkiye are complex ethnic mix of East Slavic and non-Slavic tribes.