The article explores the historical coexistence of the categories russkii and rossiiskii. The main focus is on analyzing the time, conditions, and reasons for the inclusion of the category russkii in broader intellectual discourse. A review of the historical literature and sources reveals that, despite the long history of both categories, the word russkii was the most widely used in the Old Russian tradition. From the 16th century until the 19th century, russkii and rossiiskii were almost synonymous, differing only in their contexts of use. A certain turning point in the relationship between these categories begins to be recorded in the 16th century and intensifies in the 17th century, which can be explained by the transformation of the Russian state’s self-perception and by changes in the language and visual imagery of power associated with the formation of the “ideal image” of the “Universal Orthodox Kingdom”. It is only by the beginning of the 19th century that a degree of semantic “specialization” of the categories becomes discernible: russkii is more often used to characterize the “popular” dimension of the concept, while rossiiskii is used to mark official state discourse. However, there is no real opposition between these concepts, and they continue to be used simultaneously. The contradiction between them only emerges in the late 20th century, in connection with discussions about the essence of citizenship, nationality, and identity.
Russia; Rus’; Russian; state; society; power; ideology; public consciousness.