Russia vs. Ruthenia — What's the Difference?

Russia (Russian: Россия, Rossiya, Russian pronunciation: [rɐˈsʲijə]), or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, covering over 17 million square kilometres (6.6×10^6 sq mi), and encompassing more than one-eighth of Earth's inhabited land area.

Ruthenia (; Latin: Ruthenia or Rutenia, Polish: Ruś, Belarusian: Рутэнія, Русь, Russian: Рутения, Русь, Ukrainian: Рутенія, romanized: Rutenia or Русь, Rus) is an exonym, originally used in Medieval Latin as one of several terms for Kievan Rus', Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, and, after their collapse, for East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, corresponding to what is now Ukraine and Belarus.During the early modern period, the term Ruthenia started to be mostly associated with the Ruthenian lands of the Polish Crown and the Cossack Hetmanate. Bohdan Khmelnytsky declared himself the ruler of the Ruthenian state to the Polish representative Adam Kysil in February 1649.

A country in northern Asia and eastern Europe; population 143,500,000 (estimated 2015); official language, Russian; capital, Moscow.

A country of Europe and Asia.

A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia an others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991

Formerly the largest Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR occupying eastern Europe and northern Asia

A former empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia created in the 14th century with Moscow as the capital; powerful in 17-18th centuries under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great when Saint Petersburg was the capital; overthrown by revolution in 1917

A federation in northeastern Europe and northern Asia; formerly Soviet Russia; since 1991 an independent state