The history of Moscovia traces its roots back to the 9th century when it was inhabited by various Finno-Ugric tribes. The name Moscovia derived from the city Moscow or Moskva in the Russian language. The name of Moscow comes from the name of the Moskva river.
Moscow became a principality of Rus around the 1280s. It was a small principality with only one city, Moscow. It was called the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
The rulers in Moscovia were people from the Rurik dynasty. This dynasty ruled the vast majority of lands, including Rus and territories around Moscow.
In the year around 1238-1240, the Mongol Empire started its invasions of the territory of Rus. The big turning point happened around the year 1240 when Prince Danylo Romanovych (also known as Daniel of Galicia) decided to fight against the Mongols. And Prince Alexander Yaroslavich (also known as Alexander Nevsky) decided to become an ally with the Mongols. Both of them were from the same Rurik dynasty. These decisions made a huge turning point in history because Moscow became influenced by the Mongols for the years to come. This was the moment when Rus was split apart. From now on, Moscow tried to improve its status within the Mongol Empire. It was harder for Moscow because its rulers and population were not descendants of Genghis Khan.
The Mongolian Empire (also known as the Golden Horde) consisted of multiple tribes:
- Khanate of Kazan
- Astrakhan Khanate
- Khanate of Sibir
- Crimean Khanate
- Kazakh Khanate
- Uzbek Khanate
- Nogai Horde
Yuriy Danilovich (also known as Yury of Moscow) was the Prince of Moscow from 1303–1325. He married the khan’s sister Konchaka to strengthen ties with the Mongols.
Around the 15th century, the Mongolian Empire began to fall apart, and all the Khanates gained their independence from the Mongolian Empire. Later, Moscow started invading those independent territories one by one to assemble its own version of the Mongol Empire, which later would be called the Russian Empire.
In 1721 Peter I decided to rename Moscovia to Rus’ to distance from Mongolian legacy and took over history of Rus’. And for some reason he decided to use Greek language. And in Greek the spelling is Ρωσία (Rosiya in Latin spelling). Notice that there is “o” instead of “u” because Greek language did not have letter “u” back then. And so that word transferred into Russian language as “Rossiya”. Then this word transferred into English language as “Russia”. This was the Moscovian way to took over history and legacy of Rus’ by stealing the name of Rus’.
Peter the Great, who ruled from 1682 to 1725, is known for westernizing Muscovy and trying to incorporate it more fully into the geopolitical framework of Europe. As part of his reforms, in 1721, he changed his country’s name from the “Tsardom of Muscovy” to the “Russian Empire” and declared himself Emperor (Imperator) instead of Tsar. He was influenced by Greek, as the term “Russia” does indeed correspond to the Greek “Rosiya” (Ρωσία). The appropriation of the name could be seen as an attempt to link Muscovy more directly to the legacy of the ancient Kievan Rus’
Modern Muscovy has a population of 145 millions of people. This includes 190 nations. And 110 millions are claimed to be Russians. Its about 75%.