Relating to Russia or Russian people; a person of Russian descent.
From Medieval Latin 'Russus' meaning 'red', referring to the reddish hair common among early Slavic peoples. The term evolved through Byzantine Greek 'Ros' and came to designate the people of the Kievan Rus state.
The connection between 'Russo' and 'red' lives on in modern Russian culture - Red Square (Krasnaya Ploshchad) originally meant 'Beautiful Square' since 'krasny' meant both red and beautiful in Old Russian. This linguistic coincidence made the red communist symbolism particularly resonant.
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