In the Middle Ages, "Rus", "Germany", "Lithuania" spoke the same language.
Who do we mean by Germans now? First of all - the inhabitants of Germany, as well as Austria, German-speaking Switzerland and other countries who speak the current German language, meaning also a certain conditional "Aryan" anthropological type of the German-speaking population.
In exactly the same way, by Lithuanians, we mean, first of all, the inhabitants of Lithuania who speak the modern Lithuanian language (and we just as tacitly refer them to the conditional “Baltic” anthropological type). And by Russians we mean, first of all, the population of Russia, as well as the Russian-speaking population of neighboring countries, speaking Russian and belonging, in our opinion, to the conditional "Slavic" anthropological type.
At the same time, the "Aryan", "Baltic" or "Slavic" type of a stranger we met is practically indistinguishable until he speaks. So it is the language that first of all determines the modern national differences of the majority of the population of North-Eastern Europe, and only then - citizenship.
But, according to a number of studies, before the 16th century. there were no "nations" and "national states" at all, and the spoken language was the same in almost all of Europe, except for the Mediterranean, therefore the current Germans, Lithuanians and Russians made up one conditionally "Arian" (or, if you like, Balto-Slavic) people along with Czechs, Poles, Danes, Swedes, etc.
Passage of the Magyars through the Carpathians. Chronicon Pictum, 1360
This people should include part of the modern Hungarians (descendants of the Balto-Slavic settlers on the left bank of the Danube), and part of the Ashkenazi Jews, and even part of the Greeks. It would seem that modern Hungarian or Greek languages can hardly be called closely related to German, Russian or Lithuanian. But the casket opens simply: the capital of Hungary ("Ugorskaya land") from the XIII century. until 1867, it is believed that the present Slovak capital was Bratislava (in 1541-1867 - under the Habsburg name of Pressburg), and most of the population of Hungary were the ancestors of today's Slovaks and Serbs. The Ugrians (today's Hungarians) moved to these places only in the XIV century. due to climatic cold snap and hunger in the Volga region.
The population of the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, right up to the Napoleonic wars, spoke a language practically indistinguishable from modern Macedonian, that is, the same Slavic. The current Greek language is a marginal Newspeak, that is, a mixed language of the former Judeo-Hellenic population of the Mediterranean who converted to Orthodoxy: only less than 30% of Balto-Slavic roots have survived in it, in contrast to Bulgarian (more than 90% of common roots) and Romanian (more than 70%). In t. N. the ancient Greek language (that is, the language of the population of Greece in the XIV-XV centuries, excluding Macedonia and the Peloponnese) had more than half of the Balto-Slavic roots.
Promotional video:
Jan Matejko. "Battle of Grunwald", 1878
As for "Lithuania", in the XIV century. it meant not only the entire Baltic and East Prussia, but also Poland, and Ukraine, and Belarus, and part of Russia, including Smolensk, Ryazan, Kaluga, Tula and Moscow - right up to Mytishchi, from where Vladimir Rus began. Remember the Battle of Grunwald, which took place, as is commonly believed, in 1410: the “aliens” (Teutons-Latins) were then fought by “their own” - the Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes and Russians under the command of Vladislav Jagiello.
All "ancient Lithuanian" literary monuments are written in the Slavic alphabet, not in the Latin alphabet. From "Lithuania" we also have a modern (Moscow-Ryazan) literary dialect (for example, the Lithuanian Maskava - Moscow), and not the archangel-Vologda-Yaroslavl dialect (by the way, more ancient, preserving the original Proto-Slavic full accord). So the then population of "Lithuania", "Germany" and "Rus" could not call each other "Germans": they understood each other perfectly, there were no translators in the Battle of Grunwald! After all, a "German" is someone who is not able to speak clearly, not only mute, but also gibberish, like being struck by sickness or dumbness. That is, a "German" is a foreigner, a stranger!
Tribunal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 1586 g.
In the Middle Ages, the Balto-Slavic population of North-Eastern Europe did not understand only strangers: Chud - Ugra - Hungarians. In the Laurentian Chronicle it is written in such a straightforward manner: "Ugra, however, people are the language of him." And it's clear why: in Hungarian, “nem” means “no” (for example, “nem tudom” - “I don't understand”). Therefore, medieval "Germans" are Ugra, Ugrians (ancestors of modern Hungarians and Estonians), that is, speakers of the Finno-Ugric Koine (spoken language). Medieval “Germans” cannot be identified with “Germans” also because the word “Germans” before the 19th century. denoted relatives by blood, so that it could be any tribe not only among the single Balto-Slavic population, but also among the same Finno-Ugric.
Now - about the medieval Russians. Russians are not only a part of the Balto-Slavs, speakers of the same language. This is in general the entire non-urban population of not only Eastern, but also Central, and even parts of South-Western Europe, who spoke one common (Proto-Slavic) language. And Pushkin's brilliant "Latin" epigraph to the second chapter of Eugene Onegin is far from accidental: "O Rus!" (literally from Latin - "Oh, village!"), that is, "Oh, Russia!"
Repin's painting "Duel of Onegin and Lensky".
All farmers (they are peasants - Christians), cattle breeders, artisans, monks-elders and horse (Cossack) troops living outside the city limits were called "Russians" (Rus), and the current word "Russian", which does not carry a nationalist meaning, is a synonym the old meaning of the word "Russian".