 However, this proper name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants "Русская Земля" ("russkaja zemlja"), which can be translated as "Russian Land" or "Land of Rus'".In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as "Kievan Rus'" by modern historiography.The name "Rus" itself comes from the early medieval Rus' people, Swedish merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and founded a state centered on Novgorod that later became Kievan Rus.