3 ms·

That is also a pet peeve of mine that even respectable journalists that should know better make: saying Russia when they clearly mean USSR.

• mikeash 9y ago
  It's fairly common, although I agree they ought to do better. It seems to be partially due to the fact that Russia was such a dominant part of the USSR, and partly because the USSR was more or less the continuation of the Russian Empire, which was often referred to as just "Russia."
  • jhbadger 9y ago
    It's not unlike how people (not from the Netherlands) often call the Netherlands "Holland", which is only a part of it, or call the UK "Britain".
    • mikeash 9y ago
      Good examples. In the US, it’s fairly common to use “England” to refer to the UK, which really weirds me out.
• mcguire 9y ago
  See 'synecdoche'. Russia was the important part of the USSR.