A lot of slavic areas are named very similarly, distinguished only by being "Red" or "White." Like, Red/White Croatia, Red/White Ruthenia, etc. I had this question when I noticed how much those two colors come up in slavic history. Not only that, but the White and Red Armies in communist civil wars, white and red being two pan-slavic colors, all that stuff. Where does this naming convention come from? How far back does this go?
Thank you for any answers. I can clarify if need be.
The naming is actually more a black/white thing. There are some regions with red (e.g. Ruthenia) but I think most of them are black and white. That made it easier to distinguish the different tribes inhabiting those regions and their tribal names were transferred to the region later. Following that logic, there were three tribes in Ruthenia, the red one, the black one and the white one (but all of them being Ruthenians). That got stuck, so now there is White Ruthenia, Red Ruthenia and Black Ruthenia.