CRUDE, a tribal name used in both a special and a general sense. (I) It was the name given by the Russians to certain Estonian tribes with whom they came in contact as they spread gradually over their present empire. It would seem that the northern Chudes are the Vepsas. (2) As the Russians advanced eastwards they extended the name to various tribes whom they considered to be like the Estonians, and in popular use it has come to be applied to any ancient non-Russian people in Siberia, at least as far east as the Altai.