# Who would be czar of Russia today? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280 "2003-01-02T21:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_willard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@don\_willard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_willard)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/21 "2003-01-15T20:19:18Z")
Transliteration into “our” alphabet of words from another alphabet such as Cyrillic (eg., Russian) or Chinese varies with the times. When I was small the term czar was used for the tsar. There is another thing that determines the transliteration, which is whatever the received system of the times, SOME OF THE TRANSLITERATIONS ACCORDING TO THE SYSTEM OF AN OLDER TIME ARE RETAINED BECAUSE THEY HAVE HADE SUCH WIDE CURRENCY. This is why Catherine is called Catherine instead of Ekaterina–there have been so many books on her and so many even ordinary persons have heard of her that scholars see no reason to revert to her actual name in another alphabet. When they changed the system for translating Chinese some time ago a few WIDE CURRENCY spellings in English were retained, ie., Taoism is still Taoism instead of Dowism. I don’t remember what they call Peking, Peiping, Bayjing, or Bayping or Beiping nowadays. Also, I recently read someplace that the wife of a tsar was NEVER NEVER called a tsarina; she was always called a tsaritsa. And one or more persons above wondered why we couldn’t call the tsar’s wife a tsarevna. This would be very wrong because the ending -evna or -ovna means DAUGHTER OF. For example, the noted Madame Blavatsky was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, meaning her father’s name was Peter. . And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky’s father’s name was Ivan because a vich ending means son of. And didn’t Peter the so-called Great stop using the term tsar and use the European term emperor? Tsar, which used to be czar, like kaiser, comes from the ancient Roman emperor Julius Caesar. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/22 "2003-01-15T20:27:41Z")
**don willard** , correct, Peter was the one who created the Russian Imperial state, but the Emperors still called themselves Tsar, as in, _God Save the Tsar_. Nicholas (well, if you want to get corrct is Nikolai), always referred to himself as Tsar. Tsarina isn’t a correct term, but it’s probably one of those translation problems. And in Russian, it IS written Tsar and not Czar. ---
**Author:** ![ffabris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a87d85/32.png) [@ffabris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ffabris)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/23 "2003-01-15T21:04:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dinulya \* > \*\* > ------However, Catherine was 2 generatations earlier, the wife of Peter I, and I have not been able to find references to the laws which were current during Peter’s time.----- > > There were two Catherines. Catherine the First was a wife of Peter the First. I don’t believe she ever succeeded the throne after his death. > Catherine the Second became Catherine the Great after killing her husband and proclaiming herself an empress…She was the last female ruler of Russia… \*\* Indeed - my bad. I got lost in the genealogy. :o Thanks for the correction. As for the rest, I won’t go into the transliteration issues, but would like to point out that there is often a difference between a commonly used title (like for instance “queen”) and an official title (eg, “Emperor of all the Russias”). > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Guinastasia_ > **However, most of them went by Grand Duke and/or Grand Duchess, although the correct term was Grand Prince or Grand Princess.** Hum, I’d never heard “Grand Prince” before. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/24 "2003-01-15T21:27:35Z")
**Chumpsky!** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/25 "2003-01-15T21:50:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zagadka \* > \*\*Because that is her name? \*\* \ If you want to get _really_ technical, her name was Sophie Auguste Friederike, Prinzessin von Anhalt. That was her name at birth – she adopted Ekaterina upon her Orthodox conversion. \ .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![dinulya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@dinulya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinulya)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/26 "2003-01-16T00:22:27Z")
That’s right, Nichol. 🙂 I don’t know why everybody wants to be so bloody literate. —Yes indeed Catherine I DID succeed her husband-otherwise, she would NOT be called Catherine I.----- That’s very well might be… for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/27 "2003-01-16T01:38:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BMalion \* > \*\ ***Chumpsky!** 😃 \*\* \ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280/28 "2003-01-16T04:17:18Z")
Well, the first Catherine only reigned for two years before she died, IIRC. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-be-czar-of-russia-today/146280.md?page=1)