Tsar

For similar terms, please see Czar (disambiguation).

A tsar (or tzar or czar - царь) is an emperor or monarch of certain Slavic countries. In Russia, the original title was first adopted by Ivan IV in 1547 and was in use until the People's Revolution of 1918, when the people of Russia executed Nicholas II and his entire family. Russia adopted a system of communism as advocated by Lenin and Stalin. Currently, modern Russian and other Slavic languages use Tzar interchangeably with "king" or "monarch".

The word traces its roots back to the word "Ceasar" from the Roman Empire, the same roots that are used in the German word Kaiser, their term for emperor.

The term is also now used in America and the United Kingdom^[1] to refer to bureaucrats in charge of carrying out some aspect of United States Government policy, such as the Drug Czar.

Sources[edit]

The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989

References[edit]

1. ↑ As in this article from the Independent newspaper.