TITLES IN RUSSIA.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3085, 7 January 1879, Page 4

TITLES IN RUSSIA.

The titles now in use at the Russian Court are a curious mixture of ancient and modern. Ihe word "Czar" is a slight corruption of " Tsar," a- King, the recognised title of all JKussian sovereigns from the fourteeuth to the sixteenth century. The existing native title " Gosudar " —which, having no literal equivalent in English, is usually translated " Emperor " —was first assumed by Ivan the Terrible in 1554. The Grand Dukes— i. c, the brothers, sons, nephews, etc., of the reijjniug sovereign— are called •• Veliki Knyas " (Geat Prince), the very appellation borne by the barelimbed chiefs of Novgorod who founded Kussia 1000 years ago. Men bearing the title oi Prince, such as GorlchakofF and Mirski, are formally addressed as " Siatelstvo " (Splendor), but the ordinary mode of address to a Eussian lady or gentleman, even from a servant, is "Elena Nikolaievna" (Helen, daughter of Nicholas), or "Ivan Petrovitch" (John, son of Peter) The term " High Excellency," applied to Cabinet Miui»t< rs and others of similar position, is apt to stagger an unprepared foreigner, being represented in the original liussiau by a word of no fewer than nine s> liables, viz: VysokoprevoskhoditeUtvo. Among the peasantry the name" batiooshka " (papa) is frequently used to a supe rior, while " brat" (brother) or " goloob tchik " (little dove) is the familiar greeting to a crony. °