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I've always found it odd that there are high-profile positions in the US using the title of "czar," which has obvious connotations to Russia. An example is John Kerry, who is often informally referred to as the US Climate Czar.

When did this usage of czar start, and was it deliberately used to harken back to the Russian czars?

divibisan
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nuggethead
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  • Related example from outside US and outside politics: Marcel Reich-Ranicki was often described in German as Literaturpapst ("pope" of literature). – gerrit Nov 19 '21 at 15:50
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    It's usually the media who use the term, and those described as whatever czars aren't usually politicians (at least at the same time they're czars), but administrators & envoys. – jamesqf Nov 20 '21 at 03:05

2 Answers2

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The term 'Czar' is used frequently, since the turn of 20th Century, by members of both parties, and in nations other than the United States.

It's an informal term meant to describe a person who has been invested with broad authority over a single area of policy. The term itself predates Russo-slavic uses and arises from the Latin, "Caesar," a titled used by Roman dictators. "Dictator" meant something else in Roman antiquity than it does in contemporary use: 'dictator' was a legal position granted by the Senate to assign command authority to a single person in times where speed of decision-making was the order of the day, usually to confront a crisis.

The rationale for the origin of the term is disputed, and likely unknowable, but it's a mistake to assume the term is associated either with Socialism or with socialism. The Republican Party also appoints czars of various policy spheres when they see the need to do so. And as a matter of historical fact, Communism and Socialism in the former Russian Empire rose in direct opposition to the Tsars, so - if anything - it's about as anti-Communist a term as one can get.

William Walker III
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    The term might predate Russo-Slavic usage, but does its use in the West as a political term? – Azor Ahai -him- Nov 18 '21 at 16:49
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    @AzorAhai-him- The answer there depends on your point of view. It seems to predate or be contemporary with the October Revolution, at least - which means it predates Communist Russia. (It's noteworthy here that the United States allied itself with the Tsars in that conflict, ultimately leading to the Cold War.) – William Walker III Nov 18 '21 at 16:51
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    For a very recent example of republicans appointing a czar: Donald Trump named Mike Pence corona-virus czar. – user141592 Nov 18 '21 at 17:31
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    For that matter, the term gets applied out of political contexts. A gaming convention I used to regularly serve on the Convention Committee for would designate a 'Food Czar' who was responsible for making sure everyone had snacks. – William Walker III Nov 18 '21 at 17:34
  • @William Walker III: You also have the much more derogatory (and often self-appointed) food nazis, costume nazis, and so on. It's just English adopting useful words. – jamesqf Nov 18 '21 at 17:40
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    "Caesar" was a title used by Roman emperors, and it originated as a hereditary name in the Julii family. Dictatorship had been abolished for a century or so by the time "caesar" became a title. – Jouni Sirén Nov 18 '21 at 18:53
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    Ethymologically the term is Latin, but this form (czar, tsar) is clearly Slavic and was udoubtedly borrowed from Russian. Of the Great Powers, Russia was the last absolute monarchy, and the connotation is exactly that: czar is an absolute ruler of a large domain. – Zeus Nov 18 '21 at 23:56
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    Why is there a paragraph disavowing connections to (S/s)ocialism when the Q only talks about Russia? That Czar came from Ceasar is undisputed, but why do US Americans not use Ceasar, Kaiser, or any other word - why Czar? that was the Q – bukwyrm Nov 19 '21 at 06:21
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    @bukwyrm You can look at the edits of the question to see Socialism was mentioned. You can also see the rationale for removing that from the question. – AmiralPatate Nov 19 '21 at 09:09
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    The Oxford English Dictionary has multiple citations from 19th century America, as well as throughout the 20th century meaning "A person having great authority or absolute power; a tyrant, ‘boss’." I guess it was preferred over Kaiser, etc, because it's short and snappy and distinctive, and (in modern usage) not as negative as dictator or tyrant. Lots of other words for kings, emperors, and rulers are used in various extended senses without their original connotations: tycoon, mogul, sultan, king. (Nobody thinks Burger King is advocating the replacement of the US republic with a monarchy.) – Stuart F Nov 19 '21 at 10:44
  • The paragraph about Roman history seems inaccurate. It could be said the the name of the last 'dictator' in the Roman republican (temporary emergency manager) sense became a title for the different role of (usually lifetime) rulers during the imperial era, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_(title) – Hulk Nov 19 '21 at 13:23
  • @WilliamWalkerIII I suspect that the convention adopted because the organizers were familiar with how it's used in politics, rather than independently. But proving this seems preactically impossible. – Barmar Nov 19 '21 at 15:21
  • It would be more correctly written as Tzar or Tsar pronunciation wise, but Car' phonetically, with ' being the soft sign (Ь). That is if you are talking about the Russian Tsars for sure maybe other Tsars as well – HighElfWisard Nov 19 '21 at 17:01
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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czar_(political_term) notes "In the United States, the term czar has been used by the media to refer to appointed executive branch officials since at least the 1930s and then the 1940s" and " The trend began again in earnest when President Richard Nixon created two offices whose heads became known as "czars" in the popular press" - I'm old enough to remember the second but not the first... – Jon Custer Nov 19 '21 at 17:11
  • Something of an aside, but as a kid I always thought this practice should be deemed to violate Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Nov 19 '21 at 21:56
  • In English through most of the 20thC, Czar would be more acceptable than Kaiser (despite being the same word), because the Kaiser was the enemy in one unfortunate episode, but the Czar was just some poor tyrant who ran into a bit of trouble with the Bolsheviks. Likewise there were no German Shepherd dogs when I was young, but lots of Alsatians. – user_1818839 Nov 20 '21 at 19:46
  • @Zeus, Russia is not the last absolute monarchy you talk about. – TigerTV.ru Nov 21 '21 at 00:37
  • Just logged on here to upvote this answer :) – flaschbier Nov 21 '21 at 10:43
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    @TigerTV.ru, I said "of the Great powers". In the 19th century it was a technical, legal term (with the capital "G"). – Zeus Nov 21 '21 at 23:33
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I see you've already got an accepted answer, but I don't find it satisfactory, at least for US usage.

It's Always Been Used in America... Sort of

"Czar" as a word being synonymous with authoritarianism or a dictatorial style has been a part of the US as long as there has been a US, with early politicians leveling the term at each other off and on. So it's always been in the US vocabulary.

Enter Judge Landis

After the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal, the owners of baseball needed to clean up their sport. Ultimately, they decided that Federal Judge Kenesaw Landis was the man to do it. He became the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, with a broad set of powers the leaders of baseball before him didn't have. Ultimately, he was nicknamed the Czar of baseball, both because he wielded his power heavy and often, and because he came into conflict with one of baseball's biggest stars, Babe Ruth, "The Sultan of Swat." Newspapers simply couldn't resist headlines like "The Sultan and the Czar." It was a great title to contrast the popular Ruth with the skepticism people had for the job Landis would do as baseball commissioner.

He did a much better job than people expected, however.

By the time Landis died in 1944, he had done a tremendous job cleaning up baseball, had become immensely popular, and had turned the nickname "Czar" into a much more positive one. Throughout the 30s and 40s, Czar had entered the American political sphere as someone who accomplished difficult tasks and wields power effectively rather than the authoritarian meaning it had before.

Edit: I just realized that I'm on the politics stack and not the history stack. I'm going to leave my answer up, but it's probably better suited for that community.

Michael W.
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