A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present

Note on Dates, Transliteration, and Names

note on dAtes, trAnsliterAtion, And nAmes I will adhere to standard practice on these matters, with a few adjustments to make this book more accessible to non-specialists. Only in 1918 did Russia adopt the reforms in the calendar that had been undertaken in eighteenth-century Europe. Consequently, until that time, Russian dates were ten to twelve days behind those of the rest of Europe . I will use the Russian dates throughout. In transliterating words from the Cyrillic to the English alphabet, I will employ the Library of Congress system, without the diacritical marks. The differences between that system and others account for occasional differences in spelling between words in the text and the same words in quotations and bibliographic references, e.g. “Baranskaia” (the Library of Congress version) and “Baranskaya” (a common alternative). Russian names present the thorniest problem for a Russian historian writing in English for a general audience. I have chosen to modify the standard transliteration practices by eliminating the “ii” in the endings of such first names as Mariia. I have kept the “ii” in last names, because doing so distinguishes Russian from Polish and other Slavic surnames. I have also omitted the patronymic middle names that are an integral part of Russian names but are confusing to non-Russians. Finally, I use common anglicizations of the names of famous people, e.g., Catherine II, not Ekaterina. c c c c c This page intentionally left blank ...