The last “Tsar of All the Russias” was deposed in 1917 and executed in 1918. Though Russians no longer had a use for the title, Americans did.

When the Romanovs ruled Russia, Americans tended to use it pejoratively. In the early 1900s, the Illinois Republican Joseph G. Cannon was nicknamed “Czar Cannon” for his high-handed treatment of House Democrats. After the Romanovs fell, however, Americans saw an upside in granting unelected officials wide, often undefined powers. In 1918, Bernard Baruch, chairman of the War Industries Board, was praised as the “industry czar” for improving bureaucratic efficiency and military production in World War I.