View source for Tsargrad

{{short description|Slavic name for Constantinople}}
{{For|the Russian television channel|Tsargrad TV}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2019}}
[[File:Selim II and the Crown of Tsarigrad, Leatopiseț ce-i zice Cartea împăraților, 1757.png|thumb|370px|[[Selim II]] with the "crown of Tsarigrad", in a 1757 illustration by [[Wallachia]]'s Constantin Săidăcar ot Mogoșoaia]]
'''''Tsarigrad''''' or '''''Tsargorod''''', also ''Czargrad'' and ''Tzargrad'', is a [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] name for the city or land of [[Constantinople]] (present-day [[Istanbul]] in [[Turkey]]), the capital of the [[Byzantine Empire]].

== Variations ==
The terms ''Tsargrad'', ''Tsarigrad'', ''Tsargorod'', etc. are rendered in several ways depending on the language, for instance:
* {{langx|orv|Цѣсарьградъ|translit=Tsěsarĭgradŭ}};
* {{langx|cu|Царьгра̀дъ|translit=Tsarĭgràdŭ}};
* {{langx|be|Царгорад|translit=Tsarhorad}};
* {{langx|ru|Царьгра́д|translit=Tsar'grád}}; 
* {{langx|uk|Царгород|translit=Tsarhorod}};
* [[South Slavic languages]]:  ''Carigrad'' / ''Tsarigrad'' or Цариград, depending on their alphabets;
* {{langx|cs|Cařihrad}};
* {{langx|sk|Carihrad}};
* {{langx|pl|Carogród}}.

''Tsargrad'' is an [[Old Church Slavonic]] translation of the [[Greek language|Greek]] Βασιλὶς Πόλις.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} Combining the Slavonic words ''[[tsar]]'' for "[[caesar (title)|caesar]] / [[emperor]]" and ''grad'' for "city", it meant "imperial city". According to Per Thomsen, the Old East Slavic form influenced an [[Old Norse]] appellation of Constantinople, ''Miklagard'' (Мikligarðr).

== Usage in Russian ==
In the [[Russian language]], the term ''Tsargrad'' became an important piece of vocabulary in the political ideologies of [[Pan-Slavism|Panslavists]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] fundamentalists, and early [[Russian nationalism|Russian nationalists]]. Constantinople/Tsargrad was the "Second Rome" in the line of thinking that made [[Moscow]] the "[[Third Rome]]", thus giving the recapture of Constantinople by a majority-Christian country a potential proof of great power status for Russia.<ref name="McMeekin 2011 Origins">{{Cite book |last=McMeekin, Sean |title=Russian Origins of the First World War |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780674072336}}</ref>{{Rp|page=28}}

The obsession by the Russian political elite with ''Tsargrad'' did not wane going into the [[fin de siècle]] period, and the [[Constantinople Agreement|capture of the city]] became an important [[Russia during World War I|Russian war goal]] in [[World War I]] (1914–1918). On the backdrop of the ''[[Straits Question]]'', religious antipathy towards the majority-Muslim [[Ottoman Empire]] and the reputation of Constantinople as the capital city of the Eastern Orthodox Church combined with the geostrategic interest to secure the [[Bosporus]] and the [[Dardanelles]] and thus the security of Russia's maritime route from the [[Black Sea]] to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]].<ref name="McMeekin 2011 Origins" />{{Rp|page=27ff.}} This strategic interest did not always cleanly overlap with religious affiliations; when the Bulgarian army approached Constantinople during the [[First Balkan War]] (1912/13) in the hopes of capturing the city for majority-Orthodox Bulgaria, the Russian government pressured its Bulgarian counterpart to abstain from the conquest of the city. The Russian leadership had no interest in the potential prestige to be gained from control of Constantinople to pass to another Orthodox country besides Russia itself.<ref name="McMeekin 2011 Origins" />{{Rp|page=25}} During World War I, the Russian public remained positively predisposed towards a potential conquest of Constantinople by Russia; [[Maurice Paléologue]] noted his observation that the population of [[Petrograd]] was hesitant around 1915/16 to accept the prospect of an outcome of the war that would not yield the city's conquest.<ref name="McMeekin 2011 Origins" />{{Rp|page=220}}

Though religious motives were less important to the leaders of the [[Soviet Union]], the post-1917 government nonetheless inherited its predecessor's strategic interests in the Turkish Straits, hoping to gain access to global maritime shipping routes.<ref name="Seydi 2010 Straits">{{Cite book |last=Seydi, Süleyman |title=The Turkish Straits and the Great Powers: From the Montreux Convention to the Early Cold War, 1936-1947 |publisher=Isis Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781463225506}}</ref>{{Rp|page=221}}

In modern Russia, one namesake of Tsargrad is [[Tsargrad TV]], a Russian television channel which supports the [[United Russia|ruling party]] from a perspective of Orthodox religious conservatism.<ref name="Robinson 2019 Conservatism">{{Cite book |last=Robinson, Paul |title=Russian Conservatism |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2019 |isbn=9781501747366}}</ref>{{Rp|page=192}}

== Usage in Bulgarian ==
[[Bulgarians]] also applied the word to [[Veliko Tarnovo|Tarnovgrad]] (''Tsarevgrad Tarnov'', "Imperial City of Tarnov"), one of the capitals of the tsars of the [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]], but after the [[Balkans]] came under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule, the Bulgarian word has been used exclusively as another name of Constantinople.<ref>Софроний Врачански. Житие и страдания на грешния Софроний. София 1987. Стр. 55 (An explanatory endnote to [[Sophronius of Vratsa]]'s autobiography)</ref><ref>Найден Геров. 1895-1904. Речник на блъгарский язик. (the entry on ''царь'' in [[Naiden Gerov]]'s Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language)</ref><ref>Симеонова, Маргарита. Речник на езика на Васил Левски. София, ИК "БАН", 2004 (the entry on ''царь'' in Margarita Simeonova's ''Dictionary of the Language of [[Vasil Levski]]'')</ref>

As the ''[[zeitgeist]]'' which spawned the term has faded, the word ''Tsargrad'' is now an archaic term in [[Russian language|Russian]]. It is however still used occasionally in [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], particularly in a historical context. A major traffic artery in [[Bulgaria]]'s capital [[Sofia]] carries the name ''[[Tsarigradsko shose]]'' ("Tsarigrad Road"); the road begins as the [[Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard]] and continues into the [[Trakiya motorway|main highway]] that leads southeast to Istanbul. The name ''Tsarigrad'' is also retained in word groups such as ''tsarigradsko grozde'' ("Tsarigrad grapes", meaning "[[gooseberry]]"), the dish ''tsarigradski kyuftentsa'' ("small Tsarigrad [[kofta]]s") or sayings like "One can even get to Tsarigrad by asking". In [[Slovene language|Slovene]] it is still largely used and often preferred over the official name.<ref>Seznam tujih imen v slovenskem jeziku. Geodetska uprava Republike Slovenije. Ljubljana 2001.</ref>{{Rp|page=18}} People also understand and sometimes use the name ''Carigrad'' in [[Bosnia]], [[Croatia]], [[North Macedonia]], [[Montenegro]] and [[Serbia]].

== Non-Slavic usage ==
The Romance language [[Romanian language|Romanian]] borrowed the term as ''Țarigrad'',<ref name="Șăineanu">{{cite book |last1=Șăineanu |first1=Lazăr |title=Dicționar universal al limbei române |date=1929 |edition=VI |url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/%C8%9Barigrad/822437 |access-date=10 April 2020 |language=ro}}</ref> due to the long tradition of [[Church Slavonic in Romania]], but it is an archaic usage now that has been replaced by ''Constantinopol'' and ''Istanbul''. Nowadays, a village in [[Moldova]] is called [[Țarigrad]].

== See also ==
* [[Names of Istanbul]]
* [[Constantinople]]
* [[Constantinople Agreement]]
* [[Third Rome]]

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bulgarian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Constantinople]]
[[Category:Pan-Slavism]]

[[bg:Истанбул (имена)#Цариград]]