ABSTRACT
The title of Catherine in the Latin version of the Nakazis given as 'Autocratorissae omnium Rossiarum' an invented Latin word modelled on the Greek. In English the word 'autocracy' figures in the Oxford English Dictionary self-sustained or independent power. Samoderzhets in the literal translation from the Byzantine Greek means no more than a sovereign monarch holding his power directly from God and not by delegation from any other ruler. Bodin defined internal sovereignty as 'the power to make law binding on all his subjects in general without the consent of any superior, equal or inferior'. An absolute monarch has the theoretical power to override both men and institutions though in practice he may have neither the ability to override the first, nor the strength to override the second. Eighteenth-century usage showed conclusively the identification of Western 'sovereignty', souverainete, or souveranitat with samoderzhavie. Far the best translation of samoderzhets is Selbstherrscher, just as eigenmachtig faithfully reflects samovlastle.
