HISTORY 201: Film & Censorship in the Soviet Union (Fall 2025) : Romanization of Russian

Library catalogs in the United States and Western Europe typically represent Russian works in Romanized form. Some library catalogs such as UW-Madison's have both the original Cyrillic and Romanized forms. The challenge in searching for Russian materials by their Romanized authors and titles is that there are several Romanization schema. Most academic libraries in the United States use the Library of Congress Romanization scheme (see link below). However many journals have style sheets for their authors that specify a specific Romanization scheme other than the LC scheme. In addition, authors of books are usually free to use whichever scheme they are most comfortable with. Thus the spelling of the author's name or the words in a title may not be in the LC Romanization scheme that the library catalog will use. These same considerations apply to the Romanization of actor's and director's names and the titles of films and documentaries.    

Examples, with library catalog form in bold:

Tarkovsky, Andrey versus Tarkovsky, Andrei, versus Tarkovskii, Andrei
           (Tarkovskiĭ, Andreĭ Arsenʹevich, 1932-1986)  Тарковский, Андрей Арсеньевич, 1932-1986

Sergei Eisenstein versus Sergei Eizenshtein
           (Eisenstein, Sergei, 1898-1948)   Эйзенштейн, Сергей, 1898-1948

Eldar Ryazanov versus Eldar Riazanov versus Ėlʹdar Aleksandrovich Ri︠a︡zanov
           (Ri︠a︡zanov, Ėlʹdar)    Рязанов, Эльдар

Sergei Parajanov versus Sergei Paradzhanov
           (Paradzhanov, Sergeĭ, 1924-1990)   Параджанов, Сергей, 1924-1990
           (birth name, Sargis Hovsepʻi Pʻarajanyan)

Khitruk, Fyodor versus Khitruk, Fëdor Savelʹevich
           (Khitruk, F. S.)   Хитрук, Ф. С. ; Хитрук, Федор Савельевич