Talk:Fred Whishaw

A fact from Fred Whishaw appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 14 April 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Fred Whishaw was the first to translate the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky into the English language?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/April.

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Calling him "Russian born" makes no sense

He was born in the Russian Empire. His parents were British nationals in the Russian Empire. Calling him "Russian born" is at best confusing. Saying he was Russian Empire born is far more clear.John Pack Lambert (talk) 15:54, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think we should change to Russian Empire born. Saying he was "Russian born" makes it sound like he was ethnically Russian by birth which he was not. We are saying he was born in Russia. However since it was then the Russian Empire we should say that. We should be as precise as we can be. If he was born in 1940 we would say he was born in the Soviet Union. Those who were born in the Russian Empire we should say were born in the Russian Empire.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Johnpacklambert: Which source calls him "Russian Empire-born"? Why does the political regime matter here? It already says that he was born in 1854, so there is no confusion on him being a modern figure. There is no good reason to start calling people "Russian Empire-born", then "Russian Republic-born", then "Russian Soviet Republic-born", then "Russian SFSR-born", and so on. Nobody calls Vladimir Nabokov a "Russian Empire-born" or "Russian Empire" writer. For this article, do you also suggest replacing "English-born" with "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland-born" with regards to his parents? Mellk (talk) 20:22, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The sources clearly show he was born in the Russian Empire. He is not ethnically Russian. Nor is he a national of Russia. He was born to British nationals in the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire ends and is replaced by the Soviet Union. We as much need to say that he was born in the Russian Empire to correctly state where he was born as we would need to say he was born in the Roman Empire if he was born there. The Russian Empire is a no longer existing country and we should not pretend it is the same as the Russian Federation. They are different countries. This goes much much deeper than political regime.John Pack Lambert (talk) 20:27, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Again, the demonym for Russian Empire is "Russian". The only reason why the conventional long form is "Russian Empire" is because the monarch had the title of "emperor". The short name is still "Russia". I do not see anyone else disagreeing with this. Otherwise all our titles would not be something like Russian colonization of North America, French invasion of Russia, and so on. Once we no longer have a state called "Russian Federation", will it be time to rename everybody as "Russian Federation" writers, politicians etc.? I can't imagine doing the same thing for each French republic, for example. Mellk (talk) 20:36, 24 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]