Famous Impostors

Bram Stoker spent his last years collecting history's great frauds: pretenders to thrones, alchemists and witch-finders, the Tichborne Claimant — and the strange Cotswold legend that Queen Elizabeth was really a boy.

The False Czar

2 cases in this part of Famous Impostors.

The False Czar

STEFAN MALI (Stephen the Little) was an impostor who passed himself off in Montenegro as the Czar Peter III of Russia, who was supposed to…

The False Czar: Vladika

He must certainly have been in St. Petersburg before he scaled Montenegro; and have known the true Peter III, for he imitated his voice and…

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Famous Impostors (1910) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.