Bolshoi Ballet of censorship. It was the first time a show has been pulled in such a way since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking rumours about the motivation behind it. Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the world's foremost ballet companies, in addition to being one of the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. The word "bolshoi" means "big" or "grand" in Russian. The company operates on a hierarchical system, similar to those used by other leading European ballet companies, with senior dancers ranked as principals, and descending in order of importance through lead soloist, first soloist, soloist and finally,
Grand duke Finland. Grand princes (or sometimes "great princes") were medieval monarchs who usually ruled over several tribes and/or were feudal overlords of other princes. At the time, the title was usually translated as "king", sometimes also as "Minor King" or "Little King" (). However, Grand Princes did not have the same monarchic precedence as later Western European kings, and thus they were considered lower in rank, particularly in later literature. Grand Princes reigned in Central and Eastern Europe, notably among Slavs and Lithuanians. The title "Grand Prince" translates to "Velikiy Knjaz" ("Великий князь") in Russian. The Slavic word "knjaz" and the