K33.? THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES DK37.7 .D 6 J UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL u 10002645470 This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under “Date Due.” If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE dpt DUE • RET * DATE DPT DUE KIL1 - 1^7 L v j \j V tpj.3 m 2 • [JAN 0 6 2006 nrp 1 9 ( 005 ULb * £ * Form No . 513 - A HAND-BOOK OP THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES IN RUSSIA. "t îfcÿVH A HAND-BOOK OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES IN RUSSIA ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN FRENCH, PRINCE PAUL DOLGOROUKY. Cranrêïatett into Cngltèï), WITH ANNOTATIONS AND AN INTRODUCTION, F. Z. LONDON: JAMES E1DGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1858 . , » «■ - ■ ' ifi ' ! EDITOR’S PREFACE. The English Editor feels himself obliged to say, that he has thought it necessary to alter, in some degree, the orthography of the Proper Names in this work, in order to endeavour to accommodate the English spelling to the Russian pronunciation. This has, from circumstances, been rather hastily done, and he trusts that any imper¬ fection in that particular may be pardoned. It will be borne in mind, that, the Russians having never as yet, either by authority or by common consent, adopted any principle of transmuting their own peculiar character into that of civilized Europe—a work, it may be said, of some difficulty—there exist in use as many different modes of spelling their Proper Names, in the European alphabet, as there are European languages, according to the orthography of the country in which they wish to be understood. Therefore it has been thought best, (this work being intended for the English Public), to substitute the simpler spelling of our own language for the complex, and to us unpronounceable agglomerations of conso¬ nants with which an ill-defined adherence to German, French, Bohemian, or other Slavonian orthography has encumbered the Russian Proper Names both in Geo¬ graphy and History. VI editor’s preface. During the last century there was a tendency in Russia to adopt the Polish or Bohemian spelling, which would have been suitable enough as representing the similar sounds and combinations of a cognate language. But with the last century everything Polish was, as far at least as human power could avail, suppressed ; and the German orthography, most unfit for the transmis¬ sion of foreign articulation, has been gradually gaining ground, in proportion as Germany has chosen to make herself the handmaid and medium between Russia and Europe. LEIDER. N.B.—The original work, of which this is a trans¬ lation, is understood to have been suppressed bv the Russian Government, and is very scarce ; and its author is said to have incurred by it the temporary displeasure of the Emperor. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. page The Hierarchical Roll of the Houses of Princes of Russia 45 CHAPTER II. Families issued from Rurik, whose Ancestors have abdi¬ cated the title of Prince - - - 90 CHAPTER III. Families of the Counts of Russia - - 92 CHAPTER IV. Families Registered in the Velvet-Book - 142 CHAPTER V. The Boyards* Families of the Seventeenth Century, which did not attain to be inserted in the Velvet-Book - 149 CHAPTER VI. The Princely Houses of Poland and Lithuania - - 152 CHAPTER VII. Princely Houses of illustrious Foreign origin, who are settled in the territory of the Empire, without being invested with the dignity of Russian Princes - - 159 CHAPTER VIII. Houses of the Russian Princes and Counts, which have expired in the male lineage - 166 A Word on the Russian Barons - - - 172 Index - 177 * The word Boyard does not require the final d in English spelling, the pronunciation in the Russian and in the English being simply Boyar : but the French orthography, which has added the d , being the best known, the word has been left as it stands in the French original.— Eng. Editor. » INTRODUCTION OF THE TRANSLATOR. Statesmen, diplomatists, and politicians in general, who in any way influence public affairs, endeavour not only to know historical facts, but to study their real meaning. The power of interpreting facts, and of bring¬ ing out their innermost significance, is a rare acquire¬ ment, and we cannot expect to meet it every day. Besides the historical, visible facts, we are obliged to study various opinions in the world, as they are facts of different descriptions. It is known that, in every country, general notions, current opinions, and prevail¬ ing passions constitute the soul of coming events ; in a country like Russia, where the public opinion is sup¬ pressed or stagnant, the opinions of the aristocracy, the only enlightened part of the population, entertained at home and propagated abroad, are like the straws of the day, which shew which way the wind blows. In various respects Russia is fast going ahead of the most renowned states in their rival races towards the supremacy of power. She seems even to surpass all of them in the 'perfection of unity of Government. Nay, more than all that, some awful specimens of the imper¬ tinent intrusion of Russian diplomacy are notorious, its influence is lurking sometimes even within the sacred precincts of the British Parliament and press. The court of St. Petersburg, through diplomacy, morally , B 2 INTRODUCTION. in a certain way, governs the western nations ; yet, its own actions at home are left without our control, we therefore expect some enormities in Europe, in Asia, and in Russia itself ; but they come very often unexpected, and take us unawares by surprise. The confusion they cause, so distract and hurry our unprepared rulers, as to occasion us directly or indirectly immense losses. We fail to reach causes and are contented to deal with effects. It is our national fault, and everybody is responsible for it. To speak more about it would be out of place, so I am obliged to conceal many things. I leave only the reader to think matters worse than I tell you. “ Respectable,” pro-Russian prejudices, now and then are ploughed up with unwearied zeal, by some political ploughmen, and their success brought bitter fruits to this country. Our knowledge about Russia, and its place in general civilization, is pretty much the same as it was a century ago, and has not received much help from more recent conflicting studies ; on the con¬ trary, I think it has received a positive disadvantage. There is one point upon which I particularly insist, and which no one, who aims at the preservation and progress of civilization, should leave out of sight. I mean that Russia has been put in action too prominently forward, and has constantly been used against our march of civilization. Some politicians are so deluded by their faith in history (?) that they unhesitatingly attribute the suppression of the European revolution, chiefly to the existence and energy of Russia, while on the con¬ trary, the fact is, that that existence and energy, which INTRODUCTION* a does not allow the continental sovereigns to accommodate themselves to the real wants and public opinion of their respective dominions, is the main cause of violent re¬ volutions. England would be completely duped if we allowed ourselves to be pestered with like tales. No doubt, some answer may be made to that question, but it ought to be logical and categorical. If the answer means that, we must wait further events, without any influence on the Northern policy, then, like as William Pitt, in the year 1791, replied to those who denied the existence of dangers from Russia to this country, we beg to decline any discussion with such individuals. Since the dealings of the Court of St. Petersburg are felt to the uttermost ends of the earth, that we are in daily collision or contact with it, in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, in the Caucasus, in Central Asia, in China, and in India itself ; since in everything in the policy of Europe and America, we must reckon with the Russian diplomacy, and take its view into every account of the bargain ; since the Russians endeavour, by all means, to become a first-rate naval power ; since their know¬ ledge about our internal affairs is so correct, and ours about theirs so deficient,—every impartial information about Russia, giving insight to the dark corners of that empire, and its state secrets, [arcana imperii ,) is very welcome to our policy. In this respect we have almost everything from second-hand. The few French and German authors, either inspired with hatred towards the Russian despotism, or writing in its praise, who have published some works concerning 4 INTRODUCTION. the matter, have been justly suspected of exaggeration by various men in Europe. The same may be said still more about the statements of some Polish or Russian refugees, too much interested in the matter to be im¬ partial. Here we produce a most respectable Russian nobleman, of one of the highest families in the country, who speaks his mind on the subject. It is also asserted that all Russia is composed of two parties, viz. : one, the largest, which is blindly subservient, and a perfect tool in the hands of the government ; and another, con¬ stituting a very insignificant minority, of hot-headed and impracticable men. Here we present a Russian gentleman of moderate opinions, who sighs after the blessings of a constitution of ancient franchises, with a great many others of his countrymen. In the deficiency of our knowledge about the state of the North, it is fortunate enough if we meet patriotic Russians, who come forward to help us in the study. Of that description is eminently the author of the “ Notice of the principal Families of Russia,” originally written in French by Prince Paul Dolgorouky. The merits of that work have prompted us to publish it in an English garb. In fact, its brief and compact narration renders us more familiar with the inner life of Russia, than any political history of that empire hitherto published, even if com¬ prising many volumes. The more circulation this little book may meet with among the public, the more pro¬ fitable it will be to the general policy of our country. From this motive we may not unreasonably presume, that this manual ought to become a varie mecum , and a INTRODUCTION. 5 book of reference, not only for diplomatists, but for public men of every shade in politics; because it opens the heart of Eussia, and makes us acquainted with men, and with the principal families, who possess the most powerful influence in the country, with their qualities and deficiencies, their hopes and tendencies, lastly with the state of the- parties, and the weak points of the empire. It is no matter whether you are a stern poli¬ tician, or fond of fabulous tales, like the eastern stories, you will find a palatable food in our little book, some kind of California and Australia, the inexhaustible mines of social wonders, which are facts more marvellous than almost anything fancied in romances. History relates that the first French republic, by a turn of the revolu¬ tionary wheel, had raised many men from the dregs of the people to eminence and affluence, at the expense of the nation. This is the fact rather with Eussia, con¬ stant and invariable, and on a large scale. The Em¬ peror is upheld, as a bridge that carries the foreign and native adventurers over, to satisfy their ambition for riches and nobility, and ever furnishes the best oppor¬ tunity for that end, at the expense of the world. Prince Paul Dolgorouky had published his “notice” abroad, at the time when the Emperor Nicholas was still on the throne, and this circumstance alone gives great testimony, as to his moral courage and patriotism. Upon that score, that nobleman is not only praised by the select party of the Eussian aristocracy, but generally esteemed in the world, as one who has rendered a great service to his country at large, and to his sovereign by 6 INTRODUCTION. speaking the truth. A brief description of the principal families in Russia is the text, from which the author discourses upon their state and vicissitudes, leading us to some hundred most splendid houses ;* and lets us look out, as it were, from their different windows, upon the contrasts of greatness and misery, the splendour and poverty, the honour and debauchery of Russia. There is nothing about the technical heraldry and the coat of arms ; but the notice is replete with minute and scrupu¬ lous researches ; genealogical, political, and historical. It contains some facts never published elsewhere. The genealogical notices and the lists of titles are unavoidably monotonous, but they are short and intelligibly ar¬ ranged, the examples well chosen, and the instructions put often pithily and effectively. The author sometimes enlivens his narrative with poignant anecdotes, which throw a considerable light upon the dark points of history. The service is much enhanced, whenever he gives particulars. The authen¬ ticated facts are rather under than over stated. To enter into scandalous details was uncongenial to the author’s character, and he hardly touched them ; con¬ sidering such a task unworthy and derogatory to his person. However, this little book exhibits in great pro- * The author left out many distinguished names ; we may quote the following : Count Nesselrode, Count Adlerberg, Count Demidoff, Senator SoumorokofF, General Yermolloff, General Sieniavine, General General Paniutine, General Count Rüdiger, General Rosen, General Geismar, General Berg, General Kreutz, General Bibikoff, General Grabbe, Count Matusevitch, Count Chreptovitch (the last two of Polish origin), Baron Brunnow, and many others. INTRODUCTION. 7 minence and distinctness some elementary notions, liar dly known in western Europe, about the political feeling of the highest society in Russia, which constitute the most remarkable feature of this publication. Prince Dol- gorouky had mentioned the spirit of the Constitution, prescribed by the Russian nobility to the house of Ro¬ manoff, and sworn to by them ; he therefore indirectly declared that the present dynasty, elected by the select party of the nation, reigns despotically by the most flagrant breach of the fundamental law of the country. On other topics a variety of opinion may exist ; but in this respect the author gave utterance to a feelings which, we have many reasons to think, to be latent, not only in the majority of the aristocratic order, but in the mass of the people. The question is, Whether as a nation, Russia has not almost outgrown the form of despotism? We think the answer will be affirmative; but like a too tight dress, she experiences much trouble to pull it off, without assistance. The moral and expansive force in men can never be destroyed. Authority, it is true, has some power in its direction, but it must expect the consequences of atonement for a bad government. Thus nature wdll always assert her rights, and she avenges all-attempts to force, or to shackle her operations. Opinions are varied and changeable, but the principle of justice stands the test of all ages. Our author is quite free from the exhibition of per¬ sonalities, and if he has prejudices, they are national, and those of a well-bred gentleman. We desired to avoid even the appearance of garbling his sentiments in 8 INTRODUCTION. the text ; their type and tone are left unrestricted, in order to preserve on our part, an explicit statement of opinions, which being shared by the Russian aristo¬ cracy, are on that ground very instructive. This is a book particularly to be handled by men, who can some¬ times check the author’s conclusions, by their own reasoning powers, and understand facts by their own previous knowledge : I therefore allowed myself to illus¬ trate the subject more widely by appending to the text some notes (apart from those of the author), for which I am alone responsible. In these illustrations I did not forget that the proper business of science is to dis¬ cover and establish certainties, and not to propound opinions, nor to sport with conjectures. If I do occa¬ sionally mention them, it is because they exist among the Russian nobility. My protracted residence in one of the harbours of Russia, where I found the means to shield myself from the troublesome politeness of the Moscovite officers, enabled me to learn the Russian language, and to study their history from materials inaccessible to the western politicians ; and here I beg to offer very few specimens of the notions I have drawn from them, and from the combination of facts. Prince Dolgorouky had unavoidably postponed the publication of his great work, entitled the “ History of Russia since the accession of the Romanoff Dynasty.” According to his own saying, he described in the above work, the political and social history of the Russian nobility, its origin and transmutations, its civilization, ideas, character and tendency. We regret to hear the INTRODUCTION. 9 work is left unpublished as yet. The attainments of the author enable him to acquit himself in this respect with credit. Considering the limited compass of the book, I cannot fill up this gap of the Manual on the Russian nobility , but by general remarks. Various histories of Russia, written without any notion of criticism, by order, or under the censure of the government, and for its own purposes, instead of instructing, are only proper to mislead the public. They alter facts in order to produce concord with the present system. As to the Russian nobles, they cannot be older than Russia itself; and the ancient families, registered in the velvet-book , are of different origin, and only appropriated to give a zest to it. We see in the history of every nation the symbolism of the four phases of life, viz. infancy, youth, manhood and old age. At the time which is called at present the first, second, third, and fourth period of the Russian history, there was no Russia at all ;* as its vast territory was chiefly occupied by the Slavonic kindred races, and diffe¬ rent free states, often invaded by the Varagians, or the Normans of Scandinavia. Before and during that period, these countries were mostly governed by elected civil and military magistrates, called Boyards, whose dignities were not hereditary. The foreign family of * These periods are : the 1st, from Rurik to Wladimir the great , between the year 862 and 1015; the 2nd, from Sviatopelk to George II. between the year 1015 and 1237; the 3rd, under the Tatar dominion, from the year 1238 to 1325, viz. from Jaroslaw II. to Alexander II. ; the 4th period, under the same yoke, between the year 1328 and 1462, from John I. to Basily III. 10 INTRODUCTION. Rurik, or Varagians,* who by and bye called themselves Princes, and endeavoured to supersede the national Boyards (the first nobles of Slavonia), wanted to render their dignity hereditary, under the name of Grand- Dukes, and to enslave the people. Many descendants of princes of that race, in the course of a few centuries, deprived of their apanages by their own relations, con¬ stituted a new order of the Russian nobility. Towards the end of the tenth century, Wladimir the Great , a bastard son of Sviatoslaw, born of a slave, con¬ verted himself to Christianity of the Greek creed, and manifested an uncommon policy by propagating the same religion over a great part of Slavonia, as a means for his descendants to extend their dominion. (The formation of such an element appeared to be a proper expedient for the future, against the Polish element, which became chiefly Roman Catholic.) The same prince had commenced the actual civilization of the North, and with the Greek creed, letters, ideas, intel¬ lectual, commercial, and industrious notions, and parti¬ cularly the court ceremonies and nobility, by degrees were introduced. However, the “ dismemberment of the state 39 by Wladimir the Great , among his numerous sons, was very little better than the nomination of the bishops, “ in partibus infidelium,” by the Pope. They were obliged to fight for their “ possessions.” For many generations to come, the princes of the House of * Nestor, the most ancient Slavonic historian, says, that the Varagians were called the pirates, Swedes, Normans, Britons, and Hussy , who ravaged the shores of the Baltic sea. INTRODUCTION. 11 Rurik waged desperate wars amongst themselves for supremacy, and murdered each other without mercy. For many centuries they covered all Slavonia with blood, and could not conquer its independent spirit. They have created boyards about the court, in oppo¬ sition to the boyards named by the states. In many towns the people preserved their ancient institutions, deposed the overbearing magistrates, and elected new ones, without considering whether they were princes or boyards. Very few noble families escaped a violent extinction, or survived unspotted during this struggle. In this emergency of the multiplied family of Rurik, an extraneous help came to favour their schemes : the incursion of the Tatars in the North took place. This event is improperly called the subjugation of Russia, for a very simple reason,—because Russia did not exist at the time. It is true that something like a rough draught of it appeared in the time of Wladimir the Great , and J aroslaw I. ; but it passed away like a dream. What is called the Tatar or Mongolian yoke is rather a labour to give birth to Russia, as it is at present. The reign of John III. and John IV., with the commence¬ ment of the Romanoff dynasty, is the infancy of Russia, during which the Poles could so easily conquer that country. Peter I. represents its fiery and extra¬ vagant youth; and since that epoch it has arrived at the age of maturity. These different phases of the state gave a direction to the existing nobility, exalted 12 INTRODUCTION. or depressed their character alternately, and gave rise to the creation of the new one. Since the eleventh century the Poles had extended their dominion to the south-eastern Slavonia. The Tatars entered its north-eastern part in the year 1237, and the dynasty of Thouschides had settled near the Volga and Ocka, among their own population, with which that of Moscow, hostile to the Slavonic races, was much allied. In a few years all the princes of Russia, with their disputed possessions, fell under the Mongolian yoke. The constant endeavours of the Varagian princes to change the national character of the Slavonic people, had contributed mostly to the new foreign domination, which was rather casual. Guedi- mine, grand-duke of Lithuania (from whom many Russian and Polish princes are descended, and whose grandson, Jaguello, re-united his state to that of Poland, under one sceptre), at the commencement of the fourteenth century, conquered a vast part of Sla¬ vonia, and recovered from the Tatar yoke some of their conquests, and particularly Kiew, with the Lesser Russia (in the year 1320), while in the northern region he occupied Polock, Smolensk, and Witepsk, and had conferred the government of these different principalities on his cousins. Even the celebrated republics of Nov¬ gorod and Pskoff, which firmly resisted the Tatars, had recognised the supremacy of Lithuania, and afterwards that of Poland. The Lithuanian and Polish princes were the terror of the Tatars; the former had subju- INTRODUCTION. 13 gated the Tatars of Perekop, and as a bulwark and terror against the common enemy, they were respected by the Russian patriotic nobles. While the resistance of Poland to the Tatars, and its protection over the south-western part of Slavonia was constant and invariable, the grand-dukes of the house of Rurik had acted quite differently : except the chi¬ valrous prince Mstislaw Mstislavitch, who all his life, together with the Poles, gallantly defended the fran¬ chises of the people against his own cousins, and died on the field of battle against the Tatars. Except the noble princes Daniel, Sivarew, and Lew, the grand- dukes most abjectly submitted to the Mongolian Khans, as a kind of revenge and consolation : they desired the same submission from their subjects , and were irritated even to see the opposition of the people to the Tatar baskakes (magistrates). The grand-duke Alexander Nevsky, who owed his glory to the inhabitants of Nov¬ gorod, alternately expelled from, and restored to that apanage by them, ordered the cutting off of noses, arms, and legs, and the tearing out the eyes of a great number of noble Novogrodians, for their attempt to shake off the Tatar yoke. This prince, after his death, was canon¬ ized by the Greek Church, and the traveller beholds now at Moscow and St. Petersburg magnificent churches, which consecrate his name. The grand-dukes of Souzdal, of Vladimir upon the Clasma, and especially those of Moscow, signalized themselves by the same crafty policy. They were most humbly cringing before the Khans, and artfully employed their forces to enslave the people. 14 INTRODUCTION. who, without that additional oppression, in former times, had effectually curbed their would-be-masters. With the same Mongolian aid, the grand-dukes of Moscow resisted the further encroachments of Lithuania and Poland, and deprived their own agnates of their principalities, so as to form a certain sort of unity, which was sufficient to enable them to get rid of their own Tatar masters. Properly speaking, the deliverance from the Mongolian yoke was neither profitable to the people nor to the nobles : it was only very gratifying to the grand-dukes of Moscow, who really shook off their own yoke, which henceforth they more heavily imposed upon the nation, and on their own relations. As formerly from the Greek empire they had borrowed religion, manners, civilisation, and the institution of nobility, they imitated now the manners of the Tatars. The nobility of Greek fashion gave way to the Mongolian fashion, and the creation of numerous courtiers who swarmed about the sovereign, added to his pomp, and almost worshipped him like a Divinity. The cruelty of the sovereigns of Moscow thenceforth knew no bounds, and as they felt no control from their former masters, they deemed themselves quite free to oppress the nobility and the rest of the nation, whom they had accustomed to slavery under the Tatar yoke. Many of the Russian princes and other nobles emigrated to Lithuania and Poland; and there exists a very curious correspondence (preserved by Karamsin), of one of them and the Czar John IY. the Terrible , which shews not only the spirited and cultivated mind of some INTRODUCTION. 15 among the Russian nobility, but a curious social relation between that order and its sovereign at that time. They abused each other quite freely. The grand-duke never failed to answer the noble refugee, under the Polish protection, and at last advised him to come back and to give away his head quietly, in order to save his soul from eternal perdition. The refugee, apart from his sound reasoning and reproaches, dispatched the grand- duke to hell. The cruel family, which enslaved the nation, did not long enjoy their spoil. A nobleman without title, in¬ serted in the velvet book of Russia, but really issued from the race of Tatars, Boris GodounofF, whose sister was married to the Czar Theodor, the last sovereign of RurilCs dynasty, (deceased in the year 1598); and who himself was his minister ; having murdered the youthful brother and heir of his late master, tried to establish a new dynasty, and sat upon the throne. He was very op¬ pressive both to the nobility and to the nation at large : he had established a regular slavery in the country, by attaching the peasantry to the soil. After his death, his son w r as proclaimed Czar, was soon murdered, and the new dynasty, which lasted but seven years, expired. A host of foreign and native adventurers, impostors, who all called themselves Dmitry, rushed en masse to fill the throne of Russia. Some of them were successful for a time, and in a certain degree. A Russian nobleman. Prince Basily Schouisky, who made himself descend from the Rurik family, tried to begin his own dynasty, and had reigned but four years when the Poles dethroned 16 INTRODUCTION. him, and forwarded tlie election at Moscow of Prince Ladislas, eleven years old, son of Sigismond III, king of Poland. Here a new and bright era in the Russian annals arose. Owing to the carelessness of the Polish nobles, the Russian nobility, with the people, shook off the Polish yoke, and began to breathe more freely. How¬ ever, the contact of the Russian with the Polish nobility produced much good to the former; and besides the glory, something more substantial. They prescribed a constitution to the newly-elected dynasty of Romanoff, exalted to the throne out of the class of their own boy¬ ards. It is to be regretted that they did not learn from their neighbours how to preserve such a constitution from the encroachments of royalty. This constitution soon remained a dead letter, and a perfection of des¬ potism took place by degrees in Russia. However, those of the nobility, who have borne this despotism or support it, deserve to be accused more than the sovereigns themselves. A perfection of absolute government can only be established and consolidated, by nourishing the worst human passions, or a war of man to man. The Russian monarchs have created a vast empire upon slavery at home, and ceaseless conquests abroad, which give sufficient food and occupation for the nobility and the people at large; it appeared to gratify either their individual, or national vanity—sometimes both together. Since Peter I. Russia has commenced a new era. Anxious to bring out the resources of the country, and INTRODUCTION. 17 at the same time to increase and fortify his dominion, he went abroad, and introduced into Russia a great many foreigners, foreign manners and languages, industry, commerce, and such military and civil institutions, which would render his subjects perfectly submissive, and pro¬ per for great enterprises. “ Regis ad exemplar totus componitur orbis.” The Russian nobility, as generally do all other aristocracies, embraced with eagerness the new fashion, and endeavoured to imitate outwardly, the signs of western civilization. First, the Poles and Swedes, then the Dutch and Germans, and at last the French became their tutors. Following the example of the sovereign, many Russian nobles set off to travel in the west of Europe. At first they looked upon its won¬ ders quite bewildered—like a Yorkshire farmer when he comes to London for the first time. They contrived to ape every thing that was superficial. This we do not take amiss. Our greatest orators and statesmen neces¬ sarily began by imitating their nurses and professors, before they could display any power of their own ; and the Russian nobility must have passed through a similar order of things in their progress. The Russian princes, descended from Rurik, after they were stripped of their principalities by their reigning relations, and become comparatively poor, had grown very liberal. The nobility of the country mixed with them, mindful of their former oppression, constituted a strong political body, who fancied, since they had given the crown to one family, that they could dispose of it in future, in case of any emergency. A certain opposition c 18 INTRODUCTION. to tlie arbitrary will of the government seemed to be. formed. Taught by experience, that his nobility had participated in the former military revolts, Peter I. re¬ solved to curtail their privileges, and diminish their power in the state. He ordered them to remain in the service through life. His attempt to introduce the law of primogeniture among the most ancient families, did not succeed; but he introduced perpetual war betwixt the nobles, by dividing them into fourteen classes, according to their station, and by giving a facility of ad¬ mittance into that order to all his subjects, without dis¬ tinction, who had honourably served the crown. Thus, the most ancient pedigree and riches, lost consideration : even the greatest nobleman was not secure from the covetousness of the officers in the state—sprung from the people—who possessed a higher rank. Everybody was obliged to serve; everybody's ambition, and even security, had no other prospect, but to be a passive tool in the hands of the government. The only enlightened part of the population, viz. the nobles, lost their indepen¬ dence. However, Peter I. conferred upon them some % privileges : henceforth they are to be the only order, who have the right to be the land proprietors and to possess slaves ; and it is for the nobility alone, that the higher and inferior, civil and military, schools were opened. Unlike the deliverance of Russia from the Tatar yoke, which lowered its nobility, and produced no good to the nation, the success of Peter I. over Charles XII. who threatened to conquer Russia, exalted not only the court, but opened a new field to the Russian nobility for INTRODUCTION. 19 their ambition, and for the aggrandizement of the coun¬ try. The emperor seemed to say to his dignitaries: “ You owe every thing to the protection of my autocracy; be my constant slaves, and I shall make you the pro¬ tectors and the masters of the world !” This idea is partly realized, and what Peter I. began, has been con¬ tinued with an awful success, by his successors. So we have seen that Prussia has been the protector of Poland, the protector of the Crimea, the protector of Courland, Finland, Esthonia and Livonia ; the protector of the Caucasus, Georgia, Imeritia, Mingrelia and Armenia. She had been, in many instances, the protector and the saviour of order in the whole of Europe. She contrives to extend her protection over Greece, Moldavia, Vala- chia, Servia, the rest of Turkey, Persia, and the centre of Asia, looking and acting treacherously and dainty¬ mouthed, towards the Ganges. A fraction of the Russian nobles did not entirely for¬ get their dignity as men. However, since their attempt to establish a constitution in the year 1730 had raised a rebellion on behalf of slavery, and carried to Siberia the constitutional leaders, they expected to get privileges spontaneously from the court, by flattering their sove¬ reigns, In this way, they got from the Emperor Peter III. the right of quitting the service, whenever they liked, and the permission to reside at pleasure anywhere, either in the country or abroad; which privileges, so much enraptured the aristocracy that they voted to erect a massive gold statue to that sovereign ; and they would have carried it into execution, had he been a little longer c 2 20 INTRODUCTION. upon the throne. The Empress Catherine II. besides other franchises, had exempted the nobility from corpo¬ ral punishment, which privilege rendered her name so dear to them ; though it was never strictly observed by her successors. Full of the idea of its future grandeur, from the begin¬ ning of the last century, the Russian court, with all the nobility, seemed to forget their national language, and to be ashamed of their nationality. They separated themselves from the rest of the nation so far, that the language they used even in ordinary conversation amongst themselves, was at first the German, which in a short time was superseded by the French, even until our days. To speak bad Russian was very fashionable, and not to speak it at all, or to understand it very little, still more so. The Czars have married their daughters and sisters almost exclusively to the German princes. Some princesses and princes born and educated in Ger¬ many, have filled the throne of the Russian empire. The Princess Ann, daughter of Prince John, brother of Peter I. married to Frederic William, the Duke of Courland, being a widow, was called to the throne. Her sister Ann Catherine, a short time regent, and mother of the unfortunate child Prince Ivan, was the wife of Prince Ulric of Brunswick-Bevern. The daughter of Peter II. Ann, married to Charles Frederic, Duke of Holstein, was the mother of Prince Charles Peter Ulric, who reigned under the name of the Emperor Peter III. and his spouse, Catherine II. who, six months after his accession, deprived him of the crown and his life, and INTRODUCTION. 21 afterwards reigned so infamously, was born Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, of pure German race. This is one of the principal reasons of the affluence of the German adven¬ turers in Russia, and of their prevalence in its policy ; who, being very useful to the state, soon formed in its council a German party, so invidious to the genuine Russian nobility. Notwithstanding the fearful revolution, at the acces¬ sion of the Empress Elizabeth, which seemed destined to exterminate the German nobles and other foreigners ; notwithstanding the dethronisation of Peter III. and the elevation of Catherine II. who feigned to favour the Russian nobility, the German party still contested the power with the former, even under her reign, and per¬ severed in the struggle till our days. At any rate, it ■was easier for the gallant Russian noblemen, during the reign of women, to beat the Germans—not very accept¬ able in love matters—and as soon as they saw this to be not sufficient, they took pains to equal, if not to surpass them, in earnest studies. This rivalry is constant, and in some degree very beneficial. In international rela¬ tions, the French being a diplomatic language, and the facility of pronouncing it with a good accent being pecu¬ liar to the Slavonic races, the French education culti¬ vated in the Russian noble families gave no small advantage to them over their antagonists, and was very serviceable to the state. It knit its connexion with the leading nations of Europe, which the ability of the Russian diplomacy had established, and gave it its pre¬ sent facility to preserve and to increase daily its influence INTRODUCTION. 22 in Europe. By way of compliment, our neighbours call the Russian nobles the “ French of the North,” and assert that their manners and language are fully Parisian. This flattery is not thrown away in politics. We saw a great sympathy between the Russian and French officers, even during the late war in the Crimea. The close and lasting alliance of Russia with France, for mutual interest, so much advocated by the nobility of both countries, is not improbable. The contact of the Russian nobility with the west, did not fail to produce a remarkable change in the character of the empire. Prince Basily Galitsyne, surnamed the great , Count John Schouvaloff, and a few other noble¬ men, desired to civilize Russia thoroughly in the western manner. A great many books, and especially French ; poetry, romances, history, philosophical and scientific works, were translated into the national language, and patronized by the nobility. Many public and private institutions were formed, and the social intercourse be¬ tween the nobles appeared to be more easy and frequent. They had particularly delighted in the foundation of masonic institutions, which had much improved under their guidance. The duty of their members consisted in f relieving the persecuted people, and in giving an active example of morality. A wealthy boyard, Lapoukhine, spent nearly all his fortune, in the foundation of masonic lodges, and in the distribution of alms. Besides Lapouk¬ hine, Princes Nicolas Troubetskoy and Tourguénieff were at the head of the movement. In point of litera¬ ture, the imitation of the French was not exclusive. INTRODUCTION. 23 Among the writers of opposition to the organization of the society, the noble NovikofF was the most conspicu¬ ous in his day. The Spectator of Addison served him for a model ; but he adapted it to the character of the coun- • try, and rendered his productions eminently national. He declared a war against all abuses, against the venality of public functionaries, and against national prejudices. He lashed the ignorance of all classes, and did not spare the highest personages. Many inferior writers of course, praised and almost worshipped the government—not dis¬ interestedly—and even one of the most esteemed poets, Derjavine, sought inspiration at the Court. Yet, in one of his odes, he says : “ Slave as I am, I cannot praise but flatter.” With the outbreak of the French revolution, the old Empress Catherine II. fancied she perceived its ramifications everywhere, and particularly in literature and in the masonic associations. The opposition writers were handcuffed, NovikofF imprisoned, Prince Nicolas Troubetskoy, Lapoukhine and TourguéniefF ordered to retire to their estates. A dead silence seemed to reign for a time; but literature resumed its sway, and the absolute government deemed it necessary to make a compromise with this new foe. It is generally believed that literature and public instruction not being free in Pussia, they are com¬ pletely an affair of government, calculated to meet the wants of the public service, and to maintain the faith of its subjects in the infallibility of autocracy. This is true only in a certain measure. The expe¬ dient of the authorities to encourage only the higher branches of education for the nobility, to the neglect of 24 INTRODUCTION. the lower for the instruction of the people, which lies in total abeyance, had produced corresponding fruits. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Russia, for the first time, produced historical, political, archaeological, statistical and economical works, characterized by a positive and downright earnestness. Numbers of natu¬ ralists and geographers made many useful discoveries, and the government liberally contributed to their travels and success. In the eighteenth century, there was only one university and one scientific institution in Russia proper, viz : at Moscow, and at Dorpat. But since that date, five more universities have been founded, as well as some academies, lyceums, gymnasiums, and schools for nobility. At Casan, an institute for the Oriental languages has been erected. “ This institute will some time or other unite the inhabitants of two quarters of the globe/’ says the official report of Ouvaroff, the min¬ ister of public instruction, in the year 1832. At St. Petersburg, Moscow, Dorpat, Charkoff, Kieff, and even in some gymnasiums, the same object has been aimed at, by founding lectureships of the Asiatic languages. However, the higher aristocracy shrank from such stu¬ dies, and left them to the lower nobility, to the sons of the clergy and the Polish youth. The enlightened men wished to establish a national literature. After the memorable retreat of Napoleon from Moscow, this move¬ ment assumed more consistency and boldness. The Russian liberal aristocracy raised a cry throughout the land, that as the whole nation had effectually partici¬ pated in the release of the crown and country from foreign invasion, they had a right to freedom. Count INTRODUCTION. 25 Dmitry Boutourline has written the public history of the campaign of 1812 ; but the secret and most significant facts against the Emperor, who was anxious to treat with Napoleon, and in praise of the nobility, who forcibly re¬ sisted it, were recorded by General YermollofF, and circulated in several manuscript copies.* The Emperor Alexander, had granted a constitution to the kingdom of Poland, and publicly promised to unite with it its ancient provinces, viz : Lithuania, Vol- hynia, Ukraine and Podolia. Pie had also promised a constitution to all Russia, and the learned Speransky was appointed to write a draft of it. Meantime the CzaPs acts were in an opposite direction to his pro¬ mises, had undermined his own constitutional work, and eluded all engagements. At St. Petersburg and Moscow, men of talent, the editors of journals and other periodicals, were bought by authority. Karamsin, a poet, whose elegant pen, in verse and prose, betrayed sometimes bitter sarcasm against the existing order of things, was loaded with honours and riches by the Em¬ peror Alexander, and appointed to write a history of Russia. The most unpopular minister, Araktcheieff, de¬ posited a hundred thousand roubles in the bank, and promised to pay that sum with interest, to any author, * There is flourishing in Russia a contemporaneous literature, free from the restrictions of censorship, and hardly known to the Govern¬ ment : viz. the Manuscript,—it might be called, the subterraneous,— literature. For a long time the nation lived on borrowed ideas, and has been led in a string by the will of despotism. But the Czar, who looks for his safety to the censorship, never knows well the real wants and re¬ sources of the country : he is like a man who shut his eyes and ears, in order neither to see, nor to hear what is going on around him .—Note of the Translator. 26 INTRODUCTION. who would write the best history of the reign of Alex¬ ander. Another poet, Joukoffsky, was named tutor to the grand dukes, sons of the Emperor Nicolas. KryllofF was decorated, as the author of the Fables, with an ex¬ press acknowledgment of his “ true Russian spirit,” says the ukase of 1838. Whilst Poland enjoyed more freedom, its literary movements, and especially at the Universities of Wilna, Warsaw, and Cracow, exercised no mean influence on the Russian literature at Moscow and St. Petersburg. But since the Polish literature was put down, and since the “ order reigns at Warsaw” had been proclaimed, the government could find nothing at home that would catch the public spirit in general, and give combustible materials to the ardour of young noblemen. The pro¬ pagation of Panslavism imposed but upon unwary people; the extreme doctrines, like Saint Simonism, were more attractive. In vain the government journals, and particular^ the “ Northern Bee,” the “ Russian Invalide,” the “ Journal de St. Petersburg,” &c., en¬ deavoured to satisfy the public mind. For some time the chancellor of the empire, and formerly minister for foreign affairs, Count Roumiantsoff, had complained that Russia wanted to know her past, that KaramsnFs history is no history at all. Everything under the patronage of the government underwent suspicion and blame, everything recognized to be officially Russian, was detested and repudiated. The Russian nobles more than ever greedily sought to know every movement in the Western Europe, and above all, the French current literature and politics, In consequence of that, restraint INTRODUCTION. 27 upon travelling abroad and tbe censorship, under the reign of Alexander, and still more, under the Emperor Nicolas, who never forgot the rebellion at his accession to the throne, became the order of the day. The foreign books and journals were disfigured by covering the ob¬ noxious passages with black paint, or by “ shaving” them with a knife. The nobility did not spare expenses, and got everything forbidden through foreign and national smugglers. The contest between the parties grew daily more and more envenomed. Honour to the nobles of Russia ! In the midst of the most fearful persecution and vandalism enforced by the Emperor Nicolas on the spirit of more liberal authors, they have created a national literature. The most ancient nobility had a considerable share in that manifestation, and mixed itself up with that of more recent creation. We quote a few eminent individuals, who can deserve the name of literary heroes, conspi¬ cuous in several branches of literature, viz. : Poushkine, Lermontoff, Polejaïeff, Polenoi, Ctchaïadieff, Rileieff, Bestucheff, Mouravieff, Count Kahoffsky, Prince Alex¬ ander Shahoffsky, Prince Peter Viazemsky, Prince Peter Kozlofsky, Count Nicholas Protassoff, Flohol, General Yermolloff, General Michael Orloff, Gree- bo'iedoff, Bielinsky, and many others. No persecutions, no imprisonment, no exile deterred the spirited writers from speaking their mind. Elohol, in his satirical story of “ Chichagoff,” described the infamy of “ trade of the souls,”* and the horrors of * In Russian, a “ soul,” or a “ Christian,” is in common parlance synonymous with “ serf.”— E. Editor. 28 INTRODUCTION. slavery. Peter Ctchaïadieff, in one of his philosophical articles, published at Moscow, in a periodical called the 44 Telescope,” had demonstrated that 44 Russia had be¬ stowed a century of hard labour, more than useless, to acquire the Western civilization, which only furnished more means to Authority to enslave the nation ; whilst on the other hand, under the wings of the Greek creed, which had separated the country from the rest of Europe, the Police hides the knout, the people receives its daily fare of lashes with astonishing patience, and Power is never weary of inflicting them. As a nation,” he pursues, 44 we have no future prospect. The inno¬ vations of Peter I. moulded us in the worst form that can be made of man. We are the convinced slaves, that it shall be so as it is. We are like those Poles, who remained many years in Kamtchatka, and to whom, at the accession of Paul, it was announced that they are free, and can return now to their dear country. 4 Thank ye,’ they replied, 4 it is too far and too late ; we are pre¬ pared to set off for another land—it is time to die P ” And who was he, that Peter Ctchaïadieff? 44 In Rome he would be a Brutus, in Greece a Pericles ; hut here under the iron rod of the Czar, he is an officer of Hussars,” says the most noble national poet, Alexander Poushkine. The Emperor Nicolas declared Ctchaïadieff a lunatic ; but the first nobles of the Empire, without excepting the officials, surrounded him with the greatest respect, and listened to the man like an oracle. He was the 44 lion” of Moscow, and as much as he gained, Authority lost in esteem. Once, when the late Emperor came to Moscow, one of the professors of the university had INTRODUCTION. 29 written a poem, in which he said of the people, thronging about the imperial palace, that “ these thousands of faithful subjects would throw themselves into the Mos¬ cova, with joy, at the nod of the Autocrat/" Count Serge Strogonoff, the chancellor of the university, struck out the phrase, and reprimanded the professor for his fulsome flattery. Hitherto Russia had imitated the Western civilization, and now she began to try to be herself, and manifested a quite different tendency. The select circles of nobi¬ lity were not confined, as hitherto, to the culinary enjoyments, excessive drinking, card-table, dance, sport¬ ing, and stiff military parades : they formed pleasant debating societies, and were desirous to see a flourishing state of the national literature, and many reforms in the empire. The plot of the noble Pietrachewsky had compromised a number of the first dignitaries in the state. The Emperor Nicolas resisted the spirit of inno¬ vation with all his energy. Seeing the difficulty of doing so with complete success, he contrived to check the growing power of the nobles by the enfranchisement of the peasantry from slavery, which would bring the mass of the population on his side, and make the nobles more dependent on his own will. In this respect he was not so fortunate, though his will seemed to be omnipotent. The measure appeared as a two-edged weapon, which may be turned in time against authority itself. This delicate scheme is resumed by the actual Emperor, jointly with the nobles themselves. The landed pro¬ prietors are with regret induced to repeal their un¬ christian law of slavery; but the question involves the .30 INTRODUCTION. very existence of the empire, and will be concluded, most probably, only to illustrate the old adage of “ great cry and little wool.” Such is tbe sketch of the vicissitudes of the Russian nobility, as far as it comes within the reach of analysis. Its history is made up of various phases of national character : the leading groups of the series of events represent the principal national creed put aside, and despotism successively developed, which held sway in proportion to its conquests. Subsequent events are blended with foreign influence, without obliterating en¬ tirely the primitive character of the people. The entire range of national traditions, having one general source, must take one principal current in the unity of the government. The origin of such a theory is traceable in the barbarous and chaotic elements of Russia, tanta- lizingly discordant. It had pervaded many centuries through its whole population, and in our days, when it finds no issue, the current tries to turn in another direction. Here all institutions and erections, though dissimilar, are strict and systematic, bound by stringent laws of formation and change, from their incipient kind of civilization. The airy ideas, the wildest flights of extravagance for dominion, conceived by sovereigns, and shared by their noblemen, are by degrees conso¬ lidated, and become a general national creed. It gave rise to the embodied and grown up tyranny of preju¬ dices, from which they will never completely free them¬ selves for ages yet to come. Men generally, more or less, acquire what they like the best. Such qualities, virtues, or vices, are found to INTRODUCTION. 31 grow in every country, that are the most considered in public estimation. The history of nobles, who are at the top of the community, that “ cream ” of society, is the history of the whole nation. In Russia the nobles adore Power, and have that Power weighing upon themselves. They live too much in foreign politics to be well regulated at home. They spread conquests and slavery abroad, which only serve to rivet more their own chains, without any reasonable prospect of real civi¬ lization, unless they change the system—a thing ex¬ tremely difficult—for Russia is accustomed to live upon conquests and plunder, and habit in men and nations constitutes a second nature. This favours despotism, which may apparently benefit, for a while, some of those who enforce it ; but it is certainly a terrible infliction, not only for the conquered people, but for the millions of the natives themselves, not excepting the nobility and their sovereign. From the foregoing remarks it may be doubtful where the central power lies in the Russian empire ; in the aristocracy, or in the absolute monarch ? In resolving this difficult question, we ought not to be imposed on by the facility with which the Emperor can remove his ministers, senators, princes, and counts, from their seat to Siberia, without any opposition. They are less sin¬ cerely “ lamented” by their brethren, than a banker at his funeral, by his expectant heirs. In Russia ambition is universal ; it absorbs all other sentiments. The nobles, in general, are fond of pomp and ostentation (packasatsia ) ; they spend more than they can afford, and look out greedily for lucrative offices. It is a 32 INTRODUCTION. common question among them, not , how much is your income , but how much do you spend? (scolcko prejy- vaiesch ), for, with a small exception, every one is living to the utmost limit of his credit. The viceroy of Poland, the governor-generals in Georgia and the Caucasus, in the Lesser Russia, in Livonia, Esthonia, Courland and Finland, and in the various governments of Northern Asia, live like independent monarchs, uphold the au¬ thority of the Emperor, and forget the rights of their order. Thousands of other lucrative places, giving op¬ portunity to arbitrary and oppressive management, are calculated to bribe and to compromise many eminent men. But, as a body, the aristocracy is stronger than the sovereigns, because it has dethroned them, when- 4 ever its majority has agreed to it. Considering the cultivation of their minds, they think they are entitled to vote what they consider to be good for the country and for themselves ; and it is a moot point for them, whether the principal nobility and notable citizens, who were the electors, are not equally entitled to be eligible for the sovereign power, not only from the extant numerous family of Rurik, but from those of the ancient boyards, like the house of Romanoff. The aristocracy, strong as a body, when its members agree to anything, is weak whenever it is divided. Besides occasional and passing divisions on many topics, there is a normal one, which, like a never-dying worm, bites its bowels. The nobility of the German party wishes to consolidate despotism in Russia for ever ; for, with its fall, the foreign nobles foresee their own ruin. The genuine Russian party desires any change, but as INTRODUCTION. 33 they are not yet fixed as to its mode and principles, that pause gives a certain repose to the Emperor. Moreover, except Peter I., the sovereigns of the House of Eomanoff never were warriors : they are therefore obliged to employ constantly the aristocracy for war services, and to confide to their hands the fortune of the Empire. Having done much for the aggrandisement of the country, the pretensions of these warriors some¬ times are exorbitant, and make their sovereigns tremble on the throne. In vain the Emperors chose foreigners for their favourites, generals, and first ministers, or created a new aristocracy, taken from the humblest condition of the people. Formerly, even at the time of the foundation of the present empire, disgusted and terrified by the turbulence of the aristocracy, John the Terrible , wished to fly away to England, and craved Queen Elizabeth’s permission to live quietly as a refugee in her kingdom. The curious copy of the Queen’s answer may be found in the British Museum. Peter I. for a while, thought of remaining abroad, never to re¬ turn to his country. The Empress Elizabeth, very uneasy about the incessant revolutions of the Court, had secretly formed a private treasury to enable her to emigrate, in case of need. The same idea of a sudden necessity to abandon his crown, that might happen, preyed on the mind of Alexander I., and for this purpose, in order to provide for his family in exile, he had hoarded a round sum of ten millions of ducats,* which were found, after his death, in his private closet. * £ 5 , 000 . 000 . D 34 INTRODUCTION. It is also known, how he treated with regard the mur¬ derers of his father, the Emperor Paul. All this shows the prevailing power of the Russian aristocracy. We may add to this, the real motive of abdication by the Grand-Duke Constantine, which took place from the following circumstances. At the time of the murder of the Emperor Paul, his eldest son and heir, the Grand- Duke Alexander, was in the next room, waiting for the result. The Grand-Duke Constantine, alone rushed to the rescue of his father, and was arrested. He had repeatedly sworn since, to exterminate the whole aris¬ tocracy, if he should ever mount the throne. This is the true motive, which prompted the Emperor Alex¬ ander to persuade the Grand-Duke Constantine to abdi¬ cate in favour of his younger brother Nicolas, for, with the rest of the Imperial family, Alexander saw that Constantine possessed a character to keep his word, and that his attempt to do so would be a signal for the Russian nobility to get rid of the dynasty of Romanoff altogether. The abdication of Constantine is wrongly attributed to his marriage with a Polish lady. Miss Groudzinska, named Princess of Lowicz. History plainly shows that many of the reigning princes and the heirs to the throne of Russia, were anything but fastidious in the choice of their spouses, and that not only dispa¬ raging matches, but the worst scandals, had nothing to do with politics in that court, and out of it. What are the future destinies of Russia? This question comes within the solution of the following problem, which time alone can reveal, viz. : cither that INTRODUCTION. 35 she may remain for a long time under despotism, if slie is still capable of growing by further conquests, so far as to be a first-rate naval power, as she is already a continental power ; and in that case there is not much room for her domestic welfare ; or that neither her own force, nor the European policy, will allow her to grow r , and then the despotism, being unnecessary, must dis¬ appear, and by its fall, open a wide door to liberty and internal improvements of the country. Either direction mostly remains in the hands of the Russian nobility,* and what she has done hitherto, with the rest of the nation, is only a partial rehearsal of the political drama they are going to perform on the stage of the world. London, May, 1858. * Notwithstanding a certain tacit control exercised by the nobles, the autocratic power is very strong ; it is founded not only upon a vast military system, but on the bureaucracy and police, who are a real plague to the nation. With a revenue less than half that of Trance, Russia keeps an army twice as large, and her soldiers serve twenty years, often their whole life; while in France the service is for seven years only. Above a million of civilians and police, with military rank (chinovniki), badly paid, plunder the public and the people. The Czar, knowing that he is only secure through them, finds it impossible for him to improve the empire with them, or to govern it without them. Note of the Translator . D 2 • * . . % L PREFACE. The notice before us, contains families of the princes and courts of Russia, the ancient houses of boyards, those also, who, without producing the boyards, are registered in the velvet-book (that golden book of the Russian nobility), and the houses of some princes of illustrious foreign origin, settled on the territory of the empire, which are not invested with the title as Russian princes. The author is extremely sorry that he does not possess sufficient materials for an article on the Polish nobility, that sister of the Russian nobility, to join it with this notice, and for another article on the nobility no less illustrious, of the provinces of Georgia, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland. The limited compass of the present notice, viz., a simple collection of names and dates, did not allow the author to preface it by a political and social history of the Russian nobility, to describe its origin, to show its transformation, how, through the impulse of violence, it became civilized, in spite of itself, and once launched in that career, how it went on forward a great deal further than the wish of its civilisers ; lastly, to depict its ideas, peculiar character and tendency. All these particulars are developed in a work, undertaken three years ago, and to which the author intends to impart the finishing strokes. This work, entitled, “ History of Russia since the Accession of Romanoff ” (viz.: since the year 1613), 38 PREFACE. will be terminated before the next month of May, and the manuscript will be deposited in this hospitable country (I mean in France), until the time of its publi¬ cation, which the author himself, as yet, cannot pre¬ cisely indicate. Paris, January 7th, 1843. According to the purport of the law of January 12th, 1682, all the Russian noblemen enjoy equal rights, without regard to their titles and origin. But, under a point of view merely honorific, the official blazon of the Russian nobility (deposited in the heraldic office of the senate at St. Petersburg), is divided into five classes, viz. : 1.—The Princes of the empire. 2.—The Counts of the empire. 3.—The Barons of the empire. 4.— Gentlemen v/ithout titles, whose nobilitation had taken place previous to Peter I. ;* and 5.—Gentlemen without titles, who were ennobled after that reign. The original stock of the high Russian nobility is composed of the houses of princes, which sprung from the male lineage, direct and legitimate of Rurik, the first sovereign of Russia, or from Guedimine, Grand- * In the category of gentlemen without any titles, whose nobility is dated before the time of Peter I., we find families, which by their anti¬ quity and historical illustrations, attached to their names, are placed far higher than the majority of the families named Counts of the empire. Such are, for instance, the Sclieremeteff, the Saltykoff, the Sabouroff, the Samarine^ the Boutourline, the Poushkine, the Golovine, the Kalychefi', the Pleschcieff, &c. PREFACE. 39 Duke of Lithuania (the latter has been the founder of the dynasty commonly known under the name of Jaguellon). Rurik, a Norman by birth, reigned from the year 862 till 879. His great-grandson, Saint Wladimir,* converted all Russia to Christianity in the year 988, and died in 1015, having committed, on his death-bed, the signal fault of dividing Russia into twelve principalities, which he distributed between his eleven sons and a nephew. This fatal custom of parcelling the sovereign power between many princes, once introduced into the Russian law, lasted four centuries ; it has been the source of weakness to the country, incessantly lacerated by civil wars ; it aided the Mongols to conquer Russia (from 1236 to 1240), and threw that country for many centuries behind the rest of Europe. However, the Tatar yoke, two hundred years endured,f and stamped with blood and devastation, at the end had saved and strengthened Russia. Had the impolitic and anti¬ social system of parcelling continued to emaciate the country, and had not Russia had in her hand the Mon¬ golian weapon to oppose to the conquests of Guedimine (a great man, who founded the Lithuanian monarchy in the fourteenth century), it is probable that the capital of the empire would be actually at Wilna. Happily for Russia, the Tatars committed a political fault in endea¬ vouring to create a centre of unity and strength among * As Saint Wladimir lived before the definite separation of the Eastern and Western Churches, he is recognized as a saint by both of them. f In fact it did last 238 years, viz., from the year 1237 till 1475.— Note of the Translator. 40 PREFACE. the great number of petty principalities. Their choice fell on the branch of the house of Bunk, which reigned at Moscow. The princes of Moscow, able and profound politicians, having obtained the support of the Tatars for the spoliation of their collateral cousins, became Grand-Dukes of Russia, not only nominally, but in deed, and being placed at the head of the reviving forces of the country, employed them in shaking off the Mongo¬ lian yoke. In the year 1462, the Grand-Duke John III., surnamed the great, at the age of seventeen, ascended the throne of Russia, and shortly after proclaimed him¬ self independent of foreign dominion. Just at the time when Russia arrived at the unity of her power, the Mongolian empire by itself underwent the dismember¬ ment into four principal kingdoms, viz., those of Casan, Astrakhan, the Crimea, and Siberia. Casan was taken by assault, and in the very palace of the Mongolian sovereign, a youthful prince, twenty-two years old, ordered a Te Deum to be sung. This prince was the grandson of John III., surnamed the terrible (groshnyi), on account of his ferocity. He was the first monarch, who, in the year 1547, took the title of Czar of all the Russias,* and a few years later, after the conquest of Casan, the Russian eagle was hoisted upon the ramparts of Astrakhan. A few years after, a Cossack named Yermak, brigand by profession, condemned to death by contumacy for his crimes and murders, having received a large sum of money from some opulent merchants * The title of the Emperor dates from Peter I., who took it in the year 1721. PREFACE. 41 called StrogonofF, who possessed extensive estates at the foot of the Ouralian Mountains, went, with his gang of seven hundred men, to punish the Siberian tribes who frequently ravaged the lands of the StrogonofF family. This Cossack seemed to rival Cortez and Pizarro. Prom the depth of Siberia he sent to Mos¬ cow one of his ancient companions in robbery, who now became the companion of his glory, with a message to John IV. that, as an atonement for his past crimes, he pays an homage of his whole kingdom to the Czar. The Crimea alone escaped from the wreck of Tatar monarchies; she remained formidable to Russia until the end of the seventeenth century, and did not yield but to the victorious arms of Catherine the Great. In the same proportion as one branch of the house of Rurik, reigning at Moscow, increased in splendour and dignity, the other branches of the same family rapidly declined towards political ruin. The Grand-Dukes of Moscow compelled the appanaged princes to cede their principalities, and to take instead some rich private estates. Those who resisted that policy were deprived of their fortune, without any indemnity, and cast into prison. John III. reunited to his dominion all the appanaged principalities which had slipped away from the usurpation of his predecessors ; and the world also saw, under the pressure of his arms, the fall of Novgorod, the cradle of Russian civilization ; that illus¬ trious republic, so ancient and powerful, that she bore the motto : Who would dare anything against God and the great Novgorod? The republic of Pskod alone 42 PREFACE. (whicli was called the younger sister of Novgorod), had preserved for some time the shadow of independence ; but even that shadow vanished for ever under the reign of Easily IV. (son of the cunning John III., and father to the ferocious John IY.) To strip their collaterals was not sufficient for the dynasty of Moscow; they wanted to confound them with the Moscovite aristocracy. For this purpose two expedients were devised under the reign of John III. A genealogical register (rodoslovnoïa knega) was created, wherein they put on a level with the appanaged houses, the families of the Boyards of Moscow.* This hook was copied again, under John IY. and only the two families of Adasheff and Golovine were added to the roll. The second measure hit the mark still harder, and lowered the political position of the descendants of Burik and Guedimine : it was the established regulation that henceforth, rank was to be considered, according to the dignity held by father, grandfather, or ancestors of each personage, either at the court, or in the army. This law, kept in observance till the year 1682, rendered the dig¬ nity of boyard almost hereditary—if not by right, at least de facto —and thus completed the fusion of the princes with the boyards 5 families. The institution based upon this law was called mestnicJiestvo. In this man¬ ner we saw the descendants of Rurik and Guedimine,f * These were the Romanoff, the Scheremeteff, the Salty koff, the Pic sell- eieff, the Bontourline, the Sabouroff, the Samarine, the Kalycheff, &c. f Guedimine was the founder of the Lithuanian dynasty, commonly called the Jaguellons. Jaguello, grandson of Guedimine, and son of PREFACE. 43 mixed up together with the descendants of the ancient servants of the house of Moscow. At the era of the abolition of the mesinichestvo , in the year 1682, January 12th, the political equality among the nobles was intro¬ duced into the law ; and at the same time, the ancient genealogical register had been copied again, for the last time ; this being bound in red velvet, received and pre¬ served the name of the velvet booh (barhatnaia knega). This golden book of the Russian nobility may be found actually at the heraldic office of the senate at St. Peters¬ burg.* Not a single family of boyards could obtain the favour to be inserted in the above book, so far that even all the intrigues of the Naryshkine’s house fell to the ground, who, in order to mount into it, left no stone unturned, and employed their credit at the court, and the influence, which procured them a fresh family alli¬ ance with the house of the Czars ; but all to no avail. The title of prince (kniaz), in Russia, until Peter I. none bore except families of the sovereign stock. Peter I. introduced the custom to create princes, as well as counts and barons; these two last titles being totally unknown in Russia till the eighteenth century. The Olgerd, married Hedwige, Queen of Poland, and thus united under his sceptre, the two countries. Many of the families, issued from Guedimine, are found to be established in Russia, since the beginning of the fifteenth century. * On the day of the abolition of the mestnichestvo, there were thrown into the fire, not the titles of noblemen as some ignorant people have asserted—but the diary of the minutes, and disputes about precedence amongst different families, which were but too frequent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The copies of these diaries are still extant in the archives of the Kremlin at Moscow. 44 PREFACE. first prince created was Menshikoff, minister and fa¬ vourite of Peter I, on whom, in the year 1705, the Emperor Leopold I, conferred the title of Prince of the holy Roman empire, and who was exalted by Peter I, in the year 1707, to the dignity of a Russian prince. The two first counts were, the same Menshikoff and the great Admiral field-marshal Golovine, both invested with the title of Counts of the holy Roman empire, by the Em¬ peror Leopold in the year 1702. The first Russian count, who was named in the year 1706, was the field- marshal Scheremeteff, issued from an ancient and illus¬ trious house of boyards of the same name ; and the first Russian baron, the vice-chancellor Schafiroff in the year 1710 . In the year 1722 Peter I. published a law, in conse¬ quence of which all persons in the service of the state, who occupied a certain rank in the hierarchy, and all the officers in the army and navy, without distinction, acquired by right, hereditary nobility. Every Russian private soldier, therefore, may foster lawfully the ambi¬ tion to enter into the order of nobility, not only himself, but all his descendants. Since the promulgation of this law, the Russian nobility became more accessible than any of that order on the face of the earth, and conse¬ quently, it is the most liberal in its organization, as well as in its principles and sentiments. t PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER I. THE HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF THE HOUSES OF PRINCES IN RUSSIA. N.B. —In the following list, those houses of princes are only men¬ tioned, which exist still at this very day. I. DESCENDANTS OE RURIK FROM THE MALE LINEAGE, DIRECT AND LEGITIMATE, BY THE SEQUENCE OE BIRTH-RIGHT. 1. Princes Odoievsky.* 2. Princes Koltsoff-Massalsky. 3. Princes Gortchakoff. 4. Princes Eletsky. 5. Princes Zuenigorodsky. 6. Princes Bariatinsky.f 7. Princes Obolensky. 8. Princes Tufiakine. 9. Princes Dolgorouky. 10. Princes ScherbatofF. 11. Princes Yiasemsky. * Prince Alexander Odoievsky, eighteen years old, was implicated in the conspiracy of the 14th December, 1825, and was classed in the fifth category of high treason by the Commission of Enquiry.— Note of Tr. f A staff captain of cavalry, Prince Bariatinsky, is named in the second category of the same.— Note of Tr. 46 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF 12. Princes Schetinine. 13. Princes Zassekine. 14. Princes Sontseff-Zasseki. 15. Princes Shakhovskoy. 16. Princes Mortkine. 17- Princes Shekonsky. 18. Princes Livoff. 19. Princes Prozorovsky. 20. Princes Donloff. 21. Princes Kozlovsky. 22. Princes Krapotkine. 23. Princes Scbcpine of Rostoff. 24. Princes Kassatkine of Rostoff. 25. Princes Lobanoff of Rostoff. 26. Princes Bielosselsky of Bielozersk. 27. Princes Vadbolsky. 28. Princes Scbelescbpansky. 29. Princes Oukhtomsky. 30. Princes Gagarine.* 31. Princes Khilkoff. II. DESCENDANTS OE RURIK, EROM THE FEMALE LINEAGE. 32. Princes Romadonovsky-Ladyjensky. * Desirous to observe the Russian orthography, we are at variance with many Russian princes in the way of spelling their own names ; so we write, Gagarine instead of Gagarin ; Galitsyne instead of Galit¬ sin ; Kourakine instead of Konrahin, &c.t t N.B—The e final is unnecessary in the English pronunciation.— English Editor . HOUSES OE PRINCES. 47 III. DESCENDANTS OF RURIK FROM INDIRECT LINEAGE. 33. Princes Volkonsky. 34. Princes Repnine-Volkonsky.* IV. DESCENDANTS OF GUEDIMINE FROM THE MALE, DIRECT AND LEGITIMATE LINEAGE.f 35. Princes Khavansky. 36. Princes Galitsyne. 37. Princes Kourakine. 38. Princes Troubetskoy. «/ V. FAMILIES OF PRINCES OF FOREIGN EXTRACTION, INVESTED WITH DIGNITY OF THE RUSSIAN PRINCES (ALPHABETICALLY). 39. Princes Babitcheff. 40. Princes Bagratione. 41. Princes DadianofF. 42. Princes Droutski-Sokolinsky. 43. Princes Mestchersky. 44. Princes OuroussofF. 45. Princes Poutiatine. 46. Princes Tcherkasky. 47 . Princes TsitsianolF. 48. Princes YoussoupofF. * The ancient and illustrious house of the Princes Repnine, is derived in the male and legitimate line from Rurik. It became extinct in the year 1801, and the name has been transferred by Alexander I. to the Prince Nicholas Volkonsky, grandson of the last Prince Repnine. f There exist still in Poland, three houses of princes, issued from Guedimine, viz., Princes Czartoryski, Princes Sanguszko, and 1 rinces Woronccki. 48 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF VI. FAMILIES INVESTED WITH THE DIGNITY OF RUSSIAN PRINCES SINCE PETER I. 49. Princes MenshikofF (since the year 1707). 50. Princes Lapoukhine (since the year 1799). 51. Princes of Italy, Counts Souvoroff of Rymnik, (since 1799). 52. Princes Argoutinsky-Dolgorouky (since 1800). 53. Princes Saltykoff (since the year 1814). 54. Princes Barclay-de-Tolly (since the year 1815). 55. Princes of Lieven (since the year 1826). 56. Princes of Warsaw, Counts Paskevitcli of Erivan (since the year 1831). 5?. Princes Kotchoubey (since the year 1831). 58. Princes Wassilchikoff (since 1839). 59. Princes Chernysheff (since the year 1841). Princes Odoievsky. They descend from Saint Michael, Prince of TchernigofF, descended from Rurik in the twelfth degree, and from Saint Wladimir in the eighth degree, who was murdered by the Mongols in the year 1247, on account of his refusal to worship the idols of that people.* The Russian Church has canon¬ ized him, and his relics slumber at Moscow, in the cathedral of the Archangel Michael. The name of Odoievsky is derived from the town of OdoiefF, situated in the government of Toula. This illustrious house is * The Mongols were idolatrous until the fourteenth century, when the Khan Ouzbek converted himself to Islamism. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 49 marshalled at present, as the first family of Russia, the order of birth-right placing it at the head of all princes, who are found to descend from Rurik. It produced in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many remarkable men : one of them, the Prince Nikita, under the reign of Czar Alexis, father of Peter I., was the chairman of the legislative board, commissioned to elaborate a code of law, which was published in the year 1649, under the title of Oulojenie.* Princes Koltsoff-Massalsky. This house, equally sprung from Saint Michael of TchernigofF, derives its name from the town Massalsk, now comprised in the government of Kalouga. One branch of the same fa¬ mily, having emigrated to Poland, existed there to the end of the eighteenth century.f Princes Gortchakoff. Of the same origin. This family took the name from a surname Gortchak, borne by one of their forefathers. Of two heroes, who de¬ fended Smolensk, during eighteen months against the King Sigismund of Poland, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, one was Prince Peter Gortchakoff. This house possesses in our days three individuals of uncommon merit, viz. the Prince Michael, J head of the * One of the Princes Odoievsky was implicated in the conspiracy of 1825, December 14th, according to the official report, published by the committee of inquiry in the year 1826 .—Note of the Translator , p. 45. f Its last heiress married the late Prince Charles de Ligne. f General-in-chief of the army at Sevastopol in the last Crimean war, and the present vice-roy of Poland. —Note of the Translator. E 50 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF staff of the army, under the command of Field-marshal Paskevitch ; his brother Peter, Governor-general of the western Siberia, and the Prince Alexander, minister of Russia at Stuttgard. Princes Eletsky. Of the same origin. They bor¬ rowed their name from the town Eletz, comprised at present in the government of Orel. Princes Zvenigorodsky. Of the same origin. Their name is derived from a town called Zvenigorod, which is situated in the government of Moscow. Princes Bariatinsky. The same origin. Their name comes from an estate called Bariatina, near Meschovsk, in the present government of Kalouga. This house had furnished many eminent men, both in the war and di¬ plomatic department. Under the successors of Peter I., Prince John Bariatinsky, governor-general of the Lesser Russia,* had signalized himself no less by the qualities of his character, than by his abilities in the adminis¬ tration. His son had two sons, Theodore and John. Prince Theodore was one of the murderers of Peter III., and Prince John, one of the most distinguished and praiseworthy men in his times, married the Prin¬ cess Catherine of Holstein-Beck, a near relation to Peter III. He was a minister of Russia at the court of Louis XVI.+ * About the Lesser Kussia, see the note of the Translator, page 86. t Vid. note, p. 45 .—Note of Tr. JIOUSES OF PRINCES. 51 Princes Obolensky. The same origin. Their name is borrowed from a town called Obolensk, and situated in the present government of Kalonga. Prince John Obolensky, surnamed Ovchina, (a sheep’s-skin), was the lover and prime minister of the Grand-Duchess Helen, widow of the Grand-Duke Easily IY. and regent, during the minority of her son, the Grand-Duke J ohn IV. He had distinguished himself by his talents, courage and patriotism ; and being overthrown by a revolution of the court, he was strangled in a dungeon.* Princes Tufiakine. The same origin. The surname TvfiaJca borne by one of their forefathers, gave the name to that stock. At this moment, the only representative of this ancient house is Prince Peter Tufiakine; he resides in Paris. Princes Dolgorouky. The same origin. Their name is derived from one of their forefathers, surnamed Dol¬ gorouky (a long arm). The Prince Gregory, called Roscha (a grove), defended the monastery, called the Trinity of Saint-Serge, situated thirty-eight English miles from Moscow, during eighteen months (in the year 1608—1610),t against thirty thousand Poles and * A Prince Obolensky of the same family is mentioned as an accom¬ plice in the conspiracy of the year 1825. See the official report of the committee of inquiry .—Note of the Translator. f The same Prince Gregory Dolgorouky passed to the party of the impostor Dmitry, called Kryschka Otrepieff, in the reign of Godounoff, and after the death of that sovereign, under his son Boris, the General-in¬ chief BasmanofT, and all the dignitaries of the empire embraced the pai tv of the adventurer .—Note of the Translator. v ° lb w 52 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Cossacks, under tlie command of four heroes; viz. Sap- ieha, Lissovsky, Tyszkievicz, and Prince Constantine Wisznioviecki. Princess Maria Dolgorouky married the Czar Michael Romanoff, the founder of the present dynasty in the year 1624, and died four months after her wedding-day. The Prince George had the direction of the artillery, under the reign of the Czar Alexis, and distinguished himself at the head of a division, during the war against the Polish army. His son, the Prince Michael, was a friend and a minister of the Czar Theo¬ dore, son of Alexis, and elder brother of Peter I. After the decease of Theodore, the Prince George and Prince Michael, both father and son, fighting in defence of the young Peter I. against whom the Strelitz had raised a rebellion, were butchered by the insurgents. The Prince Jacob, a senator under Peter I. earned an immortal fame in the Russian annals, by his stoic firmness, which he manifested in defence of the princi¬ ples of justice, during the reign of this monarch. He was for Peter I. a counsellor the most devoted, and at the same time the most sincere. One day he flew into such a passion that he tore to pieces an ukase of the Czar, at a full council of the senate. Peter threatened to kill him, but recovering his senses, by the following words of the Prince Jacob : “ You have but to imitate Alexander, and then I will be Clitus, to be sure ! ” he begged pardon and embraced him. His brother, the Prince Gregory, and their nephew the Prince Basily, were united in the diplomatic career. The Field-marshal Prince Basily was the companion in arms of Peter I. and HOUSES OF PRINCES. 53 godfather to his daughter the Empress Elizabeth. The Prince John was an intimate friend to Peter II., grand¬ son of Peter I. His sister, the Princess Catherine, was betrothed to Peter II., but the young Emperor died on the day fixed for his marriage. As soon as the Empress Ann mounted the throne, and the power passed from Dolgorouky*» to the hands of the ferocious Biren, (the Duke of Courland, and a favourite of Ann,) the Prince J ohn was exiled to Siberia with all his family.* He was accompanied there by his wife, the Princess Natalia, daughter of the Field-marshal Count Scherem- eteff, one of the most amiable and accomplished ladies that ever existed. Nine years of exile elapsed, when the * Upon the death of Peter II. some nobles, and particularly the power¬ ful family of Princes Dolgorouky with that of Princes Galitsyne, con¬ trived to establish some legality in Russia, and they offered the imperial crown to the niece of Peter I. Princess Ann of Courland. on condition of signing a constitution, drawn up by the Russian notables. A deputation, composed of the Field-marshal Prince Easily Dolgorouky, Prince Michael Galitsyne and General Leontieflf, when sent to Mittau, was well received by that Princess, who signed the constitution without any reluctance. Among many influential noblemen, Prince Youssoupoff and Prince Tcher- kasky, a learned lawyer, supported the revolutionary party. Meantime a letter of a notorious courtier Paul Jagousinsky, addressed to the Princess Ann, was intercepted, and its author imprisoned. In this letter, he entreated the Princess not to accept the crown but as an absolute monarch, like her predecessors. On the arrival of the Princess at St. Petersburg, the anti-constitutional party raised its head, and being led by Ostermann, General Simon Saltykoff, (a relation of the Empress), Gene¬ ral Matiouchkine, Prince Tcherkasky, (who abandoned his doctrines), and Paul Jagousinsky, they reinstated the absolute power and wreaked their vengeance upon the framers of the new constitution .—Note of the Translator. 54 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Prince John was brought back from Siberia to Nov¬ gorod and executed there—being cruelly quartered. The Princess Natalia went to Kieff, where she took the veil. On the eve of the day, when she had to utter her reli¬ gious vows, she repaired to the steep banks of the Dnieper, a large and beautiful river, which waters the walls of Kieff, and resting on that spot, this woman, or rather this angel, who had exchanged all the splendours of opulence and luxury for a miserable cottage in Siberia, for the sake of her husband, pulled the nuptial ring off her finger, and threw it into the rapid waves of the Dnieper. As a nun, she lived thirty years, until her death, which took place in the year 1771 - Prince Basily Dolgorouky, nephew of the marshal of this name, who commanded the army of Catherine the Great, in fifteen days terminated the conquest of the Crimea, and re¬ ceived from the Empress the surname of Prince Dolgo¬ rouky of the Crimea (Dolgorouky-Krymsky). The Prince "Wladimir resided without interruption twenty-five years, as the minister of Catherine the Great, at the court of EredericII., and gained the friendship of that monarch. His relation, the Prince George, under Catherine, was the chief commander of the army, in the wars with Tur¬ key and Poland, and signalized himself by his valour, military talents, and an immoveable loyalty of vigorous character. Of his grand-nephews, one, the Prince Peter, was an intimate friend of the Emperor Alexander, whilst another, the Prince Michael, Lieutenant-general at the age of twenty-seven, distinguished himself by his HOUSES OF PRINCES. 55 military capacity and the most extensive information;— he perished during the war in Finland, in the year 1808 . The Prince Alexis was minister of justice, during the first few years of the reign of the Emperor Nicolas. The family of Dolgorouky at this moment possesses three eminent and meritorious men, who are brothers, viz. the Prince Nicolas, former Governor-general of Lithuania,* now the Governor-general of the Lesser-Russia, the Prince Elias, head of the staff of the artillery of the em¬ pire, and the General Prince Basily, who has fulfilled, with high distinction, many diplomatic and military commissions. Princes Scherbatoff. The origin as above. They are so called from a surname, Scherbatyi (notched), borne by one of their ancestors. This illustrious house has furnished to the empire many general officers of distinction. Prince Michael Scherbatoff wrote the “ History of Russia” in the eighteenth century. Princes Viazemsky. They spring from a branch of the house of Rurik, which had reigned first at Smolensk and afterwards at Viazma (situated now in the government of Smolensk). At the time of Ca¬ therine II. Prince Alexander Viazemsky was one of the most influential ministers. The most distinguished individual produced by this family is the present Prince, * He has married at Wilna, Countess Lucy Zabiello, daughtei of a Polish General Wawrzecki .—Note of the Translator . 56 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Peter Viazemsky, one of the best poets and one of the most amiable gentlemen of Russia. Princes Schetimine. Their pedigree comes from a branch of the house of Rurik, which reigned at Jaroslaff, and their name from one of their predecessors, surnamed Schetina (a bristle). Princes Zassekine. Of the same origin. Their name comes from one of their forefathers, surnamed Zasseka (underwood). Princes Sontseff-Zassekine. A branch of the house of Zassekine, one of which was surnamed sontso (the sun). Princes Shakoyskoy. The same origin. They are called so, from one of their ancestors, surnamed Shah. This house supplied the state with ministers and general officers of distinction.* In our days, Prince Alexander Shakovskoy has acquired a good name in the dramatic literature of Russia by his national comedies. Princes Mortkine. The same origin. A surname of one of their forefathers, Mortha , yielded the name to the whole family. * A Prince Shakovsky figures in the revolt of the Don-Cossacks and those of the Volga and Terek, who promoted many impostors to the Crown during the reign of Schouisky. He was cruelly executed to¬ gether with Bolotnikoff, chief of the insurgents .—Note of the Translator . HOUSES OF PRINCES. 57 Princes Schekonsky. The same origin. Their name is derived from the Schekschna, a river, upon the banks of which their principality was situated. Princes Livoff. The same origin. A surname Leff (lion), given to one of their predecessors, has become the family name. This house produced in the sixteenth century, a very distinguished statesman, the Prince Alexis, who was an intimate friend of the Czar Alexis. Princes Prozorovsky. The same origin. They bear the name from their estate called Prozorovo , situated in the present government of Jaroslalf. This house, which is on the eve of extinction, has produced very distinguished warriors and statesmen.* The Field- marshal, Prince Alexander Prozorovsky, under the Emperor Alexander, commanded the army of operation against the Turks in the year 1809. Princes Douloff. . The same origin. They are called so, from a surname, Doulo , borne by one of their forefathers. Princes Kozlovsky. They spring from a branch of the house of Rurik, which reigned at Smolensk. Their name is derived from a town called KozlofF. Prince Peter * A Prince Prozorovsky, the Governor of Astrakhan, perished in that city in a social revolution carried on by the Don Cossacks, under the com¬ mand of their terrible chief, Stcnko Kazin .—Note of the Translator . 58 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Kozlovsky, who died in the year 1840, was a gentleman of superior mind, possessing the most extensive erudi¬ tion. Princes Krapotkine. The same origin. They call themselves so, from one of their ancestors, surnamed Krapotka . Princes Schepine of Postoff. They spring from a branch of the house of Purik, which reigned at Postoff, a town situated in the present government of Jaroslaff ; and their name is derived from one of their ancestors, surnamed Schepa.* Princes Kassatkine of Postoff: Origin as above. They are called so from Kassatka , a surname of one of their forefathers. Princes Lobanoff of Postoff. Origin as above. They derive their name from one of their predecessors, surnamed Loban (lofty forehead). The Prince John, in the seventeenth century, was a diplomatist; and the Prince Dmitry, minister of justice in the reign of the Emperor Alexander, was a most honourable man of solid character. * A member of this family was an accomplice in the conspiracy which broke out at the accession of the Emperor Nicholas. See the official report thereon .—Note of the Translator. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 59 Princes Bielosselsky of Bielozersk. They are descended from a branch of the house of Burik, who reigned at Bielozersk, now comprised in the government of Novgorod. Their name is derived from an estate called Bielo'ie-selo, situated in the neighbourhood of the town of Bielozersk (the White Lake). Princes Vadbolsky. Origin as above. Their name comes from an estate called Yadbola. Princes Scheleschpansky. The same origin, and the name derived from an estate called Scheleschpansk. Princes Oukhtomsky. The same origin. The Oukh- toma, a river pervading their principality, yielded the name to the family. Princes Gagarin. They spring from a branch of the house of Burik, who reigned at Staradoub (a town in the present government of Wladimir), and call themselves so from a surname, Gagava , borne by one of their fore¬ fathers.* This house produced a very remarkable man in the person of Prince Mathias, Governor-general of Siberia, in the time of Peter I. Desirous of taking advantage of the troubles occasioned to Peter I. by the * A Prince Gagarine was at the head of the conspiracy under the reign of Schouisky, and promoted to the throne a false pretender, Andrew Nagui; a Prince of Galitsyne, and many boyards were his accomplices .—Note of the Translator . 60 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF war which, he waged at that time against Charles XII. of Sweden, the Prince Mathias had formed a plan to detach Siberia from Russia, and to found there a new dynasty. His project was on the eve of success, when Peter I. artfully decoyed him to St. Petersburg, where orders were given for his apprehension; and after an inquiry, which lasted three years, the Prince Mathias was hanged opposite to the windows of the Senate. The day previous to the execution, Peter I. offered to spare his life, together with the immense fortune he possessed, provided he would consent only to avow his guilt ; but the culprit prince preferred to die. He was one of the most able administrators of Peter’s epoch, so fruitful in eminent men. Princes Khilkoff. The same origin. Their name comes from one of their predecessors, surnamed Khilok (the faint). This house produced, in the seventeenth century, many remarkable men. In the time of Peter I., Prince Andrew Khilkoff, minister of Russia in Swe¬ den, at the moment when the war began between the two countries, while shut up in prison by order of Charles III., devoted his leisure, during a long capti¬ vity, to write a history of Russia. Princes Romodanovsky-Ladyjensky. The origin of the house of Princes Romodanovsky is common to them with those of Gagarine and Khilkoff. It has produced a number of remarkable individuals in the course of the HOUSES OF PRINCES. G1 seventeenth century. In the time of Peter L, Prince Theodore Romodanovsky was one of the leading per¬ sonages of that reign, an epoch which presents such an odd mixture of the grand, the terrible, and the ludi¬ crous. He presided over the council of regency, des¬ tined to govern Russia during Peter the First’s travels abroad. The Romodanovsky’s house being extinct in the male line, Paul I. ordered their name and title to pass to Ladyjensky’s family, which descended from the former, through the female line. This transfer took place in the year 1799, April 8th, in favour of the Sena¬ tor Ladyjensky, who was himself of a good and noble extraction. Princes Volkonsky. The Prince George of To- rousse,* son of Saint Michael of Tchernigoff (see page 48), had a bastard son called John, and surnamed the big-head (tolsta’ia golova). The father transmitted to him a gift of some fine estates, situated upon the banks of the Volkona (a small river in the present government of Toula) ; hence the descendants of John, the big¬ headed, took the name of Volkonsky, and a few genera¬ tions had hardly elapsed, when they called themselves Princes ; but it was by usurpation. The enjoyment of this title for a long time, has been contested with them by the families sprung from Saint Michael of Tcherni¬ goff, in the legitimate line. It was only towards the end * Torousse is a town situated in the present government ot Kalouga. 62 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF of the seventeenth century, that their title was recog¬ nized ; but their admission to the velvet-book was refused. This family produced very distinguished individuals. The Prince Theodore, surnamed the lame, signalized himself in the war of independence against the Poles, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. His brother, the Prince George, was a gallant warrior, and an able diplomatist. Another Prince Theodore, in the reign of the Czar Alexis, contributed a great deal to the construction of the code, well known under the name of Oulojenie. The Prince Michael, ambassador in Poland, and Governor-general of Moscow under Cathe¬ rine the Great, was one of the most notable men of Catherine’s epoch, so abounding in talents of every description.* Princes Repnine Volkonsky. The house of Princes Repnine is found to issue from Saint Michael of Tcher- nigoff, in the male, direct and legitimate line. Their name is derived from one of their predecessors, sur¬ named Repnia. This house gave birth to many eminent men, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The Field-marshal Prince Anikita, was one of the most devoted friends of Peter I. His son, the Prince Basily, great-master of artillery, was a soldier of distinction. He commanded the auxiliary body of troops, sent in the * Prince S. Volkonsky, a scion of the same family, was implicated in the revolt of 1828, December 14th. See the official report thereon.— Note of the Translator. HOUSES OF PRINCES. G 3 year 1748, by tlie Empress Elizabeth to the Empress Maria Theresa.* His son, the Eield-marshal Prince Nicolas, mediator at the Congress of Teschen,t cele¬ brated as an ambassador in Poland and Turkey, and by the victory he gained over the Turks under the walls of Mat china, was one of the most eminent men of the era of Catherine ; a great warrior, great politician, great administrator, great statesman, he passed through all careers, and excelled in them all. Upon his death, which happened in the year 1800, his illustrious name being extinct, the Emperor Alexander ordered it to be transferred in the year 1801, July 12, to his grand¬ nephew Nicolas Volkonsky, the same who in 1813 and 1814 was the Governor-general of Saxony. Princes Kijavansky. In the fourteenth century, Guedimine, Grand-Duke of Lithuania and founder of the Jaguelion dynasty, had many sons. The second of * The Court of St. Petersburg dispatched an army 30,000 strong, to the centre of Europe, and its resolution forwarded the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle in the year 1748. The Russian ambassador, Bestuscheff, backed by Repnine, forced the effeminate court of Versailles to conclude the peace, by threatening to bring forward a new corps d'armée, well knowing his impossibility to do so. This boasting took effect, and that example has been often imitated by the Russian diplomacy. The Empress Ann dispatched for the first time 10,000 Russians under Ge¬ neral De Lacy, to the Rhine, against Erance, in the year 1735, in the war concerning the right of succession in Poland, between Stanislas Leszczynski, the father-in-law of Louis XV., and Augustus III. of Saxony, which war occupied a great portion of Europe. A ote of the Translator. •j- Between Frederic II. and Joseph II. in the year 1/78. / G4 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF these sons, Prince Narimund, became the root of the stock of the Princes Khavansky, Princes Galitsyne, and Princes Kourakine : the fourth son, Olgerd, who inhe¬ rited the throne of Lithuania, after his father, founded the families of the Princes Troubetskoy, Princes Woro- niecki, Princes Czartoryski, and the royal branch of the Jaguellons ; the sixth one, Prince Lubart, led the line of the Princes Sanguszko. The Prince Narimund reigned at Pinsk, a town now comprised in the government of Minsk. Dethroned by the Mongols and brought into captivity, he was redeemed by John I. (surnamed Kalita), Grand-Duke of Moscow. Arrived at Moscow, he embraced the Greek religion,* took the name of Ogleb , and was elected by the people as Prince of Great Novgorod.f His grandson Patrikey, Prince of Zveni- gorod on the Dniester, and afterwards Prince of Great Novgorod, had three sons ; the eldest the Prince Theodore, became the progenitor of the Princes Kha¬ vansky, and the younger one, the Prince George, married a sister of John III., the Grand-Duke of Moscow, and became the founder of the families of the Princes Galitzyne and the Princes Kourakine. The house of the Princes Khavansky produced distinguished warriors. The Prince John and his son, the Prince * Hitherto he was a pagan, like all his house of Lithuania. Jaguello himself, nephew of Narimund, embraced the Catholic religion, only with the view of marrying Hedwige, queen of Poland, a marriage which al¬ lowed him to unite upon his head and that of his descendants, the crowns of Poland and Lithuania. f The dignity of Prince of Great Novgorod was elective. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 65 Andrew, played a very conspicuous part in the troubles excited by the Strelitz, towards the end of the seven¬ teenth century. Princes Golitsyne or Galitzin (see about their origin under Princes Khavansky). Their name is de¬ rived from one of their ancestors, surnamed Golitsa (the gauntlet). This house, the most numerous amongst all the princely houses of Russia, produced a great number of eminent men of all sorts. The Prince Michael, who had signalised himself at the head of the army, in the reign of Basily IV., Grand-Duke of Moscow, fell a prisoner into the hands of the Poles, in the year 1514, at the battle of Orsza, and had languished for about thirty-eight years in a dungeon,* when at last he was set at liberty “ out of regard for his loyalty and stoical firmness,” according to the expression of the letter, written by King Augustus of Poland to the Grand-Duke John IY. His brother Dmitry, made a prisoner on the same day, and cast into the same dungeon, died there, after thirty-eight years of con¬ finement. One of the great-grandsons of the Prince Michael, the Prince Basily, a remarkable statesman, was one of the four candidates for the throne of Russia in * There is no trace in the Polish history of the cruelties attributed to them, and which are inconsistent with the character of that nation. It is become the business of the present Government to invent such « facts,” in order to feed the national prejudices, of which the consci¬ entious writers of Russia ought to be warned. Divide et impera. The good intelligence between the Russian and Polish patriots is most dieaded by the court of St. Petersburg .—Note of the Translator. 66 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF the year 1610 .* Named ambassador to announce to the Prince Ladislas of Poland, his election as the Czar * These four candidates were as follow :—Prince Ladislas, son of the King Sigismund of Poland, Prince Mstislavsky, Prince Basily Galitsyne, and Philaret Komanoff (the Metropolitan), father of Michael Romanoff, who was elected Czar three years later. The Prince Ladislas, thanks to the presence of the Polish troops, commanded by that great man, Zol- kiewski, prevailed over all other competitors. However, happily for Russia, the foolish policy of the King Sigismund, guided by the Jesuits, prevented the coronation of his son and the establishment of a Polish dynasty in Russia. Considering that the father of the first sovereign of the Romanoff dynasty, and regent during his minority, was a patriarch, we may con¬ clude from that single fact the former importance of the clergy in Russia. In fact, the patriarchs and bishops, sprung from high nobility, in the case of any great crisis, took often the part of the people and of their franchises, against the Grand-Dukes. Since Peter I. abolished the patriarchate, and Catherine II. confiscated the property of all the secular clergy, they are perfect slaves of the Emperor, and have not the slightest power in the state. While the ancient franchises of the country com¬ pletely disappeared, the periodical endeavours of the nobility to establish some kind of legality has not failed to break down hitherto against the Will of the Autocrat. A foreign dominion is certainly disagreeable to any people, but had even Warsaw been the real capital of the empire, it would be much easier, we presume, for the Russian nobility to shake off the yoke of the Polish constitutional dynasty in Russia, in case of its misgovernment, than that of the national one, freely elected by themselves. At present, some nobles expect in earnest the benefits of a constitution from the magnanimity of the Emperor himself. Though it is a positive fact, it will be hardly believed in our days, that the Polish nobility during the reign of Bathory and Sigismund III. voluntarily abandoned the dominion over the Russians, for very obvious reasons, practised in every constitutional monarchy, viz. : because the preservation of such a conquest would require the maintenance of a large army, and consequently, augment the taxes and power of the crown, so as to be dangerous to the privileges and franchises of the country. This opinion is shared even by the Russian official historian, Karamsin. Speaking of the King Bathory, he says ; “ Etienne Bathory mourut le 12 December, 1586. Il fut un des plus illustres souverains du HOUSES OF PRINCES. 67 of Russia, on his arrival at Cracow he was thrown into a prison, and languished in confinement nine years, until his death, which happened in the year 1619, a few months previous to the treaty of peace concluded be¬ tween Russia and Poland. The firmness of character and the high spirit he displayed in that hard captivity, acquired him the praise of the Poles themselves. One of his great-grand-nephews, the Prince Easily, surnamed Galitsyne the “ Great,” prime minister and lover of Sophia, sister of Peter L, was one of the most celebrated men Russia had ever produced. He wished to civilize his country, to bring it into contact with Europe, and to introduce there sciences, literature, and fine arts. At the same time he hatched a plot, having in view to put Sophia on the throne, to marry her, and to partake the crown with that Princess. A sharp conflict arose, in which the party of Peter I. got the upper hand. Sophia was shut up in a cloister, and Galitsyne, being exiled to the banks of the Frozen Sea, was poisoned there. Of his relations, one, the Prince Boris, clistin- montle et un des plus redoutables ennemis de la Russie : aussi cette mort nous causa-t-elle plus de joie, qu’elle ne causa de peine à ses sujets. En effet nous craignions de retrouver en lui un autre Guedimin, un autre Vi- told ; et la Pologne et la Lithuanie ingrates,préféraient une tranquillité qui ne leur coûtait rien, à une gloire onéreuse. Si Bathory avec le génie dont il était doua, avait survécu à Godounoff, les dix premières années du nou¬ veau siècle (the seventeenth century) auraient peut-être vu s’évanouir pour jamais la grandeur de la Russie, tant le sort desétats dépend des in¬ dividus et des circonstances.” See “ Histoire de l’empire de Russie par M. de Karamsin, traduite parM. de Divoff conseiller d’état actuel et cham¬ bellan de S. M. l’Empereur de Russie.” Paris, 1826, vol. x. p. 115,116.— Note of the Translator. F 2 68 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF guished by the qualities both of heart and head, was the tutor of Peter I., and afterwards obtained a seat in the council of Regency, which governed Russia during the first travels of Peter abroad. Another, the Prince Dmitry, an eminent statesman, had filled the embassy at Constantinople, and subsequently directed the de¬ partment of finances. At last he was the chief of the party which, being led by the two notable families of Galitsyne and Dolgorouky, at the death of Peter II., in the year 1730, endeavoured to put limits to the Imperial power.* This enterprise having failed, both families, as its leaders, were banished, and the Prince Dmitry shut up in the fortress of Schliisselburg, where he died. The Prince Dmitry had two brothers, both bearing the name of Michael. The Prince Michael, junior, was an ambassador in Persia and great-admiral of the empire ; the elder Prince Michael, field-marshal of the army, and one of the most conspicuous heroes Russia can boast of, signalized himself in the wars of Peter I. with Sweden, and accomplished the conquest of Finland in the year 1714. Brave as well as loyal and magnanimous, he conquered the esteem not only of his countrymen but that of his enemies. Of his sons, one, the field- marshal Prince Alexander, a commander as valorous as his father, distinguished himself by taking Chotin in Moldavia, in the year 1769. Another, the Prince Dmitry, an eminent diplomatist, was the Russian mi¬ nister in Paris at the time of Louis XV., and an ambas- * See the note of the translator under Princes Dolgorouky, p. 39,40. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 69 saclor to Vienna* in that of Joseph II. Of the sons of the great-admiral, one, the Prince Alexander, was the vice-chancellor during the first years of the reign of Catherine the Great ; another, the Prince Peter, signa¬ lized himself by his military capacity. Their relation, Dmitry, was a minister of Catherine II., residing at the Hague and his son, called also Dmitry, embraced the Catholic religion, and set out in the character of a mis¬ sionary to the United States. J The Prince Serge sig¬ nalized himself in the army. The Prince Dmitry, a loyal and chivalrous character, who had commanded the army with distinction during the wars of the Em¬ peror Alexander, and was Governor-general of Moscow for twenty-three years, became an object of universal veneration to such a degree, that Moscow is the only capital in Europe where the visitation of cholera did not kindle disturbances, thanks to the unbounded con¬ fidence reposed by the inhabitants of that city in Prince Dmitry Galitsyne. The Prince Serge, member of the council of the empire, presents, in our days at Moscow, * He died in that capital, and was buried in the mountain, situated near the gates of Vienna, which is since called Galitzinberg. f See the state papers concerning the “ Armed Neutrality ” against England, and particularly the memorial presented to their High Mightinesses (the States-General of the United Provinces) by Prince Galitsyne, published in the “ Annual Register” for the year 1780. See also, Declaration of the Empress of Russia to the Courts of London, Versailles, Madrid, with the answers thereto. Russia then brought into her plans against England, the Kings of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the King of Prussia, the Emperor Joseph II., the King of France, the King of Portugal, the King of Spain, the King of the Two Sicilies, and the Hanseatic Towns of Germany .—Note of the Translator. + lie died there in the year 1840. 7o HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF the last model of that race of great lords, which is perishing by degrees, and in a short time will remain only in the traditions of Russia. * Princes Kourakine. Of the same origin as Princes Galitsyne. They call themselves so from one of their ancestors surnamed Kouraka . This family has been always one of the least numerous among the princely houses of Russia. However, the majority of its mem¬ bers filled the highest posts of the state, and frequently with the greatest distinction. The Prince Boris, brother- in-law of Peter I.,t and his minister at the court of Louis XIV., and at that of Louis XV., as well as an ambassador of Russia at the Congress of Soissons, dis¬ tinguished himself by his diplomatic merits, his states¬ manlike talents, by his knowledge and urbanity (qua¬ lities extremely rare in Russia about the time of Peter I.), and an exquisite loyalty of character. His son, the Prince Alexander, resident minister at Paris, and afterwards grand-equerry in waiting to the Empress Ann, had a son, the Prince Boris, a real heir of the name, merits, and virtues of his grandfather. Placed * Prince Serge Galitsyne was named chancellor of the Moscow University by the Emperor Nicolas, with an injunction to bridle the liberal spirit of its students : the prince accepted the task, but remained rather apathetic in it. He was, however, sometimes obliged to persecute the young men by order of the Emperor. Prince V. Galitsyne found himself implicated in the conspiracy which broke out on the 14th of De¬ cember, 1825. See the official report thereupon .—Note of the Translator. t The first marriage of Peter I. was with Eudoxia Lapoukhine, whose sister married the Prince Boris Kourakine. HOUSES OF PRINCES. n at the head of the financial department of the empire, in the prime of his life, the Prince Boris died, thirty-two years old, in the year 1764. Of his sons, one, the Prince Alexander, vice-chancellor, minister of foreign affairs, chancellor of the orders of Russia, ambassador to Vienna and then to Paris at the court of Napoleon, an intimate friend of Paul, he distinguished himself by the loyalty of a noble and exalted character. Another, the Prince Alexis, a worthy gentleman, was successively minister of justice, home-minister, and chancellor of the Russian orders. His only son, the Prince Boris, now retired from public business, was a distinguished se¬ nator. Princes Troubetskoy. They spring from Olgerd, Grand-Duke of Lithuania, son of the great Guedimine, and father of the celebrated Jaguello. Their name is derived from Troubtchevsk, a town situated in the government of Tchernigoff. This house has given birth to many eminent men. The Prince Dmitry was one of the most brilliant leaders in the war of independence, at the commencement of the seventeeenth century, when all Russia defended herself against the enthroning at Moscow of the Polish dynasty, and against the ine¬ vitable consequence of this event, viz. : the introduction of the Catholic creed.* After the expulsion of the * The act of the election of the Polish prince to the Russian throne, accepted by Zolkiewski, contained an express provision regarding the con¬ servation of the Greek creed. Religious toleration was one of the most pro¬ minent features in the history of Poland. During the religious wars and HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Poles, the great council of the empire, composed of the house of boyards (duma boïarskaïa), and the house of commons (duma ziemskaia), assembled at Moscow, towards the end of the year 1612, in order to proceed to the act of election of the new dynasty.* The Prince » V Dmitry I. was thrust upon the throne by the Cossacks and by the minority of the army ; but he fell to the ground. There were two more candidates, none of whom was inclined to accept the crown, viz. : the persecutions in Europe and Asia, many refugees from different countries quietly settled in Poland. In the course of a couple of centuries their number amounted to three millions. The imputation, therefore, of the author with regard to the intended conversion of Russia to the Catholic creed is unfounded. The bigoted court of Sigismund might in vain indulge in a similar idea ; for constitutional Poland was ruled by its nobility, who never were guilty of entertaining such a thought .—Note oj the Translator. * The chamber of Boyards was composed of the boyards and a certain number of public functionaries, named by the Czar, and called the “ dumnye <1 variante,” or gentlemen who had a seat in the upper house. The lower chamber, or the house of commons, was constituted by the deputies from the clergy, nobility, and besides of the citizens or merchants, viz. : of the inhabitants, who did not belong to the order of nobility. The constitution prescribed to Michael Romanoff, upon which he took the oath in the year 1613, as well as his son and successor Alexis, in the year 1645, did not allow the sovereign to impose new taxes, to declare a war, to conclude a treaty of peace, or to sign death- warrants, without the previous vote of the two chambers. Till the time of Peter I., all the ukases were enacted with the following inscription :— “ Czar ukazall i boiarc prigovorili ”—the Czar ordained, and the boyards decided.f Peter I., who did not much relish the constitutional forma¬ lities, abolished the two parliamentary chambers, and since that time no Russian book dared even to mention it ; but the official documents confirming the fact, are still preserved in the archives of the empire. f qu. Assented, or confirmed ?—A. Editor. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 73 Prince Mstislavsky* supported by the boyards; a weak and insignificant character, who repeated with simpli¬ city : “ I don t like the throne, and since you threaten to mount me forcibly upon it, I prefer turning monk.” Another, the Prince Posharsky, f a young man, thirty- three years old, of very indifferent mind, but a loyal and lofty spirit, who had principally commanded the Russian troops, during the last year of the war of inde¬ pendence, became the idol of the nation, and was carried to the throne by the majority of the house of commons and the army. The cause of the obstinate refusal of Posharsky never transpired. In the course of the struggle between the two parties, a boyard called Theodore Scheremeteff, married to the first cousin of Michael Romanoff, came forward, and proposed to elect that young man, sixteen years old, alleging that his youthful mind might be easily bent to the constitutional forms. Posharsky was pleased with that combination, and on the 21st of February, 1613, Michael Romanoff was pro¬ claimed the Czar of Russia, after three days and nights of stormy debates, in the course of which some deputies, sword in hand, were fighting together, even within the wails of the legislative chambers. Under the reign of the Czar Alexis flourished Prince Alexander Troubets- koy, one of the most distinguished men in his day. * The house of the Princes Mstislavsky issued from Guedimine, Grand-Duke of Lithuania ; became extinct in the year 1622. f The house of Princes Posharsky sprung from that branch of the house of Kurik, which reigned at Starodoub ; became extinct in the year 1685. 74 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OR The Czar, wishing to reward his brilliant services, granted him a donation of the town of Troubtchevsk, as an independent property in every way , which had been the ancient demesne of his ancestors ; but the prince upon his deathbed restored this town to the Czar.* The Prince John was the field-marshal of the empire, as well as his nephew : the latter was named also the procurator-general of the senate, a dignity which cor¬ responds with the present function of the ministry of justice and police, f ». Princes Babitcheff,—Princes Droutski-Sokolin- sky,—Princes Poutiatine. These three families, is¬ sued in common from an ancient sovereign house, whose possessions are found in the present governments of Minsk and Yolhynia, were invested with the princely dignity of Russia; the two first named in the year 1S00, October 22nd, and the third one in the year 1507 j J anuary 25 th. Princes Bagratione. This ancient and illustrious * The act of this donation is deposited in the archives of the town Troubtchevsk. f A descendant of the same family, Colonel Prince Troubetskoy, one of the leading conspirators against the dynasty of Romanoff, was elected by his accomplices Chief Commander of the military revolt in 1825 . In the number of the accused, three generals, twenty-five colonels and staff officers, and seventy-eight officers were condemned. Among the heads of accusation, there was one very remarkable act of national jus¬ tice entertained by the conspirators, viz. : “ a wish to detach the Lesser Russia (Malo Rossia) from the Empire, and to restore it to Poland in¬ dependent .”—Note of the Translator. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 75 house is a branch of a dynasty, formerly reigning in Georgia, whose origin has perished in the darkness of times. The most distinguished man of this family appears to be the celebrated general Prince Peter Bagra- tione, companion in arms of Souvoroff, and the com¬ mander of the second corps of the Russian army in the year 1812 ; one of the greatest captains ever possessed by Russia. Being wounded at the battle of the Moscva (called by the Russians the battle of Borodino), he sank under the pain of his wounds in the lapse of fifteen days. At present the house of Princes Bagratione, (upon whom the princely dignity of Russia was conferred in the year 1803, October 15th) is divided into three branches : 1st. Princes Bagratione ; 2nd. Princes Bagratione Imeri- tinsky , whose family reigned in Imeritia, till the be¬ ginning of the present century; 3rd. Princes Bagratione Mouhranshy , so called on account of the ancient princi¬ pality of Moukrane, which they formerly held in Georgia. Princes Dadianoff. Issued from the former sove¬ reigns of Mingrelia, and created Russian princes in the year 1801, June 23rd. One of the branches of the same house, called Princes Schervaschidre, reigns at this mo¬ ment, under the sovereignty of the Russian Emperor, in Abbassia, a country near the Black Sea. Another branch of the house of Dadianoff bears the name of Princes of GourielL Princes Mestchersky. In the year 1298, Basch- inete Mourza (a Tatar nobleman) took possession of the 76 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF town called Mestcheva, where he reigned, and passed the name to his descendants. This house, very numer¬ ous at present, obtained the princely dignity of Russia in the year 1798. Its name was previously inserted in the velvet book . Princes Ouroussoff. They derive from Ourouss, a reigning prince over a Tatar tribe of the Nogais. This house, which embraced the Christian religion in the sixteenth century, received the princely honour of Russia in the year 1801, June 23rd. Princes Tcherkasky. This house, illustrious by its achievements in the annals of Russia, is sprung from a province of Circassia, viz. from the Great-Cabardia, where one branch of the same family is still reigning. The Prince Boris married the aunt of the Czar Michael Romanoff. His son. Prince John, filled with high re¬ pute the post of the chief of ordnance (prikase) over the Strelitz, a place equal to that of the actual war-minister. The Prince Jacob, a celebrated commander, distin¬ guished himself in the wars against the Poles, under the reign of Czar Alexis. His son, the Prince Michael, was the Governor-general of Siberia. The Prince Alexis, son of Prince Michael, became chancellor of the empire and minister of foreign affairs.* The house of the Princes Tcherkasky obtained the investiture of the * Being implicated in the miscarried revolution of 1730, he extricated himself from his troubles ; as see in a note of the translator under Princes Dolgorouky, page 52, 53. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 77 princely dignity of Russia in the year 1798, June 30th. Princes Tsitsianoff. It is one of the most illustri¬ ous and oldest houses of Georgia, oftentimes allied to the reigning house in that country, and invested with the princely dignity of Russia in the year 1800, October 22nd. Prince Paul Tsitsianoff, Governor-general of Georgia, from 1803 to 1806, was a distinguished com¬ mander.* Princes Youssoupoff. They are issued from the Nogai Prince Youssouf, brother of the Prince Ourouss^ (see the paragraph on the Princes Ouroussoff). Having embraced the Christian religion towards the end of the seventeenth century, they were exalted to the princely dignity of Russia in the year 1799, January 19th.f Princes Menshikoff. Alexander Menshikoff, a pastrycook boy of Moscow, made a butler to Peter I. was enlisted by this monarch in his guards, and rapidly raised to the rank of General-in-chief. We will not * Prince Paul Tsitsianoff, being a Georgian by birth, was sent expressly beyond the Caucasus to push on the Russian conquests in Asia. He has been the first Governor-general of Georgia, and waged an obstinate war with Persia. In 1806, during the siege of Badkoo, he was assassinated at the gate of the place, while attending a conference to which he was invited .—Note of the Translator. f One of the Princes Youssoupoff was very active in the revolution of 1730, having in view to limit the sovereign power by an aristocratic con¬ stitution. See our note under Princes Dolgorouky, page 52, 53 .—Note of the Translator. 78 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF abase our narration so low, as to pick up the ignoble details of the scandalous chronicle of this epoch; impar¬ tial history permits us to say, that the prodigious pro¬ motion of Menshikoff was fully justified by his universal genius, and by the brilliant services of every description he rendered to the country. This man, who scarcely knew how to read and write, was one of the greatest generals, and one of the ablest administrators and states¬ men ever produced in Russia. By doing justice to his genius, we mean not to praise his character; for he really was rapacious, perverse and cruel. The Emperor Leopold I. created him Count of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1702, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1/05, January 30th; whilst Peter I. in the year 1707; May 30th, raised the man to the dignity of a Russian Prince. He gained his staff of field-marshal, with unusual glory, at the battle of Poltava. After the decease of Catherine I. in the year 1727 he governed the whole empire, under the name of the young Peter II. and betrothed that prince to his daughter Princess Maria Menshikoff. The powerful influence of the Dolgorouky family broke off the pro¬ jected match, and Menshikoff, invested not long before with the title of generalissimo, was exiled to Siberia, where he died as a good Christian in the year 1729, being sixty years old. His son, the Prince Alexander, a year after the death of his father, was recalled from exile. The grandson of the minister of Peter I. Prince Alex¬ ander Menshikoff, at present the minister of marine, is one of the most remarkable men that ever shone in the HOUSES OF PRINCES. 79 annals of Russia. Were it proper to award to any living man the title of great genius, the Prince Menshikoff would deserve it.* It is to his exertions and care that Russia is indebted for the prosperous state of her navy, which had been so much neglected under the Emperor Alexander. Princes Lapoukhine. This family, registered in the velvet booh, as to its origin, remounts to the fifteenth century. Eudoxia Lapoukhine was the first spouse of Peter I. mother of the unfortunate Czarevitch Alexis, and grandmother of Peter II. This house in the seven¬ teenth century had furnished many boyards, and in the eighteenth some general-officers of distinction. Peter Lapoukhine was the procurator-general of the senate, (viz. the minister of justice), in the reign of Pauli., and one of his daughters, Ann, a mistress of that prince ; Lapoukhine intimated to his daughter to solicit for him the title of count. When she did so, Paul replied : “ Oh ! you desire to be countess ? well, you shall be princess ! ”—and the day after Lapoukhine was created Prince, in the year 1799, January 18th. This individual, very little deserving his fortune, presided afterwards in the council of the empire and the committee of ministers, under the reign of the Emperor Alexander. He died in the year 1827> leaving an only son, the Prince Paul, who * After the bully uproar, got up by Prince Alexander Menshikoff at Constantinople, which preluded the last war in the Crimea, and after the destruction of the Russian navy in the Black Sea, the author might miti¬ gate his opinion .—Note of the Translator. 80 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF has married the dowager-countess Alopeus, hut they have no children. Princes of Italy, Counts Souvoroff of Rymnik. John Souvoroff was a priest of one of the churches of the Kremlin at Moscow, and enjoyed the confidence of the Czarina Sophia, sister of Peter I. His son Basily en¬ listed as a soldier, became an officer, and consequently a noble, and from one rank to another advanced to that of chief-commander. Distinguished, loyal, and a very learned general-officer, he had a son Alexander, horn in Moscow in the year 1729. Alexander Souvoroff, the most brilliant warrior ever recorded in the Russian his¬ tory, is too well known throughout the world, that we should enumerate, in this short notice, a long catalogue of his victories and achievements. No single warrior, at any period, ever exercised such a magical spell over the Russian soldier. He died at St. Petersburg, in the year 1800. The battle of Rymnik, in the year 1789, brought him a double title, of Russian Count and Count of the Holy Roman Empire, besides the title bestowed on him by Catherine, of Count of Rymnik. The con¬ quest of Poland, in the year 1794, gained for him the staff of field-marshal ; and that of Italy, in the year 1799, the dignities of Sardinian prince, of field-marshal to the army of the Emperor of Germany, that of Russian generalissimo, and of a Russian prince with the title of Prince of Italy, bestowed upon him by Paul I. in the year 1799, August 8th. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 81 Princes Argoutinsky-Dolgorouky. Tlris family is not to be confounded with the Russian house of Princes Dolgorouky, sprung from Rurik : they have nothing in common with them. Joseph Argoutinsky, an Armenian by birth, and Armenian patriarch, (born in the year 1758 and deceased in 1800), had rendered famous ser¬ vices to Russia, by contributing with all his influence to extend the dominion of Russia beyond the Caucasus. Paul I. exalted him, together with his brothers and ne¬ phews, to the princely dignity of Russia, in the year 1800, March 22nd ; and as the name of Argoutinsky in the Armenian language means the same as in the Russian Dolgorouky (viz. long-arm), Paul authorized them to call themselves Argoutinsky-Dolgorouky,* nobody knows what for.f Princes Saltykoff. This family, one of the most illustrious in Russia, and registered in the velvet-book, dates from the fourteenth century. Among the noble families that of Saltykoff reckoned within its pale the largest number of boyards. Michael Saltykoff, surnamed the one-eyed, stood at the head of the Polish party, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. J His great- * The Argoutinsky family ridiculously enough pretend to descend from Artaxerxes longimanus, the long-arm, King of Persia. I We think for a very plain reason; viz. to accustom a trans-Caucasian powerful family to consider themselves Russian subjects for ever. Such a nationalizing translation of names is no novelty, not only in Russia but elsewhere .—Note of the Translator. £ Prince Michael Saltykoff led a deputation from Moscow to the Polish General-in-chief, Zolkiewski, who, after the battle of Kluzyn, G 82 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF grand-daughter, Prascovia SaltykofF, married the Czar John Y. brother of Peter I., and was the mother of the Empress Ann. General Simon SaltykofF, governor of Moscow, was created Count by his relation the Empress Ann, in the year 1732, January 19th.* His son, the Count Peter, and his grandson the Count John, were both field-marshals of the empire, and Governors-gene- ral of Moscow. In the Seven-years’ War, the Field- Marshal Count Peter gained a victory over Frederic II., near Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in the year 1759. Nicolas SaltykofF, tutor of the Emperor Alexander and Grand- Duke Constantine, chairman of the war committee (otherwise the war-minister), under Catherine and Paul, president of the council of the empire, and of the board of ministers under Alexander, and field-marshal of the empire, was created Count by Catherine, in the year 1790, and exalted to the dignity of a .Russian Prince by the Emperor Alexander, in the year 1814, August 30th. His younger son, Prince Alexander, minister of foreign affairs ad interim , under the reign of the Emperor Alex¬ ander, and a member of the council of the empire, was fortunate enough to maintain the great name of his forefathers with weight and honour. At present the illus¬ trious house of SaltykofF is divided into four branches, (near Borodino), in which he completely routed the Russian troops, entered Moscow, 202 years previous to Napoleon, and when that city was the only capital of Russia.— Note of the Translator. * He was one of the boldest supporters of absolute power, in the year 1730, against the constitutional party. See our note under Princes Dol- gorouky, page 52, 53.— Note of the Translator. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 83 the first of which, called simply Saltykoff, has no titles ; the second, Soltyk of Poland,* whose ancestors emi¬ grated from Russia towards the commencement of the seventeenth century; Counts Saltykoff form the third, and Princes Saltykoff the fourth branch. Princes Barclay-de-Tolly. Gotlieb Barclay-de- Tolly, Burgomaster of Riga, issued from a citizen family of that town,fhad three sons. All of them entered the military service of Russia, became officers, and conse¬ quently, upon that ground, were nobles. The younger of them, Michael Barclay-de-Tolly (born in the year 17 ^ 8 ), through his merits was promoted to the rank of general-lieutenant, signalized himself during the war of Finland, in the years 1808 and 1809, and was named commander-in-chief and war-minister ; and soon after, in the year 1812, he received the chief command of the first Russian army. The Emperor Alexander, the day of the entry of the Allies into Leipzig, created him Count ; the day of his entrance into Paris, Field-Mar¬ shal; and lastly Prince, in the year 1815, August 30th. This illustrious and venerable man departed in the year 1818. He was distinguished not only by his great military talents, but by his loyalty and the stoical firm¬ ness of his character, and his patriotism, which was dis- * In the year 1831, during the Polish revolution, Count Roman Sol¬ tyk, general of artillery, in the Polish Diet, held at Warsaw, brought forward a motion for the abrogation of the Romanoff Dynasty in Poland, which was carried unanimously by acclamation .—Note of the Translator. f Originally Scotch.— E. Editor. G 2 84 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF played with all its brightness in the memorable year 1812 * Princes Lteyen. An ancient Livonian family, whose forefathers reigned in a part of Livonia in the tenth century. At the time when Livonia became a Swedish province, the king, Charles X., conferred on that family the title of Barons. In the eighteenth century this house furnished the Russian army with many general- officers of distinction. Baroness Lieven, born Miss de Posse, was a governess of the Grand-Duchesses of Rus¬ sia, daughters of the Emperor Paul. Created Countess by the same Prince, in the year 1799; she was exalted to the princely dignity of Russia by Nicolas in the year 1826, August 22nd. The house of Lieven possesses at present an individual distinguished by his merits as well as by his noble character ; we mean Baron William of Lieven.f Princes of Warsaw, Counts Paskevitch of Erivan. Gregory Paskevitch, native of the Lesser Russia, and of a very obscure family, entered the service under Catherine, and thus acquired nobility. His grandson, John Paskevitch, signalized himself in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814. Called to take the chief command of the army of the Caucasus, he displayed great mili- * Barclay-de-Tolly was descended from a Scotch emigrant family of Aberdeen. f The same who at this very moment (in 1843), is charged with a mission to Senna and to Constantinople. HOUSES OF PRINCES. 85 tary capacity in tlie campaigns against the Persians and Turks; and soon after, sent to replace the Field- Marshal Count Diebitch, he re-conquered the king¬ dom of Poland. The Persian campaign brought him the title of Count of Erivan,* that of Turkey the staff of Field-Marshal, and that of Poland the title of Prince of Warsaw, bestowed by the Emperor Nicolas, in the year 1831, September 4th. At this moment this illus¬ trious warrior, a pride to his country, is the Viceroy of Poland; he enjoys the unbounded confidence of the Emperor, and, at the same time, the esteem of thePoles themselves.f * The war with Persia was particularly necessary to the Emperor Nicolas at his accession to the throne. The turbulent spirit of the nobles in the ranks of his guards (see our note under Counts Kakhovsky, page 116), whose guilt it was not convenient to ascertain fully, or to punish by wholesale, there found a field on which to exhaust their ardour. The enemies of the Crown were destined to die on the field of battle, or to redeem their lost credit by the acquisition of new gems to adorn the same Crown. The irritated nobility had a new object of attention to divert them from brooding over their domestic slavery ; those whose loyalty was doubtful found an opportunity of saving their names from ignominy ; and a new reign commenced with new victories and conquests, first over Persia and then over Turkey. General Yermolloff, who was at the time Governor-General of Georgia, and had rendered greater services to the Crown, in the Caucasus, than any of his predecessors or successors, was considered by public opinion as the fittest man to conduct this war against Persia : however, he was too popular, and the Emperor Nicolas named another. Paskevitch had the glory of concluding that war with the famous treaty of Tourcomanchai in the year 1828 .—Note of the Translator. f We cannot warrant this rather bold assertion of Prince Peter Dol- gorouky, though Paskevitch governed “ the kingdom of Poland ” (a part only of that ancient country) a little better than the Grand-Duke Con- 86 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF Princes Kotchoubey. In the middle of the nine¬ teenth century, a noble Tatar called Koutchouk-Bey, came from the Crimea, established himself in the Lesser Bussia, and embraced Christianity. His grandson, Basily Kotchoubey, one of the principal dignitaries of Lesser Bussia, in the time of Peter I., informed the crown of the intended treason of Mazeppa, hetman of the Lesser Bussia,* who being incensed against Peter I. stantine, elder brother of the Emperor Nicolas. Eield-Marshal Count Diebitch, who, in the year 1829, passed the Balkan (hence surnamed Zabalkansky ), and imposed upon the Turks the treaty of Adrianople, was very unsuccessful in Poland in the year 1881, and died suddenly with the Grand-Duke Constantine—from the cholera (?). It is confi¬ dently asserted, that when the Eield-Marshal Paskevitch was named his successor, he threw himself at the feet of the Emperor, and begged him to revoke his order, alleging that, “since Diebitch, much superior to him, could not make any impression upon the valour of the Poles, he was still less able to do so.” But the Emperor was not an individual to listen to any remonstrances of the kind. Paskevitch, as it is mentioned in the text, was a native of the Lesser Russia, a part of ancient Poland. See our note under Princes Kotchoubey, page 86, 87.— Note oj theTrans- lator. * The actual south and west of Russia, viz., Yolhynia, Ukraine, and Podolia, the Red, White, and Black Russia, were integral parts of Poland for centuries; and their nobility enjoyed the same privileges as that of the rest of the State. Generally speaking, Nos (so called in the Rus¬ sian language, or the Lesser Russia), was a distinct country from Russia (called Rassie'ia in the Russian language) ; it has been much better civi¬ lized than Russia Proper, and received its best institutions from Poland. Even at this moment, its inhabitants are called Malo-Russians, or any¬ thing but Russians ; and the country itself Male- Russia, which means, very little Russia, or anything hut, Russia. The Grand-Dukes of Russia groaned under the yoke of the Tatars, while the Lithuanian sovereign Guedimine, in the year 1326, got possession of the Principality of Rus, with its capital Kiew, and restored the metropolitan church, abolished by its former conquerors, the Grand-Dukes of Moscow. After the reign of HOUSES OF PRINCES. 87 planned to deliver liis country to Charles XII. Peter refused to give credit to it, and Basily Kotclioubey, brought to justice as a calumniator, was tried, condemned to death, and executed in the year 1708. Only a few months elapsed after the sad event, when the treachery of Mazeppa broke out, and then the honour of the mar¬ tyr was reinstated.* His grandson Victor Kotchoubey (born in the year 1768 and deceased in 1834), was a mi¬ nister at Constantinople, being only twenty-six years old. Under the reign of Paul, he became a chancellor ; under the reign of Alexander the home-minister ; and under the Emperor Nicolas, president of the council of the Boleslas of Masovia, a Polish Prince and Grand-Duke of Red-Russia, who died without any posterity, Casimir the Great , as his cousin, incorpora¬ ted that country with Poland in the year 1340. The country of Mazeppa, Ukraine, with its Cossacks, who extended their possessions to the Bug and Dnieper, comprising the Zaporoshsky Cossacks, who lived on the other side of the Dnieper, properly constituted the Lesser Russia, and its warlike inhabitants were the ramparts of Poland from Tatars, Turks, and Moscovites. The Court of Warsaw committed a signal fault, in wishing to convert the Cossacks of the Greek creed to the Catholic reli¬ gion. Hence the civil war, fanned by the Russian intriguers. The inhabitants of the Lesser Russia, or Malo-Russians in general, consider themselves, like the Poles, conquered by the Moscovites. Their lan¬ guage is-more like the Polish than the Russian ; and though they are somewhat united to the empire through the tie of religion, they cannot forget not only their privileges, but their ruined independent church at Kiew, which was formerly respected and upheld by the Kings of Poland. Hence a formidable sect called Staro- Yiertzy (old believers), which is extended throughout the empire .—Note of the Translator. * Mazeppa, notwithstanding his reasonable age (he was then sixty- four years old), seduced the daughter of Kotchoubey, and eloped with the fair one. 88 HIERARCHICAL ROLL OF empire, that of the board of ministers, and chancellor of the empire. Paul had created him Count in the year 1799, and the Emperor Nicolas acknowledged his services with the title of Prince, in the year 1831, De¬ cember 6th. Prince Wassilchikoff. This house constitutes a branch of the Tolstoy family, whose descent is known since the fifteenth century. The General Wassilchi¬ koff, at this moment president of the imperial council, and that of ministers, was one of the most brilliant generals in the wars of 1812, 1813, and 1814, and he is at the same time one of the most respectable men of Russia, a real Bayard, a knight without fear and with¬ out reproach.* Created Count in the year 1831, he was exalted to the honour of Prince in the year 1839, January 1st. Prince Czernysheff.*]* The nobility of Czernysheff, is dated from the year 1628. This house is divided into two branches, the younger of which was elevated to the dignity of Counts by the Empress Elizabeth in the year 1742. Alexander Czernysheff,f who belongs to the * During the stay of the Emperor Alexander at the Congress of Lay- bach, a mutiny in a regiment of guards, called Siemionovsky, took place in St. Petersburg. In consequence of that, Wassilchikoff, the war- minister of that time, was removed by the Emperor, who appointed to that post General Ouvaroff .—Note qf the Translator. f The same who resided in Paris at the Court of Napoleon. HOUSES OF FRINGES. 89 elder branch, now the war-minister, was created Count in the year 1826, and was exalted to the princely dig¬ nity in the year 1841, April 16th.* * The spelling of this name is half English, half Polish : according to German orthography it would be Tschernischew, in English ChernyshefF, and in Polish Czernyszew, in French Tchernicheff, and in Italian Cern- isceff. The Russians have nô fixed rule for converting their own ortho¬ graphy into that of the other European languages .—English Editor. N.B. It will have been remarked that the Emperors of Russia seem to require the previous admission of any candidate for honours in Russia, to the rank of Prince or Count of the Holy Roman Empire ; as if it were regarded as a stepping-stone to their own titles, about to be granted to their own subjects. Is this a compliment to the Austrian Emperors, or the reverse ?—English Editor. CHAPTER II. FAMILIES DESCENDED FROM RURIK. The families comprised in this chapter are the de¬ scendants of Rurik, in the male, direct, and legitimate line, but their ancestors resigned the title of Princes, because they deemed this title to be incongruous with the condition of Muscovite Boyards, to which they found themselves reduced by the loss of their principalities. The Tatistcheff, issued from that branch of the house of Rurik, which reigned at Smolensk. Two per¬ sons of that stock had accepted the title of Count, viz. : General Nicolas Tatistcheff, the principal head of the actual Counts Tatistcheff, who had received this title from the Emperor Alexander in the year 1801, Septem¬ ber 15th, and General Alexander Tatistcheff, the war minister, created Count by the Emperor Nicolas in the year 1826, August 22nd, who died without male poste¬ rity, in the year 1833. As to Dmitry Tatistcheff, the former ambassador to Vienna, and present great cham¬ berlain and member of the council of the empire, the most noted statesman ever produced by the stock of Tatistcheff, he had refused to accept the title of Count. FAMILIES DESCENDED FROM RURIK. 91 The Yerapkine. Origin as above. The most distin¬ guished individual of this family was General Peter Ye¬ rapkine, who died in the year 1805. He also refused the title of Count offered to him by Catherine the Great. The Rjevsky. Origin as above. Their name is derived from the town of Rjev, where they reigned in former times. The Tolbouzine. The same origin. The Liapounoff descend from a branch of the house of Rurik, which reigned at Galich, a town situated in the present government of Kostroma. Procop Liapou¬ noff was one of the most brilliant commanders of the Russian army in the war of independence against the Poles, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. N.B. Major Prince Shakhovskoy ; Lieut. Prince Obolensky, who wounded General Miloradovitch with his own hand; Staff Captain Prince Stchepine Rostoffsky ; and General Prince Volkonsky, were active members of the conspiracy of 1825. Vide Report of the Russian Com¬ mission of Enquiry .—Note of the Translator. CHAPTER III. FAMILIES OF THE COUNTS OF RUSSIA, ACCORDING TO TILE ORDER OF THEIR CREATION. N.B.—We mention only the extant families. In the year 1706, Counts 33 1709, Counts 33 i7io. Counts 33 1722 , Counts 33 1724, Counts 33 1726, Counts 33 1728, Counts 33 1730, Counts 33 1732, Counts 33 1742, Counts 33 1742, Counts # 33 1742, Counts 33 1746, Counts 33 1758, Counts 33 1760, Counts 33 1767, Counts 33 1795, Counts 33 1795, Counts Scheremeteff. Golovkine.* Zotoff. Apraxine. Tolstoy, de Yier. Munich.f Ostermann. Salty koff. J efimovsky. Hendricoff. Czernyscheff-Krouglicoff. SchouvalofF. Steinbock-Fermor. Boutourline. Panine. Potemkine. Fersen. * They are also Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1707. t Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1741. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 93 In the year 1796, 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797 , 1797, 1798, 1799, 1799, 1799, 1799, 1799, 1801, 1801, 1809, 55 33 39 39 99 55 3) 99 99 99 99 93 99 55 55 99 99 99 99 55 93 99 39 1812, 1813, Counts Bobrinsky. Counts WoronzofF.* * * § Counts WoronzofF-DaschkafF. Counts KouchelefF-Bezborodko.t Counts Dmitrieff-Mamonoff.J Counts Zavadovsky. § Counts of Buxhoevden.|| Counts Kamensky. Counts Kakhovsky. Counts Goudovitcb, elder branch. Counts Moussine-Pouchkine. Counts Sievers. Counts Osten-Sacken. Counts StrogonofF, first branch.^] - Counts Pahlen. Counts Kousheleff. Counts Bastopchine. Counts OrlofF-DenissofF. Counts Koutaissoff. Counts Tatischeff. Counts ProtassofF. Counts Goudovitcb, younger branches. Counts PlatofF. Counts Benningsen. * Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1760. •j- Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1784. J Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1788. § Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1794. (| Prussian Counts since 1795. Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since 1761. 94 FAMILIES OF THE In the year 1817* Counts of Lambsdorff. 55 1819, Counts of Konovnitsyne. >y 1819, Counts Gourieff. 33 1825, Counts Orloff. 33 1826, Counts Pozzo-di-Borgo. 31 1826, Counts Strogonoff, second branch. 33 1829, Counts Toll. 33 1829, Counts Oppermann. 33 1829, Counts Cancrine. 33 1832, Counts G olenistcheff-Koutousoff. 33 1832, Counts Benckendorff. 33 1832, Counts Essen. 33 1833, Counts Levashoff. 33 1834, Counts MordvinofF. 33 1839, Counts Kisseleff. 33 1839, Counts Kleinmichel. 33 1842, Counts BloudofF. FAMILIES OE THE RUSSIAN COUNTS, EXTINCT IN THE MALE LINEAGE. Countess Serge Jagousinsky. Countess Leon Razoumovsky. Countess Ann OrlofF-Chesmensky. Countess SamoilofF. FAMILIES OF THE NOBLES OF KUSSIAN EXTRACTION, HONOURED WITH THE DIGNITY OF COUNTS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. In the year 1702 , Counts Golovine. „ 1793, Counts Zouboff. ,, 17065 Counts Markoff. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 95 Counts Scheremeteff. This house bears one of the most splendid historical and national names that ever appeared in Russia. Its authentic origin goes back to the fourteenth century. It descends from Andrew Kabyla (or, according to others, Kambyla), from whom have likewise issued the houses of Kalytcheff, Nepluieff, Babarykine, Ladyshine, Konovnitsyne, and above all Romanoff (whose real name is Romanoff-Yourieff), that illustrious house of Boyards, called to the throne of Russia by national election in the year 1613. Among the boyards produced by the Scheremeteff house, many shone in the wars of the sixteenth century. The Boyard Theodore signalized himself by his statesmanlike talents.» his courage and honesty. He was married to the first cousin of the Czar, Michael Romanoff, and it is chiefly to him that the house of Romanoff is indebted for their election to the throne of Russia (see the paragraph on the Princes Troubetskoy, page 72*73). The Boyard Basily was the commander-in-chief of the army of the Czar Alexis, and made a prisoner in the battle of Tchoudnovo. He passed thirty years in severe captivity in the depth of the Crimea. His nephew the Boyard and Field-Marshal Count Boris, appears to be one of the most remarkable personages of this family, abounding in eminent men. He had conquered Livonia and Es- thonia, and was the commander-in-chief at the battle of Poltava, in which the army of Charles XII. was dis¬ comfited. Peter I. created him Count in the year 1706. The Count Boris earned universal esteem, not only by his military talents, but as a good-hearted man. 96 FAMILIES OF THE Noble, honest, and charitable, when he died in the year 1719, his loss was deplored as a public calamity, and particularly by the Russian army, which he had led to victory during the space of twenty years, and by the poor of St. Petersburg and Moscow, who cried out, u We have lost a father.” Counts Golovkine. John Golovkine, a native of the district of Alexine (situated in the present govern¬ ment of Toula), allied to the family of Naryshkine, fol¬ lowed the destiny of that house, at the time of its pre¬ ferment, and was created a Boyard. His son Gabriel, chancellor of the empire, and minister of foreign affairs during four successive reigns, was one of the ablest diplomatists in his day. He was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Joseph I. in the year 1707, and became a Russian Count in the year 1709, July 15th. The two eldest of his three sons, the Count John and the Count Alexander, filled many diplo¬ matic posts with distinction ; the third son, Count Michael, vice-chancellor of the empire, an honourable and loyal man, was exiled to Siberia at the time of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I., and died in exile. The house of Counts Golovkine, illustrious in the Russian annals during the first moiety of the eighteenth century, finds itself represented at present solely in the person of Count George Go¬ lovkine, formerly ambassador to China and Vienna, great-chamberlain and member of the imperial council, who is an octogenarian, and has no male posterity. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 97 Counts Zotoff. Nikita Zotoff, preceptor of Peter I., and afterwards buffoon to tlie same prince, at a time when the Czar found himself under the influence of liquor, received of him the title of Count in the year 1710, July 8 th. He died in the year 1717; and his descendants were forbidden to bear the title, so hand¬ somely earned by their predecessor. However, in the year 1802, the young Princess Kourakine, daughter of the Prince Alexis Kourakine, fell in love with Mr. Nicolas Zotoff, and determined to marry him at any price. The Kourakine family, in order to make this match more suitable, obtained from the Emperor Alex¬ ander, on behalf of Mr. Nikita Zotoff, and his descend¬ ants, the authorization to enjoy the title of Counts of the empire. Counts Apraxine. The authentic origin of this family dates from the fifteenth century. Martha Apraxine had married the Czar Theodore, elder brother of Peter I. ; Peter, Theodore, and Andrew, were her brothers. Peter Apraxine, boyard and senator, created Count in the year 1707> July 15th, heads the pedigree of the elder branch of Counts Apraxine. This line became extinct with the grandson of Peter. Theodore Apraxine, great-admiral of the empire under Peter I., created Count in the year 1710, February 8th, and deceased without any heir, in the year 1728, was one of the most remarkable men of that era. Andrew Apra¬ xine, the great-cup-bearer, created Count in the year 1722, February 7th, heads the pedigree of the present H 98 FAMILIES OF THE Counts Apraxine. Stephen Apraxine, field-marshal and president of the war college (viz. the war minister), under the reign of Elizabeth, was the commander-in¬ chief of the army against the Prussians, and gained the victory of Gross-Jagerndorff. It is said that he had refused the title of Count, which Elizabeth intended to offer him. Counts Tolstoy. This house, the most numerous among the nobility of Russia, occupies a very dignified place in the Russian annals. It is dated from the fif¬ teenth century. Peter Tolstoy, one of the warmest partizans of the Czarevna Sophia, soon abandoned that princess, and became the most devoted servant of Peter I. Ambassador at Constantinople, and then the president of the commercial college (viz. the minister of commerce), he was created Count in the year 1734, May 7th. Under Peter II., Menshikoff ordered him to be degraded and banished; and the title of Count was not re¬ stored to his descendants until the Empress Elizabeth gave it in the year 1760, May 30th. One of his great- grandsons, Count Peter Tolstoy, formerly ambassador of Russia at the court of Napoleon, and now president of the military department in the council of the empire, is generally esteemed for the honesty of his character. He is a knight without fear and without reproach.* * Count Jacob Tolstoy was implicated in the conspiracy of December, 1825. According to the official report, he had established a secret society in the regiment Ismailovsky, a branch of the association called the “ Union of the Public Welfare,” which had its central committees at St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Toultchine (Tulczyn ).—Note of the Trans¬ lator. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 99 Counts of Vier. Anthony Vier, a Portuguese Jew, and son of a smuggler, was a cabin-boy in a Dutch vessel at the sime of Peter’s stay in Holland, and was bought by that Prince. Self-respect does not allow us to enter into details of the scandals, plentiful at that epoch : suffice it to say, that towards the end of the reign of Peter I., Vier is found to be a general, aide-de- camp to the Czar, and the chief of the police at St. Pe¬ tersburg. Catherine I. created him Count in the year 1726, October 24th. Upon the accession of Peter II., Menshikoff ordered him to be degraded and transported to Siberia. The Empress Elizabeth recalled the man from exile, and restored to him the title of Count in the year 1743. His son, Count Peter, a very distinguished general officer, possessed the esteem and confidence of Peter III. Counts of Munich. Burchard-Christoph of Mu¬ nich, son of a peasant, ennobled by Frederick III. King of Denmark, was born near Oldenburg in the year 1683. He tried first the military career under the celebrated Prince Eugene, and was made prisoner at the battle of Denain. He was sent to Cambrai, at which place Féne¬ lon shewed him much sympathy, and loaded him with bounty. In the year 1720, he entered the service of Russia, and Peter received him with unusual distinction, out of regard for recommendations he had presented from Prince Eugene himself, and from Prince Gregory Dol- gorouky.* Under the reign of Peter II. he was named * Minister of Russia in Poland, and one of the most noted diploma¬ tists in his time. He was brother of the celebrated Jacob Dolgorouky. H 2 100 FAMILIES OF THE tlie grand-master of artillery of the empire, and created Count in the year 1728, the 28th of February. In the reign of the Empress Ann, he was named field-marshal, and called to the chief command of the army of opera¬ tion against the Turks. In this capacity he justified the surname given to him by the Prince Eugene, of his beloved pupil, for he acquired an immortal name in the Russian history. At the accession of Elizabeth to the throne, he was exiled to Siberia, and passed twenty years there. Recalled by Peter III. he fully enjoyed the friendship both of that prince and of Catherine II. He expired in the year 1766. Besides the dignity of a Russian Count, he was adorned with that of the Holy Roman Empire, which the Emperor Charles III. conferred on him in the year 1741. A great warrior, and at the same time one of the most distinguished statesmen ever possessed by Russia. Counts Ostermann. Henrv John Frederic Oster- «/ mann, son of a Lutheran pastor of Bockum in West¬ phalia, was born in the year 1686, and came to Russia, in 1703, in the capacity of secretary to Admiral Cruys, a Dutchman in the service of Peter I. One day this Prince, being onboard of a ship with Cruys, wanted some¬ body to write him a letter. Cruys presented Ostermann for the task, and the Czar having conversed a quarter of an hour with the young man, took him as a secretary and attached him to his person. Ostermann rapidly grew in the confidence of the monarch. He negociated and concluded the famous treaty of peace at Nystadt, in COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 101 consequence of which Russia took possession of the pro¬ vinces of Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, and Carelia. Created Baron in the year 1721, he was destined to share with the chancellor Count Golovkine in the management of the foreign affairs, and in performing his duty with a peculiar genius, he eclipsed his partner. At the accession of Catherine I. to the throne, he was named the vice- chancellor and tutor to the young Grand-Duke Peter, (afterwards the Emperor Peter II.) At the coronation of the Empress Ann, he was created Count, in the year 1?30, April 28th.* After the decease of Ann, under the brief reign of the Emperor John VI. he was named grand-admiral of the empire, and at the accession of the Empress Elizabeth, exiled to Siberia; he died there in the year 1747- This superior statesman figures as one of the ablest diplomatists that ever existed in the world; and he has rendered to Russia immense service, and immortalized his name in the Russian history. In the course of seventeen years, which elapsed from the death of Peter I. to the coronation of Elizabeth—during this epoch of political infamies, courtly intrigues, and revo¬ lutions of the palace—in this time of moral and political degradation, we see but two celebrated ministers at work, hindering the destruction of the great undertakings begun by Peter I. These two illustrious individuals, whose names will for ever shine with unfading glory * He was the head and soul of the anti-constitutional party in the year 1730, and wrought its destruction. See our note under Princes Dolgorouky, p. 53 .—Note of the Translator. 102 FAMILIES OF THE on the pages of the Russian history, were Ostermann, and the marshal Count Munich. Peter I. upon his death-bed said of Ostermann, that “ that man was really indispensable to Russia , that he had never com¬ mitted a single faidt in politics , and that no one knew better the wants and resources of Russia. ,} Count Oster¬ mann was married by Peter I. to Martha Streshneff, issued from a kindred family to that of Romanoff. Two sons were born from this match, who, though they did not inherit the genius of their father, were well con¬ sidered on account of their upright character ; and one daughter, married to General Mathias Tolstoy. The Count Theodore, elder son of the vice-chancellor, was a distinguished general-officer : his brother, Count John, became the vice-chancellor and minister of foreign affairs under Catherine the Great, and chancellor of the empire under the reign of Paul. As they had no children, Catherine II. on the 27th of October, 1796, (ten days before she expired,) granted to these two brothers the authorization to transmit their title and name to their grand-nephew, Mr. Alexander Tolstoy. Count Oster¬ mann Tolstoy, one of the most brilliant generals-in-chief during the wars of 1812 and 1813, gained in the year 1813 the famous battle of Culm, in which General Yandamme was made prisoner. The success of this battle saved the Allied army, and consequently the whole of Europe. At present he is a widower, and has no issue from his wife, the Princess Elizabeth Galitsyne, one of the most distinguished and respectable ladies of her time. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 103 Counts Saltykoff. (See the paragraph of the Princes Saltykoff, page 81). Counts Jefimovsky and Counts Hendricoff. The second wife of Peter I. was a daughter of a Livonian peasant. At first a servant in the family of Gliick, a Lutheran pastor, and then the wife of a Swedish dra¬ goon, being taken prisoner at the assault of Marien- bourg, she became the mistress of General Bauer, who ceded her to the Marshal Count ScheremetefF, and again the Marshal ceded her to Prince Menshikoff, who at last resigned the woman to Peter I. and that monarch ended the matter by marrying her. Being now the Empress, she was anxious to know what had become of her family, and after many inquiries, at last, two of her brothers and two sisters were discovered in the vear c/ 1?23. These two brothers were ennobled under the name of Sccivronshy, and afterwards, under the reign of her sister, they received the title of Counts,* in the year 1727. The elder sister of Catherine I. was found mar¬ ried to a sergeant, called Michael JefimofF; his sons therefore were ennobled under the name of Jefimovsky. The younger sister of the Empress had married a work¬ man of the name of Simon Henry; his children therefore were nobilitated under the name of Hendricoff. Messrs. Jefimovsky and Hendricoff were created Counts by their * The house of Counts Scavronsky became extinct towards the end of the eighteenth century. The two last persons of this name were Princess Peter Bagration, and the late Countess Paul Palilen, mother of Countess SamoilofF. 104 FAMILIES OF THE first cousin the Empress Elizabeth in the year 1742, April 25th. Counts Czernysheff-Krouglicoff. This house dates from the year 1628. The head of the younger branch of the family, General Gregory Czernysheff, mar¬ ried Miss Kievsky, one of the mistresses of Peter I., and it was principally to this connexion that Czernysheff owed his advancement. The Empress Elizabeth had created him Count in the year 1742, April 25th. Two of his sons were promoted to the rank of field-marshals of the empire—Count Zakhary, the war-minister under Catherine II. one of the most brilliant commanders of the Russian armies, and Count John, chief superin¬ tendent of the Imperial navy under the reigns of Cathe¬ rine and Paul ; the third. Count Peter, was the envoy of Russia at Berlin to Frederic II. and at Paris to Louis XV. The grandson of Count John, the Count Zakhary, being exiled to Siberia, or legally dead, for his participation in the conspiracy of the 14th of Decem¬ ber, 1825,* his title and name were transmitted by the Emperor Nicolas to his brother-in-law Mr. John Kroug- licoff, who bears at present the hereditary title of Count Czernysheff-Krouglicoff. Counts Schouvaloff. Their authentic nobility is dated from the commencement of the seventeenth cen¬ tury. General John Schouvaloff, commander of the place at Vyborg, under Peter I. enjoyed the confidence of that Prince. He had two sons, Alexander and Peter, * See the note of the translator under Counts Kakhovsky, page 116 . COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 105 both were lovers of the Empress Elizabeth, who raised them to the dignity of Counts in the year 1746; and Peter III. promoted them to the rank of field-marshals of the empire. The Count Alexander, minister of police, was avaricious, harsh and cruel : he left no male pos¬ terity. The Count Peter, as cruel and covetous as his brother, but a very able statesman, managed the direc¬ tion of the war-college, (viz. of the war-ministry), was grand-master of the artillery of the empire, and rendered to the country the most signal services.* Their first cousin John Schouvaloff, one of the lovers of the Empress Elizabeth, was the chief protector of the Russian litera¬ ture, and one of the most witty and well-instructed men in his time.f He refused repeatedly to accept the title of Count. The present Counts Schouvaloff are the great- grandsons of the marshal Count Peter Schouvaloff. Counts of Steinbock-Fermor. General Fermor, whose origin is unknown to me,j signalized himself in the Seven Years’ war, and was created Count in the year 1788, June 12th. His name passed to a branch of the * Count Peter Schouvaloff, was an assiduous and witty correspondent of Voltaire, and persuaded that philosopher to write the “ History of Russia under the reign of Peter the Great,” for which the Empress Eliza¬ beth, daughter of Peter I. furnished the materials, through her paramour. Without Voltaire, and some of his literary friends and countrymen, nei¬ ther Russia, nor Peter I. and Catherine II. would have acquired such a fame in Europe .—Note of the Translator. f It is to John Schouvaloff, that the University of Moscow owed its creation, whose utility is chiefly indebted to German professors .—Note of the Translator. f The name is English.— E. Editor. 106 FAMILIES OF THE house of Counts of Steinbock, an illustrious family in the records of Sweden. Counts Boutourline. This very old and illustrious house, registered in the velvet book , is dated from the thirteenth century. It has produced boyards, distin¬ guished warriors, and celebrated statesmen. One of the last named, the Boyard Basily, a friend of the Czar Alexis, was commissioned by that Prince to take posses¬ sion of the Lesser-Bussia, in the name of the Czar, at the time when that country, raising a revolt against the oppression of the Poles, united herself with Russia in the year 1654.* General John Boutourline, was one of the best generals of Peter I. Alexander Boutourline, one of the former lovers of the Empress Elizabeth, was promoted by her to the rank of Field-marshal, and ere long to that of Count in the year 1760, February 17th. At this day the house of Boutourline possesses a very distinguished individual, viz. Dmitry Boutourline, a member of the council of the empire, the same who has written the history of the campaign of 1812. Counts Panine. The nobilitation of this house, rather modern, yet one of the most illustrious in Russia, begins in the seventeenth century. John and Alexander * The Lesser-Russia, with the Cossacks under Khmielnicki, did not surrender to the Czar Alexis, but in virtue of the famous treaty of Perei- eslaff, in the year 1653; they were then recognized as an independent people, (under the protection of Russia,) who were to possess for ever their own civil and military institutions, and even to enjoy the right of receiving foreign ambassadors. See our note on the Lesser-Russia, pp. 86, 87.— Note of the Translator . COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 107 Panine were highly distinguished general-officers. Ge¬ neral John Panine had two sons. The elder, Nikita, ambassador at Stockholm, tutor of Paul I. and minister of foreign affairs under Catherine II. was one of the most distinguished and respectable statesmen in his time.* Catherine promoted him as well as his brother, General Peter Panine, to the dignity of Count on the 22nd of September, 1767. The Count Nikita died un¬ married.f The Count Peter was one of the most bril- * Strictly speaking Paul had to succeed by right to his father Peter III. and Catherine II. only reigned in the way of usurpation ; many partizans of Paul therefore urged him to seize on the imperial power. The Count Nikita said to him: “ Were your Highness my own son, I could not love you better; permit me then to tell you the truth as to my own son : Keep yourself quiet, root out of the mind of the Russian nation this unfortunate idea, that the crown of Russia is destined to be the prize of a riotous and bloody night ; a fatal notion brought forth, above a century ago, by the conduct of your family. You will mount the throne perhaps in an advanced age, perhaps not at all, and your elder son may inherit the crown of his grandmother : but through your forbearance you can render a signal service to all your descendants.” To appreciate the nobleness of such language, we must not forget that Count Nikita had to gain more than anybody, by the accession of Paul to the throne. But loyalty is a hereditary quality in the illustrious family of Panine. f Although Count Nikita Panine was the inventor of the system called the “ Armed Neutrality” against this country, he strongly impressed upon the Russian court, not to meddle much in the Western policy, so as to absorb its energies, but to turn its views and ardour towards the East. He advised even the leaving of Poland alone. When Prince Henry, bro¬ ther of the King of Prussia, came to St. Petersburg in the year 1770 , with the project of the dismemberment of Poland, he found only Count Czer- nysheff ready to support him in the imperial council. Count Nikita Panine, with Saldern, and the rest of the cabinet resisted the scheme to the utmost. The acquiescence of the Empress to it, was followed by the decision of the majority, but Panine remained unmoved, and foreboded great calamities to Russia from its execution .—Note of the Translator. 108 FAMILIES OF THE liant captains ever recorded in the Russian annals : at the same time his honesty and civic courage reminded the senate of some fortunate incidents in the life of Peter I. which he encountered with the celebrated Jacob Dolgorouky. His only son, Count Nikita, under the reign of Paul, was the Russian minister at Berlin, when only twenty-six years old, and vice-chancellor at the age of twenty-eight. One of his sons, Count Victor, a man of high merit, formerly minister of Russia in Greece, is now the minister of justice. Counts Potemkine. This family had furnished some high functionaries previous to the reign of Peter I. The most remarkable man ever produced by it was the cele¬ brated Prince Gregory Potemkine, born in the year 1736, and deceased in 1791. He was an intimate lover of Catherine II.—that Princess, whose whimsical and unfortunate constitution condemned her to daily ex¬ cesses, the privation of which would kill her ; but who has done so much good to Russia, that it would be cri¬ minal in a Russian subject not to forgive her private conduct for the sake of the wise, lawful and just govern¬ ment she introduced into the country, where, since the decease of the Czar Alexis, father of Peter I., all traditions of justice and legality were impudently dis¬ owned and trampled upon.* Dismissed from the love of Catherine, Potemkine was the first minister to that great princess, who had too much genius herself, not to * There cannot be a finer vein of irony than the whole of this pas¬ sage .—English Editor . COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 109 acknowledge that of this extraordinary individual. He died in the strength of his age,* without being married ; for it is impossible to give credit to the tradition of his clandestine wedlock with Catherine. She had created him Count in the year 1775, and Joseph II. had conferred upon him the dignity of Prince of the Holy Homan Em¬ pire in the year 1766. His relation. General Paul Potem- * Prince Gregory Potemkine was bom five leagues from Smolensk, of a noble, but poor family of Polish origin. Catherine II. took a particu¬ lar fancy to him; and notwithstanding that Princes Gregory and Alexis Orloff, both lovers of the Empress, in a quarrel, and through jealousy, deprived him of an eye, it was of no avail : she preferred him still to all her official and private paramours. The Empress granted him the highest favour, which no one else possessed, viz. to wear her portrait on his breast, and became so far submissive, that she never ventured to receive any new favourite, without his previous consent. Potemkine had con¬ ceived the bold project of expelling the Turks from Europe altogether, and induced Austria to join in the plan. Hence the famous interview of Catherine II. with Joseph II. at Kherson. He began the war with Turkey in the year 1787, and took by assault Oczakoff and Bender in the year 1788, while General Souvaroff, who served under him took Ismail. The Russian troops occupied Bessarabia and Moldavia; and Potemkine desired to continue the war, contrary to the wishes of the Empress, who seemed at last to yield to the remonstrances of the western cabinets. The conferences begun at Jassy by Repnine put him quite out of temper. It is said that he was poisoned ; he died suddenly on the lap of the Countess Branicka, his niece, on his way to Nicolaieff, which he had recently founded, and was buried at Kherson, a harbour also of his own founda¬ tion. Potemkine really wanted to make himself independent, and by his crafty policy succeeded to a certain length. It was whispered at the Court that when he bought the Crimea from the Khan, he worked for himself. Named General-in-chief of all Russian armies, the Great-admiral of the fleet on the Black Sea, the Sea of Azoff and the Caspian Sea, the Gover¬ nor-general of Azoff, of the Crimea and adjacent provinces, the Great- Hetman of all the Cossacks, it is no wonder that he had entertained a thought of creating for himself an independent sovereignty. In fact he organized the Russian army as it is at present, and was the idol of the soldier.— Note of the Translator. 110 FAMILIES OF THE kine, a brilliant military commander, was created Count on tbe 1st of January, 1795, and died in the following year, leaving two sons, one of which, the Count Gregory, was killed at the battle of Borodino, (or battle of the Moscova), and the other. Count Serge, married to the Princess Troubetskoy, has no children.* Counts Fersen. Of an illustrious and ancient Swedish family. General Baron Fersen cut to pieces the army of the celebrated Kosciuszko near Macieiovice, on the 11th of September, 1794 ; and on this memora¬ ble day, Kosciuszko himself was made prisoner.*]* Ca¬ therine honoured Fersen with the title of Count in the year 1795, January 1st. Counts Bobrinsky. Alexis Bobrinsky, natural son of Catherine II. and of Prince Gregory Orloff, was born in the year 1762, and received at first the name of Ro¬ manoff, exchanged afterwards for that of Bobrinsky, on account of the estate called Bobriki, in the government * He was the general-adjutant of the Emperor Alexander, and as commander of the regiment of guards called Siemionovsky, abolished cor¬ poral punishment among his soldiers. The minister Count Arakcheieff, alarmed, removed him from the command, and gave it to Colonel Schwartz. The mutiny of that regiment soon followed, in consequence of the severity of the new commander .—Note of the Translator . | The intended junction of SouvarofF with Eersen, prompted Kosci¬ uszko to give this battle. The formidable coalition of 1794 against Poland, was composed as follows :—80,000 Russians under the command of Generals SouvarofF, Igelstrom, Eersen, Klugen, ArseniefF, ZoubofF, and Benningsen; the Prussian army 90,000 strong, commanded by King Frederick II. himself, and an Austrian corps, under the command of General d’Arnoncourt .—Note of the Translator. Ill COUNTS OF RUSSIA. of Toula, bestowed upon him by his mother. Paul I. created him Count in the year 1796, November 12th. Counts Woronzoff. They are not descended from the illustrious family of Boyards Woronzoff, so much renowned in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; the extinction of that family, which took place in the year 1576, being verified both by the state archives, and by the velvet book itself. The first genuine ancestor of Count Woronzoff’s family, Gabriel Woronzoff, died at the siege of Tchighivine, in the Lesser-Russia, in the year 1678. His son Hilarion had three sons, Roman, Michael, and John. Michael Woronzoff was the lover of the Empress Elizabeth, who married him to her first cousin, Countess Ann Seavronsky (see page 103), named him chancellor of the empire, minister of foreign affairs, and obtained from the Emperor Charles VII. on his behalf, the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 1744, March 27th. He had an only daughter, Countess Alexandra Strogonoff. Through the powerful influence of the Count Michael, his two brothers got the title of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire conferred on them by Francis I., in the year 1760, January 19th. The General Count Roman, though rather rapacious, was a man of merit. He had two sons, Alexander and Simon, both distinguished and respectable for the inte¬ grity of their character. The Count Alexander was the president of the board of trade (or the minister of com¬ merce) under Catherine the Great, chancellor of the empire, and minister of foreign affairs under the Empe- 112 FAMILIES OF THE ror Alexander. The General Count Simon was ambas¬ sador in London, and his only son, the General Count Michael, was one of the most brilliant commanders dur¬ ing the wars of 1812, 1813, and 1814, and had the com¬ mand of the Russian troops which occupied France from the year 1815 to 1818. At present, he is the Governor- general of Odessa, of New-Russia, and Bessarabia, as well as a member of the council of the empire. He is a man of uncommon merit.* The house of Counts Wo- ronzoff got the dignity of Russian Counts in the year 1797; April 5tli. Counts Woronzoff-Daschkaw. Count Woronzoff- Daschkaw, former minister of Russia at Turin and Mu¬ nich, is the grandson of Count John Woronzoff (brother of the Counts Roman and Michael; see the previous paragraph). The name of Daschkaw came to him by the way of transfer. The ancient house of the Princes Daschkaw, issued in direct, legitimate, and male lineage from a branch of the house of Rurik, which reigned at Smolensk, and became extinct in the year 1810. The famous Princess Daschkaw, at first an intimate friend, and then the bitterest enemy of Catherine II.,t one of the most remarkable women of her age, president of the Russian academy at St. Petersburg, was a daughter of * Ancl his sister is Countess of Pembroke in England. ■f We gather from the memoirs of the Princess Daschkaw, preserved by Misses Catherine and Mary Wilmot of Ireland, her friends, that she remained a faithful friend to the Empress, but as a woman, was an enemy to her conduct and bad reputation. A principle professed by the author about the private character of Catherine II., “ whose whimsical and COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 113 Count Roman Woronzoff, and great-aunt to the Count Woronzoff-Daschkaw, who, by his fortune, as well as by his personal character, is a great lord in the fullest and noblest meaning of the word. Counts Kousheleff-Bezborodko. Andrew Bezbo¬ rodko, son of the government clerk in Lesser Russia, had two sons, Alexander and Elias. Alexander Bez¬ borodko, born in the year 177 L one of the most re¬ markable statesmen ever possessed by Russia,* through his own merits, was exalted to the dignity of Chancellor of the empire, to that of Count of the Holy Roman Em¬ pire, conferred on him by Joseph II., in the year 1784, and to that of a Russian Prince, granted by Paul I. in unfortunate constitution,” he says, “ condemned her to daily excesses, the privation of which would kill her,” (see page 108, under Art. Counts Potemkine), if admitted to be correct, would break asunder all family ties, and render the genealogy of illustrious houses a frivolous luxury, Princess Daschkaw did honour to Eussia in that, though a friend of the Empress, she did not share her principle about the “ prejudice of vir¬ tue.” This doctrine has rendered the legitimacy of her son Paul, and consequently that of all her posterity uncertain. Among the prin¬ cipal causes of the revolution in 1762, J. Williams has quoted the imprudent declaration, which Peter III. made to several of his friends, of having Tormed a resolution to dissolve his marriage with the Empress Catherine II., to declare his son illegitimate, and to shut up both the mother and the son in a convent for the rest of their lives. See “On the Northern Governments, &c.” by J. Williams. London, 1777. Yol. ii. page 213 .—Note of the Translator. * Count Alexander Bezborodko, following the example of Count Munich, was a fanatical partizan of the exclusive eastern policy for Eussia, and his opinion was shared by Count Panine, Prince Potemkine, and many others .—Note of the Translator. I 114 FAMILIES OF THE the year l797> April 5th. He died a bachelor in the year 1799. Through his powerful influence, he got for his brother, General Elias Bezborodko, the title of Count of the Holy Boman Empire, in the year 1784, December 3rd, and that of Russian Count on the 5th of April, 1797- The Count Elias died in the year 1816, and in default of male posterity, he got pre¬ viously the authorization to transmit his name to Count Alexander Kousheleff, his grandson. Counts Dmitrieff-Mamonoff. This family, regis¬ tered in the velvet book, pretends to derive from Rurik ; but without foundation. Its authentic nobility remounts to the fourteenth century. John Dmitrieff-Mamonoff, was united by a clandestine marriage to the Czarevna Prascovia, a niece of Peter I., daughter of John V., and sister to the Empress Ann. He had no children. General Alexander Dmitrieff-Mamonoff, one of the favourites of Catherine I., was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Joseph IL, on the 5 th of May, 1788, and Russian Count by Paul I., in the year 1797, April 5 th. His only son, the Count Mathias, in the year 1812, enlisted a whole regiment at his own ex¬ pense. He is unmarried.* * Pursuant to the official report of the Commission of Inquiry, pub¬ lished in the year 1826, Count Mamonoff, with General Michael Orloff and TourgueniefF were busy in forming another patriotic society, a branch of that of the “Union of Public Welfare,” which kindled the abortive revolution of the 14th of December, 1825 .—Note of the Trans¬ lator. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 115 Counts Zavadovsky. Basily Zavadovsky, a govern¬ ment clerk in Lesser Russia, had three sons, Peter, Elias, and Jacob, all created Counts of the Holy Ro¬ man Empire by Francis II. in the year 1794, June 27th, and Russian Counts by Paul I. on the 8th of April, 1797* The Count Peter, a meritorious individual, was one of the favourites, and afterwards one of the principal minis¬ ters of Catherine II. Under the reign of Alexander, he was commissioned to organize the ministry of public instruction. Counts of Buxhoevden. An ancient and illustri¬ ous Livonian family, well known since the thirteenth centurv. General Frederick, of Buxhoevden, who held the chief command of the army of invasion in Finland, in the year 1808, was created Prussian Count by the King Frederic William II., on the 18th of December, 1795, and Russian Count by Paul I., in the year 1797, April 5th. Counts Kamensky. Their nobilitation is dated in the year 1614. Field-marshal Michael Kamensky, one of the most brilliant captains ever produced in Russia, was created Count in the year 1797, April 5tli. One of his sons, Count Nicolas, inherited the military talents of his father, and was the Commander-in-chief of the army of operation against the Turks ; he died thirty years old, in 1811. 116 FAMILIES OF THE Counts Kakhovsky. General Michael Kakhovsky, a noble from the government of Smolensk, was created Count in the year 1797, April 5th. He left two sons, who were never married.* Counts Goudovitch of the elder branch. Basily Goudovitch, an officer from the Lesser Russia, had several sons. Andrew was an aide-de-camp of Peter III. : he never abandoned that prince until his death, was wounded in his defence against the villains who murdered him, and lived in retirement till the accession * After the decease of the. Emperor Alexander in the year 1825 at Taganrog, bloody scenes marked the streets of St. Petersburg. On the 14th of December, 1825, an insurrection broke out, guided by Pesfel, Mouravieff, Bestusheff, Ryleieff, and Kakhovsky. The conspirators pro¬ claimed the Grand-Duke Constantine as the successor of Alexander I., though some years before he had abdicated his right of succession, in favour of his younger brother Nicolas. But a pretext was necessary for them to raise the people. A part of the Imperial guards and respectable citizens, aided by the common people, for some hours desperately fought against the Emperor Nicolas. The insurrection being quelled in the capital, Mouravieff escaped to the south of the empire, in the government of Kiew, raised the standard of freedom at Wassilkoff, and directed his views to Bialotserkieff, a rich demesne of the Countess Branicka. The Russian association of the “ Faithful sons of the Country ” had its rami¬ fications in Poland : its members looked upon that country, the Caucasus, and the land of the Cossacks, among the most hostile population to the Government, as the basis of their operations. They calculated also on the co-operation of Yermolloff, Governor-General of Georgia. But the revolution was too soon suppressed in its infancy to get further extension ; its chief promoters, Pestel, Mouravieff, Bestusheff, Ryleieff, and Kakhovsky were condemned to death, a great many to hard labour for life, with de¬ gradation and forfeiture of nobility, and in some cases exiled to Siberia, or compelled to serve as common soldiers in the Caucasus —Note of Tr. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 117 of Paul to the throne. Paul commenced by calling him to his person, and treating him as a friend, but one fine morning expelled him from the Court. This respectable man died in the year 1807. His brother, Field-Marshal John Goudovitch, a conspicuous commander, was created Count in the year 1797, April 5th, and died in 1820, leaving an only son, the Count Andrew, who had no male posterity. The younger sons of the Field-Marshal were created Counts by the Emperor Alexander, in the year 1802, December 12th. Counts Moussine-Poushkine. A registered family in the velvet book , and whose nobilitation is traced up to within the thirteenth century. The boyard John Moussine-Poushkine was created Count by Peter I., in the year 17 10 . His grandson, Field-Marshal Count Valentine, had one son, Count Basily, who by adoption inherited the illustrious name of Bruce,* and without leaving posterity, expired in the year 1836. With him the elder branch of Counts Moussine-Poushkine became extinct. The present branch descends from Alexis Moussine-Poushkine, procurator of the Synod under the reigns of Catherine and Paid, who was created Count in the year 1797, April 5th. One of the members of Moussine-Pouslikine’s family was created Count of the * The house of Bruce gave kings to Scotland. One of the branches of this family, in the time of Cromwell, had settled in Russia, and received the title of Russian Counts from Peter I. It became extinct in the male line, in the year 1791. 118 FAMILIES OF THE Holy Roman Empire by Joseph II. in the year 1780, but left no male posterity. Counts of Sievers. A good Livonian noble family. Charles of Sievers was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Francis I., in the year 1760. His nephew, Jacob of Sievers, ambassador at Warsaw, a distinguished diplomatist, was created a Russian Count in the year 1797- Counts of Osten-Sacken. The Barons of Osten- Sacken are a very good noble family of Courland. The Baron Charles, an under-tutor of the Emperor Alexander and the Grand-Duke Constantine, was created Count in the year 1797, June 21st.* Counts Strogonoff. —Although the nobilitation of this family is quite modern, its illustration is one of the finest and most national ever recorded in Russia. Great vassals rather than subjects of the Czars, they were territorial lords, previous to their being noblemen : a singular and unparalleled example in the annals of Russia ! An ancestor of this noble familv, Anika Strogonoff, an opulent merchant of Novgorod, pos¬ sessed immense estates and salt-pits at the foot of the * Another member of the same family became the Field-Marshal of the Russian armies, and was created Count in the year 1821, and Prince in 1832, November 8th. He died a bachelor in 1837. It is the same individual who was the Governor of Paris in the year 1814. COUNTS OP RUSSIA. 119 Ouralian Mountains, in the beginning of the six¬ teenth century. His sons and nephews, harassed by the endless incursions of the savage tribes of Siberia upon their territory, sent to a famous brigand of that time, called Yermak, of Cossack origin, a message to the fol¬ lowing effect : “ The. handicraft you practise, sooner or later, will bring you to the scaffold : instead of pursuing that shameful course, take the money we offer to you, and go and chastise the Siberian tribes. It is the only way for you to merit full forgiveness, and the favour of the Czar.” Yermak relished the advice, went to Siberia at the head of his gang, composed of seven hundred desperados, spread terror among those tribes, who did not as yet know the use of fire-arms, dethroned the reigning dynasty in that country, and having achieved the conquest of the whole of western Siberia, offered the homage of that kingdom to the Czar John IV., sur- named the terrible. The Czar granted to this hero a full pardon, named him a vo'ievode (viz. the Governor- General), and bestowed upon him vast estates. At the same time he granted to the family of Strogonoff mag¬ nificent demesnes, and a right to trade throughout all Russia, free from all taxes and duties whatsoever. During the war of independence against the Poles, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, these noble merchants sacrificed immense sums of money, levied a whole division of troops at their own expense, refused to listen to the brilliant offers of the Poles, and at the accession of the Romanoff dynasty, the Czar 120 FAMILIES OF THE Michael, in conjunction with the two Legislative Chambers,* granted to them the title of “ distinguished men” (imenityie liuodi), a title never granted to any other family. In consequence of the same Act, they had the right to maintain their own troops ; their own for¬ tresses ; their own jurisdiction, to be independent of any local authorities ; and in case of need, to be tried only jointly by the Czar with the two Legislative Chambers. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, this illus¬ trious house, allied already to the greatest names of Russia (as to the Galitsyne, the SaltykofF, and so forth), found itself represented only in the person of Gregory StrogonofF, who, first of his family, came to reside at Moscow, He had three sons : Alexander, Nicolas and Serge, who, by the stroke of a pen, with that arbitrary and violent temperwhich characterized Peter I.,were stripped of all their privileges, so nobly purchased by their fore¬ fathers, and by way of indemnity, the Czar gave them the title of Russian Barons in the year 1722. The Baron Alexander had no male issue. The Baron Nicolas constitutes the trunk of the elder branch of Barons StrogonofF, exalted by the Emperor Nicolas to •the dignity of Counts. The Baron Serge was the founder of the younger branch, which became the first branch of the family bearing the title of Counts. The only son of Baron Serge, the Baron Alexander, great-chamberlain and a member of the council of the empire, married * The house of Boyards and the house of Commons, (see page 72.) COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 121 first Countess Ann WoronzofF, the only daughter of the Chancellor Count Michael WoronzofF, and a relation to the Empress Elizabeth.* This alliance brought to him the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire, granted by Francis I. in the year 1761» May 30th, and that of Russian Count, conferred upon him by Paul I., in the year 1798, April 21st. This only son, General Count Paul, deceased in 1817, enjoyed the friendship of the Emperor Alexander, and his widow, the Countess Sophie StrogonofF, born Princess Galitsyne, who was the inti¬ mate friend of the Emperor Alexander, and of the virtuous and intellectual Empress Elizabeth (his wife), presents now at St. Petersburg, the most perfect stamp of a clever, amiable, and great lady, in the broadest sense of the word. Her only son, the Count Alexander, having perished at the battle of Craon, in the year 1814, she, with her husband, got permission, in the year 1816, to transmit the title of Count to their relation and son-in-law, General Baron Serge StrogonofF, chan¬ cellor of the University of Moscow, one of the most distinguished men in Russia. The father of Count Serge, Baron Gregory, formerly minister of Russia at Madrid and Constantinople, at this day Great-cup¬ bearer, and a member of the council of the empire, was himself created Count in the year 1826, August 22nd. Counts of Pahlen. A good noble family of Cour- land, created Barons by the King of Sweden, Charles * See page 111. 122 FAMILIES OF THE IX., in the seventeenth century. The famous baron, Peter Pahlen, governor-general of St. Petersburg, and an assassin of Paul I., had been created Count by the same Czar in the year 1799, February 22nd. This villain died in the year 1826, leaving behind four sons, who, by their very creditable character, have earned a general esteem. The general, Count Paul, who died in the year 1836, was a distinguished officer. The Count Peter, one of the most gallant Russian generals, had no small part of glory in the campaigns of 1812, 1813 and 1814, as well as during the more recent wars in Turkey and Poland. This brave and loyal general is now ambassador of Russia in Paris, and a member of the council of the empire, where his brother, noble and as loyal as himself, has also a seat. Counts Kousheleff. Their nobilitation dates from the sixteenth century. Admiral Gregory Kousheleff was created Count in the year 1799, February 22nd. He died in 1833, leaving behind two sons, the elder of whom, Count Alexander, had inherited the name of his maternal grandfather the Count Bezborodko (see page 114), and the other, General Count Gregory, has no issue from his marriage with Catherine Wassilchikoff, niece to the prince of that name. Counts Rostopchin. Their pedigree claims to re¬ mount to Genguiskhan, but their genuine nobility is of the sixteenth century. General and great-chamber- COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 123 lain, Theodor Rostopchin, a clever and ingenious man, minister of foreign affairs during the reign of Paul, and afterwards celebrated by the station he occupied at Moscow in 1812, as governor-general, was created Count in 1799, February 22nd. Counts Orloff-Denissoff. A family not to be con¬ founded with Counts Orloff. Theodor Denissoff, from a simple Cossack, through his bravery and honourable character, rose to the rank of General-in-chief, and Hetman of the Don-Cossacks ; and in return for his achievements in Italy, during the time of its conquest by the great Souvaroff, was created Count, in the year 1 799, April 4th. He had no male posterity, in default whereof he got permission to transmit his name and title to his grandson. General Basily Orloff, who sprung from a Cossack family also, a brave and honourable man, who signalized himself in the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814.* * Among all the Cossacks, the Don-Cossacks are the most considered and cajoled by the Crown. They are living along the Don, on a great extent of territory, comprising the Governments of Ecaterinoslaff, Vo- ronesh, Saratoff and the Caucasus, with the male population of 240,000 souls. Tcherkask is their capital. In time of serious war, they gene¬ rally furnish 36,000 soldiers, of excellent light cavalry. In order to attach them to the Crown, the heir to the throne of Russia now bears the name of the Hetman of Don-Cossacks. They elect their own hetmans, and Count Orloff, Count Platoff, Sazanoff, Yellowoisky, Czarnozouboff, Ulianoff, Yefromy, Konovalsky, &c. were raised to that dignity from private soldiers, by the suffrages of their comrades. They possess some farther privileges, which are partly shared by other Cossacks throughout 124 FAMILIES OF THE Counts Koutaissoff.* John Koutaissoff, a Circas¬ sian slave, brought to St. Petersburg, and installed as a butler to the Grand-Duke Paul, rose gradually to the rank of Equerry-in-Waiting, and to that of Baron; at last he got the title of Count, under the reign of his master, in the year 1799, May 5th.j* the empire. These are: the Tchernomorskïeor the Black-Sea Cossacks; —the Cossacks of the Bug (composed of Moldavian, Yalachian and Bul¬ garian refugees) ;—the Cossacks of the Volga;—the Cossacks of Mosdok; —the Cossacks Grebienska'ia;—the Cossacks Seymen;—the Cossacks of Ural (formerly of the Yaik, who produced the famous robber Pougatcheff, who made Catherine the Great tremble upon her throne) ;—the Cossacks of Astrakhan, and the Cossacks of Siberia. Many of the Don-Cossacks, persecuted, or those who wanted to recover their ancient privileges, have emigrated to Turkey and Gallicia. Not only a great number of Don- Cossacks, who made a fearful revolt under Stenko-Bazin, and left Bussia, on account of religious and political persecutions, during the reign of Catherine I., but also many of those of the Ukraine, the Zaporoshny, J and other Cossacks, have settled in Turkey, and are the bitterest enemies of Bussia.— Note of Tr. * Prom Kutai's, a town in Georgia.— E. Editor . f After the campaign of Italy, in the year 1799, when Souvaroff returned to St. Petersburg, Paul did not display much feeling of propriety in sending Koutaissoff, to compliment the illustrious general upon his safe arrival. The witty and sharp warrior said to him, “Excuse, my dear count, an old man, whose memory slackens. I can recollect no¬ thing about the origin of your illustrious family, or perhaps you got your title of count for some grand victory ?” “ I never was a soldier, prince,” replied the ex-valet. “ Oh ! then, you have no doubt been an ambas¬ sador ?” “No!” “Minister?” “Neither.” “ What important post then did you occupy ?” “ I had the honour to serve his Majesty in the ca¬ pacity of butler.” “Well, that is very honourable, my dear count.” In this instant he rang the bell for his own butler, and addressed him in | Zaporoshny, i.e. of the Falls of the Dnieper.— E. Editor . COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 125 Counts Wassilieff. Alexis Wassilieff, from a subal¬ tern clerk, arrived at the dignity of Chancellor of the Exchequer, was created Baron in the year 1797; and Count in 1801, September 15th. He may be considered one of the most honourable statesmen possessed by Russia. In default of male posterity, he got permission, in the year 1807, to transfer his title to his nephew, Wladimir Wassilieff. Counts Tatistcheff. (See page 90.) Counts Protassoff. One of the branches of this family, whose nobility runs back to the fourteenth cen¬ tury, and occupies a very distinguished place in the annals of Russia, got the title of Counts in the year 1801, September 15th. Its only surviving representative. General Count Nicolas Protassoff, one of the cleverest and most learned men in Russia, is at present Procurator of the Synod ; he has no children by his marriage with Princess Natalia Galitsyne. Counts Goudovitch. A younger branch (see page 116.) - the following strain : “ I say, Troschka ! I have told you repeatedly everyday, that you must give up drinking and thieving ; and you don’t listen to me. Now, look at that gentleman : he has been a butler like yourself, but being neither a drunkard nor a thief, you see him now a great equerry-in-waiting to His Majestj, a knight of all the Russian orders, and Count of the Empire ! You must follow his example.” 126 FAMILIES OF THE Counts Platoff. The brave and honest Platoff, who from a simple Cossack, through his merit, rose to the rank of General-in-Chief, and earned a fine name as Hetman of the Don-Cossacks, during the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814, was created Count on the 29th of October, 1812.* Counts Benningsen. Baron Benningsen, a Hano¬ verian nobleman, entered the Russian service under Catherine, was one of the murderers of Paul, and a General-in-chief during the reign of Alexander. Being a distinguished commander, he obtained the title of Count, in the year 1813, October 8th; viz. on the very day of the entry of the Allies into Leipzig. Counts of Lambsdorff. General Mathias of Lambs- dorff, a nobleman of Courland, was a tutor to the Emperor Nicolas, and to the Grand-Duke Michael ; he received the title of Count at the time of the marriage of the Emperor Nicolas, in the year 1817, July 2nd. Counts Konovnitsyne. An ancient and illustrious family, registered in the velvet booh, whose nobility dates from the fourteenth century ; its origin is common with that of the houses of BomanofF and Sheremeteff. General Peter Konovnitsyne, created Count in the year 1819, December 12th, signalized himself in the cam- * See note of the translator under Counts Orloff-Denissoff, page 123. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 127 paign of 1812; he was afterwards the War Minister, and principal Inspector of the military schools. This distinguished soldier, able manager, and honest man, died in the year 1822.* Counts Gourieff. Alexander Gourieff, (whose father was ennobled) had occupied the post of principal steward on the estates of Peter Schouvaloff, the famous minister of Elizabeth ; and the protection of the Schouvaloff family, helped his son to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer under the reign of Alexander. Dmitry Gourieff, created Count in the year 1819, December 12th, died in 1825, bequeathing an immense fortune to his two sons, who, through the honesty of their character, obtained a good reputation. The elder. Count Alexander, is at present a member of the Council of the Empire ; the second, Count Nicolas, has occupied with distortion many diplomatic stations. Counts Orloff. In the course of the execution of the Strelitzzes under Peter I., at which that prince had himself the strange pleasure to preside and co-operate, a young Strelitz, John, surnamed Orell (an eagle), was called to put his head upon the block ; finding on his way the head of one of his comrades, he kicked it, saying : “ Get out of the way, I must have room here \” Peter I., who saw it, struck with the calm deportment of this * A lieutenant Count Konovnitsyne was an accomplice in the plot against the Crown in the year 1825, according to the official report of the Committee of Inquiry .—Note of the Translator. 128 FAMILIES OF THE young fellow, granted him pardon, and placed him as a soldier in a regiment of the line. The intrepid Strelitz, by his courage, acquired the rank of an officer, and conse¬ quently that of a gentleman. His son, General Gregory, Governor of Novgorod, had five sons, viz. : John, Gregory, Alexis, Theodore, and Wladimir. The second of his sons, (born in the year 1734, and deceased in 1788), was a lover of Catherine II., and jointly with his brother Alexis, contributed a great deal tô the elevation of that Princess to the throne, who, in the way of ac¬ knowledgment, gave all the five brothers the title of Count, in the year 1762, September 22nd. The Count Gregory, Grand-Master of Artillery, was created Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by Joseph II., in the year 1772. The influence of the Orloff family, backed by the Imperial Guards, was so powerful, that, in October, 176% they had nearly prevailed upon Catherine to marry Gregory Orloff ; and in that case this upstart would have assumed the title of Emperor. To frustrate that audacious scheme, neither more nor less was neces¬ sary than a double opposition combined together, viz. : that of Count Nikita Panine, tutor of Paul I., a very influential person with the high aristocracy, and that of Marshal Count Zakhary Czernysheff, War-Minister, very influential in the army. The Prince Gregory and his two brothers, Counts John and Theodore, left no legitimate posterity. The Count Alexis, one of the murderers of Peter III., who had the chief command at the famous battle of Chesmé, where the Turkish fleet COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 129 was destroyed in the year 1770 , and who received for it the title of Chesmensky,* left an only daughter, Coun¬ tess Ann Orloff-Chesmensky, heiress of one of the most colossal fortunes in Russia, and still unmarried.f The Count Wladimir, deceased in the year 1832, had an only son, the senator Count Gregory, who died without issue, in the year 1826. The Count Theodore left behind many natural sons, to whom Catherine II. granted no¬ bility, and the name of Orlolf. One of them, General Alexis Orloff, member of the council of the empire, and one of the most honourable men in Russia, was created Count in the year 1825, December 25th. J * Count Alexis Orloff was never a sailor, and remained quite inactive during the battle of Chesmé, the success of which Russia owes to the English mariners, and especially to Rear-Admiral Elphinston, who com¬ manded during the action, and still more so to Commodore Greig (a Scotchman), both in the Russian service. Sic vos nos vobis .— Note of the Translator. f With broken heart and low-spirited, she lives quite retired near the YouriefF-Monastery, in the society only of bearded and fanatical monks, upon whom she has bestowed almost all her riches, for the redemption of the soul of her father from eternal damnation, on account of his par¬ ticipation in the murder of Peter III.— Note of the Translator. J The same who was the “ lion ” in Paris at the last Congress, after the war in the Crimea. During the revolt at St. Petersburg, in the year 1825, December 14th, he ran first with the cavalry-guards under his command, and protected the “ winter-palace ” from the invasion of the insurgents. This action gained him the constant favour of the Court. His learned and popular brother, General Michael Orloff, who died some years ago, was of a quite different temper, and never ceased to oppose the arbitrary system of the empire. The credit enjoyed by his brother Count Alexis, with the Emperor Nicolas, prevented his exile to Siberia ; for he compromised himself very often as an abettor of conspiracies.— Note of the Translator. K 130 FAMILIES OF THE Counts Pozzo-di-Borgo. They appear to be the only Counts of the empire of Russia, who are not Rus¬ sian subjects. Charles Andrew Pozzo-di-Borgo, de¬ scended from a Corsican family, admitted to the Russian service in the year 1805, ambassador of Russia in Paris and London, a peer of France, in petto* was created Count by the Emperor Nicolas in the year 1826, August 26th. The biography of this illustrious states¬ man, one of the foreigners who performed the best services to Russia, is too well known to require detail¬ ing here. Never being married, the Count Charles Andrew got permission from the Emperor Nicolas to transmit his title to any of his nephews he might select, and his choice fell upon Charles Pozzo-di-Borgo, who had married Mile. Valentine de Crillon, daughter of the Duke de Crillon, peer of France. Counts Strogonoff, of the second branch of Counts, which became the elder branch of the family (see p. 118). Counts of Toll. An ancient and illustrious fa¬ mily of Livonia, whose nobility and baronage go back to the thirteenth century. General Baron Charles Toll, deceased in the year 1842, one of the most splen¬ did commanders ever recorded in the Russian annals, made himself conspicuous in the wars of 1812, 1813, * See “ L’ annuaire de la pairie et de la noblesse de France,” par M. Borel d’IIauterive, page 312. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 131 and 1814, and during the more recent campaigns in Turkey and Poland ;* he was afterwards a member of the council of the empire and the chief intendant of the bridges and highways, (a post equivalent in Russia to that of a minister.) He was created Count in the year 1829, June 9th, for the part he took in the battle of Koulevtcha, in Turkey, gained by Marshal Diebitch, and to the success of which General Toll had consider¬ ably contributed. Counts Oppermann. General Charles Oppermann, native of Germany, entered the Russian service in the year 1782, and was created Count on the 1st of July, 1829. He was a very distinguished engineer, and a sagacious officer. Counts Cancrine. Francis Cancrine, son of a Hes¬ sian Jew, came to seek his fortune in Russia, under the reign of Catherine. He had the superintendence of the salt pits, called Staraïa-Rousse, and died in the year 1816. His son George Cancrine, chancellor of the * We mentioned in our preface, the existence of two powerful parties in Russia, among the nobility, viz. the old Russian party, and the Ger¬ man one. The Emperor Nicolas, even beyond his predecessors, trusted more to the German than to the national one. Witness his choice of Generals, commissioned to subdue the Poles in the year 1831, whose very names betray their extraction, viz. Eield-Marshal Diebitch, Gene¬ ral Count von Toll, General Count Pahlen, General Rosen, General Sac- ken, General Geismar, General Rudiger, General Kreutz, General Gerstenzweig, General Berg, etc .—Note of the Translator. K 2 FAMILIES OF THE 132 j P exchequer, was created Count in the year 1829, Sep¬ tember 22nd. Counts Golenistcheff-Koutouzoff. This illustri¬ ous family, nobilitated in the fourteenth century, is registered in the velvet book. General Basily Golenis- teheff-Koutouzoff was created Count on the 8th of November, 1832. This house has produced two Field-Marshals, viz. : the celebrated Prince Michael GolenistchefF-KoutouzofF, created Count in the year 1811, and Prince of Smolensk in the year 1812, de¬ ceased without male posterity in the year 1813 ; a fa¬ mous general in the era of Catherine, and ambassador to Constantinople. He gathered immortal laurels in the campaign of 1812, as Commander-in-chief of all the Russian armies. Another Field-Marshal of the same stock, John-Golenistcheff-Koutouzoff, deceased in the year 1802, was the President of the Board of Ad¬ miralty (or the minister of marine), under the reign of Paul. Counts of Benckendorff. An Esthonian burgess family, ennobled towards the end of the seventeenth century. General Alexander Benckendorff, minister of police, was created Count in the year 1832, Novem¬ ber 8th, and in default of male heirs, his title was transferred, on the 15 th of December next year, to his nephew, Mr. Constantine Benckendorff. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 133 Counts Essen. General Count Essen, Governor- general of St. Petersburg, and a member of the council of the empire, was created Count in the year 1833, July 1st, and in default of male progeny, his name was transmitted to his son-in-law, Count of Steinbock- Fermor (see page 105), who is called at present Count Essen-Steinbock-Fermor. Counts Levas hoff. The house of LevashofF origin¬ ally issued from Lithuania, occupies a very respectable place in the Russian history. Its nobility is dated from the fifteenth century.* Basily LevashofF, great-hunts¬ man under Paul, had many natural children, to whom the Emperor^Alexander granted nobility, 'with the name of their father. One of these. General Basily Levas¬ hofF, formerly Governor-general of Kiew, Yolhynia and Podolia, where he left behind a grateful remembrance of his conduct, is now member of the council of the empire. He was created Count in the year 1833. Counts Mordvinoff. John MordvinofF, ennobled in the year 1G82, perished in the battle of Narva, in the year 1 700, leaving his wife with child. Two months afterward she was delivered of a son, called Simon, who became one of the most distinguished Russian admirals in the eighteenth century. He married in an advanced age, and had two sons, Alexander and * One of the branches of the same family is called Sect chine. 134 FAMILIES OF THE Nicolas. Mr. Nicolas Mordvinoff, an admiral still more distinguished than his father, and whose merits are only equal to his honesty, is one of the ablest statesmen ever produced in Russia. He was the Minister of Marine under the reign of the Emperor Alexander, and is at present a member of the Council of the Empire. This venerable Nestor of the Russian statesmen, ninety years old, was created Count in the year 1834, June 25th* Counts Kleinmichel. Andrew Kleinmichel, a Ein- * Towards the end of the last century Russia in earnest took the means of carrying her designs into execution with reference to Turkey. Prince Potemkine began the business, and the Admiral Nicolas Mordvi- noff constructed many men of war at Nicolaieff, Sevastopol and Kherson. Sevastopol appeared as the principal naval port and arsenal in the Black Sea; in reality it was but a vanguard, and Nicolaieff the body of it. Nicolaieff lies thirty versts further from Kherson. The building of this place, undertaken on a desert spot by Prince Potemkine, in the year 1791, owed its extension to the activity of Admiral Nicolas Mordvinoff since 1794, who removed the Admiralty thither from Kherson. The harbour is situated between the Ingul and Bug, which unite at its extremity in an angle formed by the latter. The Admiralty forms a large and close square, and the wharf lies opposite such a curve of the river that vessels launched from the stocks immediately descend the Ingul into the Bug. Admiral Mordvinoff removed every invidious eye from that seat of conspiracy against the Ottoman Empire. Even a colony of Turks, at a short distance from Nicolaieff, established under the superintendence of Salin Aga, was removed in the year 1801 into the district of Karassubar. The Governor-general of Odessa, General Count Michael Woronzoff, and particularly Prince Alexander Menshikoff, Minister of the Marine, have followed the example of Count Mordvinoff". —Note oj the Translator. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 135 nisli peasant enlisted himself as a soldier, and gradually arrived at the rank of Lieutenant-general. His son, General Peter Kleinmichel, chief superintendent of bridges and highways, and a member of the council of the empire, was created Count in the year 1839, March 25th.* Counts Bloudoff. The genuine nobility of this family dates from the sixteenth century. Mr. Dmitry Bloudoff, formerly minister of the interior and justice, now member of the council of the empire, one of the best instructed and cleverest men in Russia, was created Count on the 19th of April, 1842.f Counts Jagousinsky. Paul Jagousinsky, native of Lithuania, and son of a schoolmaster, was an aide-de- camp of Peter I. Self-respect does not allow us to enter into detailed motives of his favour with that Prince, who employed him in sundry diplomatic mis¬ sions, and at last appointed the man as a procurator of the senate (viz. minister of justice). Named after¬ wards great-equerry in waiting, he was created Count * Count Kleinmichel, a very unpopular favourite of the Emperor Nicolas, was dismissed, together with the notorious General Doubelt, chief of the secret police at St. Petersburg, and some other unpopular dignitaries, by the Emperor Alexander II .—Note of the Translator. f Bloudoff owed his constant favour with the Court, chiefly to his ardour in prosecuting the accused of the conspiracy in the year 1825, during their process .—Note of the Translator. 136 FAMILIES OF THE by the Empress Ann, in the year 1731, January 19th. # His only son, General Count Serge, died without pos¬ terity, in the year 1806, and his widow, at present ninety years old, resides at Moscow. Counts Razoumovsky. Gregory Razoumovsky, a peasant of the Lesser-Russia, had two sons, Alexis and Cyrill. Alexis Razoumovsky, (born in the year 1709 and deceased in 1771) was a chanter in the Court- chapel. The Grand-Duchess Elizabeth took a fancy to him, and accepted him as a lover; and when she mounted the throne, she named him Great-Hunts¬ man and Field-Marshal, and married the man clandes¬ tinely.*}- It was also through her care that he was in¬ stalled Count of the Holy Roman Empire by the Em¬ peror Charles VII. in the year 1744, May 16th, and in the same year on the 15th of July, she created him a Russian Count. All his offspring by his marriage with the Empress died in childhood. His brother Cyrill, (born in the year 1728, deceased in 1803) was created Count in the year 1744, July 15th, and in 1750 he was elected to the dignity of Hetman of the Lesser- ltussia, and to that of the Marshal of the Empire, being only twenty-two years old at the time. He was desirous * On account of his services to the Crown in the revolution of 1730. See the Translator’s note, under Princes Dolgorouky, page 53. f The ceremony of that marriage took place in the church of a village called Perovo, in the neighbourhood of Moscow. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 137 of rendering tlie dignity of Hetman hereditary in his fa¬ mily, but Catherine the Great deprived him of it in the year 1764.* These two brothers^ though originally of * Here is another instance of the wish to detach the centre of the Lesser- Russia, viz. the Cossacks of the Ukraine from the Empire. We must carefully distinguish thé Cossacks of the Ukraine from other Cossacks. They had formerly many privileges granted particularly to them by the Polish kings Sigismund I. and Bathory. They possessed free property, a right to elect their own Chief, or Hetman, they had a royal banner (Cun-chouck), a staff of commandment and a seal of their own. They elected their Senators, viz. Obozny, Soudïa, Pisar, and Yessavoul. The town of Tcherkassi, and then Trekhtimiroff became the capital of their State. Sigismund III. the king of Poland diminished their privi¬ leges, and a part of them renounced their allegiance to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and accepted the union with the Catholic Church in the year 1595. These proceedings revolted the rest of the Cossacks under their brave hetman Bohdan Khmielnitzky, who with a considerable part of them passed over to the Czar. Under the dominion of Bussia they have lost their most substantial privileges, and were transferred farther to the north-east, under the name of the Cossacks-Slobodiens. For more than a century a part of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, under the Polish banners, resisted those who recognized the Russian protection. In the year 1708, Mazeppa, hetman of the Lesser-Russia, raised the standard of revolt against the Czar on behalf of Poland and Sweden. The enterprise failed, and a horrible persecution of the Cossacks commenced. For some years the nomination of the Hetman was abolished, until the Empress Elizabeth raised to that dignity Count Cyrill Razoumovsky. To punish his ambition to be independent, Catherine II. settled the government of this province under a Russian Governor-general, and attached the country of the Cossacks to the Government of Iview. The gallant Zaporoshe-Cossacks, closely related to those of the Ukraine and formerly tributary also to Poland, with their Sitcha (republic) were completely annihilated by the Ukase of Catherine II. in the year 1775. A part of them were transported to the Isle of Taman, and they are now called the Chrenomorskii , or the Black Sea Cossacks. After tlie Polish revolution, in the year 1830 and 1831, the Cossacks of the Lesser'Russia were deprived even of their small 138 FAMILIES OF THE sucli a low condition, signalized themselves by the noble¬ ness, honesty and liberality of their character, and by making a fair use both of their immense credit and co¬ lossal fortune. Moreover, the Count Cyrill was a man of superior desert. He had many sons, one of whom. Count Alexis, was the Minister of Public Instruction under the reign of the Emperor Alexander, and with the death of his son. Count Peter, which happened at Odessa in the year 1831, the male lineage of the Counts Pazoumovsky became extinct.* Another son of the Count Cyrill, Count Andrew, minister in Sweden and Naples, and then ambassador at Vienna, was created a Russian Prince in the year 1815, but he died without posterity in 1836. The name of Pazoumovsky is still borne by two widows, viz. Princess Pazoumovsky and Countess Leon Pazoumovsky, born Princess Viazemsky. properties. During the last war in the Crimea they raised the standard of revolt, hoping that the Allied armies might assist them. In a word, the Lesser-Russia is a distinct nation. The Poles formed the character of that country, and its Cossacks did exercise and do exercise still perhaps more influence upon the proper Russians, aspiring for liberty, than the Poles themselves ; for the Russians are jealous of the Poles, and they love the Cossacks, and call their country (though quite improperly) the cradle of Russia. In the popular language throughout the empire a Cossack means a freeman, almost a noble. The Russian sovereigns could not avoid the influence of Poland; they were obliged to give some privileges to différent Cossacks, but they colonised them far away from the Polish frontiers. In fact they consider themselves only as an allied people to Russia .—Note of the Translator. * There are still in Austria Counts Razoumovsky, sons of the Count Gregory, (brother of Prince Andrew); but the marriage of Count Gre¬ gory never has been acknowledged in Russia. COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 139 Counts Orloff-Chesmensky, (see page 128.) Counts Samoiloff. Alexander Samoiloff, procura¬ tor-general (or the minister of justice), under the reign of Catherine, was created Count in the year 1795, January 1st. The extinction of his male line took place in the year 1842, and his name is borne at present by his daughter-in-law, Countess Julia Samoiloff, born Countess Pahlen.* Counts Golovine. Their forefather came from the Crimea, and established himself in Russia in the year 1488. This house, registered in the velvet book, has produced several Boyards, and performed an illustrious and glorious part in the annals of Russia. The Boyard Theodore Golovine, great-admiral, field-marshal and * The extant collateral lineage of the same family, are called Counts by courtesy. One day, in the reign of Alexander I., during a review, the Grand-Duke Nicolas lifted up his hand against a young officer, for some very slight inaccuracy in the military evolution. “ Take care, your Highness,” retorted the officer ; “ you see I hold a sword in my hand.” This young man happened to be a Count Samoiloff. At his accession to the throne, the Emperor Nicolas was disappointed not to find him in the list of conspirators. Meantime, having left the military service, the yoxmgNJowit lived quietly at Moscow like a regular dandy. As soon as the Emperor knew it, he wanted to kill him—by ridicule ; —and ordered the manager of the principal theatre in that city to mimic his dress and person on the stage, by the best comic actor. When the piece was over, Count Samoiloff accosted the actor, and said to him : “ I thank you, Sir, you did represent me exceedingly well; but there is one fault I find in your performance ; you have not a brilliant ring I usually wear ; be so good as to accept it, and wear it whenever you are ordered to counter¬ feit me .”—Note of the Translator. 140 FAMILIES OF THE chancellor of Peter L, ambassador to China, and mi¬ nister of foreign affairs, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire, by Leopold I., in the year 1702, No¬ vember 16th. His son, the Count Nicolas, was an admiral, and president of the Board of Admiralty, (viz. the minister of marine.) Counts Zouboff. The pretensions of the Zouboff family ascend to the thirteenth, but their genuine nobi¬ lity is of the seventeenth century. Plato Zouboff, among many, was the last favourite of Catherine, and great- master of artillery at twenty-six ; he obtained for his father, Senator Alexander Zouboff, the title of Count of the Holy Roman Empire, granted by Francis II. in the year 1793, February 7th, and for himself the dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, conferred by the same Emperor in the year 1796, June 2nd. The Count Alexander had four sons, viz. the Count Nicolas, founder of the elder branch of Counts Zouboff ; the Count Dmitry, founder of the younger branch ; the Prince Plato, and the Count Valerian; the two last-named died without male posterity. The Count Nicolas, one of the murderers of Paul, struck that unfortunate Prince the last blow, which split his temple ; and at the coro¬ nation of Alexander, he was named the Grand-equerry in waiting ;—the Prince Plato was a worthy rival of his elder brother, in the same tragedy ;—the two other brothers, Count Dmitry and Count Valerian, were honourable men ; the latter a distinguished military COUNTS OF RUSSIA. 141 officer, made himself a great reputation by his cam¬ paign in the Caucasus, and by taking Derbent in the year 1796. Counts Markoff. Arcadius Markoff, son of a subaltern clerk, through his merits, under the reign of Catherine II. rose to the highest dignities in the state ; under the reign of Alexander, he was ambassador in France, and died in the year 1827, without leaving any male issue. The Emperor Francis II., had honoured him, as well as his two brothers, Heraclius and Elias, with the dignity of Counts of the Holy Homan Empire, in the year 17 96, June 29th. The Count Heraclius, a general-officer of distinction, earned a high reputa¬ tion by the integrity of his chivalrous character. CHAPTER IV. FAMILIES REGISTERED IN THE VELVET BOOK. (The extant families only are named in the following list.) 1. The Babarykine, (see page 95). 2. The Belkine. 3. The Bobristcheff-Pouchkine. 4. The Borozdine. 5. The Boutourline, (see page 106). 6. The Dmitrieff-Mamonoff, (see page 114). 7. The GlebolF. 8. The Gleboff-Streschneff. 9. The Golenistcheff-Koutouzoff, (see page 132). 10. The Golovine, (see page 139). 11. The Jerebtzoff. 12. The Islenieff. 13. The Khvostoff. 14. The Kologrivoff. 15. The Koltovsky. 16. The Kolytcheff. 17. The Konovnitsyne, (see page 126). 18. The Koutouzoff. 19. The Kvachine-Samarine. 20. The Ladyshine, (seepage 95). 21. The Lapoukhine. FAMILIES IN THE VELVET BOOK. 143 22. The Lapteff. 23. The Loupandine. 24. The Miatleff. 25. The Moussine-Pouslikine, (see page 117)* 26. The Nepluieff. 27. The Novossiltsoff. 28. The Otiaieff. 29. The Plestcheieff. 30. The Pouchkine. 31. The Poustorosleff. 32. The SahourofF. 33. The Saltykoff, (see page 81). 34. The Samarine. 35. The Shafroff. 36. The Sheremeteff, (see page 95). 37. The ShishkofF. 38. The Tchoglokoff, (the same origin as that of Saltykoff). 39. The Wekentieff. 40. The WeliaminofF. 41. The WeliaminofF- WoronzofF. 42. The WeliaminofF-ZernofF. 43. The Wolynski. The Belkine, the Khvostoff, the Otiaieff, and the Schafroff, are descended from Alexis Khvoste, the Tysiatskoy (or mayor) of the city of Moscow, in the four¬ teenth century. Dmitry Khvostoff, a nephew, through his wife, of the great Souvaroff, was created Count by Charles Emanuel IV. king of Sardinia, in the year 1799. 144 FAMILIES REGISTERED The Borozdine, the Poustorosleff, and the Shish- koff, as to their nobility, go back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. The Borozdine have produced, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, several distin¬ guished Boyards; Admiral Alexander Shishkoff, an eru¬ dite and upright man, was the minister of public instruc¬ tion from the year 1824 to 1828. The Bobristcheff-Poushkine, the Boutourline (see page 106), the Kologrivoff, the Miatleff, the Mous- sine-Poushkine, (seepage 117)/ and the Poushkine, are descended from an individual called Radscha , who came from Germany to Russia, in the middle of the thirteenth century. The house of Poushkine produced many Boyards in the seventeenth century, and in the eigh¬ teenth it gave birth to the celebrated Alexander Poush¬ kine, (born in the year 1799, and deceased in 1837), the most national poet that ever existed in Russia, and whose name constitutes an era in Russian literature. The Gleboff, the Koltovsky, the Lapoukhine, (see page79),theLAPTEFF and theLouPANBiNE, are descended from Gleb, a distinguished commander, towards the end of the. fourteenth century. The house of Gleboff has produced ministers and general officers of distinction. General Alexander Gleboff, procurator-general (or mi¬ nister of justice and police), under Peter III. and Cathe¬ rine II., was married to the Countess Maria Hendricoff, (see page 103), first cousin of the Empress Elizabeth, and IN THE VELVET BOOK. 145 an aunt of Peter III. His brother, General Theodore Gleboff, married the last heiress of the StreshnefF family,* and his grandson bears at present the name of Gleboff-Streshneff. The nobility of Koutouzoff, together with Golen- ischeff-Koutotjzoff (see page 132), dates from the fourteenth century. That of Jerebtzoff, together with Plestciieieff, goes back to the beginning of the fourteenth century. The illustrious house of PlestcheiefF produced many boyards, and remarkable men, in the fifteenth and six- tenth centuries. From this family sprung the Arch¬ bishop Alexis, of Moscow, who contributed so much to the centralization of power in Russia, in the fourteenth century. He was canonized by the Russian church, and his relics repose in the monastery of Khoudovo at the Kremlin. The Islenieff, the Weliamxnoff, and the Welia- minoff-Woronzoff, trace up their nobility to the be- * The founder of the Romanoff dynasty, Czar Michael, married the Princess Maria Dolgorouky, in September, 1624, (see page 52). Being a widower in January, 1625, he entered again into matrimony with Eu- doxia Streshneff, daughter of Lucian Streshneff. In the course of the seventeenth century, this family produced several boyards and remark¬ able men, both in war and civil government. Its extinction took place towards the end of the eighteenth century. L 146 FAMILIES REGISTERED ginning of the fourteenth century. One branch of this family, which bore the name of Woronzoff, pro¬ duced some celebrated boyards, and became extinct in the year 1576. The Weliaminoff house produced in the nineteenth century, some general officers of conse¬ quence. The Kolycheff, whose origin is in common with the house of Romanoff and Scheremeteff, has produced several boyards. One. of the Kolycheff was an envoy of Russia to Paris, in the time of the Consulate. The Nepluieff, a branch of the same house, produced some boyards, warriors, and distinguished civil fuuction- aries. The Samarine and the Kvashnine-Samarine. Their forefather came from Lithuania, in the fourteenth cen¬ tury, and his son, Rodione Kvashnia, was a celebrated boyard. The Novossiltsoff nobility goes back to the four¬ teenth century. The most distinguished* individual of this family was Nicolas Novossiltsoff, minister resident of the Emperor in the kingdom of Poland, afterwards president of the council of the empire, and of that of the cabinet ministers at St. Petersburg, created Count * The Poles view him in the same light as the Russians do the Count Arakchéieff (see page 174 ).—Note of the Translator. IN THE VELVET BOOK. 147 by tlie Emperor Nicolas in the year 1835. and deceased without anv issue in 1838. V The Sabouroff, and the Weliaminoff-Zernoff, are of the same origin as the illustrious house of Godounoff, which reigned in Russia from the year 1598 to 1606. (The unreigning branches of the Godounoff house were extinct about the end of the seventeenth century.) The nobility of these families begins in the middle of the fourteenth century. The Sabouroff produced several renowned boyards. The Wekentieff. A branch of the Simsky^s house, illustrious in the military records of Russia, became extinct towards the decline of the sixteenth century. The Wekentieff, extant still, trace up their nobility to the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Wolynski. Their predecessor, a celebrated warrior, came from Yolhynia to Moscow, in the year 1370. He had commanded a division at the famous battle of Koulikovo, in the year 1380, when, for the first time, the Mongolian troops were cut to pieces by the Hussians. This house has produced many boyards and eminent men. Artemius Wolynski, grand-hunts¬ man • and a cabinet minister during the reign of the Empress Ann, is well known in history, on account of his attempt to overthrow Biren, the favourite of Ann ; an attempt which cost its author his head in the year l 2 148 FAMILIES REGISTERED IN THE VELVET BOOK. 1739. We are not aware whether this illustrions family is still in existence.* * His children were sent to Siberia, where they perished. Prince Biren found a fair pretext to undo Wolynski. While he was a cabinet minister, he had written, by an express order of the Empress, a project of reform, in which he praised the constitutional government established in Poland, and particularly the law that no nobleman could be degraded, no property confiscated by the will of the sovereign in that country, &c. This was the chief accusation against him. Wolynski was condemned to be impaled alive, and previously to have his tongue cut out. The Empress commuted the sentence, arid ordered his tongue to be cut out and the right hand to be struck off before the execution .—Note of the Translator. CHAPTER Y. THE BOYARDS FAMILIES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CEN¬ TURY, WHICH COULD NOT ATTAIN TO BE INSERTED IN THE VELVET BOOK. (Wc mention here only the surviving families.) These families are : the Apraxine (see page 97), the Golovkine (see page 96), the Khitroff, the Koudyreff\ (whose nobilitation originated in the sixteenth century), the Jazyhoff, the Matioushkine, the Naryshhine, the Sokovnine, and the Youshkoff. (The nobility of the two-last named families dates from the sixteenth cen¬ tury.) The Khitroff. Their origin is in common with the Apraxine. This house has furnished some general officers of consequence. The Matioushkine. Their nobility dates from the fifteenth century. Dmitry Matioushkine was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Francis I. in the year 1762, November 18th. He expired without leaving any male issue. The Narysiikine. Our object being to write a 150 THE BOYARDS 5 FAMILIES genealogical and not a mythological notice, we shall not discuss the claims of the Naryshkine, who pre¬ tend to issue from the ancient sovereigns of the town of Egra, in Bohemia. Their real name was Yaryshkine, and their nobility is dated from the year 1670. They were ploughmen, in a village called Staro-Kirkino,* situated fifteen miles from the town Mikhailoff, now situated in the government of Biazan. Natalia Yarysh¬ kine, a daughter of Cyrill Yaryshkine, lived at Moscow, in the house of her god-mother, Madam Matveieff, whose husband, from a private soldier, rose to the dignity of Boyard, and acquired the friendship of the Czar Alexis himself, f This Prince, who occasionally honoured Matvéieff with his visits, fell in love with Natalia Yaryshkine, married her on the 22nd of Janu¬ ary, 167E and from that wedlock, Peter I. was horn next year on the 30th of May. Cyrill Yaryshkine, finding his name to he a base one,J got the authoriza¬ tion, not only for himself, hut on behalf of his relations, to take the name of Naryshkine. He was exalted, together with his two sons, John and Leon, to the dignity of Boyard. The son of the Boyard Leon, Alex- * This village is still in existence. f Of this illustrious Boyard, and very able statesman, the only son Andrew, minister of Russia in London and Vienna, was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Charles VI. in the year 1715, February 20th. With the death of his only son Theodore, which happened in the year 1734, the house of boyards Counts Matveieff became extinct alto¬ gether. X This name has an ignoble allusion. OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 151 ander Naryshkine, received from Peter I. in the year l7l6, the title of Count, which neither himself, nor his descendants would ever adopt.* Having grown im¬ mensely rich by the vast estates, granted to them by the Czar Alexis, the Naryshkine family have enjoyed, more or less, till our days, great opulence, and an im¬ mense credit at the Court ; but none of its members has known how to acquire in the annals of the country a distinguished station or a place of eminence. * According to the story related by the Naryshkine themselves, they had refused even the title of Prince : this conceit may be safely ranked together with their sovereignty in the town of Egra. CHAPTER VL THE PRINCELY HOUSES OF POLAND AND LITHUANIA. (Alphabetically arranged.) (We mention here only the surviving families, which inhabit the territory of the Russian Empire, or the kingdom of Poland.) 1. Princes Czartoryski. 2. Princes Czetwertinski-Sviatopolk. 3. Princes Drouçki-Lubecki. 4. Princes Giedroyc. 5. Princes Jablonowski. 6. Princes Lubomirski. 7* Princes Mirski. 8. Princes Oginski. 9. Princes Pouzina. 10. Princes Radziwill. 11. Princes Sangouszko. 12. Princes Sapieha. 13. Princes Scbouiski. 14. Princes Woronecki. 15. Princes Zaionczek. PRINCELY HOUSES OF POLAND. 153 Princes Czartoryski. This house, the most illus¬ trious of Poland, is derived in the male, direct and legiti¬ mate lineage, from Olgerd, Grand-Duke of Lithuania, the fourth son of the great Guedimine, Olgerd was one of the most celebrated sovereigns of his age ; he had eleven sons, the second of whom, Koriboute, (who, when christened afterwards, took the name of Dmitry) reigned at Bransk in Troubtchevsk, and became the source of the Princes Troubetskoy(see page 71), and that of the Princes Woroneçki; the fourth, Korighaillo, being christened took the name of Constantine-Casimir, and became the ancestor of Princes Czartoryski ; the sixth, Jaguello (in Prance commonly called Jagellon), united under his sceptre Poland and Lithuania, and lent his name to the whole dynasty of his grandfather Guedimine.* The * Here is the list of various branches of the house of Guedimine, by order of birthright. Out of one-and-twenty branches, there are but the following seven still in existence :— Princes Havanski (or Khavansky),f existing Russian Princes. Princes Galitsyne, ditto Princes Kourakine, ditto Princes Stcheniateff, an extinct house in the year 1568. Princes Korechi, extinct house. Princes Polonbinski, ditto Princes Troubetskoy, existing Russian Princes. Princes Woronecki. Princes Sbarajski, extinct house. f Aspirates in Polish, and the cognate dialects of Lithuania, &c. are commuted into gutturals in Russian, and the letters G, Gh, Kh, &c. in Russian proper names are frequently only the adaptation of an H to the Muscovite pronunciation. The terminal sky, also, is Russian or Bohe¬ mian ; ski, Polish.— E. Ed. 154 THE PRINCELY HOUSES OF Czartoryski name shines upon every page of the history of Poland, and many of its members were on the eve of being girt with the diadem. Princes Czertwertinski Sviatopolk, Princes Drouçki-Lubecki, Princes Mirski, and Princes Pou- zina, spring from the ancient sovereign-houses, whose possessions were situated in the present governments of Minsk and Volhynia. The two first-named families are illustrious in the history of Poland upon many grounds. Prince Xavier Lubecki, one of the most remarkable statesmen in Europe, was the chancellor of the exche¬ quer in the kingdom of Poland, from 1815 to 1830; and he is now a member of the council of the empire at St. Petersburg. Princes Giedroyc. Their ancestors reigned over a part of Lithuania, previous to the accession of the Jaguellon dynasty. Princes Wiszniowieçki, extinct house. Princes Poreçki, ditto Princes Pinski, ditto Princes Sluçki, ditto Princes Bielski, ditto Princes Czartoryski. Kings of Poland of the Jaguellon branch, an extinct house. Princes Tjeslawsky, an extinct house. Princes Mstislawski, an extinct house in the year 1622. Princes Sangouszko. Princes Kochirski, extinct house. Princes Kowelski, ditto POLAND AND LITHUANIA. 155 Princes Jablonowski. The Palatine Jablonowski, grand-master of artillery of the crown under the reign of Sobieski, was created Prince of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Leopold, in the year 1698. Princes Lubomirski. Their authentic nobility originated in the eleventh century ; in the sixteenth century they were created Counts of the Holy Roman Empire; and in the year 1637 we find them exalted to the dignity of Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Lubomirski have filled with glory the highest posts of the state, both in Poland and Lithuania. Princes Oginski. A branch of the ancient Lithua¬ nian family, illustrious in the annals of Poland and Lithuania. Princes Radziwill. A Lithuanian family, no less ancient and illustrious than the former one. The Em¬ peror Maximilian I. exalted Nicolas Radziwill to the dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, in the year 1518. Prince Anthony Radziwill married the Prussian Princess Louisa, cousin of Frederic the Great. * p * # r % Princes Sangouszko. They issue in the male, direct and legitimate line from Lubart, the sixth son of the great Guedimine, and an uncle of Jaguello. 156 THE PRINCELY HOUSES OF Princes Sapieiia. This family,, as ancient and illustrions as those of Oginski and Radziwill, was vested with the princely dignity of the Holy Roman Empire in the eighteenth century. Princes Schouiski. They descend in the male, direct, and legitimate line from that branch of the Rurik house, which had reigned at Souzdal in the present government of Wladimir. Had they preserved their title of Russian Princes, they would, by the order of birthright, be ranked in the list, between the Oukhtomsky and the Gagarine families (see page 59). This old and illustrious house has produced several remarkable characters ; the Prince Basily Schouiski, elected Czar of Russia in 1606, reigned four years.* The great name of Schouiski became extinct in Russia in the seventeenth century ; but one branch of the same family, emigrated to Poland in the sixteenth century, and has continued to flourish there until our own days without interruption. Princes Woronecki. (See the paragraph on the Princes Czartoryski.) * In the year 1610 the Poles took possession of Moscow, and their General Zolkiewski elected the Prince Ladislas of Poland as the Czar of Russia ; however, the Prince Ladislas not consenting to embrace the Greek creed, all Russia rose in revolt, expelled the Poles, and on the 21st of February, 1613, the two chambers {douma boiarskaia and douma zemskaia), put the crown of Russia upon the head of the young Michael Romanoff. POLAND AND LITHUANIA. 157 A Princess Zaionczek. Widow of the General of that name, who made himself conspicuous under the banners of Napoleon and Kosciuszko, was Viceroy of Poland from the year 1815 until his death, and was created Polish Prince by the Emperor Alexander in the year 1820. He died without male issue in the year 1826. - . N.B. Prince Paul Dolgorouky, in his preface to this hand-book, ex¬ presses his extreme sorrow, that he did not possess sufficient materials for an article on the Polish Nobility. This is, no doubt, the reason of the insufficiency of his notice, even on the Princely houses of Poland and Lithuania, hastily written, without judgment and precision. However, we are obliged to leave it intact. To give a just idea of the Polish nobility, would require a voluminous work, and access to the Polish materials thereon : it can be undertaken, therefore, only by some learned Pole. We are assured that for the comprehension of the subject, not only the “ Tabulæ Jablonovianæ,” published at Amsterdam and Nuremberg, without any judgment, by Prince Joseph Alexander Jablonowski, but the laborious works, written in Polish, at different periods, by Paprocki, Okolski, Niesiecki, and Dumzewski, are not sufficient. The untitled nobility of Poland must have been more numerous than any ; for at every election of their kings, upon the plains of Wola, near Warsaw, more than a hundred thousand nobles on horseback, as the representatives of their order, were generally assembled. They had cherished equality amongst themselves, and very few nobles, who descended from the Lithuanian Princes, were allowed to bear their title, even without any privilege at¬ tached to it. The elected kings, JohnSobieski and Stanislas Leszczynski, had no other titles but their personal merits. Even Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski was neither Prince, nor Count, nor Baron ; he had only the advantage of being the nephew of Prince Czartoryski, and his merits, and 158 PRINCELY HOUSES OF POLAND. the protection of Catherine the Great, his former mistress at St. Peters¬ burg, who possessed a baneful influence in Poland at that time. The daughter of Prince James, the elder son of the King John Sobiesld, Clementine, was married in the year 1719 to the first Pretender, James Edward Stuart, son of James II. King of England. The daughter of the King Stanislas Leszczynski, Maria, married the King of Erance, Louis XV., in the year 1725. The titles of Counts and Barons were introduced and multiplied in Poland but lately, by the three Courts who shared in its dismemberment .—of the Translator . CHAPTER VIL PRINCELY HOUSES OF ILLUSTRIOUS FOREIGN ORIGIN, WHO ARE SETTLED UPON THE TERRITORY OF THE EMPIRE, WITHOUT BEING INVESTED WITH THE DIG¬ NITY OF RUSSIAN. PRINCES. (In alphabetical order.) Princes Cantacuzene. An illustrious branch of the house of that name, which had reigned over the East¬ ern empire. Princes of Daghestan. Mahometans till our days, and whose real title is Shamkale Tarkovskyi, vali Dag- hesianskyi, (viz. sovereigns of Tarki, lords of Daghestan.) Tarki is a town in Daghestan, a maritime province near the Caspian sea, where that illustrious family reigns still under the sovereignty of Russia. Princes Doundoukoff-Korsakoff. Aionka, Khan of a horde of Calmucks, during the reign of Peter I. rendered to that Prince the most substantial services, and his grandson Doundouk-Ombo, Khan of the same tribe, in the reign of the Empress Anne, followed his example. One of the sons of Doundouk-Ombo em¬ braced the Christian religion, and called himself, Prince Doundouhoff. The Emperor Alexander authorized Mr. Michael Korsakoff, son-in-law of the last Prince Doun- 160 PRINCELY HOUSES OF doukoff, to inherit the name and title of his father-in- law. Princes Eristoff. Their predecessors possessed a principality in Georgia. The nobility of this illustrious family runs back to the tenth century ; its name means in the Georgian dialect, chief of the people , (eris-taw.) Princes Ghirey, or rather the Khans of Girey (for they are Mussulmans yet) ; were formerly sovereigns of the Crimea. This illustrious house, one of those which descended from Genghis Khan, reigned in that country until the year 1783, the epoch of the compulsory union of the Crimean peninsula with the Russian empire. Should the present reigning dynasty in Turkey expire, the Princes Ghirey, would be legitimate heirs of the Otto¬ man empire ; however, there is hardly any probability that they would be listened to, in establishing their rights to that attractive inheritance.* Princes Grusinsky. (Grusinsky, in the Russian language, means of Georgia ).f This dynasty, one of the most ancient and illustrious in Asia, and whose origin is lost in the darkness of antiquity,J reigned * One of the Princes Ghirey, under the name of Sultan Katty Ghirey, was educated at Edinburgh, and became a missionary in the Caucasus in the first half of the present century.— Engl. Editor. f Georgia, is in Russian, Grusia.— E. E. J They are commonly considered as a branch of the dynasty of Bagratides, who maintained, in the tenth century, the independence of the Armenian nation, in that mountainous country, which encompasses the lake of Wan. ILLUSTRIOUS FOREIGN ORIGIN. 161 in Georgia until the year 1801, when Russia took forcible possession of that country.* Princes Orbelianoff, and Princes Cheychevadze. Two Iberian ancient and illustrious houses, frequently allied with the reigning house of Georgia. Princes of Sayn-Wittgenstein. The house of Sayn, a branch of the Nassau family,f whose nobility runs back to the tenth century, as to the male line, had expired in the thirteenth century, and the daughter of the last Count of Sayn, Countess Adelaide had married * In the above note of the author, the Bagratides ought to be pro¬ perly called Pagratides. The house of Pagratides, a third dynasty of the kings of Armenia reigned in that country from the year 743 to 1079. A prince of the same family established himself in Georgia, and having married an heiress of the kings of that country, transmitted its sove¬ reignty to his descendants, until the beginning of the nineteenth cen¬ tury. They increased their dominion through conquests, and subju¬ gated the countries between the Black Sea and Shirvan, as well as the northern part of Armenia to the banks of the Araxes, and the land of Abkhas beyond the Caucasus. Towards the commencement of the fifteenth century, the kingdom of Georgia was dismembered, and the house of Pagratides divided itself into three principal branches, which constituted the kings of Karthel or Georgia proper, the kings of Kakheti, and the kings of Imreth. The possessions of the two former, re-united into one kingdom at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was ceded to the Emperor Alexander in the year 1802, by David, an heir of the last king of Georgia, George XIII, who lived at St. Petersburg with the title of Prince and the rank of a Russian general .—Note of the Translator. 1 The house of Nassau was divided into many branches, two of which are still extant ; viz. the house of the Dukes of Nassau, and the royal house of Holland. M 162 PRINCELY HOUSES OF Count John of Sponheim. Two sons were horn of this marriage,, the second of whom, Godefroy, w r as called Count of Sayn. His grandson, the Count Valentin, had married Countess Elizabeth Wittgenstein, the only daughter and heiress of the last Count of that name. One of the descendants of Count Godefroy, Christian Louis Casimir, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berlebourg, and an immediate Count of the Holy Roman Empire, had entered the Russian service in the year 1752, and died in 1797, leaving two sons. The eldest, Count Paul Charles Louis, died without posterity in the year 1790. The second, Count Louis Adolphus Peter, (born in the year 1769) was the chief commander of the first corps of the Russian army, during the campaign of 1812, and made himself conspicuous by the victory of Klias- titzy, which protected St. Petersburg from invasion. In the year 1813, he was the chief commander of all the Russian and Prussian armies, during the space of many weeks, and in the month of June, 1834, he was exalted to the dignity of a Prussian Prince, by Frederic William III. This Field-Marshal of the Russian armies, and member of the council’ of the empire, this illus¬ trious and venerable warrior, whose bravery and chival¬ rous integrity are only equal to his modesty, lives at present retired on his estates, in the government of Podolia. The Princes Schervaschidze. This house still reigns in Abbasia, (a maritime country near the Black ILLUSTRIOUS FOREIGN ORIGIN. J 63 Sea), under the sovereignty of Russia. It is a branch of the house of Princes Dadianoff, ancient sovereigns of Mingrelia (see page 75). N.B.—Having mentioned in the above list the houses which, in reference to their illustration, are not inferior to the princely houses of Russia and Poland, we must add two observations: 1°. That many Georgian, Arme¬ nian, Tatar and Calmuck families have impudently usurped the title of Princes, and enjoy it with impunity.* * Much may be related about the brilliant services rendered to Eussia by the Tatar and Calmuck notable families; some of them are men¬ tioned by the author, (see Princes Metschersky, page 75, Princes Ou- roussoff, page 78, Princes Youssoupoff, page 77, Princes Kotchoubey, page 86, Princes Doundoukoff, page 159, Princes Ghirey, page 160, and Counts Golovine, page 139). They console themselves with the title of Princes and Counts, which even sometimes they are suffered by the government to assume themselves, in exchange for the loss of indepen¬ dence. The same may be said about the Georgian, Mingrelian and Iberian Princes, officially recognized, or not recognized : (see the former category in the Princes Bagratione, page 74, Princes Dadianoff, page 75, Princes Gouriell, page 75, Princes Tsitsianoff, page 77, Princes Eri- stoff, page 160, Princes Grusinsky, page 160, Princes Orbelianoff, and Prince^ Chevchevadze, page 161, and Princes Schervaschidze, page 162). Some Armenian notable families particularly aspire to the strange ambition of becoming Eussian subjects altogether. There are already many Armenian Princes in Eussia, and only one family of that nation is mentioned by the author, viz. Princes Argoutinsky-Dolgorouky, (see page 59), with a remark, that their claim to descend from the King of Persia Artaxerxes the long-arm , is ridiculous. This “ pretension” may not be so unfounded as it appears to be at the first glance. The Armenian people, one of the antediluvian nations, is the most aristocratic in the M 2 164 PRINCELY HOUSES OF 2°. That all Princes and Counts who are Russian sub¬ jects, without being Russian Princes or Counts, are registered in the official Book of Armory, containing world. They had a great power, and their own dynasties, not only many centuries previous to Eurik, but before the very existence of Novgorod and Pskoff. Their first Hai'ganian dynasty begins in the year 2107, B. C. and afterwards come the Greek Governors, established by Alex¬ ander the Great; and then the Seljoucides. Their second dynasty glo¬ riously reigned from the year 149, B. C. We mentioned in a note, under Princes Grusinsky, (page 160), their third dynasty, called the Pagratides. Their fourth national dynasty, the Boupeniens, began in the year 1080, and expired in the year 1393, viz. at the time when Eussia groaned under the Tatar yoke. Such a nation must have very ancient nobles. Prom the Circassian people, only a family of Princes Tcher- kasky (seepage 78), and Counts Koutaissoff (see page 124), are mentioned by the Author, with a “ bon mot” of Prince Souvaroff, addressed to Count John Koutaissoff, sprung to that dignity from a Circassian slave. During my stay in Eussia, I saw many inferior officers, and even non-commis¬ sioned officers, Circassians by birth, composing the body-guard about the late Prince Paskevitch, who were suffered to assume the title of Princes. How are we to account for it ? The case appears to be mon¬ strously ludicrous only to those who are not acquainted with the Eastern history. The reign of the two dynasties of Mamelouks (or slaves), viz. the Baharites and Bordyites in Egypt, Syria, &c. lasted altogether 273 years, and made the Eastern and the Western world tremble. Slaves about the Court, they replaced the famous dynasty of Salaheddin (Sala- din), by their own comrades. They have expelled entirely the Pranks from Syria and the adjacent islands. In order to counterbalance the power of the Turkoman Mamelouks, or Baharites, the genius of the Sultan Kalaoun, (a Mameluck himself), devised to take soldiers for his guard from Circassia. Some years after this, they promoted successively to the throne the most able among themselves, to the number of twenty^ six Sultans. They have reigned since the year of the Hegira, 784 to 923, (from 1382 to 1517 of the Christian era). A Circassian Mamelouk, Barkouk, began the dynasty of Bordyites, of elected Circassian Kings in Egypt, Syria, &c. They fought with glory against Timour-Khan (Tamer¬ lane), and Bayezid (Bajazet) sought their alliance. The Klialifs and ILLUSTRIOUS FOREIGN ORIGIN. 165 noblemen of the Russian empire ; but in the class of nobles without titles, though they are allowed to retain their foreign titles. Sultans of Bagdad were their tributaries. They made an expedition to Cyprus, took prisoner its king, John of Lusignan, expelled the Vene¬ tians and Catalans, and rendered that island tributary, as well as the Grand-Masters of. Rhodes. They received embassies of homage from India, and especially from the Princes of Sakalali, from the sove¬ reigns of Kelberdjah, from the sovereigns of Bengal, from the kings of Abyssinia, &c. Egypt, during the reign of the Mamelouks, was the centre of commerce with the East Indies, China, and all Europe, until the year 1495, in the reign of Kanson-Algoury, when the Por¬ tuguese passed beyond the Cape of Good Hope to India. Aschraf- Touman-Bey, the last Egyptian Sultan of Circassian origin, having lost the battle of Rydanyeh in Syria, against the Sultan Selim, the king¬ dom of Egypt became a province of the Ottoman empire, in the year 1517. But the Circassian Princes had the merit of counterbalancing the Turkish empire at Constantinople during sixty-three years, from its occupation by the Osmanlis in the year 1453. The Bordyites knew well how to neutralize still in some way the conquest of Egypt. They have occupied eighty posts of Beys, or governors of so many provinces, and giving thus a new dynasty of Beiks or Ghozzes, they have continued their domination in Egypt. Circassia never ceased to furnish the Ma¬ melouks, and it is amongst them that were reared Alibek, Mourad, and Ibrahim, who revolted openly against the Porte. They contributed to the insurrection of Greece, and supported the brave Mehemet-Ally, who destroyed their institution. Such are the exploits of the Circassian nobles. It is a marvellous episode in the history of that people, which exalts their mind in the present protracted struggle of independence with the colossus of the North. They can never forget that their slaves (Ma¬ melouks), sold in the markets of the Crimea and Syria, were most powerful sovereigns in foreign lands. This is not the only reason why the Russian authorities suffer those Circassians, who are slaves in Russia, to assume sometimes the title of Princes .—Note of the Translator. CHAPTER VIII. HOUSES OF RUSSIAN PRINCES AND COUNTS, WHICH HAYE EXPIRED IN THE MALE LINEAGE. (In alphabetical order.) I. HOUSES ISSUED PROM RURHi WHICH WERE EXTINCT BEFORE THE REIGN OF PETER I. Princes Babteiaroff of Rostoff. Princes Belevsky. Princes Bielsky. Princes BouinossofF of Rostoff. Princes Briouhatyi of Rostoff. Princes Britvi of Rostoff. «/ Princes Dieieff. Princes Gaghine. Princes Glouhovsky. Princes Golenine of Rostoff. Princes Gorbatyi-Schouisky. Princes Gorensky. Princes Gvordeff of Rostoff. Princes Hoholkoff. Princes Hvorostinine. Princes Jijemsky, Princes Kargolomsky. Princes Kaschine. EXTINCT RUSSIAN HOUSES* 167 Princes KatyrëfF of RostofF. Princes Kemsky. Princes KloubkofF-Massalsky. Princes Koubensky. Princes Kourliateff. Princes Kozelsky, Princes Lalovsky. Princes Litvinoff-Massalsky. Princes Lykoff. Princes Molojsky. Princes Novossilsky. Princes Nozdrevatyi. Princes Obolensky-Beloy. Princes Obolensky-Nagoy. Princes Obolensky-Nogteff. Princes Obolensky-Ovtchinine. Princes Obolensky-Serebrianoy. Princes Obolensky-Strigliine. Princes Obolensky-Telepneff. Princes Obolensky-Zolotoy. Princes Ohliabinine. Princes Ossovitsky. Princes Paletsky. Princes Peninsky. Princes Penkoff. Princes Peremysclilsky. Princes Posharsky. Princes Porliovsky. Princes Poujbolsky. 168 HOUSES OF RUSSIAN NOBILITY Princes PriimkofF of RostofF. Princes Riapolovsky. Princes SchastounofF. Princes Sitsky. Princes Skopine-Schonisky. Princes Soughorsky. Princes Temkine of RostofF. Princes Temnosinyi. Princes Taulonpoff. Princes Tonrenine. Princes Trostensky. Princes Velikoghaghine. Princes Youliotsky. The Berezine. The Ivine. The Karpoff DalmatofF. The Ossinine. The Vsevoloshsky. II. HOUSES ISSUED EROM RURIK AND EXTINCT SINCE THE REIGN OE PETER I Princes Andomsky. Princes Daschkaw (see page 112). Princes GoundorofF. Princes JirofF-Zassekine. Princes KorkodinofF. Princes Kourbsky. Princes Mezetsky. WHICH ARE EXTINCT. 169 Princes Rep nine (see page 62). Princes Romodanovsky (see page 60). Princes TroiekourofF. The Poleff.* The Travine. The Zabolotsky. III. PRINCELY HOUSES CREATED, AND NOW EXTINCT. Years of Years of their creation. extinction. 1711. Princes Cantemir (Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the year l723.)f • 1820 1792. Prince Bezborodko . . . 1799 1812. Prince Golenisteheff-Koutousoff . 1813 1815. Prince Razonmovsky . .1836 1832. Prince of Osten-Sacken . . 1837 IY. THE HOUSES OF COUNTS. 1709, Counts Apraxine of the elder branch . 17.*.. 1710. Counts Moussine-Pouchkine of the elder * branch * 1836 1710. Count Theodore Apraxine (Great-admiral) 1728 c * The name of Poleff had been transferred by the Empress Elizabeth to the house of Balk, which was connected with the Poleffs through females. f There had been also in Russia, four Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, none of which left any male posterity ; viz. Mazeppa, deceased in the year 1709; Orloff, created in the year 1772, and deceased in 1783; Potemkine, created in the year 1776, and deceased in 1791; andZouboff, created in the year 1796, and deceased in 1820. i?o HOUSES OF RUSSIAN NOBILITY Years of Years of their creation. extinction. 1721. Counts de Bruce 1726. Count Reinhold de Lowenwolde 1727. Counts Skavronsky . 1730. Counts Ostermann (see page 100) 1730. Count Charles-Gustavus de Lowenwolde. 1731. Counts Jagousinsky (see page 135) 1739. Counts de Lascy (created Counts of the Holy Roman Empire 1741) 1742. Counts BestoushefF-Rioumine (created Counts of the Holy Roman Empire in , the year 1745) 1744. Count Ouschakoff 1744. Counts Roumiantsoff 1744. Counts Razoumovsky (see page 136) 1758. Counts Eermor (see page 105) 1762. Counts OrlofF (see page 127) 1775. Count Potemkine (next year exalted to the dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire) 1793. Count Krechetnikoff 1795. Counts SamoilofF (see page 139) 1797. Count Bezborodko (see page 114) . 1798. Counts StrogonofF (Counts of the Holy Roman Empire since the year 1761), (see page 88) 1799. Count ArakeheiefF . 1799. Count DenissofF (see page 123) 1791 1758 17.- 1811 1735 1806 IS.... 1768 1747 1838 1837 • • • • 1832 1791 1793 1842 1816 1817 1834 1811 WHICH ARE EXTINCT. 171 Years of Years of their creation. extinction. 1801. Count WassiliefF (see page 125) . 1807 1813. Count Miloradovich 1825 1816. Counts Tormassoff . . 1839 1818. Count Wiazmitinoff 1819 1826. Count Alexander TatischefF . 1833 1826. Count Kourouta 1833 1826. Count Pozzo-di-Borgo (see page 130) . 1842 1827- Count Diebitcb-Zabalkansky 1831 1835. Count NovossiltsofF . . 1838 1839. Count Speransky 1839 A WORD ON THE RUSSIAN BARONS. The titles of Prince and Count in Russia are objects of the most vehement cupidity and ambition to the high functionaries of the Empire, but that of Baron has no social value. The title of a Russian Baron even carries with it a ludicrous notion, which is to be chiefly ascribed to the custom of conferring it on the Court Bankers, in a country where the industrious class enjoys no consideration whatever.* In the year 1726 one of the Court dwarfs was seen adorned with the title of Baron (see a note on page 174). Out of the twenty families of the Russian Barons created by Peter I. fourf * That the industrious class is found to be disdained in Russia is owing to the facility given to the sons of rich merchants to be nobilitated through the service, either military or civil. The order of nobility in Russia incessantly absorbs all the chiefs of the industrious class. There is not a single Russian merchant of opulence who would bring up his son with a view to make him one day an heir to his business, and to ren¬ der him capable to maintain honourably the name of his father; he in¬ structs him rather how to become an hereditary nobleman, and as soon as the latter has arrived at his object, he is eager to shew the most base scorn for the profession his father had exercised, and by which he had perhaps acquired the esteem and confidence of his fellow-men. f The Ostermann, the Strogonoff, the Wassilieff, and the Koutaissoff. THE RUSSIAN BARONS. 173 rose to the dignity of Counts, and the eight following still exist. Barons Solovieff. Descendants of two brothers, Russian merchants, who had established a factory in Holland, and upon whom Catherine I. conferred the title of Barons in the year 1727, January 1st. Barons Cherkassoff. John Cherkassoff, private secretary of Peter I. was created Baron by the Empress Elizabeth, in the year 1742, April 25th. His son, Baron John, was a distinguished admiral. Barons Fredericks. John Frederichs, a Court- banker, received from Catherine II. the title of Baron in the year 1773, April 5th. Barons Mestmacher. John Mestmacher, an upper clerk of the private closet of Catherine, was sent by her to Vienna, in order to solicit from Joseph II. on behalf of Count Gregory Potemkine, the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. In the way of reward for the success of that mission, he was created a Russian Baron in the year 1777, July 6th. Barons de Melleii Zakomelsky. John de Meller, General-in-chief under the reign of Catherine II., a distinguished soldier, got from that Princess the title of 174 A WORD ON Baron with the name of Zahomelshy, in the year 1789, June 30th/ Barons Yelho and Barons Ball. Messrs. Velho and Ball, the Court-bankers under the reign of Paul, got from that Prince the title of Barons in the year 1800. Barons Stieglitz. Mr. Louis Stieglitz, a Court- banker, received the title of Baron from the Emperor Nicolas in the year 1826, August 24th.* * The Russian Barons, whose male descent is extinct, are as follows : Schafiroff, a celebrated diplomatist and Vice-chancellor of the Empire under the reign of Peter I. (created in the year 1710); the Chamberlain Coustons, (in 1725) ; Chetigine, one of the Court dwarfs, (in 1726); the Chamberlain Pospeloff, (in 1728) ; the English physician, Sir Thomas Dimsdale, (in 1769), the same who had vaccinated Catherine II. and Paul; General Arakchêieff, (in 1797), who at a later period was created Count, and died without legitimate posterity, (he was an unworthy favourite of the Emperor Alexander, and the name of Arakcheieff in Russian history has become an emblem of cruelty and wickedness);! Roghovikoff, a merchant who used to lend money to the Grand-Duke Paul, and upon whom that Prince, at his accession to the throne, con¬ ferred the title of Baron ; lastly, the senator KolokoltsofF was nominated Baron in the year 1801. f Whilst Arakcheieff most despotically scourged the whole Empire, the chairman of the Academy at St. Petersburg proposed him to be elected a member of that learned body. Mr. Labzin, perpetual Secretary of the Academy, begged the chairman to explain for what sort of scientific merit THE RUSSIAN BARONS. 1?5 this honour was to be conferred on the new candidate. The chairman gravely stated that “ he is the nearest nobleman to the Emperor Alex¬ ander himself.” “ Such qualification being competent,” rejoined the interpellator, “I have the pleasure to propose for a member of the Academy, Ilin Ba'ikoff, the coachman ; he is not only the nearest to the Emperor, but he has a seat before his Majesty.” This witty joke pro¬ cured its author an exile to Symbirsk .—Note of the Translator. INDEX. INDEX. Alexander I. of Russia PAGE. . 25, 33, 116 note Alexis, Archbishop of Moscow . 145 Alexis, the Czar, father of Peter I. . 150 Ann, Empress . 53, 100 “Armed Neutrality” against England . 69 note Apraxine family 149 Apraxine, Counts 97 Arakcheieff, Count . 25, 110 note, 174 note Argoutinsky-Dolgorouky, Princes . 81, 163 note Armenian families 163 Armenian people 163, 164 note Astrakhan, kingdom of 40 Augustus III. of Saxony . . 63 note, 65 Babarykine, house of . 95, 142 Babitcheff, Princes 74 Bagratides, dynasty of . 160 note, 161 note Bagratione, Princes 74 Bagratione, Prince Peter 75 Baharites, dynasty of the . 164 note Balk, house of . . 169 note Barclay-de-Tolly, Princes . 83 Bariatinsky, Prince . 45 note, 50 Bariatinsky, Princes . 50 Barons, Russian 172 Baschmete Mourza 75 Basily Schouisky, ascends the throne 15 180 INDEX. Belkine family . PAGE. 143 Benckendorff, Counts 132 Benningsen, Counts 126 BestuslielF, the conspirator . 116 note Betuslieff, [Russian Ambassador 63 note Bezborodko, Count Alexander . 113 Bezborodko, Count Elias . 114 Bielosselsky of Bielozersk, Princes 59 Biren, Prince 53, 148 Black-Sea Cossacks . , . 137 note Bloudoff, Counts 135 Bobrinsky, Counts 110 Bobrischeff-Poushkine family 144 Bordyites, dynasty of the . 164 note Boris GrodounofF, Czar of [Russia 15 Borozdine family 144 Boutourline, Counts 106 Boutourline family 144 Boutourline, Count Dmitry 25 Boyards, Chamber of, 72 note ; families of 149 Bruce, family of, settled in [Russia . . 117 note Buxhoevden, Counts . 115 Calmuck families . 163 Cancrine, Counts 131 Cantacuzene, Princes 159 Casan, kingdom of 40 Casan, Institute at 24 Catherine I. 103 Catherine II. 20, 23, 109 Cherkassoff, Barons . 173 Ckernomorskii, or Black-Sea Cossacks . 137 note Chesmé, battle of 129 Chetigine, the Court Dwarf . 174 note Chevchevadze, Princes 161 Circassians . 164 note INDEX. 181 PAGE. Clergy in Russia . . . .66 note Constantine, Grand-Duke, abdication of, 34 ; death of 86 note Cossacks Counts of Russia Coustons, Barons Crillon, Duke de Crimea, conquest of the Cruys, Admiral ' .- Ctcha'iadieff’s “ Telescope ” Czartoryski, Princes . CzernyshefF, Princes Czernyslieff-Krouglicoff, Counts Czetwertinski- S viatopolk, Princes 87, 106 note , 123 note, 137 note . 92—94 164 note 130 41, 54 100 28 153 88 104 154 Dadianoff, Princes Daghestan, Princes of Daschkaw, Princess . De Lacy, General DenissofF, Theodor Derjavine, the Poet Diebitch, Field-Marshal Dimsdale, Sir Thomas Dmitrieff-MamonofF . DmitriefF-MamonofF, Counts Dmitry, the impostor Dmitry I., Prince Dolgorouky, Princess Natalia . Dolgorouky, Prince Paul . Dolgorouky, Prince Jacob, anecdote of Dolgorouky, Prince Gregory Dolgorouky, Princes . Don-Cossacks Douloff, Princes DoundoukofF-Korsakoff, Princes Droucki-Lubecki, Princes Droutski-Sokolinsky, Princes 75, 163 159 112 . 63 note 123 23 85, 86 note , 131 174 note 142 114 51 72 53 4, 7 52 99 51 123 note 57 159 154 74 INDEX. 182 Eletsky, Princes PAGE. 50 Elizabeth, Empress 33 Elphinston, Admiral . . 129 note EristofF, Princes .... 160 Essen, Counts 133 Fermor, General 105 Fersen, Counts of 110 Flohol’s “ ChichagofF” 27 Frederichs, Barons # 173 Gagarine, Princes . 59 Galitsyne, Princes 65 Galitsyne, Prince Basily 22, 66 Galitsyne, Prince Serge . 70 note Galitsyne, Prince Dmitry . 68 Genealogical Register of Russian Nobles 42 Georgia, Princes of (or Grusinsky) . 160 Georgia, kingdom of . 161 note Georgian families 163 German Princes allied to the Russian throne 20 German party among the Russian Nobility 131 note Ghirey, Princes 160 Giedroyc, Princes 154 Gleb, families descended from . . 144 GlebofF family .... 144 GlebofF-StreshnefF 145 GolenistchefF-KoutouzofF . 132,145 Golenistcheff-Koutouzoff, Counts 132 Golovine, Counts 44,139 Golovine family 142 Golovkine, Counts 96 GortcliakofF, Princes . 49 GortchakofF, Prince Peter 49 GortcliakofF, Prince Michael 49 Goudovitch, Counts 116,125 INDEX. 183 GouriefF, Counts . PAGE. 127 Gouriell, Princes 75 Greig, Commodore 129 note Grusinsky, Princes 160 Guedimine, Grand-Duke of Lithuania 12, 39 Guedimine, descendants of . 47,153 Havanski, Princes • 153 HendricofF, Counts 103 Hierarchical roll of Princes 45—48 Holy Roman Empire, Princes of . 89 note Houses of Princes and Counts, which became extinct in the male lineage 166—171 Insurrection in Russia 116 note IsleniefF family . 145 Italy, Counts SouvorofF of Rymnik, Princes of 80 Jabionowski, Princes 155 Jagousinsky, Counts . 135 Jagousinsky, Paul 53 note Jaguello, Prince 64 note, 153 Jaguellon Dynasty 39, 64 JazykofF family 149 Jefimovsky, Counts 103 JerebtsofF family . 145 John III. of Russia 40 John IV. the Terrible . • 14 33, 40, 119 Joseph II. Emperor of Germany JoukofFsky, the Poet . Kakhovsky, Counts . Kakhovsky, the conspirator Kamensky, Counts Karamsin, the Poet Kassatkine of RostofF, Princes . 116 116 note 115 25 158 184 INDEX. PAGE. Khavansky,. Princes 63 Kherson, port of . 134 note Khilkoff, Princes . 60 KhitrofF family 149 Khvoste, Alexis . 143 KhvostofF family 143 KhvostofF, Counts 143 KisselefF, Count 94 Kleinmichel, Counts 134 KologrivofF family 144 KolokoltsofF, Barons . 174 note Koltovsky family 144 KoltsofF-Massalsky, Princes 49 KolytchefF family 146 Konovnitsyne family 95,142 Konovnitsyne, Counts 126 Koriboute, decendants of . 153 Korighaille, descendants of 153 Kosciuszko, Polish General 110 Kotckoubey, Princes . 86 Koudyreff family 149 Kourakine, Princes 70 Kourakine, the Princess 97 Kousheleff, Counts 122 ICousheleff-Bezborodko, Counts 113 KoutaissofF, Counts 124 Koutouzoff family 145 Kozlovsky, Princes 57 Krapotkine, Princes 58 Krouglicoff, John 104 KryllofF, author of the Pables 26 Kvachnine-S amarine family 146 Kvachnia, Bodione 145 Ladislas, Prince, elected Czar Ladyshine famdy . 16, 66, 156 note . 95,142 INDEX. 185 Ladyjensky, the Senator . Lambsdorff, Counts of Lapoukhine family Lapoukhine, Princes . Lapoukhine, the Boyard Lapteff family Lesser -Russia Leszczynski, Stanislas Levashoff, Counts Liapounoff, family of . Lieven, Baron William of . Lieyen, Princes of Livoff, Princes Lohanoff of Bostoff, Princes Loupandine family Lubert, Prince Lubomirski, Princes PAGE. 61 126 144 79 22, 23 144 . 86 note, 138 note . 157 note 133 91 84 84 57 58 144 64 155 Malo-Bussians Mamelouks, dynasty of Manuscript literature Markoff, Counts Matioushkine family Matvéieff, Counts Mazeppa, hetman of the Cossacks Mehemet-Ali Meller-Zakomelsky, Barons de Menshikoff, Princes . Menshikoff, Prince Alexander Menshikoff, Princess Maria Menshikoff, Prince, Minister of Peter I. Mestchersky, Princes Mestmacher, Barons Miatleff family Mirski, Princes 4 . Mongolian Empire dismembered 86 note 164 note 25 note 141 149 150 note 86,137 note 165 note 173 77 79 note 78 44 75 173 144 154 40 186 INDEX. Mongolians, subjugate Russia Mordvinoff, Counts Mordvinoff, Admiral Nicolas Mortkine, Princes Moscow, Grand-Dukes of . Mouravieff, the conspirator Moussine-Pouslikine family Moussine-Poushkine, Counts Mstislavitch, Prince Mstislaw Miinick, Counts of PAGE. 12 133 ** 134 note 56 14 116 note 144 117 13,66,73 99 Nagui, Andrew, pretender to the throne Naryshkine family Narimund, Prince Nassau, House of Nepluieff family Nestor, the historian Nevsky, Grand-Duke Alexander Nicolaieff, port of Nicolas, the Emperor . Novgorod, Republic of N ovikoff, an opposition writer . Novossiltsoff, family 59 . 43, 149 64 161 146 10 13 134 note 116 note, 139 note 12, 13, 41 23 145 Obolensky, Princes . . . .51 Odoievsky, Princes ... 48 Odoievsky, Prince Alexander . . .45 note Odoievsky, Prince Nitika . . 49 Oginski, Princes .... 155 Olgerd, Prince . . . .64,153 Oppermann, Counts . 131 Orbelianoff, Princes . . . 161 Orell, the Strelitz . . . 127 OrlofF, Counts j 127 OrlofF, General Basily . . . 123 OrlofF, Genera^ Count Alexis . . . 129 INDEX. 187 Orloff, General Michael OrlofF-Denissoff, Counts Orloff-Chesmensky, Countess Osten-Sacken, Counts of Ostermann, Counts Otiaieff family Oukhtomsky, Princes Ouroussoff, Princes • PAGE. 129 note 123 129, 139 118 100 — 102 » 143 59 . 76,77 16, 33, 100, Pagratides, dynasty of Pahlen, Counts of Paklen, Baron Peter . Panine, Counts . Panine, Count Nitika Panslavism, propagation of Paskevitch, Field-Marshal Patrikey, Prince of Zvenigorod . Paul, Emperor Pestel, the conspirator Peter the Great Peter III. .... Platoff, Counts .... Plestcheieff family Poland, coalition against Poland resists the Tatars Poland, religious toleration in Poland and Lithuania, princely houses of Poles, extend their dominion Polish Nobility Polish Universities Poniatowski, Stanislas Augustus Posharsky, Prince, refuses the crown of Bussia Pospeloff, Chamberlain Potemkine, Prince Gregory Potemkine, Counts Pouskkine family 161 note 121 122 106 107, 128 26 85 64 34,107 116 note 103, 150 20, 116 126 145 . 110 note 13 . 71 note 152 , 12, 16 157 note 26 157 note 73 174 note 109 note 108 144 4 188 INDEX. PAGE. Pouslikine, Alexander, the Poet . . 18,144 Poustorosleff family .... 144 Poutiatine, Princes . . . 74 Ponzina, Princes .... 154 Pozzo-di-Borgo, Counts . . . 130 Princely Houses, now extinct . . 166—171 Protassoff, Counts . . . 125 Prozorovsky, Princes . . . .57 PskofF, republic of 12, 41 Badscha, families descended from Badziwill, Princes Ball, Barons Bazoumovsky, Counts Bazoumovsky, Princesses Bepnine-Volkonsky, Princes Bjevsky, family of BogkovikofF, Barons Bomanoff, Michael, elected Czar Bomodanovsky-Ladyjensky, Princes Bostopchine, Counts Boumiantsoff, Count Burik, first sovereign of Bussia Burik, descendants of, 10, 11, 13, 17, 45—47, Bussia, future destinies of Bussia, parties in Bussian Association of the “ Faithful Sons of Country” Bussian Barons Bussian Clergy Bussian Counts .... Bussian Diplomacy Bussian distinguished families omitted Bussian history, period of Bussian influence Bussian literature 144 155 174 136 138 62 91 174 note 73, 156 note 60 122 26 39 90, 166,168 34 4 the . 116 note 172 . 66 note 92-94 1—4 6 note 9 19 22—25, 27 INDEX. 189 PAGE. Russian nobility shake off the Polish yoke, 16 ; their privileges curtailed by Peter I. 18 ; their tendencies, 29 ; power of . Russian orthography Russian Universities Rymnik, Count of Ryleieff, the conspirator 32 89 note 24 80 116 note Sabouroff family Saint Michael of Tchernigoff Saint-Serge, monastery of . Saltykoff, Counts Saltykoff family . Saltykoff, Princes Saltykoff, Prince Michael Samarine family Samoiloff, Counts Sangouszko, Princes Sapieha, Princes . Sayn-Wittgenstein, Princes of Scavronsky, Counts Schafroff family Schaffroff, Barons Schafiroff, Vice-chancellor Scheleschpansky, Princes Schepine of Rostoff, Princes Scherbatoff, Princes . Scheremeteff, Field-Marshal ^ Schervaschidze, Princes Schetinine, Princes Schischkoff family Schouiski, Princes Schouisky, Prince Basily . Scliouvaloff, Count John Schouvaloff, Count Peter Scliouvaloff, Counts 147 61 51 103 143 81 81 note 146 139 155 156 161 103, 111 143 174 note 44 59 58 56 . 44, 95 . 75, 162 56 144 156 15, 156 22,105 105 note 104 190 INDEX. Serfs, enfranchisement of Sevastopol, naval port Shakovskoy, Princes . Skehousky, Princes Skeremeteff, Counts SkeremetefF, Theodore Siemionovsky, regiment of . Sievers, Counts of Sigismund, king of Poland . Slobodiens (Cossacks) Smolensk, Prince of Sobieski, Prince James Sobieski, John, king of Poland Sokovnine family Solovieff, Barons Soltyk of Poland SontsefF-Zassekine, Princes Souvoroff, Prince Alexander Staro-Viertzy, sect of Steinbock-Fermor, Counts of Stanislas Leszczynski Stenko-Bazin, Cossack chief Stieglitz, Barons Strogonoff, Count Serge Strogonoff, Counts Svetchine family . PAGE. 29 134 note 56 57 95 73 88 note, 110 note 118 . 66 note 137 note 132 . 158 note 157 note 149 173 83 56 80, 110 note, 124 note . 87 note 105, 133 63, 157 note . 57 note 174 29 118—121, 130 . 133 note Tatars, incursion of TatistchefF, family of TatistchefF, Counts Tcherkasky, Princes TchernigofF, Saint Michael of TchoglokofF family Thouschides, dynasty of Tolbouzine, family of Toll, Counts of 11 90 125 78 61 143 12 91 130 INDEX. 191 PAGE. Tolstoy, Count Ostermann 102 Tolstoy, Counts 98 Tourguénieff, the Prince . 22, 23 Troubetskoy, Princes . 71,153 Troubetskoy, Prince Alexander 73 Troubetskoy, Prince Nicolas . 22,23 Troubetskoy, Colonel Prince 74 note Tsitsianoff, Princes 77 Tufiakine, Princes 51 Ukraine, Cossacks of the u 137 note Universities in Russia 24 Universities in Poland * . 26 Vadbolsky, Princes 59 Varagian Princes 9, 10, 12 Velho, Barons .... 174 Velvet Book . 9,42 - Families registered in 142 Viazemsky, Princes . 55 Vier, Counts of . 99 Volkonsky, Princes 61 Warsaw, Counts Paskevitch of Erivan, Princes of 84 Wassilieff, Counts 125 Wassiltchikoff, Princes 88 W ekentieff family 147 WeliaminofF family 145 Weliaminoff-Woronzoff family 145 Weliaminoff-Zernoff family 147 Wittgenstein, Princes of Sayn . 161 Wladimir, the Great 10,19 Wolynski family 147 Wolynski, Artemius 148 note Woronecki, Princes . • 156 Woronzoff, Counts 111 Woronzoff-Paschkaw, Counts . 112 192 INDEX. Yaryslikine, Natalia Yerapkine, family of . Yermak, the Cossack, conquers Siberia Yermolloff, General . Youshkoff family Youssoupoff, Princes . PAGE. 150 91 40,119 . 25, 85 note 149 77 Zabiello, Countess Lucy Zaionczek, Princess Zakomelsky, J ohn de Meller Zaporosbe-Cossacks Zassekine, Princes Zavadovsky, Counts Zolkiewski, Polish General Zotoff, Counts Zouboff, Counts Zvenigorodsky, Princes . . 55 note 157 173 . 137 note 56 115 66 note, 71 note, 156 note 97 140 50 THE END. . ' - J:' . - - . . ■ . T- 0 . ■ K . * rx ; •' I ft : I .