In 1859 Ferdinand Schneider from Berlin published the second print (Nouvelle édition) of Prince Pierre Dolgorouky's Notice sur les principales familles de la Russie. The fact that the German publisher published this book in French, says a lot about the readers he had in mind. The following information partly comes from Prince Dolgorouky's book, which however is very incomplete, not just because he valued the privacy of the families he was befriended with (like the Anichkovs, the Davidoffs and the Viatzemsky's), but also because he was wild for revenge, like with the lineage of Meshchersky.
Notice sur les principales familles de
la Russie is unjustifiedly called - and used as - a standard book.
When the name of a lineage isn't mentioned
in Prince Dolgorouky's book, then this does by no means mean that this
lineage isn't aristocratic, whatever some `experts' in France and the United
States allege.
On January 12, 1682, in the first years
of his administration, Peter the Great enacted a law, according to which
all Russian aristocrats were declared equal to each other. Officially there
were no more differences, but the nobility itself used another interpretation
of Peter's own Armorial of the Nobility of the Heraldic Chamber of the
Senate in St. Petersburg, which consisted of five volumes: the Book of
Princes of the Empire, the Book of Counts of the Empire, the Book of Barons
of the Emperor, the First Book of Aristocrats without a hereditary title
(before Peter the Great's reforms) and the Second Book of Aristocrats without
a hereditary title (after Peter the Great's reforms).
The oldest Russian aristocratic lineages
descend from the Viking chieftain Rurik and the Lithuanian Grand Monarch
Gedimin. The House of Rurik has ruled over Russia from 862 to 1598.
After the settlement of the Norwegian
and Lithuanian aristocrats, the Moscovian nobility witnessed prosperity.
Before the reforms of Peter the Great all Ryurikides were called monarch
(knazh), or grand monarch (velikii knazh). `Simple' boyars, like the Romanoffs,
didn't have a title at all. Peter however returned from England and Germany
with the titles of `prince', `count' and `baron', which Russia didn't know
until then. In future the title of `grand monarch' was reserved for the
members of the Imperial Family, the Romanoffs that is, while the original
grand monarchs, the Troubetzkoy's, the Obolensky's and other descendants
from Rurik, were allowed to call themselves `prince'. Even though the following
titles are used in numerous translations, and even though I use these titles
in my own books, Russia has never ever had any dukes or grand dukes. The
right translations are `monarch' and `grand monarch'.
In 1722 Peter published his chin, the
`table of ranks', according to which the lowest officer's rank entitled
someone to hereditary nobility. The ladder of the table of ranks consisted
of 14 steps (chin), which had to be climbed one by one. The lowest civil
servant, the man with only one chin, the 14th that is, was called chinovnik
(14th). From the eightst chin, when one had climbed to the rank of Member
of the City Council or Major in the Army, one was considered a real nobleman,
because at that stage one had to be addressed as `Your Highness'. To reach
the first chin one had to be at least a field marshall or a chancellor.
From the times of the table of ranks
the Russians made a distinction between the `old' hereditary nobility and
the `new' nobility, which was appointed.
The prefixes `Van', `Von' or `De' (Baron Van Solovyov, Fuerstin Von Vasilchikov, Comte De Maslov) are linguisticly not correct, because these prefixes are already incorporated in the endings `in', `eff, `off' and `sky' (Gagarin, Tatistcheff, Romanoff, Obolensky).
The lineage of Bariatinsky descends from
Michael Vsevolodovich (1195-1246), Grand Duke of Chernigov and monarch
of Kiev, descendant of Rurik in the 12th degree. Michael was canonized
for his valour in the battle against the Mongols, and burned alive by the
hordes of the regional Mongol Khan Batu, because he didn't want to give
up Christianity.
In the 17th century the Bariatinsky's
were mainly military men and diplomats. In the 18th century Prince Ivan
Bariatinsky was Governor of Russia Minor and he had two sons: Feodor and
Ivan. Prince Feodor was one of the murderers of Tsar Peter III (see: Orlov),
and Prince Ivan married the Princess of Holstein-Beck, a cousin of Peter
III. He became Ambassador of Russia at the court of Louis XVI.
Prince Ivan Sergeevich Bariatinsky (1740-1811)
was plenipotentiary Minister of Russia in France, from 1773 to 1783.
Field Marshall Prince Alexander Ivanovich
Bariatinsky (1814-1879) was Viceroy of the Caucasus, and freed the Caucasus
from enemy montagnards. In March 1872 Tsar Alexander II appointed him chairman
of a commission which had to improve the efficiency of the War Ministry.
When Nicholas II, who still was Tsarevich
in those days, in October 1890 left for a voyage around the world, he was
accompanied by his brother George and the Princes Bariatinsky and Obolensky.
Each one of the Princes shot a tiger in India, which annoyed Nicholas because
he didn't manage to shoot anything at all.
The lineage of Obolensky also descends from Grand Duke Michael Vsevolodovich of Chernigov. The name `Obolensky' originates from the town of Obolensk, in the present district of Kaluga, about 120 miles south-west of Moscow, where in the 13th century Constantin Yuryevich Obolensky inherited land from his father. Some of the French Obolenskys - the ones that still wish to be addressed as Syatelstvo (Your Serene Highness) - gather yearly during the last weekend of February.
Major-General Prince Vasili Petrovich
Obolensky (1780-1834) is the progenitor of the Olkhi-branch.
He was the Military Governor of Moscow
and married Countess Catharina Mussin-Pushkin (1786-1875), daughter of
Alexis Ivanovich Mussin-Pushkin, Supreme Procurator of the Holy Synod and
Chairman of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Prince Alexis Dmitrievich Obolensky (1855-1933)
succeeded Pobyedonostsev as Supreme Procurator of the Holy Synod in 1906.
He also was Senator and Marshall of Nobility of the district of Kozelsk.
On July 16, 1893 he married Princess Elisaveta Saltikov (1868-1957), daughter
of Prince Nicholas Ivanovich Saltikov, the Oberhofzeremoniemeister of the
Imperial Court, and Princess Anna Sergeevna Dolgorouk- ov.
I myself am a descendant of the first
line of the Gluchovo-branch.
The lineage of Dolgorouky also descends
from Grand Duke Michael Vsevolodovich of Chernigov. The name, which means
`Long Arm', was the knickname of their progenitor Yuri (about 1090-1157),
the Grand Duke who was granted the principality of Suzdal and conquered
Kiev in 1154.
The lineage of Dolgorouky has always
been involved in state matters, particularly during the administration
of Catharina the Great.
Princess Maria Dolgoroukaya married Tsar
Michael Romanoff in September 1624.
In 1721 and 1722 Prince Vasili Lukich
Dolgorouky (1672-1739) was the Ambassador of Russia in Paris.
Prince Peter Petrovich Dolgorouky (1777-1806) was aide-de-camp to Alexander I and was sent to Berlin in 1805 to persuade Frederick Wilhelm to join the Third Coalition.
After the death of his first official wife Maria Feodorovna, Alexander II married his former mistress Princess Catharina Alexeevna Dolgoroukaya.
Prince Vasili Dolgoroukov, the son in
law of Count Paul Benckendorff, belonged to the personal staff of Nicholas
II, and volunteered to join the Imperial family in their place of bannishment
Tobolsk, in Siberia. He was killed by the bolsheviki, together with General
Tatistcheff. The Dolgoroukovs are an impoverished yet no less aristocratic
branch of the lineage of Dolgorouky.
The Dolgorouky's of the Crimea adopted
the name of Dolgorouky-Crimasky.
The lineage of Troubetzkoy descends from
Olgerd (1345-1377), Grand Duke of Lithuania, son of Gedimin, and Olgerd's
son Jagailo (1348-1434), Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland. When
Jagailo was baptized Roman-Catholic in 1386, to be able to marry Jadviga,
daughter and heiress of the King of Hungary and Poland, he adopted the
name of Vladislav. Thus the lineage of Troubetzkoy belongs to the dynasty
of Jagellons. The name originates from the city of Troubchevsk in the district
of Chernigov, about 90 miles north of Kiev.
The Obolensky's and the Troubetzkoys
have always been part of the high society of St. Peters- burg.
In 1606 Prince Dmitri Troubetzkoy was
one of the boyars who supported the second false Dmitri, because he had
no confidence in the administration of Vasili Shushki. In 1611 Dmitri Troubetzkoy
became the commander of the Moscovian Cossacks and in October 1612 he and
his troops defeated the Polish army, as a result of which Moscow returned
into Russian hands.
Prince Serge Troubetzkoy (1790-1860) took
part in the rise of the Decembrists, an was deported to Siberia.
Prince Paul Petrovich Troubetzkoy (1866-1938)
was a famous sculptor, and was called the Russian Rodin. Some of his works
- like Après le bal (1897), Tolstoï à cheval (1899),
Auguste Rodin (1906) and Comte Robert de Montesquieu (1907) - are exhibited
in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Prince Nicholas Troubetzkoy (1890-1938),
was a linguist and the founder of phonology. He was also an important member
of the Prague Circle.
Alexandra `Sacha' Troubetzkoy is (was?) a well known paintress, who married many times and lived in Paris. In 1984 she moved to New York, where she married Donald C. Malcolm.
The lineage of Yussupov descends from Yussuf, Khan of the Islamic Nogai-Tatars. In the 17th century the Yussupovs converted to Christianity, and on January 19, 1799 Catharina the Great put the lineage of Yussupov down in the golden book of Russian nobility.
The Yussupovs owned large estates, and
at the end of the 19th century they were considered the richest family
of Russia, and perhaps of entire Europe. They have always been involved
with art. The first theatre in Russia was built by the Yussupovs. In Moscow
they owned the former palace of Ivan the Terrible, which was connected
to the Kremlin by a subterranean corridor.
Prince Nicholas Yussupov was a great
artist, who during the administration of Alexander I worked together with
people like the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817), in St.
Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo.
Prince Felix Yussupov (St. Petersburg
1887 - Paris 1967) killed Rasputin.
The lineage of Orlov closes the hierarchic
ranks of the Russian nobility. Peter the Great took pleasure in attending
the executions personally, and he even assisted the executioners. At one
of these occasions a young man by the name of Ivan was asked to put down
his head on the chopping-block. On the way Ivan picked up the chopped-off
head of one of his comrades, and said to Peter the Great, `If you're keen
on heads, why don't you take this one? It's much more handsome than mine.'
Peter was baffled with so much guts and made Ivan a soldier in his army.
Ivan soon proved to be a real brave bantam, and was made an officer, as
a result of which he was raised to the peerage. Ivan's only son Grigori,
Governor of Novgorod, became five sons: Ivan, Grigori, Alexis, Feodor and
Vladimir. Grigori Grigorievich (1734- 1783), a blue eyed giant, was the
lover of Catharina the Great and gave her a son, Alexis, who was born in
April 1762 and would become the progenitor of the aristocratic lineage
of Bobrinsky. Together with his brothers, all of them officers, Grigori
decided to kill Tsar Peter III, so Catharina II could seize to power. On
July 18, 1762 Tsar Peter III was strangled by Alexis Orlov (1737-1807),
in presence of his brothers and Feodor Bariatinsky.
After Catharina was through with Grigori
Orlov, it was the turn of another giant: Grigori Potemkin.
He wasn't a very attractive man after
Alexis Orlov had cut out one of his eyes during a duel.
Subsequently Alexis became Catharina's
lover.
Alexis Grigorievich Orlov became Admiral
of the Russian fleet and defeated the Turks at Chesme. In 1775 he withdrew
to his estate. He left one daughter: Anna Orlov-Chesmensky.
Vladimir Orlov, who died in 1832, only
had one son: the later Senator Grigori, who died in 1826.
Ivan Orlov has no legitimate descendants.
Feodor Orlov had many illegitimate children,
and Catharina II allowed all of them to use the name of Orlov. One of them,
General Alexis Orlov, was a highly valued and internationally well known
statesman.
Feodor Grigorievich Orlov is considered
the progenitor of all the later aristocratic Orlovs.
General Ilya Leonidovich Tatistcheff was aide-de-camp to Nicholas II and let himself being bannished to Siberia with his Tsar. He was murdered by the bolsheviki, together with Prince Dolgorouky.
Peter A. Tatistcheff is the owner of the
prestigious Tatistcheff Gallery Inc. in New York and the Tatistcheff &
Company Inc. in New York and Los Angeles. His wife Florence is a stockbroker
with Merrill Lynch and chairman of the annual Petroushka Ball.
During the Seven Years War (1756-1763) Field Marshall Count S.F. Apraxin (1702-1760) defeated the Prussian troops of Frederick II on August 19, 1757 near Grossjaegerndorf.
In 1861, the year in which serfdom was
abolished, Alexander II sent troops to Kazan, to suppress the rebellious
farmers. Alexander didn't care much for a second Pugachov affair. The commander
of these troops was Count A.S. Apraxin; 102 farmers were killed.
The private secretary of Empress Alexandra
Feodorovna was one Count Apraxin.
Baroness Ada de Manteufel, née
Countess Apraxin (1849-1914) is burried in the Cimetière de Caucade
in Nice, France. She was the founder of an institution for the deaf in
Nice.
After the October Revolution most Apraxins
escaped to Belgium, and from there they emigrated to the United States,
during and after the forties.
Livonia (later Latvia) was the genesis
of the state of Prussia, founded by the Knights of the German Order to
protect Poland against the Lithuanians. A very illustrious German/Livonian/Estonian
family are the Buxhoevedens. The lineage of Buxhoeveden originates from
Bexh”vede, a village at the mouth of the river Weser, in Northern Germany.
Their progenitor was John de Beckeshovede (1186-1242), a Knight of the
Cross, who came to the Baltic to christianize the heathens. Major-general
Frederick Buxhoeveden, who conquered Finland as the commander of the Russian
army in the war against Sweden (1808-1809), was first raised to the Prussian
peerage on December 18, 1795 by King Frederick Wilhelm, and on April 5,
1797 he was granted the title of `Count' by Tsar Paul I.
Baroness Sophia Karlovna Buxhoeveden
was Lady in Waiting to Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna, and volunteered to
be bannished to Tobolsk, Siberia, with the Imperial Family. After the assassination
of the Imperial Family she and her relatives could escape abroad with the
help of the German Emperor, where Sophia wrote a book: The Life and Tragedy
of Alexandra Feodorovna, New York and London 1928.
Count Alexander Buxhoeveden (1783-1837)
was the primogenitor of all the present day Counts and Countesses Buxhoeveden.
(All other Buxhoevedens are Barons and Baronesses.) His great-grandson
Count Alexander Buxhoeveden (1882-1948) was born in St. Petersburg and
lived in his estate Alexandrovka, near Tambov. He was a journalist, architect,
member of the Imperial Duma and Knight of the Russian Order of St. George.
He, his wife Olga Olensky, and their three children escaped through Finland
to Paris.
Although the separation between the Buxhoevedens
became a fact when only a small part of this lineage was registered in
the Book of Russian Counts, while all the others remained Prussian Barons,
many Buxhoevedens, Counts or Barons, Roman-Catholics or Russian-Orthodox,
kept visiting Arensburg Castle, not far from Hannover, Germany, near the
river Weser, where their ancestors used to live. Many Buxhoevedens were
born there, got married there, and even died there.
The lineage of Benckendorff originates
from Estonia, and was raised to the peerage in the 17th century.
General Alexander Benckendorff (1783-1844)
was Minister of Police under Tsar Nicholas I, and was granted the title
of `Count' on November 8, 1832. Most ministers thought that Count Benckendorff
was absolutely unfit to be Minister of Police, who also was responsible
for the secret police, because he was much too amiable. Moreover he was
rather absent-minded; sometimes he even forgot his own name! Nevertheless
Nicholas was extremely satisfied. In 1837 he said, `During the eleven years
in which he holds this office, he never involved me in any incidents, and
he has reconciled me with a lot of people.' Until the end of 1807, when
he still was aide-de-camp to Ambassador Peter Tolstoy, he lived in Paris
with his mistress Mademoiselle George (1787-1867). She came with him to
Russia, where they were welcomed by the Imperial Family, but in 1813 she
returned to Paris. Mademoiselle George is burried in the Parisian cemetery
of Père Lachaise (9th division).
Count Alexander's cousin, Constantin
Benckendorff, was allowed to call himself `count' since December 15, 1832.
Count Paul Benckendorff, initially the Russian Ambassador in London, became Officer of Nicholas II's Imperial Household. The old Benckendorff was a very dedicated member of the Court, who after the death of the Imperial Family conducted a thorough investigation on all rumours about the murder and the disappearance of his son in law, Prince Dolgorouky. When he was convinced that they were all dead, he tried to escape Russia, but at the Estonian border he was stopped because something was wrong with his visa, and in 1921 he died in a miserable village on the border, without having reached his motherland.
The world famous Anichkov palace is one
of the oldest buildings in the Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, and was
named after Michael Anichkov, who in 1715 built the first wooden bridge
across the Fontanka and was the commander of Peter the Great's Military
Engineers. Tsaritsa Elizabeth had the palace built between 1744 and 1750,
Catharina the Great gave it as a present to her lover Grigori Potemkin,
but he sold it to the merchant Nikita Shemiakin, because he had gambling
debts. Catharina repurchased the palace and gave it once more to Potemkin,
who sold it to the Crown in 1785. From that moment on the palace was used
by the Romanoffs. Maria Feodorovna, the widow of Alexander III and the
mother of Tsar Nicholas II, lived there until 1917.
The lineage of Anichkov was raised to
the peerage in the beginning of the 18th century, but has always stayed
in the background. The Anichkovs were very influential and were mainly
involved with the fine arts.
Some years ago Joury Anichkof, an expert
on 18th-century French art, died. He was a very amiable, courteous gentleman,
who has worked for Wildenstein & Co. art gallery in New York's East
64th Street.
The old aristocratic lineage of Davidoff
originates from the surroundings of Kiev.
General Denis Vladimirovich Davidoff
(1781-1839) was a military and a poet, and was a member of the literary
club `Arzamas', just like Prince Peter Viatzemsky, Prince Michael Orlov,
Ivan Turgenyev and Vasili Zhukovsky. Denis Davidoff was commander of the
partizans who defeated Napoleon.
Katia Raevsky was a beautiful woman,
and Lady in Waiting and friend of Catharina the Great. She was a cousin
of Catharina's lover Grigori Potemkin and married to Colonel Nicholas Semyenovich
Raevsky. The couple became a son, the later General Nicholas Nikolaevich
Raevsky, a protég&e- acute; of Catharina the Great. After the
Colonel fell in the battle against the Turks, Catharina introduced Katia
to the very rich Lev Denisovich Davidoff, who married the young widow.
He adored his young bride and showed it by his love and affection, and
the luxury he overwhelmed her with. Towards the end of the 18th century
Lev Denisovich Davidoff died of a heart attack. In his will he stated that
he bequathed the enormous estate of Boltishka to his stepson, Nicholas
Raevsky.
On November 24, 1820 the wealthy dowager
Davidoff celebrated her 70st birthday on Kamenka, the impressive estate
of the Davidoffs on the river Tasmin, in the Ukrain. Alexander Lvovich
Davidoff, the eldest of her two sons, entertained the many children, cousins
and friends of the family. They planned to stay only a couple of days,
but often this came down to months, even years. Kamenka was a second home
for all of them. Alexander was 43 and served with the Russian army in France,
where he in 1815 married Aglée de Gramont, an aristocratic widow
who was used to the atmosphere of the Boulevard St.-Germain and couldn't
get used to Russia.
Alexander's brother, Vasili (Vasha) Lvovich
Davidoff (1792-1854), was a Decembrist from the very beginning. He married
Alexandra Ivanovna Potapova (1802-1894), and they became thirteen children.
The Davidoffs lived at Kamenka, the large
family estate, and were befriended with people like Alexander Sergeevich
Pushkin (1799-1837). Vasili Lvovich was arrested in December 1825, for
his share in the Decembrists' rise. His children Vasili, Alexandra, Ivan,
Lev, Sophia, Vera and Alexis were born in captivity.
When Tsar Alexander II was crowned in
the summer of 1856, he announced a general pardon for the Decembrists,
after which the Davidoffs could return to the Ukrain, to take to heart
the management of Kamenka. Vasili Lvovich stayed behind in Siberia; he
died in 1854.
While he still was Tsarevich, Alexander
III, offered the bannished aristocratic Decembrists to let their children
go to high school at his expenses: the boys went to the Imperial Gymnasium
in Tsarskoe Selo and the girls to the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg.
Davidoff was one of the few who accepted this offer.
The lineage of Meshchersky also originates
from the Ukrain. In the armorial of nobility the lineage was mentioned
since 1198, but in his book Prince Pierre Dolgorouky `forgot' to mention
the Meshchersky's.
According to Ekaterina Meshcherskaya
(born in 1904) this was Dolgorouky's way to revenge the fact that her aunt,
Elena Meshcherskaya, had turned down his proposal of marriage.
The Meshchersky's were very rich and owned
vast estates, like Petrovskoe and Pokrovskoe, as well as the famous Vesholi-Podol
palace in Poltava, and all the land that was part of this estate. But in
the beginning of the 19th century there were only very few Meshchersky's
left, and there was a chance that the lineage would become extinct.
Prince Alexander Vasilievich Meshchersky
was his whole life in the military service of the Tsar. He was born in
the days of Alexander I, served in the guards regiment of Nicholas I, and
as a staff officer under Alexander II and Alexander III. He married Countess
Elisaveta Sergeevna Stroganova, and the couple had one child: Natalia (Lily)
Meshcherskaya. She later married Duke Fabrizio Sasso-Ruffo.
Because Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna
personally wanted to celebrate the marriage, the ceremony was held in the
Izak Cathedral in Moscow, and the Meshchersky's stayed in the house of
Alexander's eldest brother Boris. Lily and Duke Fabrizio went to live in
Italy and became three daughters: Elena (Elsa), Maria and Olga.
After Princess Elisaveta, Lily's mother,
had passed away, Prince Alexander Meshchersky threw himself on his state
affairs.
And then he met a little singer, just
out of the cradle: Ekaterina (Katia) Podborskaya, daughter of the district
physician Prokofi Semyonovich Podborsky and Jadviga (Nadezhda) Vodzinskaya,
both descending from an impoverished Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic lineage.
In spite of the age gap of 48 years they got married.
Alexander and Katia had two children:
Viacheslav (Slavochka) and Ekaterina (Kitty). Viacheslav was born in 1898
and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich Romanoff, the younger brother of Tsar
Nicholas II, was his godfather. In April 1904 Ekaterina saw the light of
day; her godmother was Countess Miloradovich.
When Alexander Vasilievich Meshchersky
died on December 22, 1903 he was burried traditionally in Lotoshino, the
entailed estate of the Meshchersky's which belonged to Alexander's eldest
brother Boris.
Ekaterina Alexandrovna has never known
her father.
In 1920 Prince Viacheslav Alexandrovich and the children of Alexander's brothers Boris and Ivan escaped to Paris and the United States. Princess Ekaterina and her mother thought that the bolshevist clouds would blow over and stayed in Russia.
The lineage of Poustochkine descends from
an old aristocratic family from Novgorod. In the 16th century the state
of Novgorod was annexed by the Moscovian Empire. In the armorial of the
Russian nobility of the Heraldic Chamber of the Senate in St. Petersburg
the name of Poustochkine shows up frequently in the 15th and 16th century.
In 1683 Tsar Peter the Great granted
estates to Josif Poustochkine, and on May 25, 1805 the lineage of Poustochkine
was registered in the `First Book of Aristocrats without a hereditary title
(before Peter the Great's reforms). In the 16th and 17th century many Poustochkines
served of the Moscovian Tsars, usually as vozhevod (governor) of provinces
like Rostov and Kargopol, or in the Imperial Court itself.
The family history shows numerous Poustochkines
who were Marshalls of Nobility, Generals and Admirals.
Josif Poustochkine was the progenitor
of the present Poustochkines.
Ivan Petrovich Poustochkine (1796-1846)
connected the family by means of marriage with the lineage of Volkov, and
this union produced Paul Ivanovich Poustochkine (1826-1863). His son, Constantin
Pavlovich Poustochkine, worked as a diplomat for Alexander II, Alexander
III and Nicholas II. For four years he was the Russian Consul in Amsterdam,
and he was the last Russian Consul-General in Genoa.
His son Pavel (Paul) Constantinovich
Poustochkine was born in 1886 in Napels. From 1888 to 1892 he lived with
his parents in Amsterdam, and from 1892 to 1898 they lived in Austria.
When Paul Poustochkine had reached the respectable age of twelve, he was
sent to the Imperial Lyceum Alexandrov in St. Petersburg, a boarding school
for aristocratic young gentlemen.
In 1906, when Paul Poustochkine was twenty,
he entered the world of diplomatic service; he joined Sazonov's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. In January 1913 - he was twenty-seven then Ä he
was appointed Secretary of the Russian Legation in The Netherlands, and
when he accepted his office in March that year, he didn't realize that
he would never return to his motherland. Paul Poustochkine was to be the
last representative of Imperial Russia in Holland.
The history of the lineage of Viatzemsky
goes back to the 9th century. The Viatzemsky's also descend from Rurik.
In exchange for privileges and wealth the tsars demanded that the nobility
would serve them, both in political matters and military, and of this task
the Viatzemsky's acquited themselves well during many centuries. They also
had - in the opinion of conservative aristocrats like Dolgorouky that is
- an irritating characteristic: they were favouring reforms. It doesn't
come as a surprise that the Viatzemsky's belonged to the Decembrists.
The poet Vasili Andreevich Zhukovsky
(1783-1852), was a friend of Pushkin, but contrary to Pushkin Zhukovsky
was a fierce supporter of Tsar Nicholas I, and during a gathering of the
Literary Society of Moscow he cursed the Decembrists. `Riffraff they were!'
shouted Zhukovsky. This caused great indignation. Pushkin, literature critic
Prince Peter Viatzemsky (1792-1878) and many others didn't agree with him.
The Prince got up to speak and defended the Decembrists. Further more he
indicated that the the Russian people's faculty of memory and particularly
that of Zhukovsky was very limited, if they already had forgotten the reasons
why the rise of the Decembrists found place.
His son, Prince Leonid Petrovich Viatzemsky,
was aide de camp to Tsar Alexander III and Tsar Nicholas II, and member
of the State Council. Subsequently he became Governor of the province of
Astracan and ataman (commandant) of the Astracan-Cossacks. His last office
was Director-General of the vast Imperial Domains, in Russia, the Caucasus
and Turkestan. He was married to Countess Maria Levashov, daughter of Count
Vladimir Levashov and Countess Olga Panin, and they had four children:
Boris, Dmitri, Lydia (Dilka) and Adishka. During World War I Princess Maria
Vladimirovna Viatzemsky and Princess Sandra Obolensky headed the Empress
Mother Hospital in St. Petersburg.
During the summer the four children and
their parents lived in Lotarevo, Prince Viatzemsky's estate.
In autumn they left for the Crimea, while
in winter they lived in St. Petersburg, in the official residence of the
Prince in the Liteynaya Street.
The English nannies and governesses formed
the largest part of the English church community in St. Petersburg. They
were a close-knit and influential group, and had close connections with
`their' Russian families. They often raised two generations in a row, and
there were close friendships between their own children and those of `their'
Russian families, which often resulted in marriages.
Daughter Lydia (Dilka) Viatzemsky often
spent her summers in Levashovo, the beautiful estate of her grandmother,
Olga Levashov, née Panin. Levashovo was about 10 miles from St.
Petersburg and was the haunt of diplomats, statesmen and artists. Lydia
was spoiled by her grandmother, because she was her only granddaughter.
She has even known her great-grandmother.
Her great-grandfather, Count Viktor Nikolaevich Panin (1801-1874), had
been a private student of Goethe and was Minister of Justice under Alexander
II.
Lydia's great-grandmother died in 1899.
Her summer residence, the estate of Marfino, 8 miles north of Moscow, was
later used by the Soviets as a special prison for scientists (sharashka),
who didn't want to dance to the piping of Stalin. `Mavrino' has an important
role in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book In the First Circle (1968), which
later was turned into a film.
In 1909 Princess Lydia Viatzemsky married
Prince Ilarion Vasilchikov, a friend of her brother Boris.
Prince Ilarion (Lari) Sergeevich Vasilchikov
was a member of the fourth Duma and a pupil of Minister Stolypin. The Vasilchikov
family descends from the of lineage of Tolstoy, and has produced many statesmen
and generals. Maria Vasilchikova was lady in waiting to Tsaritsa Alexandra
Feodorovna.
Some months after the marriage Prince
Vasilchikov was appointed Marshall of Nobility of the province of Kovno.
The most important task of a Marshall of Nobility was the presidency of
the zemstvo, the regional administration. Further more he was an important
link between the local population and the government in St. Petersburg.
The District Marshalls of Nobility were appointed by the nobility itself,
and the Provincial Marshalls of Nobility were appointed by the Tsar.
On August 28, 1910 their first child
was born: Irina. On March 5, 1912 came the next one: Alexander.
Tatiana saw the light of day in the winter
of 1914, and towards the end of 1916 came Missie, the last one.
In 1917 the Vasilchikovs escaped to the
Crimea, but the horror of the Red Terror didn't pass them by.
Peter the Great was influenced by the German etiquette, which was showed by the titles of his courtiers. The Russian language knew words like Oberhofmarschall, Oberhofmeister, Jaegermeister, Kammerherr, Kammerjunker and Hofrat.
The most prestigious and aristocratical
club of St. Petersburg was the Imperial Yacht Club, and its members consisted
of Grand Dukes and some high foreign diplomats. In 1915 the club had only
150 members, which some of them, regarding the exclusivity of the club,
found too much.
In the English Club, which was founded
in 1770, (mainly aristocratic) politicians spoke about their work, over
a game of chess, a glass of wine and a snack. The New Yacht Club was founded
by Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff, a cousin of the Tsar, and was a haunt
for young noblemen. Women were seldom admitted.
Opera and balletgoing was almost obligatory
for the young nobility. In the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg mainly
Russian performances were given, while the performances in the Michael
Theater were mostly in French. The Alexander Theater was usually visited
by the lower nobility, students, civil servants and artists.
Especially the Petersburg nobility often
spoke French amongst each other. Almost everyone visited Paris frequently.
There was always a reception to go to,
and every hostess made sure that important guests were invited.
A reception or a party with less than
a hundred guests was a rare phenomenon. Before World War I Countess Maria
Kleinmichel, the sister of General Count Keller, was considered the best
hostess of St.
Petersburg. Lots of foreign diplomats,
artists, beautiful women and ministers visited her salon. When the war
broke out and all `Germans' were considered possible enemies, the salon
of Countess Elizabeth (Betzy) Shuvalov, née Bariatinsky, became
the center of the Petersburg society.
In St. Petersburg everyone could find
a salon where one could feel himself at home. Every Sunday evening there
was a religious salon at the house of Dowager Countess Ignatieff. Her Monday
evenings were much gayer, just like the balls of Madam Serebriakov, where
always something special happened.
The difference between the Moscovian
and the Petersburg nobility was remarkable. The Moscovians called the Petersburgers
`Germans' (everything that was not Russian, had to be `German'), and they
thought that the Petersburgers squandered the Russian culture. The Petersburgers
called the Moscovians `narrow minded' and `old fashioned'. The differences
showed in many ways; St. Petersburg had a certain Italian and Parisian
elegance, while in Moscow one could clearly sense xenophobia.
Besides that, one came from Russia to consult the famous Paris medical specialists, for a treatment against T.B., under the sun of the Cote d'Azur, or for a cure in one of the many health-resorts.
Many Russians found the freedom of speech,
which after the period of the French Enlightenment was common, very attractive.
France was a sanctuary for many political refugees, who this way avoided
conviction, or bannishment to Siberia.
Many Russians studied in the Sorbonne,
or did practice in the studio's of Parisian painters and sculptors. Others
followed their professions in Paris: diplomats, journalists, businessmen,
musicians, singers and balletdancers on tour. Many Russians settled down
permanently in France.
And last but not least: the unconstrained
manners and customs. When a homosexual or heterosexual grand duke or a
famous writer or composer had overstepped the mark once too often, in Moscow
or St.
Petersburg, he was discretely told that
a visit to Paris, where one could find quiet and distraction, might be
wise. Lesser gods were bannished to Siberia, under article 995 of the penal
code, and weren't allowed to return to European Russia.
Because in Italy cholera was about, the writer Nicholas Gogol could not return to Italy, and that's why he stayed - from November 1836 to March 1837 - on the address 12 Place de la Bourse, in Paris, where he worked on his picaresque novel Dead Souls.
In 1845, after his brother had passed away, the Decembrist Nicholas Ivanovich Turgenyev, cousin of Ivan Turgenyev, settled down in Paris, on the address 97 Rue de Lille. There Nicholas entertained his Russian friends. From February 19, 1861, the day serfdom was abolished, he yearly celebrated this fact with a banquet, and his cousin Ivan was always invited. After Nicholas' death his family continued the banquet tradition. On March 26, 1868 his cousin Ivan dined with him, together with Prince Avgust Golitsyn, Prince Nicholas Troubetzkoy, Father-Jesuit Ivan Gagarin and Count Muraviev-Amursky, Governor- General of Eastern Siberia. Nicholas didn't like the tablemanners of the Jesuit at all, but Prince Troubetzkoy found them rather amusing.
March 31, 1856: In the French Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, 37 Quai d'Orsay, the Treaty of Paris is being signed.
The plenipotentiaries of Russia are Count Alexis Feodorovich Orlov and
Baron Philippe Brunov.
Madame Jules Baroche, who witnessed the
reception of the Russian gentlemen in the Tuileries, wrote in her book
Second Empire - Notes and Souvenirs, `In spite of the fact that he is seventy
years of age, Count Orlov is still a striking attractive man. He is well
built, has aristocratic traits, and reacts very pleasant to the coquetry
of the ladies present. Baron de Brunov is what they call a representative
of the old Russia. With him I searched in vain for the enigmatical acuteness
which is supposed to be natural to diplomats.'
In 1856 archfather Joseph Vasiliev initiated
the construction of the Russian-Orthodox Cathedral St.
Alexander Nevsky, at the address 12 Rue
Daru, Paris. On September 11, 1861 the Cathedral was consecrated by Bishop
Léonce de Revel, substitute Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, in presence
of the Russian ambassador Paul Kisselev. The Cathedral is built in Russian-Byzantine
style, with a roof of five domes on a octagonal basis, inspired by the
Moscovian and Novgorodian architecture of the 17th century.
The icons and fresco's were made by Evgrafi
Sorokin, a pupil of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.
On March 18, 1857 Lev Tolstoy wrote in his diary, `Got up at one o'clock. Dressed, went to the stock market and bought several securities. The stock market... amazing.' Russia called on the capital of the Paris stock market, so that the Russian industry could be developed. In 1876 the `Company for the Production of Gas for the Benefit of the Illumination of St. Petersburg' was founded, in 1886 followed by the `Company Caspian Sea - Black Sea for the Exploitation of the Baku Oilfields'.
In November 1861, in the Hall of Justice on the Ile de la Cité in Paris, a dispute was settled between Prince Semyon Vorontsov and Prince Peter Dolgoroukov. Prince Vorontsov accused Prince Dolgoroukov of trying to wheedle 50,000 roubles out of Vorontsov's father Michael, in 1856, for a so called genealogical investigation on his family, which he successively had published. Dolgoroukov lost the process. Moreover the Senate in St. Petersburg took away his title and bannished him permanently, after he published his libel The truth about Russia in Paris.
At the house of Baron Horatio Gunzburg, banker in St. Petersburg, in Paris residing on the address 7 Rue de Tilsitt, in December 1877 the money was gathered to found the `Society for Assistance to Russian Artists in Paris'. The society, which usually was called `the Russian Club', settled down opposite Gunzburg's house, on number 18. Chairman was the Russian Ambassador, Nicholas Orlov, the painter Alexis Bogolyukov was vice-chairman, the secretaryship was in the hands of Ivan Turgenyev, and Gunzburg himself - naturally - looked at the pennies. On the list of members were names like the painters Grigori Lehmann, Ivan Pochitonov, Ivan Pranishnikov and Paul Zhukovsky (son of the poet); the sculptors Antokolsky and Bernstamm and the Military Attaché Lev Fredericks.
On February 14, 1881, during a soirée
of the club, an incident found place. Turgenyev had been so clumsy to give
three tickets of admission to the revolutionary Lavrov, who showed up with
a couple of friends. This visit caused a scandal.
Bogolyukov later wrote, `I arrived at
10 p.m. and I senced that the atmosphere was rather tensed.
Successively I perceived some guests
who I didn't know. They looked dirty and slipshod, and one of those chaps
even had long hair.
``Who is that?'' I asked.
``That's Lavrov, the leader of the nihilists
and the regicides!'''
Baron Fredericks left and cancelled his
membership. Turgenyev had to apologize.
On July 20, 1882 Alexandra Smirnov died
in her house, 10 Rue de Portalis. She was born in 1809, in Odessa, as a
daughter of an emigrated French officer, Joseph Rosseti, who had worked
for Richelieu.
Alexandra was bridesmaid of the Tsaritsa's
Maria Feodorovna and Maria Alexandrovna. She was married to Nicholas Smirnov,
the civil Governor of St. Petersburg, and in her youth she was befriended
with the great Russian writers of her era: Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Gogol and
Lermontov. After Smirnov died she left for Paris.
As she herself had passed away, a memorial
service was held in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, after which her mortal
remains were transferred to the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.
On April 14, 1874 Ivan Turgenyev dined
with Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert, Edmond de Goncourt and Emile Zola,
in Café Riche, 26 Boulevard des Italiens. This was the first of
many `Dinner parties of the Five', or `Dinner parties of the Hissed', which
would continue until Flaubert's death in 1880. In 1875 Turgenyev founded
the Russian Library of Paris, and in November 1879 he was invited for lunch
with the Russian successor to the throne, Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich
Romanoff, and his spouse Maria Feodorovna, by the Ambassador of Russia
in France, Prince Nicholas Orlov, in the embassy in the Grand H“tel d'Estrées
(79 Rue de Grenelle).
On November 22 he wrote to his friend
Yakov Polonsky, who lived in Russia, `At Orlov's I was acquainted with
the Tsarevich, and to my greatest joy I've observed that he is a sincere,
honest and good man. His wife is also very nice.'
On March 21, 1881 Turgenyev assisted
in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral with a memorial service for Alexander
II, who was murdered in St. Petersburg because he fought terrorism the
hard way. Two years later, on September 7, 1883, Ivan Turgenyev himself
lied in state in the Cathedral. A memorial service was held, in which a
group of Russian new realists (nihilists), headed by Peter Lavrov, formed
his guard of honour.
From 1900 - the library possessed 3,500
books then - until December 1919, the Russian Library accommodated
on the premises 328 Rue St.-Jacques, Paris, after which the 17,000 books
were moved to 9 Rue du Val-de-Grƒce, where the library was resided until
1937. In the mean time the library possessed about 100,000 books, and that's
why they had to move again, this time to 13 Rue de la B–cherie, the old
premises of the medical faculty. In September 1940 the Germans confiscated
all books. In 1959 the Russians founded a new Russian Library in Paris,
which was called the `Turgenyev Library'. At present the library is resided
on the address 11 Rue de Valence, Paris.
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