![Усадьба осенью](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/%D0%A3%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C%D0%B1%D0%B0_%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C%D1%8E.jpg)
The Counts Bobrinsky or Bobrinskoy (''Бобринские'') are a
Russian noble family descending from Count Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762–1813), who was
Catherine the Great's natural son by Count
Grigory Orlov
Prince Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (russian: Князь Григорий Григорьевич Орлов; 6 October 1734, Bezhetsky Uyezd – 13 April 1783, Moscow) was a favourite of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. He became a leade ...
.
The first Count Bobrinsky
![Alexei borinsky](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Alexei_borinsky.jpeg)
Empress
Catherine II
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
gave birth to her only official illegitimate son on April 11, 1762, several months before her ascension to the throne. Catherine had to conceal the pregnancy. When the due date came, to distract her husband, Emperor
Peter III, her trusted servant Vasily Shkurin was ordered to burn his own house, knowing that the Emperor had a passion to watch the fires. The child was named Aleksey after his uncle and godfather, Count
Aleksey Orlov. He was brought up in
Bobriki
Novomoskovsk (russian: Новомоско́вск) is a city and the administrative center of Novomoskovsky District in Tula Oblast, Russia, located at the source of the Don and Shat Rivers. Population: 143,000 (1974); 107,000 (1959); 76,000 ...
, a village in the
Tula guberniya. On April 2, 1781, Catherine sent him a letter, in which she openly avowed her maternity. She named him Bobrinsky, a surname derived from the estate he lived in. On the 5th day of his reign,
Emperor Paul
Paul I (russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич ; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her l ...
made his half-brother a count of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and promoted him to general-major. He married Baroness Anna Dorothea
von Ungern-Sternberg (1769–1846) and had issue that continues to this day. The first Count Bobrinsky died on June 20, 1813 in his estate of Bogoroditsk, to the east of
Tula.
Bobrinsky Palace, the Bobrinsky family seat in
Bogoroditsk
Bogoroditsk (russian: Богоро́дицк) is a town and the administrative center of Bogoroditsky District in Tula Oblast, Russia, located on the Upyorta River, a tributary of the Upa. Population:
History
It was founded in the second ha ...
, was designed by
Ivan Starov
Ivan Yegorovich Starov (russian: Ива́н Его́рович Старо́в) (23 February 1745 – 17 April 1808) was a Russian architect from St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, ...
and constructed in the 1770s and 1780s, starting in 1773. The nearby Kazanskaya church was completed by 1778. The park was laid out by the palace's administrator,
Andrey Bolotov
Andrey Timofeyevich Bolotov (18 October 1738 – 16 October 1833) was the most prolific memoirist and the most distinguished agriculturist of the 18th-century Russian Empire.
Bolotov was born and spent most of his adult life in the family esta ...
(1738–1833), who is better known as one of the first Russian economists. It was Bolotov who established the Children's Theatre in Bogoroditsk. The palace and estate were renovated in the 1870s. In the 20th century, the premises suffered enormous damage from the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
, who demolished the wings of the palace in 1929, and from the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
, who blew up the chateau in December 1941. The palace was restored in the 1960s and now functions as a museum.
Bobrinskys in business
![Bobrinsky v1 p27](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Bobrinsky_v1_p27.png)
Aleksey's son Count Aleksey Alekseyevich Bobrinsky (1800–1868) is remembered as the founder of the sugar-processing industry in Imperial Russia. After brief and uneventful career at the royal court, he retired from service and settled in Bogoroditsk, establishing one of the first
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n sugar refineries there. Later, he moved his operations to
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, making various agricultural activities the chief source of his family income. It was thanks to him that Russia stopped importing sugar from abroad. He also published a treatise on economic theory and set up a society for development of railways, which financed the construction of the first railway in Russia. Bobrinsky's contributions to the national economics were commemorated by a bronze statue in
Kiev.
Unlike many other Russian nobles, the Bobrinskys continued as prosperous businessmen after the 1861
emancipation of serfs, starting
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
-mining in their estates near Tula and helping to build railways all over Russia. Aleksey Alekseyevich's second son Count Vladimir Alekseyevich Bobrinsky (1824–98) served as Minister of Transportation in 1868–71, succeeded in this post by his cousin, Count Aleksey Pavlovich Bobrinsky (1826–1894).
Bobrinskys in politics
The eldest great-grandson of Count Aleksey Alekseyevich was Count
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky
Count Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky (russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Бо́бринский, 31 May 1852 – 2 September 1927) was a Russian historian and statesman from the Bobrinsky family.
Biography
Bobrinsky was bo ...
(1852–1927), who led the
Council of United Nobility United Nobility (russian: Объединённое дворянство; ''Ob'yedinennoye dvoryanstvo'') was a union active in the Russian Empire from 1906 to 1917. The union consisted of the Russian nobility and gentry. United Nobility was one of s ...
starting in 1906 and represented the nobility of the
St Petersburg guberniya in the
Senate and the 3rd
State Duma. He was appointed into the
State Council of Imperial Russia
The State Council ( rus, Госуда́рственный сове́т, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet) was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the ...
in 1912. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Bobrinskoy was elected Chairman of the
Russian-English Bank. In 1916, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Interior and Minister of Agriculture. The
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
forced him to emigrate to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, where he actively campaigned for the monarchist cause.
Count Vladimir Alekseyevich Bobrinsky (1868–1927) was the third son of Count Aleksey Pavlovich. He was educated at
Monkton Combe School, near
Bath, Somerset, together with three of his younger brothers.
He represented Russian nationalists in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th State Dumas, advocating speedy
Russification of border regions and supporting
Pyotr Stolypin's reforms. Like most of the Bobrinskys, he emigrated to France following the revolutionary nationalization of their family enterprises. He is buried in the cemetery at
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...
.
Bobrinskys in science
Apart from politics, Count Aleksey Alexandrovich was a noted historian and archaeologist, Chairman of the Imperial Archaeological Commission (1886), Vice-President of the
Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...
(1889), and Chairman of the Free Economic Society (1894). He led the excavations of
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
mounds near
Kerch
Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...
and Kiev, describing some of his findings in the monograph on Tauric
Chersonesos
Chersonesus ( grc, Χερσόνησος, Khersónēsos; la, Chersonesus; modern Russian and Ukrainian: Херсоне́с, ''Khersones''; also rendered as ''Chersonese'', ''Chersonesos'', contracted in medieval Greek to Cherson Χερσών; ...
(1905). He was in charge of the extraction and publication of the
Pereshchepina hoard.
Vladimir's nephew, Count
Nikolay Alekseyevich Bobrinsky (1890–1964) specialized in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
. Unlike his relatives, he chose to remain in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
after the revolution and came to be recognized as one of the most prominent Soviet
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
s. A species of
jerboa
Jerboas (from ar, جربوع ') are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts.
When chased, jerboas can run at up to . Some species are preyed on b ...
is named after him. His son Nikolay Nikolayevich, a geographer, who wrote a novel on the life of the first Bobrinsky, lived in Moscow until his death in 2000.
Count
Alexey Alexeyevich Bobrinsky (1861- 1938) was the last owner of the Bobriki estate. A scholarly ethnographer, he organized three expeditions to the tribes and villagers in the
Pamir Mountains, accompanied by a photographer and a linguist. His observations were published and are now available in an archive in the
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum ( Russian: Государственный исторический музей, ''Gosudarstvenny istoricheskiy muzyey'') of Russia is a museum of Russian history
The history of Russia begins with the histories of ...
. Another part of his collections of utensils and folk art, including the
Bobrinski bucket, is at the
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...
. After the revolutions of 1917, he settled at his villa in
Seis am Schlern
Seis am Schlern (; it, Siusi allo Sciliar ) is an Alpine village in South Tyrol, in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of northern Italy. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Kastelruth.
Geography
The village lies in the Dolomites, in ...
. The Ismaili peoples among whom he travelled respect his work and reputation. The 150th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in 2011.
Notes
External links
Homepage of the Bogoroditsk MuseumBobrinsky Estate in Bogoroditsk*{{cite web , last=Marek , first=Miroslav , url=http://genealogy.euweb.cz/ascania/ascan13.html , title= Genealogy of the Bobrinsky family , publisher= Genealogy EU
Russian noble families
Catherine the Great
People educated at Monkton Combe School