The Anglo-Russians were an English
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
business community centred in
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, then also
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 million ...
, from the 1730s till the 1920s. This community was established against the background of
Peter I Peter I may refer to:
Religious hierarchs
* Saint Peter (c. 1 AD – c. 64–88 AD), a.k.a. Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simon, apostle of Jesus
* Pope Peter I of Alexandria (died 311), revered as a saint
* Peter I of Armenia (died 1058), Catholico ...
's recruitment of foreign engineers for his new capital, and generally cooperative
diplomatic relations between the Russian and British empires. Some of the families were resident in Russia for several generations, though generally retaining UK citizenship and sending their children to be educated in England. Some lived there for so long that their English acquired a distinctive accent peculiar to Anglo-Russians.
Russian people of English descent
Notable Anglo-Russian families were built around the trading houses and businesses of the Cazalet family, - the Cazalet-Miller business empire including the Ebsworth family, and Whishaw family. One of the first Anglo-Russian families was established by Noah Cazalet (1757-1800), a silk weaver, settled in St Petersburg and expanded into the burgeoning business of rope manufacture for sailing ships. In 1860 Edward Cazalet married an Elizabeth Marshall, and became connected to the company of William Miller & Co, of Leith in Scotland. The Whishaw family, of Hills and Whishaw Ltd, included James Whishaw, and influential intermediary in development of the
Baku oilfields and
Stella Zoe Whishaw
Stella Arbenina, Baroness Meyendorff (Стелла Арбенина) (27 September 1884 – 26 April 1976) was a Russian-born English actress.
She was born Stella Zoe Whishaw in St. Petersburg tRobert Cattley Whishaw and Mary (née Gisiko) Her ...
, later Baroness Meyendorff, an Anglo-Russian actress who wrote a memoir ''Through terror to freedom - the dramatic story of an Englishwoman's life and adventures in Russia before, during & after the revolution'' in 1929, and then became a film diva in the 1930s.
Stella Arbenina photo
/ref>
Nothing is recorded of the children of Joseph Billings
Joseph Billings (17581806) was an English navigator, hydrographer and explorer who spent the most significant part of his life in Russian service.
Life
Early life
Joseph Billings was likely born in Yarmouth, the son of a fisherman of the same na ...
(c.1758-1806) an English navigator who joined the Tsar's navy and settled in Russia. More notable are the descendants of William Sherwood, an English cotton machine engineer who came to Russia in 1800. (1798 at the invitation of Tsar Paul I according to family papers (Marcus Sherwood-Jenkins). His sons were John Sherwood, (Ivan Shervud in Russian) an influential lieutenant to Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
and Joseph Sherwood, who died in 1832 when his son Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood
Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood (russian: Владимир Осипович Шервуд; also spelled Shervud, August 30, 1832 in Istleyevo, Tambov Governorate – July 27, 1897) was a Russian painter and architect who worked in Moscow. He was an E ...
, later a famous architect (responsible for the building of The State Historical Museum on Red Square, Moscow.), was five years old. William's descendants include great-grandsons Vladimir Vladimirovich Sherwood
Vladimir Vladimirovich Sherwood (russian: Владимир Владимирович Шервуд, also spelled Shervud, May 17, 1867 — June 18, 1930), was a Russian architect who worked in Moscow in 1895–1914 in Art Nouveau style and ''moderni ...
, also an architect, and Leonid Sherwood, a sculptor, and great-great-grandson, the artist Vladimir Favorsky
Vladimir Andreyevich Favorsky (russian: Владимир Андреевич Фаворский; March 14, 1886 – December 29, 1964) was a Soviet graphic artist, woodcut illustrator, painter, art critic, muralist, and teacher. He was a Peopl ...
.
John Sherwood (Ivan Shervud) was responsible for unmasking the Decemberist plot in 1825 and was ennobled by the Tsar for his services and given the honorific Shervud Vernyi (Sherwood the loyal).
In addition there were the expatriate-born children of British businessmen in Russia, such as conductor Albert Coates, whose father was general manager for a British company in St Petersburg. He was raised from the age of 12 in England. Chess playing sisters Vera Menchik
Vera Francevna Mencikova (russian: Вера Францевна Менчик, ''Vera Frantsevna Menchik''; cz, Věra Menčíková; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944), was a Russian-born Czechoslovak chess player who primarily resided in En ...
and Olga Menchik
Olga Menchik (Menčíková, Menčik) Rubery (1908, Moscow – 26 June 1944, Clapham, London) was a Czech–British female chess master.
Born in Moscow to a Czech father and a British mother, she was younger sister to Vera Menchik. They all moved ...
were daughters of a Czech father and English mother in Moscow, who moved to Britain in 1921 when the sisters were 15 and 13 years old.
A fictional account of Anglo-Russians is found in Penelope Fitzgerald
Penelope Mary Fitzgerald (17 December 1916 – 28 April 2000) was a Booker Prize-winning novelist, poet, essayist and biographer from Lincoln, England. In 2008 ''The Times'' listed her among "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ''The Ob ...
's ''The Beginning of Spring'' (London, 1988).
See also
*Russians in the United Kingdom
Russians in the United Kingdom are Russians, or the persons born in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation, who are or were citizens of or residents of the United Kingdom.
Settlement and population numbers
The 2001 UK cens ...
*Scottish Russians Scottish Russians are Russians with full (or partial) Scottish ancestry. Scottish migration to Russia occurred primarily during the early-17th-century Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618), Ingrian War (1610–1617) and Thirty Years' War (1618–164 ...
*Irish Russians
Irish Russians are Russian nationals whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Ireland. Migration occurred in the context of conflicts in Eastern Europe: the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–18), Ingrian War and Thirty Years' War.
History
The ...
*Anglo-Russian Convention
The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 (russian: Англо-Русская Конвенция 1907 г., translit=Anglo-Russkaya Konventsiya 1907 g.), or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet (; ...
*Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland
The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland (or Anglo-Russian expedition to Holland, or Helder Expedition) was a military campaign from 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and ...
*Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples
The Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples was the stationing of British and Russian forces in the Kingdom of Naples from the summer of 1805 until January 1806 during the War of the Third Coalition.
Background
A previous cooperation in July 1799 be ...
*Anglo-Russian action in Persia The Anglo-Russians were an English expatriate business community centred in St Petersburg, then also Moscow, from the 1730s till the 1920s. This community was established against the background of Peter I's recruitment of foreign engineers for his n ...
References
{{Immigration to Russia
English diaspora
Saint Petersburg