![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
, 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 Anhal ...
's natural son by Count
Grigory Orlov.
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 Peter III may refer to:
Politics
* Peter III of Bulgaria (ruled in 1072)
* Peter III of Aragon (1239–1285)
* Peter III of Arborea (died 1347)
* Peter III Aaron (died 1467)
* Pedro III of Kongo (ruler in 1669)
* Peter III of Russia (1728–1762)
* ...
, 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
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
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
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
.
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 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 (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 previous ...
, 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 List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
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
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
.
Unlike many other Russian nobles, the Bobrinskys continued as prosperous businessmen after the 1861
emancipation of serfs
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
, 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 dea ...
-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 (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
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 ...
guberniya in the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and the 3rd
State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
. He was appointed into the
State Council of Imperial Russia 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 moment ...
forced him to emigrate to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, 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
(Thy Word is Truth)
, established =
, type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school
, founder = The Revd Francis Pocock
, head_label = Head Master
, head ...
, near
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
, together with three of his younger brothers.
He represented Russian nationalists in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th State Dumas, advocating speedy
Russification
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
of border regions and supporting
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin ( rus, Пётр Арка́дьевич Столы́пин, p=pʲɵtr ɐrˈkadʲjɪvʲɪtɕ stɐˈlɨpʲɪn; – ) was a Russian politician and statesman. He served as the third prime minister and the interior minist ...
'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 Thre ...
(1889), and Chairman of the Free Economic Society (1894). He led the excavations of
Scythian mounds near
Kerch 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
The Pereshchepina Treasure (russian: Перещепинский клад, uk, Перещепинський скарб) is a major deposit of Bulgar, Sassanian, Sogdian, Turkic and Avarian objects from the Migration Period.
The most valuab ...
.
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 million ...
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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
s. A species of
jerboa 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
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
, accompanied by a photographer and a linguist. His observations were published and are now available in an archive in the
State Historical Museum. Another part of his collections of utensils and folk art, including the
Bobrinski bucket
The Bobrinski Bucket, also called a kettle or cauldron, is a 12th-century bronze bucket originally manufactured for a merchant in Herat in 1163 out of bronze with copper and silver inlay, inlaid decorations. It provides one of the earliest example ...
, 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 list of ...
. 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