Author Topic: Photos of noble families! (Read 160141 times)

ashdean · « **Reply #45 on:** April 15, 2008, 01:56:27 AM »

Paul Rodzianko was married to Anita (daughter of Sir Shane Leslie of Gaslough) between 1937-48

Nadya_Arapov · « **Reply #46 on:** April 29, 2008, 10:38:44 AM »

Prince Lt. Gen. Andrei Ivanovich Vyazemsky (1746/50-1807) was a senator, privy councilor, officer, adventurer, and patron of the arts. As a young man he was a Guards Officer and served with distinction in the first Russo-Turkish War (1787-1792). He served for a time as Gov. of Nizhniy Novgorod, but his independent nature wasn’t appreciated by the Russian bureaucrats, and his life in civil service was short-lived. He purchased Ostafievo, just outside of Moscow, in 1792. In 1800 he commenced building a magnificent estate there.

While traveling through Europe, Andrei met the young Irish bride of a French army officer, Eugenia Kean (or Kine), the daughter of one John O’Reilly. He whisked her off to Russia and despite his parents’ outrage was determined to marry her. He used his connections to help her obtain a divorce and they were married in the late 1780s. Andrei and Eugenia had two children, a daughter who was named Ekaterina (d. 1810) after her older illegitimate half-sister and a son named Peter. Eugenia was baptized into the Orthodox Church taking the name Evdokia Ivanovna.

Before his marriage Andrei had three illegitimate daughters who bore the surname Kolyvanova. His illegitimate daughter Ekaterina Andreyevna Kolyvanova (1780-1851) married the historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) best remembered for his “History of the Russian State.” They had eight children. Ekaterina and her step-daughter Sophia Karamzina (1802-1856) hosted a literary and artistic salon frequented by prominent artists, composers, musicians and writers, among them Pushkin and Baratynsky.

Ekaterina and Nikolai’s son Col. Andrei Karamzin (1814-1854) was an army officer. He married the Finnish society beauty and philanthropist Aurora St. Jernvall (1808-1902). Aurora’s first husband was the industrialist and aristocrat, Paul Nikolayevich Demidov, one of the wealthiest men in Russia. After his death he left Aurora very well provided for. Aurora served as a lady-in-waiting to Nikolai I’s wife Alexandra and was a Dame of the Order of St. Catherine. She founded and supported many charities through out her life - everything from schools to public kitchens. She was the grandmother through her first marriage of Princess Aurora Demidova, the wife of Prince Arsen of Yugoslavia. Her great-great-great-granddaughter is the actress Catherine Oxenberg (b.1961).

Nikolai and Ekaterina’s daughter Ekaterina Karamzina (1805/09-1867) married Prince Peter Ivanovich Meshchersky (1802-1876). Their son Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky (1839-1914) was a State Councilor, Imperial Chamberlain, and publisher. He was a staunch reactionary monarchist who opposed moderate and liberal reforms of any kind. He was the publisher of the extreme right-wing government-sponsored newspaper Grazhdanin (the Citizen). He was an advisor to Alexander III and was given the nickname “the Knower” at Court because he usually knew what the Tsar would do before the Tsar acted. Vladimir faced legal problems in the late 1880s after being caught in an awkward position with a bugle boy from the Imperial marching band. Alexander III quashed the case. His family was less tolerant of his behavior (they were outraged in part that he lived openly with his lover Nikolai Burdukov). His brother Nikolai refused to even allow Vladimir into his home. Vladimir was a good friend of GD Sergei Alexandrovich. He was also a member of the St. Petersburg Society of the Followers of Homeopathy.

Nadya_Arapov · « **Reply #47 on:** April 29, 2008, 10:45:37 AM »

Ekaterina (Karamzina) Meshchersky’s son Prince Nikolai Petrovich Meshchersky (1829-1901) was rector of Moscow University. He was described in the book “The Russian Album,” authored by his great-grandson Michael Ignatieff, as “”a mild old gentleman of conventional opinions, ruled by his wife and daughters…generous and absent minded, always doling out money to the Moscow beggars when out on his morning walk…” He was married to Countess Maria Alexandrovna Panina (d. 1903) a plain-faced woman with dark hair, an olive complexion, and a keen mind. “Vivacious, imperious, and argumentative…famous in her heyday for the sharpness of her tongue,” with Countess Sheremetev and Mlle Tiutcheva, Maria was part of the triumvirate known in Moscow society as the “Council of the Infallibles.” Maria was descended from Catherine the Great’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikita Panin, whose brother Peter Panin squelched the Pugachev rebellion in 1773/74. When not in Moscow Nikolai and Maria lived at their estate Doughino, nr. Smolensk. They had at least five daughters and three sons. After losing one daughter (Ekaterina) to tuberculosis they became hypochondriacs regarding the health of their remaining children, calling a doctor when they heard even the slightest sniffle.

Nikolai’s daughter Princess Maria Meshcherskaya (1866-1948) married Count Nikolai Mikhailovich Tolstoy (1857-1915). Maria remained something of an invalid after suffering a riding accident in her youth. She escaped to France after the Revolution, two of her children were not so fortunate. Her daughter Countess Elizabeth Tolstoy (1892-1919) died in Siberia before she could emigrate. Another daughter, twelve-year-old Ekaterina (b. 1907) was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1919.

Nikolai’s daughter Princess Natalia “Natasha” Meshcherskaya (1877-1946) was a beautiful, mild-mannered, but when warranted an extremely blunt woman. A private person she loathed St. Petersburg society. She married the far more dynamic Count Paul Nikolayevich Ignatiev (1870-1945). Their lives are detailed in the book “The Russian Album” written by their grandson Michael Ignatieff (b.1947) a Canadian historian, professor, and politician. Paul Ignatiev served as Governor of Kiev, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and Minister of Education during the reign of Nicholas II. Paul was arrested by the Bolsheviks, but was eventually released, and afterwards fled Russia and settled in England. He didn’t stay there long, though. Leaving his family behind in England, Paul moved to Paris where he served as president of the Russian Red Cross. Paul and Natasha eventually settled in Canada. Paul’s father Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev was a diplomat and had served as Minister of the Interior during the reign of Alexander III. It was Count Nikolai who instituted the infamous anti-Semitic “May Laws” in 1882. Paul and Natasha’s son George Ignatieff (1913-1989), Michael Ignatieff’s father, was a Rhodes Scholar and Canadian diplomat. George served as Ambassador to Yugoslavia, Ambassador to the UN, and Permanent Representative to NATO.

Nikolai’s daughter Princess Alexandra Meshcherskaya (1864-1940) was described in “the Russian Album” as “too earnest.” The Meshchersky sisters as a whole are referred to as “all good women, but none of them brilliant.” She married Prince Paul Pavlovich Golitsyn (1856-1914), Grand Marshal of the Nobility of Novgorod. They spent most of their time at their estate Marino in Novgorod. Alexandra served as a lady-in-waiting to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna “Miechen.” The family only escaped Russia in 1922. Alexandra eventually settled in Hungary, dying at Budapest. Her daughter and namesake Princess Alexandra “Aleka” Golitsyna (1905-2006) was married first in 1928 to GD Xenia’s son Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich. In 1954 she married a wealthy Chicago banking executive, Lester Armour. During the Revolution Aleka, then fourteen, spent several months at a Soviet colony for “criminal children” before being allowed to return to Moscow. She came to Chicago with her brother and worked for a time at the Marshall Field department store there before marrying Rostislav. A kind and regal woman she is remembered in Chicago for her philanthropy. Her son was the merchant banker Prince Rostislav Rostislavovich “Rosti” Romanov (1938-1999).

Nikolai’s daughter Princess Sophia “Sonia” Meshcherskaya (1867-1942) was tall, auburn haired, elegant and attractive. A flirt before her marriage she later became “too austere and serious-minded.” She married Prince Boris Alexandrovich “Boria” Vassiltchikov (1863-1931), leader of the Novgorod nobility, governor of Pskov, and chairman of the Russian Red Cross. They had an estate named Vybiti in Novgorod. Sonia and Boris did escape Russia after the Revolution, but Boris was plagued for the rest of his life by tuberculosis contracted in 1917 in a Soviet prison. They lived for several years with her sister Natasha in England before settling in Paris. Sonia established a finishing school there which she operated until her death.

Nadya_Arapov · « **Reply #48 on:** April 29, 2008, 10:51:23 AM »

Prince Andrei Vyazemsky and Eugenia died within just a few years of one another. After Andrei’s death their only son Prince Peter Vyazemsky (1792-1878) was left in the care of his half-sister and her husband, the Karamzins, whom he adored. Peter Vyazemsky is perhaps best remembered for his poetry. However, he was also a literary critic, statesman, member of the Russian Academy and member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was one of the leading lights of Russia's Golden Age. As a young man he fought in the Napoleonic Wars including the Battle of Borodino. Many years later he had a falling out with Leo Tolstoy, because Peter felt the novelist's account of that Battle of Borodino in his novel “War and Peace” was inaccurate. In 1811, he married Princess Vera Feodorovna Gagarin (1790-1886), a plain-faced, but cheerful and sensible woman. After their home in Moscow was burnt to the ground during Napoleon’s invasion in 1812 Ostafievo became their main residence. Many artists and writers visited them there, but their most cherished guest was Alexander Pushkin. Prince Vyazemsky was one of Pushkin's oldest and probably his dearest friend. Their witty and well-informed correspondence is considered to be something of a masterpiece in its own right. The years passed, his contemporaries predeceased him, and by the 1830 Peter found himself and his writing out of favor. Unable to relate to the new generation of poets and authors Peter, who had been considered dangerously liberal by Nicholas I’s court, became a reactionary, clinging to the past and voicing openly his disdain for the new generation. It was probably Vera's steady influence alone that prevented him from becoming embittered. Largely as the result of his daughter Maria's marriage to Peter Alexandrovich Valuev Peter gained a position at Court. He served in the 1850s as a deputy minister of education, acting as the chief literary censor in Russia. His health began to fail and he left Russia in 1863 settling in Baden-Baden where he died in 1878.

Peter and Vera had several children, but only four survived to maturity: Praskovia (1817-1835) and Nadezhda (1822-1840) never married remaining all their lives at home; Maria (1813-1849) was the first wife of Count Peter Alexandrovich Valuev (1815-1890); and a son Prince Paul Vyazemsky (1820-1888).

Maria's husband, Count Valuev, served as Minister of the Interior (1861-1868) during the reign of Alexander II. He later served as Minister of State Property (1872-1877) and after 1877 as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. After Alexander II's assassination, Alexander III forced him into retirement. His diary was posthumously published and is now considered a valuable source of information about Alexander II's government and inner circle. He also shared his in-laws literary interests and later in life wrote several novels and an essay detailing the history of Christianity

He was surrounded from infancy by the leading men of letters in Russia. Paul possessed a wide variety of interests. He was an art collector of note with impeccable taste, a scientist, a diplomat, and an amateur historian of Byzantium, medieval Russia and Europe, and a collector of ancient manuscripts. His father Peter's one great vice had been gambling. Peter once lost as much as 500,000 rubles in a single evening gambling (an enormous sum in the early 19th century). His gambling debts combined with the lavish entertainments that he and Vera frequently held at Ostafievo - balls, large receptions, lavish dinners, theatricals and musical recitals - obliterated the Vyazemsky fortune. With Paul’s family in debt a life of leisure spent solely pursuing his artistic and scientific interests was not initially an option. He entered the diplomatic corps and between 1840 and 1856 served at various missions and embassies everywhere from Istanbul to Vienna.

Nadya_Arapov · « **Reply #49 on:** April 29, 2008, 10:57:27 AM »

In 1848, while stationed in Istanbul, Paul met and married a wealthy and beautiful young widow Maria Arkadyevna (Stolypina) Bek (1819-1889). Like Paul, Maria was reared in a cultured atmosphere, the statesman Mikhail Speransky and poet Lermontov were family friends, and the economist, philosopher, and sociologist, Prince Nikolai Arkadyevich Kochubey (1827-1865) was her brother-in-law. Her first husband Ivan Alexandrovich Bek (1807-1842) was a poet, translator and diplomat; he produced the first Russian translation of Goethe's "Faust". Two children were born to Maria’s first marriage: Maria Bek (ca 1839) and Vera Bek (1845-1912). Vera Bek married the officer, collector and bibliophile Dmitri Sergeyevich Gorchakov (1828-1907). Their child Sergei Dmitrievich Gorchakov (1861-1927) served prior to the Revolution as Vice Gov. of Kherson (1904-1906), Gov. of Vyatsky (1906-1909) and Gov. of Kaluga (1909-1915). His first wife was Princess Sophia Dmitrievna Golitsyna (1863-1930) they were married in 1885 and divorced in 1898. His second wife was Countess Anna Yevgrafovna Komarovskaya (1874-1918). They had two children: Tatiana (b.1902) and Dmitri (b.1908). After the Revolution Sergei's estate Boryatino was appropriated by the Bolshevik government, but he was allowed to remain on the state as a “bourgeois specialist” in charge of overseeing the estate's upkeep. The family was arrested in October 1918 by the Cheka and held as hostages. His wife Anna was shot to death while trying to flee their captors. Sergei was then exiled to Tobolsk Province where he died in June 1927.

Equipped with Maria’s fortune Paul now had the means to build what became one of Russia’s most varied and valuable private collections of artistic and historic objects. They returned to Russia in 1856 and in 1861 his father, knowing he had the means to restore and maintain the estate, bequeathed Ostafievo to Paul. Here Paul displayed his collection of paintings, drawing, antiques, icons, and folk art. In addition he acquired an enormous library of over 30,000 volumes in several languages. He took a position with the Ministry of Education and later served as head of the Publications Department and a censor of foreign language books. He also played a vital role in preserving the correspondence of his father and Pushkin, publishing two volumes about the life of Pushkin based on this material.

Paul and Maria (Bek) Vyazemsky had three children of their own: Peter, Alexandra and Ekaterina. Paul and Maria’s youngest child, Princess Alexandra Vyazemskaya (1855-1928) married Dmitri Sergeyevich Sipyagin (1853-1902). He served as Vice Gov. of Kharkov (1886-1888), Gov. of Courland (1888-1891), Gov. of Moscow (1891-1893), Deputy Minister of State Property (1893), Deputy of the Minister of Interior (1894), Executive Director on the petitions of the Imperial Chancellery (1895-1899), Director of the Ministry of Interior (1899), and finally as Minister of the Interior (1900-1902). A reactionary known for his unwavering belief in the principle of absolute autocracy, he was loathed by both the radicals and many moderates. He was assassinated at the Mariinsky Palace by a twenty-one-year-old student and Socialist-Revolutionary (SR) Stepan Balmashov, who was himself the son of a Revolutionary who had been exiled to Siberia for his activities. Dmitri Sipyagin’s successor as Minister of the Interior, Vyacheslav von Plehve, would also die at the hands of an SR assassin just two years later. The Sipyagins had no children of their own. Like her sister Ekaterina, Alexandra chose to remain in Russia after the Revolution. She probably died either in Moscow or at Tsaritsyno.

Paul and Maria’s only son Prince Peter Pavlovich Vyazemsky (1854-1918) inherited Ostafievo after his father’s death in 1888. However, his passion was for the military, not art. He held the rank of Major General, commanded a grenadier regiment, and served as an adjutant to GD Mikhail Nikolayevich. He had little interest in either his father’s collections or the estate. He removed his favorite paintings from Ostafievo and installed them in his home in St. Petersburg. He then rented out Ostafievo to a Muscovite merchant. This sorry state of affairs was to continue for several years until the estate and Paul’s collections were purchased by his sister Ekaterina’s husband Count Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev. The estate could not have fallen into more capable hands.

Elena · « **Reply #50 on:** May 05, 2008, 02:13:23 AM »

Aurora Karamzin (1808-1902), mentioned above, was a very well known philantropist in Finland. Her maiden name was Stjernvall. She inherited an immense fortune from her first husband, Paul Demidov, to whom she was married only some 3 years. Aurora Karamzin founded the Helsinki Deaconess Institute, an influential foundation that runs hospitals, nursing homes and various social programs even today. Her sister Emilie was married to count Musin-Pushkin.

Several biographies on her have been published in Finland, as well as novels and plays.

In English:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Stjernvall

http://hdl-en.eyhdistys.fi/cgi-bin/linnea.pl?document=00010093

Postage stamp 2002:
http://otavanoppimateriaalit.net/aineisto/arkisto/karamzin/index.html