DOES ANYONE KNOW THE NAME DE RAKOFF (Rakov)

[arkadi]

My father's name was Arkadi Georgevitch de Rakoff (Rakov)  He was born St Petersburg 1895. His father was a Lieutenant General with order of St Vladimir (3rd class) 
My father had four brothers and sisters who were killed in the revolution along with his parents.  But I can't believe the there are no surviving descendants of the original extended family. Unfortunately, I do not know my grandmothers original family name.

My father escaped Russian circa 1917/18 to Constantinople, and there joined the newly formed Don Cossack riding troupe - they  subsequently traveled the world as circus trick-riders.

Does anyone have any knowledge or contact with anyone who was in the Don Cossack troupe from those days.


Arkadi de Rakoff

[alnaumov]

Arkadi, information you are looking for was posted at the Russian web-forum, dedicated to WWI and civil war in Russia. Most of those, who took part in this discussion, agree, that:
1) There was NO general-leitenant of the Russian Army with the surname Rakoff (Rakov). No one of the lists of generals, including those, who were promoted after 1917, contains his hame.
2) Probably, the general' sone changed (or modified) surname, when escaping from Russia.
3) Definetely, he escaped in 1920 (not in 1917/18); Russian 'white' warriors were evacuated from Krimea to Konstantinople in the autumn of 1920.
My suggestion is to use the genealogic information you have (at the Russian forum somebody have mentioned the wife of the general surname Ignatieva), and search in the archives for the address books of St. Petersburg, etc. Same for Rakov.
By the way, you can try at the Russian 'genealogy tree' fromum; they also mantain a part in English (www.vgd.ru).

If any relevant information will be discovered, I will let you know.

Alexey Naumov
P.S. My grandfather was a general of Russian Army, killed in 1918. I have discovered his biography mainly with the help of www resource, where request regarding your ancestors was recently posted (www.1914.borda.ru)

[David Pritchard]

As far as I know, Rakov/Rakow/Rakoff is a Jewish surname. Would a Jew (or a converted Jew) have ever been elevated to the rank of general in Imperial Russia?

[tecsatan]

The ending of the surname off and not ov denotes from nobility however many white Russian supports did change there names to off out of support, rather then out of title. Again however stuff can get lost in translation and often ov was translated as off when translated via French.

However if your relative was a Lieutenant General then the title would have carried with it inherent nobility with a style of address due to his rank. This is not the same as titled nobility.

If his rank is not in the standard listings it is worth checking the Slavo British legion which did commission Russian offices. Also check in archives outside of Russian for information. I found a lot of supporting evidence for my own family in the Estonian archives including my Great Granddads military records.

[Превед]

As far as I know, Rakov/Rakow/Rakoff is a Jewish surname.

Not very kosher, huh, with Rakov derived from рак, rak meaning "cancer", as in both crustaceans, particularly crayfish, and the disease. (Obviously cognate with Scandinavian reke, reje, räka, shrimp.)