Ancient noble surnames. What are Russian surnames of noble origin? What does the word "nobleman" mean?

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Some surnames are said to be “noble”. Is this really true? And is it possible to determine by surname that a person has noble roots?

How did the nobility appear in Russia?

The word “nobleman” itself means: “courtier” or “person from the princely court.” The nobility was the highest class of society. In Russia, the nobility was formed in the XII-XIII centuries, mainly from representatives of the military service class. Starting from the 14th century, nobles received land plots for their service, and family surnames most often came from their names - Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Obolensky, Vyazemsky, Meshchersky, Ryazan, Galitsky, Smolensky, Yaroslavl, Rostov, Belozersky, Suzdal, Smolensky, Moscow, Tver…

Other noble surnames came from the nicknames of their bearers: Gagarins, Gorbatye, Glazatye, Lykov. Some princely surnames were a combination of the name of the appanage and a nickname: for example, Lobanov-Rostovsky.

At the end of the 15th century, surnames of foreign origin began to appear in the lists of the Russian nobility - they belonged to immigrants from Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Asia and Western Europe who had aristocratic origins and moved to Russia.

Such boyar surnames include the Petrovs, Smirnovs, Ignatovs, Yuryevs, Medvedevs, Apukhtins, Gavrilins, Ilyins.

The royal family of the Romanovs is of the same origin. Their ancestor was the boyar from the time of Ivan Kalita, Andrei Kobyla. He had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elka Kobylin and Fedor Koshka. Their descendants received the surnames Zherebtsov, Kobylin and Koshkin, respectively. One of the great-grandsons of Fyodor Koshka, Yakov Zakharovich Koshkin, became the founder of the noble family of the Yakovlevs, and his brother Yuri Zakharovich began to be called Zakharyin-Koshkin. The latter’s son’s name was Roman Zakharyin-Yuryev.

His son Nikita Romanovich and his daughter Anastasia, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, bore the same surname. However, the children and grandchildren of Nikita Romanovich became the Romanovs after their grandfather. This surname was borne by his son Fyodor Nikitich (Patriarch Filaret) and the founder of the last Russian royal dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich.

In the era of Peter the Great, the nobility was replenished by representatives of the non-military classes, who received their titles as a result of promotion in public service. One of them was, for example, an associate of Peter I, Alexander Menshikov, who was of “low” origin from birth, but was awarded the princely title by the tsar. In 1785, by decree of Catherine II, special privileges were established for nobles.

The nobility in Russia was divided into several categories. The first group included representatives of ancient boyar and princely families who received the title of nobility before 1685. These are the Scriabins, Travins, Eropkins and many others. Titled nobles are counts, princes and barons, whose families were listed in genealogical books. Among them are the Alabyshevs, Urusovs, Zotovs, Sheremetevs, and Golovkins. Hereditary nobility was awarded mainly for service (for example, military merits) and could be inherited. Personal nobility was granted for special merits in military and civil service to people of the lower and middle class, but it was not inherited and was not entered in genealogical books.

Is it possible to identify a nobleman by his last name?

In 1886, V.V. Rummel and V.V. Golubtsov compiled the “Genealogical Collection of Russian Noble Families,” which included the genealogies of 136 families of the Russian nobility. There are hundreds of noble family surnames in Russia. Among the most famous are the Aksenovs, Anichkovs, Arakcheevs, Bestuzhevs, Velyaminovs, Vorontsovs, Golenishchevs, Demidovs, Derzhavins, Dolgorukys, Durovs, Kurbatovs, Kutuzovs, Nekrasovs, Pozharskys, Razumovskys, Saburovs, Saltykovs, Trubetskoys, Uvarovs, Cherkasovs, Chernyshevs, Shcherbatovs.

Meanwhile, it is very difficult to determine for sure the noble origin of this or that surname these days. The fact is that surnames from names or nicknames could be given not only to representatives of the nobility. Also, serf peasants of one or another landowner often received surnames based on the name of the land ownership that belonged to this landowner, or bore the master’s own surname. With the exception of some particularly rare surnames, only an official pedigree can confirm noble roots.

Economic differentiation among the nobility clearly shows the heterogeneity of the noble class. An important factor dividing the nobles was also the presence of a title; the division into titled nobility (princes, counts, barons) and untitled nobility (the majority of the class) was always present in the life of noble society.

Family titles appeared in medieval Europe to indicate the degree of vassalage of a lord. In modern times, neither in Russia nor in Europe, the possession of a title did not bring its owner any special legal rights; the title provided an opportunity to join a select circle and was an indicator of either the nobility of the family or special merits before the throne.

Princes

In Rus', until the 18th century, there was only a princely title, which was passed on by inheritance. The title of prince meant belonging to a family that once ruled a certain territory of the country. Among the Slavs, the leaders of the squad, and then the rulers of individual lands - principalities, were called princes.

From the 11th century The princely title belonged only to the descendants of Rurik, who ruled in various lands. In the XIV century. The descendants of the Lithuanian grand ducal dynasty - the Gediminovichs - enter Russian service. In the Moscow state of the 17th century. the princely title was held by the descendants of these two families - the Rurikovichs (Obolensky, Volkonsky, Repnin, Odoevsky, Gagarin, Vyazemsky, etc.), Gediminovich (Kurakins, Golitsyns, Khovanskys, Trubetskoys), as well as some descendants of the Golden Horde nobility and Caucasian families (Urusovs, Yusupovs , Cherkasy). In total there were 47 princely families.

Until the 18th century The princely title was passed on only by inheritance; it could not be received as a royal favor. The award of a princely title first occurred under Peter I, when A.D. Menshikov in 1707 began to be called Prince Izhora.

Under Catherine, there was a whole series of princely grants from the Holy Roman Emperor - to G. A. Potemkin, P. A. Zubov, G. G. Orlov and others.

Under Paul, 5 people were elevated to princely dignity, among them A.V. Suvorov, called the Prince of Italy. Suvorov was later granted the title of His Serene Highness. The most serene princes (among them were M.I. Golinishchev-Kutuzov, N.I. Saltykov, A.K. Razumovsky) were called “your lordship”; Hereditary princes, in contrast, had the title “Your Excellency.”

By the end of the 19th century. due to the suppression of some families (Bezborodko, Lopukhins, Razumovskys), the number of princely families who received the title through a grant was about 20.

New princely families arose in the 19th - early 20th centuries. also as a result of morganatic marriages. This was the name given to marriages between members of the imperial family and persons who did not belong to the ruling houses. Such marriages had legal force, with the exception of inheritance rights. If the husband was a member of the imperial family, then the wife and children bore a different surname, being the founders of a new family.

Graphs

The title of count originally existed in Western European monarchies. It appeared in Russia from the time of Peter the Great. In 1706, B.P. Sheremetev became the first Russian count proper. Among the first nobles elevated to the rank of count were G. I. Golovkin, F. M. Apraksin, P. A. Tolstoy.

The first morganatic marriage in the Russian royal dynasty was the union of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich with the Polish Countess Grudzinskaya, who then became known as Her Serene Highness Princess Lovich.

In 1880, the family of princes Yuryevsky appeared, this title was granted to E. M. Dolgorukova, with whom Emperor Alexander II entered into a morganatic marriage. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna awarded the title of count to the Razumovsky and Shuvalov brothers, and Catherine - to the Orlov brothers.

Noble names

Some surnames are transformed from foreign ones, the owners of which arrived in Rus' from other states. Thus, the Russian noble family of the Golovins descended from the famous Byzantine family of the Khovrins, and the nobles Empress Elizaveta Petrovna awarded the count title to the Razumovsky and Shuvalov brothers, and Catherine - to the Orlov brothers.

Counts at this time often became favorites of emperors and empresses, close relatives of the imperial family, people who distinguished themselves on the battlefield, in diplomatic and public service.

These representatives of the nobility often stood closer to the throne than the descendants of the old fading princely families, therefore in the 18th century. The title of count was sometimes valued higher than that of prince. At the beginning of the 20th century. 320 count families were taken into account.

Barons

The baronial title also came to Russia from Western Europe in the 18th century. Among the first Russian barons were P. P. Shafirov, A. I. Osterman, and the Stroganov brothers. Traditionally, the baronial title was awarded to financiers and industrialists (Fredericks, Stieglitz) and foreigners who distinguished themselves in Russian service (Nikolai, Delvig, Bellingshausen).

Most of the hereditary baronial families were of Baltic origin. Among the most famous Baltic barons are the Wrangels, Richters, and Palens. By the beginning of the 20th century. There were more than 250 baronial families in Russia.

At all times, among the nobility, the antiquity of the family was still valued above any title, therefore the most honorable title was the title of pillar nobles, who traced their noble ancestry for more than 100 years.

After all, a title, even a princely one, could be acquired, but noble ancestors, if they do not exist, cannot be given by any government. An illustrative example is the noble family of the Naryshkins, who never had any titles, but were among the first among nobles and courtiers.

Noble names

Noble dignity was not expressed in any way in the Russian nominal formula; there were no special prefixes indicating noble origin (for example, von in German or de in French names). The very possession of a first name, patronymic and last name at a certain stage already spoke of a noble title.

Other classes for a long time did not have surnames at all. For nobles, belonging to a certain surname meant tribal self-identification.

The surnames of ancient noble families often came from the names of the places of reign. This is how the surnames Vyazemsky, Beloselsky, Obolensky, Volkonsky, Trubetskoy appeared, associated with the names of rivers, lakes, cities and villages. Often the surnames of the entire family came from some ancient ancestor who left a mark on history (Golitsyns, Tolstoys, Kurakins).

Some surnames are transformed from foreign ones, the owners of which arrived in Rus' from other states. Thus, the Russian noble family of the Golovins descended from the famous Byzantine family of the Khovrins, and the Khomutov nobles had the Scotsman Hamilton as their ancestor.

The German surname Levenshtein eventually turned into the Russian surname Levshin, and the descendants of people from Florence Chicheri began to be called Chicherins in Russia. Many surnames originated from Tatar noble families - Godunovs, Karamzins, Kudashevs.

Usually surnames in Russia were single, but sometimes, especially among the nobility, surnames were doubled. The reasons for this could be different; sometimes the surname of a separate branch was added to the surname of a large family.

An example is the princes of Rostov, whose various branches began to be called the Buinosov-Rostov, Lobanov-Rostov, Kasatkin-Rostov. In order not to lose the famous extinct surname, it was added to theirs by female or collateral heirs. This is how the Repnins-Bolkonskys, Vorontsovs-Dashkovs, Golitsyns-Prozorovskys, Orlovs-Denisovs, etc. appeared.

Another group of double surnames arose as a result of the granting of a higher title and the addition of an honorific prefix to the family surname.

Often such prefixes were given for military victories, as a result these famous names became part of Russian history: Orlov-Chesmensky, Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky, Potemkin-Tavrichesky, Suvorov-Rymniksky.

Family ties

The nobleman never lived on his own, he was always a member of the family, he always felt that he belonged to a certain family, he thought of himself as the successor to his many ancestors, and was responsible for his descendants. In this regard, the noble world is very characterized by close attention to family ties and relationships, sometimes very complex.

The ability to understand all the intricacies of kinship was caused by necessity, because the title of nobility, family titles, and, finally, lands and property were inherited according to the kinship principle.

In addition, noble families were, as a rule, numerous; in each generation they entered into kinship relationships with several clans.

The basis of noble family ties was belonging to a certain family; the concept of “clan” implied that people of different generations had one common ancestor - the ancestor.

The figure of the ancestor is rather conventional, because he also had ancestors. Usually the ancestor became the earliest ancestor about whom information has been preserved, who committed some high-profile deeds, had merits to the fatherland, or came to serve in Russia from foreign lands.

Given the overall small number of the noble class, family ties could be an obstacle to marriages, because the church prohibited marriages between close relatives. Therefore, knowledge of one’s own and others’ family circle was the most important part of noble life.

A clan generation, or tribe, consists of descendants who are at an equal distance from a common ancestor. If kinship is transmitted through the male line, and this was precisely the tradition among the Russian nobility, the descendants of the brothers form different branches of the clan.

If one of the representatives of the clan received a title, his descendants represented a special line of the clan - count or prince.

Thus, in the Orlov family tree there were three lines: noble (most of the representatives of the family), count (descendants of the five Orlov brothers who became counts under Catherine II), princely (heirs of A.F. Orlov, whose title was granted in 1856 by Alexander II).

Based on materials from the book “Noble and Merchant Families of Russia” by A. V. Zhukov.

Before being included in the lists of nobility, the gentlemen of Russia belonged to the boyar class. It is believed that at least a third of the boyar families came from immigrants from Poland and Lithuania. However, indications of the origin of a particular noble family sometimes border on falsification.

In the middle of the 17th century, there were approximately 40 thousand service people, including 2-3 thousand listed in Moscow genealogical books. There were 30 boyar families who had exclusive rights to senior positions, including membership in the royal council, senior administrative positions in major orders, and important diplomatic appointments.

Discord between the boyar families made it difficult to govern the state. Therefore, it was necessary to create next to the ancient caste another, more submissive and less obstinate service class.
Boyars and nobles. The main difference is that the boyars had their own estates, while the nobles did not.

The nobleman had to live on his estate, run the household and wait for the king to call him to war or to court. Boyars and boyar children could appear for service at their own discretion. But the nobles had to serve the king.

Legally, the estate was royal property. The estate could be inherited, divided between heirs, or sold, but the estate could not.In the 16th century, an equalization of the rights of nobles and boyar children took place.During the XVI-XVII centuries. The position of the nobles approached the position of the boyars; in the 18th century, both of these groups merged, and the nobility became the aristocracy of Russia.

However, in the Russian Empire there were two different categories of nobles.
Pillar nobles - this was the name in Russia for hereditary nobles of noble families, listed in columns - genealogical books before the reign of the Romanovs in the 16-17 centuries, in contrast to nobles of later origin.

In 1723, the Finnish “knighthood” became part of the Russian nobility.
The annexation of the Baltic provinces was accompanied (from 1710) by the formation of the Baltic nobility.

By a decree of 1783, the rights of Russian nobles were extended to the nobility of three Ukrainian provinces, and in 1784 - to princes and murzas of Tatar origin. In the last quarter of the 18th century. The formation of the Don nobility began at the beginning of the 19th century. the rights of the Bessarabian nobility were formalized, and from the 40s. 19th century - Georgian.
By the middle of the 19th century. The nobility of the Kingdom of Poland is equal in personal rights with the Russian nobility.

However, there are only 877 real ancient Polish noble families, and there are at least 80 thousand current noble families. These surnames, along with tens of thousands of other similar noble Polish surnames, got their start in the 18th century, on the eve of the first partition of Poland, when the magnates of their lackeys, grooms, hounds, etc. raised their servants to gentry dignity, and thus formed almost a third share of the current nobility of the Russian Empire.

How many nobles were there in Russia?
“In 1858 there were 609,973 hereditary nobles, 276,809 personal and office nobles; in 1870 there were 544,188 hereditary nobles, 316,994 personal and office nobles; According to official data for 1877-1878, there were 114,716 noble landowners in European Russia.” Brockhaus and Efron. Article Nobility.

According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.), in total in the Russian Empire (without) Finland) the big bourgeoisie, landowners, high officials, etc. of both sexes were: in 1897 - 3.0 million people, in 1913 4 ,1 million people. The share of the social group in 1897 was 2.4%, in 1913 - 2.5%. The increase from 1913 to 1897 was 36.7%. USSR article. Capitalist system.

The number of nobility (male): in 1651 - 39 thousand people, 108 thousand in 1782, 4.464 thousand people in 1858, that is, over two hundred years it has increased 110 times, while the country's population has only five times: from 12.6 to 68 million people. Korelin A.P. Russian nobility and its class organization (1861-1904). - History of the USSR, 1971, No. 4.

In the 19th century in Russia there were about 250 princely families, more than half of them were Georgian princes, and 40 families traced their ancestry to Rurik (according to legend, in the 9th century called to “rule in Rus'”) and Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who ruled in XIV century in what is now Western Belarus (“Cornet Obolensky” belonged to the Rurikovichs, and “Lieutenant Golitsyn” belonged to the Gediminovichs).

Even more amusing situations arose with the Georgians than with the Poles.

Since in St. Petersburg they were afraid that the princes would again turn to oligarchic freedom, they began to count the princes carefully, namely, they ordered everyone to prove their right to the principality. And they began to prove it - it turned out that almost none of the princes had documents. A large princely factory of documents was set up in Tiflis, and the documents were accompanied by the seals of Heraclius, King Teimuraz and King Bakar, which were very similar. The bad thing was that they didn’t share: there were many hunters for the same possessions. Tynyanov Y. Death of Vazir-Mukhtar, M., Soviet Russia, 1981, p. 213.

In Russia, the title of count was introduced by Peter the Great. The first Russian count was Boris Petrovich Sheremetyev, elevated to this dignity in 1706 for pacifying the Astrakhan rebellion.

Barony was the smallest noble title in Russia. Most of the baronial families - there were more than 200 of them - came from Livonia.

Many ancient noble families trace their origins to Mongolian roots. For example, Herzen’s friend Ogarev was a descendant of Ogar-Murza, who went to serve Alexander Nevsky from Batu.
The noble Yushkov family traces its ancestry back to the Horde Khan Zeush, who went into the service of Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, and the Zagoskins - from Shevkal Zagor, who left the Golden Horde in 1472 for Moscow and received estates in the Novgorod region from John III.

Khitrovo is an ancient noble family that traces its origins to those who left in the second half of the 14th century. from the Golden Horde to the Grand Duke of Ryazan Oleg Ioannovich Edu-Khan, nicknamed Strong-Cunning, named Andrei in baptism. At the same time, his brother Salokhmir-Murza, who left, was baptized in 1371 under the name John and married the sister of Prince Anastasia. He became the founder of the Apraksins, Verderevskys, Kryukovs, Khanykovs and others. The Garshin family is an old noble family, descended, according to legend, from Murza Gorsha or Garsha, a native of the Golden Horde under Ivan III.

V. Arsenyev points out that the Dostoevskys descended from Aslan Murza Chelebey, who left the Golden Horde in 1389: he was the ancestor of the Arsenyevs, Zhdanovs, Pavlovs, Somovs, Rtishchevs and many other Russian noble families.

The Begichevs were descended, naturally, from the Horde citizen Begich; the noble families of the Tukhachevskys and Ushakovs had Horde ancestors. The Turgenevs, Mosolovs, Godunovs, Kudashevs, Arakcheevs, Kareevs (from Edigei-Karey, who moved from the Horde to Ryazan in the 13th century, was baptized and took the name Andrei) - all of them are of Horde origin.

During the era of Grozny, the Tatar elite strengthened even more.
For example, during the Kazan campaign (1552), which in history will be presented as the conquest and annexation of the Kazan Khanate to the Moscow state, the army of Ivan the Terrible included more Tatars than the army of Ediger, the ruler of Kazan.

The Yusupovs came from the Nogai Tatars. Naryshkins - from the Crimean Tatar Naryshki. Apraksins, Akhmatovs, Tenishevs, Kildishevs, Kugushevs, Ogarkovs, Rachmaninovs - noble families from the Volga Tatars.

The Moldavian boyars Matvey Cantacuzin and Scarlat Sturdza, who emigrated to Russia in the 18th century, received the most cordial treatment. The latter's daughter was a maid of honor to Empress Elizabeth, and later became Countess Edling.The Counts Panins traced their ancestry back to the Italian Panini family, which came from Lucca back in the 14th century. The Karazins came from the Greek family of Karadzhi. The Chicherins descend from the Italian Chicheri, who came to Moscow in 1472 in the retinue of Sophia Paleologus.

The Korsakov family from Lithuania (Kors is the name of the Baltic tribe that lived in Kurzeme).

Using the example of one of the central provinces of the empire, one can see that families of foreign origin made up almost half of the provincial nobility. An analysis of the pedigrees of 87 aristocratic families of the Oryol province shows that 41 families (47%) have foreign origins - traveling nobles baptized under Russian names, and 53% (46) of hereditary families have local roots.

12 of the traveling Oryol families have a genealogy from the Golden Horde (Ermolovs, Mansurovs, Bulgakovs, Uvarovs, Naryshkins, Khanykovs, Elchins, Kartashovs, Khitrovo, Khripunovs, Davydovs, Yushkovs); 10 clans left Poland (the Pokhvisnevs, Telepnevs, Lunins, Pashkovs, Karyakins, Martynovs, Karpovs, Lavrovs, Voronovs, Yurasovskys); 6 families of nobles from the “German” (Tolstoys, Orlovs, Shepelevs, Grigorovs, Danilovs, Chelishchevs); 6 - with roots from Lithuania (Zinovievs, Sokovnins, Volkovs, Pavlovs, Maslovs, Shatilovs) and 7 - from other countries, incl. France, Prussia, Italy, Moldova (Abaza, Voeikovs, Elagins, Ofrosimovs, Khvostovs, Bezobrazovs, Apukhtins)

A historian who studied the origin of 915 ancient service families provides the following data on their national composition: 229 were of Western European (including German) origin, 223 were of Polish and Lithuanian origin, 156 were Tatar and other eastern, 168 belonged to the house of Rurik.
In other words, 18.3% were descendants of the Rurikovichs, that is, they had Varangian blood; 24.3% were of Polish or Lithuanian origin, 25% came from other Western European countries; 17% from Tatars and other eastern peoples; The nationality of 10.5% was not established, only 4.6% were Great Russians. (N. Zagoskin. Essays on the organization and origin of the service class in pre-Petrine Rus').

Even if we count the descendants of the Rurikovichs and persons of unknown origin as pure Great Russians, it still follows from these calculations that more than two-thirds of the royal servants in the last decades of the Moscow era were of foreign origin. In the eighteenth century, the proportion of foreigners in the service class increased even more. - R. Pipes. Russia under the old regime, p.240.

Our nobility was Russian only in name, but if someone decides that the situation was different in other countries, they will be greatly mistaken. Poland, the Baltic states, numerous Germanic nations, France, England and Türkiye were all ruled by aliens.

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Royal families

In Rus', surnames were also born along the branches of the family tree. This happened in the ruling dynasties of the Rurikovichs, Romanovs, and other princely and boyar families. The chronicle “The Tale of Bygone Years” mentions that the legendary Varangian Rurik came to Novgorod with his retinue and began to rule there in 862. Rurik's successor was Oleg, one of his close warriors, who moved south and conquered Kyiv. After Oleg, power in Kyiv passed to Igor, and then to his wife Olga. According to some chronicle sources, Igor was considered the son of Rurik, so all the descendants of Igor and Olga began to call themselves Rurikovich. The Rurik dynasty ruled the Russian lands from the 9th to the 16th centuries. They stood at the head of small and large principalities during the period of feudal fragmentation, and then at the head of the Old Russian state.

The name of the founder of this dynasty turned into a surname. To understand the meaning of the surname Rurikovich, you need to look at the translation of the name Rurik. There are two versions of the origin of this name. According to one of them, Rurik was not a personal name, but a kind of titular nickname, indicating a person’s high rank. Translated from the Scandinavian "hrodra rikr" means "glorious ruler." Among the representatives of the Rurik dynasty there were indeed many famous rulers who corresponded to this meaning of their surname.

And according to the second version, the name Rurik could come from the Scandinavian word “rorik” - “falcon”. Since it is necessary to consider all possible meanings in a surname, let us pay attention to this version. The falcon, on the one hand, is a high-flying bird, and on the other hand, falcons were tamed and kept for royal hunting. This is a bird of power, but its power is based on submission to someone. This distinguishes the falcon from the eagle, which rules on its own. Although the falcon flies high, it obeys the falconer’s command, and upon returning, a cap is placed on its head. This bird personifies the principle of service, the warrior. This meaning of the surname was very lost in the history of the entire Rurikovich dynasty.

The Novgorodians hired Rurik along with the Varangian squad and invited them to defend the city. Prince Rurik was supposed to perform the functions of a warrior-commander, serve the townspeople, and the government of the city was to be carried out by an elected veche. The first princes of the Rurik dynasty really corresponded to the meaning of the surname associated with the image of a falcon; they were warriors, led all campaigns of conquest, and themselves collected tribute from the territories under their control. Svyatoslav Rurikovich, the son of Igor and Olga, who was the first of this dynasty to receive a Slavic name, most embodied the image of a prince-commander, and spent his entire life in long military campaigns and battles.

The princes of the Rurik dynasty had to voluntarily submit to someone else's influence; they actually played out the image of a falcon obeying someone's hand. First Olga and then Vladimir bowed to Byzantium and accepted Christianity. Then the Mongols kept Rus' under their hood for 200 years, the Rurikovichs had to receive a label to reign in the Golden Horde. But without such subordination to external conditions, they would not have been able to cope with internal strife and civil strife, or to unite the scattered lands into a single state.

The mystery of the surname shows the true role that its bearers should play in human history. If the Rurikovichs tried to deviate from their prescribed role, they immediately lost. When the Grand Duke of Kiev Igor felt too free and tried to collect tribute from the Drevlyans a second time, he immediately paid the price and was brutally killed.

Another Rurikovich, Andrei Bogolyubsky, the son of Yuri Dolgorukov, was killed by the conspirators after he began to strive for absolute power. They wrote about him in the chronicle: “although he will be an autocrat.” Starting with Andrei Bogolyubsky, the Rurik dynasty began the period of formation of absolute monarchical power, which ultimately led them to a sad ending. In 1547, Ivan Vasilyevich Rurikovich, nicknamed the Terrible, was crowned king. The Rurik dynasty became royal. But this contradicted the meaning of their surname, and in 1598, with the death of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, this dynasty was interrupted.

Let us note that after the formation of a centralized state, many of the Rurikovichs lost their fiefdoms, appanage possessions and constituted the highest stratum of Moscow service people, becoming the so-called “princes,” continuing to embody the mystery of their surname associated with service.

After the decline of the Rurik dynasty, power passed to the Romanov dynasty. The surname Romanov comes from the name Roman. This boyar family began to call itself the Romanovs from the 16th century, and before that they were Koshkins, then Zakharyins. Archival records indicate that in the first half of the 14th century there lived a boyar of the Moscow princes, Andrei Ivanovich Kobyla. One of his sons, Alexander Elka Kobylin, continued the Kobylin family. Another son, Ignatius Zherebets Kobylin, became the ancestor of the Zherebtsovs, while the younger Fedor Koshka Kobylin became the ancestor of the Koshkins. Until the 16th century, the ancestors of the Romanovs were called Koshkins, and then the Zakharyins branch emerged from this family.

The rise of the Zakharyins began after the marriage of Tsar Ivan the Terrible to the daughter of Roman Yuryevich Zakharyin, Anastasia. The founder of the Romanov family was the third son of Roman Yuryevich, Nikita Romanovich. Nikita Romanovich's son was tonsured a monk under the name Filaret, and later became a Russian patriarch. At the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, the son of Fyodor-Filaret, the grandson of the founder of the Romanovs, was elected Russian Tsar. First, the Romanov family became a royal dynasty, and from 1721 - an imperial one.

Only when this humble family began to call themselves the Romanovs did they really have a chance to gain power and the question of their election to the kingdom immediately arose. The Romanovs were able to establish themselves in Moscow precisely because in the 16th century it was announced as the Third Rome. And as soon as this happened, the Romanovs appeared. The name Roman is translated as “Roman, Roman” and refers to the history of the formation of Ancient Rome. The Romanovs were able to eliminate all their competitors for royal power, since the archetype of their surname was in demand at that time. Ivan the Terrible declared himself a king, i.e., Caesar, Caesar, and manifested the archetype of the Roman Empire. After this, the Romanovs began to rise and replaced the Rurikovichs, since they were better suited in their clan scenario to carry out the program of creating an empire, the Third Rome.

The Roman principle, which the Romanovs carried in their surname, predetermined their choice and path in life. The fate of this dynasty is very reminiscent of the fate of Ancient Rome. Having come to power, the Romanovs turned Russia into an empire. They also had a Senate, which played a ceremonial and decorative role under the emperor, as in Rome of later times.

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