Given that the history of Kharkiv and Sloboda Ukraine is currently in vogue, quite a few articles dedicated to the past of our beautiful region are appearing on various websites.
Lately, when reading such articles, one often comes across phrases like “Count Koenig’s estate,” “Baron Koenig,” “Count Shidlovsky’s estate,” “Count Kolokoltsov”… Apparently, this is some kind of marketing ploy. You have to admit, any estate owned by a count, baron, or prince is bound to spark much more interest among unsuspecting tourists. The most interesting thing here is that neither Koenig, nor Shidlovsky, nor Kolokoltsov were ever counts or barons.
Although most of the records related to the Kharkiv nobility are held in the collections of the Senate’s Heraldry Department at the Russian State Historical Archive, it is still possible to find information about our noble compatriots in Kharkiv.
In 1885, Lev Vasilyevich Ilyashevich, a hereditary nobleman of the Kharkiv Governorate and leader of the nobility of the Zmiiv District, published a book titled “A Brief Sketch of the History of the Kharkiv Nobility.”
Its pages reveal to the reader, based on historical documents, the history of the Kharkiv nobility from the founding of our city until 1880. In 2010, this seminal and unique work—which was regularly cited even by early 20th-century researchers—was republished by the “Kharkiv Private Museum of the City Estate.”
In 1902, an article by Dmitry Petrovich Miller titled “The Archives of the Kharkiv Governorate” was published in Volume 13 of the collection of works by the “Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society.” One of the chapters of this extensive study was devoted to the archives of the Kharkiv Noble Assembly.
In the introduction to it, the author writes the following:
“Based on documents from the archive of the Nobility Assembly, L. V. Ilyashevich published *A Brief Sketch of the History of the Kharkiv Nobility* in 1885.” In light of this, while examining the oldest documents in this archive, we noted only those that had been overlooked by the author of the “Brief Essay” but which, in our opinion, fully deserve such attention.”
The book *Genealogical Register of the Hereditary Nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate* is of immense value to anyone interested in the true history of our land. It was published in 2010 by the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region and the Kharkiv Private Museum of the City Estate. What makes this massive 613-page volume so invaluable to us?
Let’s start with the fact that on April 21, 1785, Empress Catherine the Great granted the nobility the “Charter on the Rights, Freedoms, and Privileges of the Noble Russian Nobility.”
This document formalized the privileges of the noble class in each province of the empire and also allowed the local nobility to hold their own noble assemblies and exercise class-based self-government.
The “Charter Granted to the Nobility” contained the following sections, described in detail:
- On the Personal Advantages of the Nobility;
- On the assembly of the nobility, on the reform of the nobility in the regions;
- Guidelines for Compiling and Maintaining Pedigree Records Under the New Circumstances;
- On Evidence of Noble Ancestry.
A specially prepared genealogical register was compiled by a special commission of the Nobility Deputies’ Assembly, consisting of district deputies headed by the provincial leader of the nobility. This commission worked on the basis of alphabetical lists of hereditary nobles submitted by the district leaders of the nobility and reviewed the evidence submitted for each family; based on this evidence, a decision was made regarding the inclusion of that family in a specific section of the genealogical register. It should be noted that only hereditary nobles were entered into the book. Personal nobles, however, were not entered into the genealogical register.
According to the “Charter,” the entire nobility was divided into six classes.
The first section of the genealogical register listed families that held letters of ennoblement from crowned heads, as well as a diploma, a coat of arms, and a seal. This same section also included families that had been members of the nobility for up to 100 years.
Part 2 included those who fell under the decree of Emperor Peter I dated January 16, 1721. That is, all senior officers and their descendants.
The third class included families holding the eighth rank according to the Table of Ranks and falling under the provisions of Emperor Peter I’s decree of January 24, 1722: “All Russian or foreign officials who are, or have been, in the first eight ranks, and whose legitimate children and descendants shall, for all time, be held in equal esteem to the highest nobility in all honors and privileges, even if they are of low birth and have never before been elevated to the nobility or granted a coat of arms by a crowned sovereign.”
The fourth class consisted of foreign-born nobles—that is, foreigners who had come to Russia and already held noble titles.
Part 5 listed titled families—that is, those who, “…by heredity or by the grace of the crowned sovereign, bore a title of prince, count, baron, or other.”
The sixth section included ancient noble families. “Ancient noble families are none other than those whose proof of noble status dates back a hundred years or more; yet their noble origins are shrouded in obscurity.”
In addition to this information, the records also contained many other important details about the nobleman and his family. For example, his rank, marital status, genealogy, coat of arms, etc.
The State Archives of the Kharkiv Region contain the following fonds:
F.15 — Records of the Office of the Kharkiv Provincial Leader of the Nobility, 1825–1898.
F.220 — Records of the Office of the Vovchans’ky District Leader of the Nobility, 1811–1908.
F.758 — Records of the Office of the Izyum District Leader of the Nobility, 1814–1893
F.221 — Records of the Office of the Kup’yans’k District Leader of the Nobility, 1896
F.14 — Records of the Kharkiv Provincial Assembly of Nobility Deputies, 1786–1917
It was precisely on the basis of the nine surviving handwritten genealogical records of the nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate, preserved in Collection F.14, that *The Genealogical Record of the Hereditary Nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate* was published.
The fate of other noble estates in Sloboda Ukraine was quite tragic. During World War II, while the archive was being evacuated, a bomb struck the train traveling from Kharkiv to Saratov. A wealth of material related to the history and activities of the Kharkiv nobility was, quite literally, “consumed by the flames of war.”
Before attributing the title of count, baron, or prince to a particular Slobozhanshchina family, one should also take a look at their coat of arms (fortunately, there are quite a few books on the subject available to the public).
Directly above the coat of arms is a distinctive heraldic element—the crown—which can reveal a great deal about the family. Crowns are classified by type as follows:
— princely
— countly
— baronial
— noble.
It’s quite easy to tell them apart, and it won’t take much time! So, as we can see, information about the titled nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate does exist and is accessible—you just need to spend a little time looking for it.
Well, starting next week, I’ll begin telling you in detail about the real barons, counts, and princes listed in Part 5 of the genealogical register of the hereditary nobility of the Kharkiv Governorate. After all, the true history of these families is much more interesting than any made-up story.
