In 1913, a wonderful book titled *Court Ranks, Their Majesties’ Retinues, and the Hereditary Nobility of the Russian Empire* was published. This beautifully illustrated biographical reference work contained comprehensive information on the origins, education, and honors of a vast number of people.

After carefully studying this work, we find among the residents of Kharkiv the surnames of two families well-known throughout the Russian Empire: the Bulatsels and the Chaplits.

Pavel Fedorovich Butsalyel descended from the ancient Wallachian (Moldavian) boyar family of the Bulatselys. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, he received extensive estates in the Kharkiv Governorate. In the publication mentioned above, we read: “G.V. Bulatsel’s brother, Major General Ilya Varlamovich, commanded the Chuguev Cossack Regiment during the Seven Years’ War and is the progenitor of the Kharkiv Bulatsels.”  The continuation of this description is interesting: “From this same branch comes Chamberlain of the Imperial Court N. I. Bulatsel, who serves as Minister-Resident to His Holiness the Pope.” Just like that 🙂

We were quite surprised by yet another surname. It turned out that the descendants of the ancient Polish family—the Czaplics—were not in the service of the Pope, but were nonetheless considered nobles in the Kharkiv Governorate.

The book *Court Ranks, Their Majesties’ Retinues, and the Hereditary Nobility of the Russian Empire* states: “Chaplits, Vladimir Ustinovich, a hereditary nobleman of the Minsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, and St. Petersburg governorates… In 1913, he was elected honorary judge and candidate for leader of the nobility of the Lebedinsky District, Kharkiv Governorate.”

Original text by Anton Bondarev; supplemented by Viktor Dmitrenko