Princes Shakhovskys are an old Russian clan originating from Rurik and numbering 17 tribes. The founder of the dynasty, whose members were named Shakhovskys, is considered to be the Yaroslavl prince Konstantin Glebovich, nicknamed Shah, former governor in Nizhny Novgorod. Representatives of this genus also bore the name of the Shemyakins. These were the descendants of his grandson, Alexander Andreevich, nicknamed Shemyak. Starting from the XVII century, all representatives of this dynasty became Shakhovsky.
The beginning of the clan
Prince Rurik, who ruled Novgorod, is considered to be his famous ancestor, from whom the clan of the Shakhovsky princes descended. Its beginning is carried out along the line going from the prince of Kiev Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich to his great-grandson Vladimir Monomakh. His direct heirs owned the city of Smolensk. They were called the princes of Smolensk.
One of their descendants, Prince Fedor Rostislavovich, who died in 1299, ruled in Yaroslavl. His son David Fedorovich became the specific prince of Yaroslavl, that is, he received it as an inheritance (princely possession). The clan of Princes Shakhovskiy has its own countdown from this Prince of Yaroslavl. They began to call Shakhovsky from his great-grandson, Konstantin Glebovich, who was nicknamed Shah.
Saints Fedor, David and Constantine
The ancestors of the Shakhovskys are Prince Yaroslavsky Fyodor Rostislavovich (Black), his sons David and Konstantin are numbered among the saints. The legend says that after the death of the prince in 1299, the body in a wooden deck was left under the Transfiguration Cathedral in the monastery, and after the death the bodies of his sons were also put here. In 1463, they decided to bury their ashes. During the funeral service, miracles of healing began to occur. Rev. Fedor, David, Constantine were counted as saints. Many kings came to Yaroslavl Miracle Workers. Among them, Ivan III, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine II. Since 2010, the relics are in the Assumption Cathedral of Yaroslavl.
Clan Shakhovsky
Konstantin Glebovich, who gave the family the name of the Shakhovsky, had two sons Andrei Konstantinovich and Yuri Konstantinovich. But it was the offspring of Prince Andrei who gave the eight branches of the famous dynasty of the princes Shakhovsky. They went from his son Alexander Andreevich Shemyaki, who had six sons. Five branches come from the heirs of his son Andrei Alexandrovich. On one branch - from the princes Fedor Alexandrovich, Ivan Alexandrovich, Vasily Alexandrovich.
The family of Princes Shakhovsky by the XVII century has grown very much and, most likely, these were small-princes, who do not play a special role in the history of the country. Nevertheless, it was attended by prominent representatives, who, for the most part, through service to the sovereigns, tried to break out of obscurity and occupy a certain place in society, befitting such a noble family.
Coat of arms of the Shakhovskys
As a princely clan, the Shakhovskys had their own coat of arms, which at the end of the 18th century was listed in the 12th part of the “General Tombstone of the noble families of the Russian Empire”. This is an ancient coat of arms, which included elements of the cities of Kiev, Yaroslavl and Smolensk as signs of the involvement of the Shakhovsky clan in them.
The emblem consists of a shield divided into four parts, in the center of which is a bear as a symbol of the Principality of Yaroslavl. He holds in his paws a golden ax. The two azure parts of the shield, placed diagonally, depict two silver angels with silver swords and gold shields. They are elements of the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Kiev. In two other silver parts located diagonally, there are elements of the coat of arms of the Smolensk principality. These are two golden cannons with long-tailed birds of paradise sitting on their carriages.
In the service of an impostor
During troubled times, the surname of the Shakhovskys, oblivious, reappeared on the pages of Russian history. This is connected with Prince Grigory Shakhovsky - the boyar and the governor. He belonged to the third line of the genus. His father, Prince Peter Shakhovskoy, was the youngest governor in Chernigov. During the time of the Great Troubles, he was captured by False Dmitry I and deserves the gracious disposition of Grishka Otrepyev, who included him in the "thieves' thought" that was going to Putivl.
Of course, during the Time of Troubles, many people, including those from noble families, could not for certain understand who False Dmitry was. During this difficult time, many adventurous aristocrats appeared who, taking advantage of the complete confusion in the country, succumbed to the persuasion of the Pretender and went to his service. Most of them were driven by a sense of profit, an opportunity to rob.
Among them is Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy - a native of a clan originating from Rurik himself. Being a boyar and governor, he enters the service of False Dmitry I. Why the prince did so, we cannot judge. The version, voiced by most historians, says that this was done due to its adventurous nature, the circumstances, the desire to declare itself.
Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy
His name was first mentioned after he, returning from Polish captivity in 1587, was governor of Tula, then Krapivna, Novomonastyrsky prison, Belgorod. In 1605, when the impostor advanced to Moscow and captured it, he noticeably rose, since his father Pyotr Shakhovskoy arrived there with False Dmitry I and played a certain role with him. It was at this time that Prince Grigory Petrovich appeared in the capital, who entered the service of the impostor.
After the murder of False Dmitry I, Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent Gregory governor to Putivl. Arriving there, he began preparations for a rebellion against the king. It was his appeals that sowed confusion, which allowed Ivan Bolotnikov to raise a peasant uprising. In June 1606, the rebels were defeated by Shuisky troops on the Vosme River. Voivode Shakhovskoy together with the detachment of Ileika Muromets flees to Kaluga, from where to Tula, where in 1607 he is captured by the tsar’s troops and exiled to the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery.
At the end of 1608, he was liberated by Polish-Russian troops led by False Dmitry II. Shakhovskoy joined them, and subsequently played a leading role in the Boyar Duma of the second impostor. In the army, he was assigned command of the Russian troops of the Polish governor Zborowski. After the Polish-Russian army of the Pretender was defeated by the troops of Skopin-Shuisky, he and False Dmitry II again fled to Kaluga. After the death of the Pretender, as if nothing had happened, he adjoins the second militia of Dmitry Pozharsky, introducing confusion and schism between him and Prince Trubetskoy.
General from Infantry
Another representative of this noble family, Prince Ivan Shakhovsky (1777-1860), the son of Privy Councilor Leonty Vasilyevich Shakhovsky, set an example of valiant service to the state. At the age of ten, according to the custom of that time, he was enlisted in the rank of sergeant in the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment. Some time later, he was transferred to the Life Guards Semyonovsky Regiment. He began military service with the rank of captain in the Kherson Grenadier Regiment, with whom he took part in hostilities in Poland, while crushing the uprising led by T. Kostyushko.
In 1799, Ivan Shakhovskoy received the rank of colonel. In 1803 he became commander of the Jaeger Life Guards Regiment. In 1804, he was already a major general and chief of the 20th Jaeger Regiment. He is an active participant in campaigns against the French in Hanover and Swedish Pomerania, the Patriotic War of 1812. As the commander of the 20th Jaeger Regiment, he participates in all major battles. And in 1813 he took part in a foreign campaign against the Napoleonic army.
After the successful completion of the campaign, he headed the 4th Infantry Division, and from 1817 he commanded the 2nd Grenadier Division, from 1824 - the Grenadier Corps. In 1924, he becomes a general from infantry. In 1931 he participated in the suppression of the Polish uprising. His brother, Prince Nikolai Shakhovskoy, was a Privy Councilor, Senator. After graduating from the Imperial School of Law with a gold medal in 1842, he entered the Senate, where he worked for the good of the Fatherland until the end of his days.
Academician, playwright Alexander Shakhovskoy
Another representative of the third branch is Alexander Shakhovskaya (1777-1846). Born in the Smolensk estate Carefree. He studied at the Noble guesthouse at Moscow University. He was a playwright, a theatrical figure. At the proposal of G. Derzhavin, he is elected to the Academy of Sciences, becoming an academician. From 1802–1826 serves in the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters of St. Petersburg, in fact fulfilling the role of the head of all theaters of the city.
He took part in the Patriotic War of 1812. Prince Alexander Shakhovskoy was the head of the Tver Regiment of the Moscow militia, which was one of the first to enter Moscow left by Napoleon. After the war he returned to St. Petersburg, where he again began to engage in his favorite theatrical business. More than 110 plays, vaudeville, free translations and poetic works were published from under his pen. His merit as the head of theaters was appreciated by Zhukovsky, I. Turgenev and others. Under him, for the first time, the heroes of plays and vaudeville spoke in good Russian.
Minister of the Provisional Government
The grandson of the Decembrist Fedor Shakhovsky, Prince Shakhovsky Dmitry Ivanovich (1861-1939) - a politician, a liberal. He studied first at Moscow University, then continued his education at St. Petersburg University. He participated in student circles in which he met many prominent figures of the Russian liberal movement, whose views he adhered to. He was engaged in zemstvo activity in the Tver province.
Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy was one of the founders of the cadet party (constitutional democrats). In 1906 he was elected a member of the State Duma, in which he represented the Yaroslavl region. He served as Minister of State Charity in the Provisional Government in 1917. He was an ardent opponent of the Bolsheviks.
In Soviet times, he worked in Consumer Cooperation, in the State Planning Commission. He was engaged in research activities of P. Chaadayev, of which he was a relative. Arrested in 1938, he confessed to participate in anti-Bolshevik activities from 1918 to 1922. Sentenced to death. Shot in April 1939. Rehabilitated in 1957.
Dynasty successor
Another descendant of the Shakhovsky clan is Prince Dmitry Shakhovsky. He lives in Paris and is a doctor of historical and philological sciences, a professor at the University of North Brittany (Rennes). His teacher was an outstanding geneologist N. Ikonnikov. He is the author of the multivolume Russian Society and the Nobility, a professor at the St. Sergius Institute in Paris. He did a lot to preserve and popularize the Russian language, being the director of publications of the Russian Foreign Newspaper, published by the Center for Russian Language and Culture in Paris.
The Shakhovsky family after the revolution
The descendants of the princely dynasty live in our days. Some members of the princely family emigrated to Europe. Their fate has developed in different ways. In the thirties of the last century, many who remained in Russia, only because they belonged to the princely rank, were repressed. Some changed their name, went to the outskirts of the Soviet Union, so as not to be arrested.
Nevertheless, the 20th century put forward a number of prominent people belonging to the Shakhovsky family. This is the Soviet sculptor Dmitry Shakhovskoy, father John (Dmitry Alekseevich Shakhovskoy) - the archbishop of San Francisco and North America, Zinaida Shakhovskaya - a writer living in France, L. Morozova, niece of Princess G.O. Shakhovskaya - doctor of historical sciences, employee RAS, Ivan Shakhovskoy - Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments and many others.
Most of the descendants remember their belonging to the Shakhovsky family. The fate of many of its representatives is involved in the history of Russia. They were generals, governors, zemstvo leaders, famous lawyers, writers, Decembrists and revolutionaries who honestly served their homeland.