Princes Shakhovskie - an old Russian family, originating from Rurik and numbering 17 tribes. The founder of the dynasty, whose members bore the surname Shakhovsky, is considered to be the Yaroslavl prince Konstantin Glebovich, nicknamed Shah, who was the governor in Nizhny Novgorod. Representatives of this genus also bore the surname Shemyakins. These were the descendants of his grandson, Alexander Andreevich, nicknamed Shemyaka. Starting from the 17th century, all representatives of this dynasty became Shakhovskys.
Beginning of race
Prince Rurik, who ruled Novgorod, is considered to be his famous ancestor, from whom the family of the Shakhovsky princes descended. Its beginning is carried out along the line going from the prince of Kyiv Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich to his great-grandson Vladimir Monomakh. His direct heirs owned the city of Smolensk. They were called Princes of Smolensk.
One of their descendants, Prince Fyodor Rostislavovich, who died in 1299year, ruled in Yaroslavl. His son David Fedorovich became the specific prince of Yaroslavl, that is, he received him as an inheritance (princely possession). The family of the Shakhovsky princes dates back to this prince Yaroslavsky. Shakhovskys began to be called from his great-grandson, Konstantin Glebovich, who bore the nickname Shah.
Saints Theodore, David and Constantine
The ancestors of the Shakhovskys - Prince Yaroslavsky Fedor Rostislavovich (Black), his sons David and Konstantin are canonized. Tradition says that after the death of the prince in 1299, the body in a wooden block was left under the Transfiguration Cathedral in the monastery, and the bodies of his sons were also laid here after the death. In 1463 they decided to bury their ashes. During the memorial service, miracles of healing began to occur. Saints Theodore, David, Constantine were canonized as saints. Many kings came to bow to the Yaroslavl Wonderworkers. Among them are Ivan III, Ivan the Terrible, Catherine II. Since 2010, the relics have been in the Dormition Cathedral of Yaroslavl.
Rod Shakhovsky
Konstantin Glebovich, who gave the family the name of Shakhovsky, had two sons Andrei Konstantinovich and Yuri Konstantinovich. But it was precisely the offspring of Prince Andrei that gave rise to eight branches of the famous dynasty of the Shakhovsky princes. They went from his son Alexander Andreyevich Shemyaka, who had six sons. Five branches come from the heirs of his son Andrei Alexandrovich. One branch each - from princes Fyodor Alexandrovich, Ivan Alexandrovich, Vasily Alexandrovich.
The clan of the princes Shakhovsky by the 17th century had grown verystrongly and, most likely, these were petty princes who did not play a special role in the history of the country. Nevertheless, it was attended by bright representatives who, for the most part, through the service of sovereigns, tried to escape from obscurity and take a certain place in society, befitting such a noble family.
Coat of arms of the Shakhovskys
As a princely family, the Shakhovskys had their own coat of arms, which at the end of the 18th century was included in the 12th part of the “General Armorial of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire”. This is an ancient coat of arms, which included elements of the cities of Kyiv, Yaroslavl and Smolensk as signs of the involvement of the Shakhovsky family in them.
The coat of arms consists of a shield divided into four parts, in the very center of which there is a bear as a symbol of the Yaroslavl principality. He holds a golden ax in his paws. Two azure parts of the shield, placed diagonally, depict two silver angels with silver swords and golden shields. They are elements of the coat of arms of the Grand Principality of Kyiv. In the other two 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 carriages.
In the service of an impostor
During the time of troubles, the name of Shakhovskikh, consigned to oblivion, reappeared on the pages of Russian history. This is connected with Prince Grigory Shakhovsky, a boyar and governor. He belonged to the third line of the family. His father, Prince Peter Shakhovskoy, was a junior governor in Chernigov. During the Great Troubles, he is captured by False Dmitry I anddeserves the gracious favor of Grishka Otrepiev, who included him in the "thieves' thought" that gathered in Putivl.
Of course, during the Time of Troubles, many people, including those from noble families, could not figure out for sure who False Dmitry was. During this difficult time, many aristocratic adventurers 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 gain, the opportunity to plunder.
Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy, a descendant of a family originating from Rurik himself, also belongs to their number. Being a boyar and governor, he enters the service of False Dmitry I. Why the prince acted in this way, we cannot judge. The version voiced by most historians says that this was done due to his adventurous nature, the prevailing circumstances, the desire to express himself.
Prince Grigory Petrovich Shakhovskoy
For the first time his name is mentioned after he, having returned from Polish captivity in 1587, was the governor of Tula, then Krapivna, Novomonastyrsky prison, Belgorod. In 1605, when the impostor advanced to Moscow and captured it, he rose noticeably, since his father Peter 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 assassination of False Dmitry I, Tsar Vasily Shuisky sent Grigory as governor to Putivl. Arriving there, he began preparing 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's troops on the river Vosma. Voivode Shakhovskoy, together with a detachment of Ileyka Muromets, flees to Kaluga, from where to Tula, where in 1607 he was captured by the tsar's troops and exiled to the Spaso-Stone Monastery.
At the end of 1608, he was liberated by Polish-Russian troops led by False Dmitry II. Shakhovskoy joined them, and later played a leading role in the Boyar Duma of the second impostor. In the army, he was entrusted with the command of the Russian detachments of the Polish governor Zborovsky. 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 joins the second militia of Dmitry Pozharsky, bringing confusion and a split between him and Prince Trubetskoy.
General of Infantry
Another representative of this noble family, Prince Ivan Shakhovskoy (1777-1860), the son of Privy Councilor Leonty Vasilievich Shakhovsky, showed an example of valiant service to the state. At the age of ten, according to the custom of that time, he was enrolled in the service with the rank of sergeant in the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment. Some time later, he was transferred to the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. He began military service with the rank of captain in the Kherson Grenadier Regiment, with which he took part in the hostilities in Poland, during the suppression of the uprising led by T. Kosciuszko.
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 commander of the 20th Jaeger Regiment, he participates in all major battles. And in 1813 he took part in the foreign campaign against the Napoleonic army.
After the successful completion of the campaign, he led the 4th Infantry Division, and from 1817 commanded the 2nd Grenadier Division, from 1824 - the Grenadier Corps. In 1924 he became a general of infantry. In 1931 he took part in the suppression of the Polish uprising. His brother, Prince Nikolai Shakhovskoy, was a privy councillor, a senator. After graduating in 1842 with a gold medal from the Imperial School of Law, he entered the service of 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, Alexander Shakhovskoy (1777-1846). Born in the Smolensk estate of Bezzaboty. He studied at the Noble Boarding School at Moscow University. He was a playwright and theatrical figure. At the suggestion of G. Derzhavin, he is elected to the Academy of Sciences, becomes an academician. From 1802–1826 serves in the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters of St. Petersburg, in fact, acting as the head of all theaters in 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, who was one of the first to enter theMoscow abandoned 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, vaudevilles, free translations and poetic works have been published from his pen. His merit as a director of theaters was appreciated by Zhukovsky, I. Turgenev and others. Under him, for the first time, the heroes of plays and vaudevilles spoke good Russian.
Minister of the Provisional Government
Grandson of the Decembrist Fyodor Shakhovsky, Prince Shakhovskoy Dmitry Ivanovich (1861–1939) – politician, 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 activities in the Tver province.
Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy was one of the founders of the Cadets 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. Was an ardent opponent of the Bolsheviks.
In Soviet times, he worked in the Consumer Cooperatives, in the State Planning Commission. He was engaged in research activities of P. Chaadaev, whose relative he was. Arrested in 1938, confessed to participating in anti-Bolshevik activities from 1918 to 1922. Sentenced to death. Shot in April 1939. Rehabilitated in 1957year.
Successor of the dynasty
Another descendant of the Shakhovsky family is Prince Shakhovskoy Dmitry Mikhailovich. He lives in Paris and is a doctor of historical and philological sciences, a professor at the University of Northern Brittany (Rennes). His teacher was the outstanding genealogist N. Ikonnikov. He is the author of the multi-volume "Russian society and the nobility", a professor at the St. Sergius Institute, located in Paris. He did a lot to preserve and popularize the Russian language, being the director of publications for 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 still live today. Some members of the princely family emigrated to Europe. Their fate was different. 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 surnames, went to the outskirts of the Soviet Union, so as not to be arrested.
Nevertheless, the 20th century brought forward a number of prominent people who belonged to the Shakhovsky family. These are the Soviet sculptor Dmitry Shakhovskoy, Father John (Dmitry Alekseevich Shakhovskoy) - 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 ofdescendants 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 Motherland.
