Razumovsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Razumovsky or Rozumovsky (Russian: Разумовский, Ukrainian: Розумовський, formerly transliterated as Rasumowski, Rasumofsky and Rasoumofsky) is a Ukrainian-Russian comital family whose remaining branch went into exile in Austria in the early 19th century. Notable representatives include:

• Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky (1709-1771) - favourite and likely husband of Empress Elizabeth, created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1742 and Count in Russia in 1745;
• Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky (1728-1803) - officially his younger brother, rumoured to be a son from an earlier marriage, the last hetman of Left (1750-1764) and Right (1754-1764) Bank Ukraine, last Duke of the Zaporizhzhian Host (1754-1769), created Count of the Russian Empire in 1745;
• Aleksey Kirilovich Razumovsky (1748-1822) - the latter's first son, minister of education of the Russian Empire from 1806-1816, highly criticised by Pushkin for his reactionary stance;
• Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky (1752-1826) - Kirill's second son, was the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Empire at the Congress of Vienna, was created HSH Prince in 1815 and settled there in the end, dying with no progeniture, whereby his title became extinct, infamous for his participation in the murder of Gustav III of Sweden and Paul I of Russia, architect of the Second Partition of Poland, mostly remembered for his patronage of the arts in general and Ludwig van Beethoven especially, who wrote the Razumovsky-Quartets (Op. 59.1, 2. and 3) for, and dedicated the 5th and 6th Symphony to him;
• Grigory Kirillovich Razumovsky (1759-1837) - the fifth son of Kirill, known from his writings in the West as Gregor or Grégoire, a geologist, botanist and zoologist, as well as prominent political dissenter with Czarist Russia, who lost his Russian titles in 1811 and was subsequently incorporated into the Bohemian nobility and accorded the rank of Count in the Austrian Empire. Gregor was the first to describe and classify the Triturus Helveticus Razoumovsky.
  

  

  Razumovsky Palace in St Petersburg
• Leon Grigorievich Razumovsky (1816-1868), grandson of Kirill, envoy of Saxe-Coburg to the court of Napoleon III. Father of Camillo Lvovich Razumovsky;
• Camillo (Lvovich) Razumovsky (1853-1917), philanthropist in Moravian Silesia, built numerous churches, schools and hospitals around Opava (today Czech Republic) and in Western Ukraine, caused a commotion by flaunting the social conventions of the 19th Century Vienna when he married a woman of the Jewish faith;
• Andreas (Andreievich) Razumovsky (1929-2002), grandson of the latter, well-known political analyst and media figure in Germany and Austria, was expulsed from Czechoslovakia where he was posted as correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1967 for warning of an imminent invasion by the Warsaw Treaty troops, analysed and published a book in 1981 on the centrifugal forces leading to the dismembration of Yugoslavia, and was widely criticised in the Austrian media landscape for his support of the Freedomite Party of Austria led by Jörg Haider;
• Dorothea Razumovsky (1935-), well known media-figure and political analyst, widely criticised for adopting a stance during the Yugoslavian dismembration conflict that was interpreted as being too pro-Serb;
• Gregor (Andreievich) Razumovsky (1965-) son of the aforementioned, President of the East West Network Europe, a trans-national pan-European association of associations, think-tanks, universities, trade unions and other socio-economic and socio-political organisations in Europe.