Stroganovs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since October 2005.

The Stroganovs or Strogonovs (Russian: Строгановы, Строгоновы), also spelled in French manner as Stroganoffs, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen of the 16th - 20th centuries that eventually earned nobility.

1 Origins
2 Barons Stroganovs
3 Modern times
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Origins

The Stroganov family were originally rich Pomor peasants. Feodor Lukich Stroganov, the progenitor of the family, settled in Solvychegodsk in the late 15th century. Here, his son Anikey Fyodorovich Stroganov (1488-1570) opened the salterns in 1515, which would later become a huge industry. In 1558, Ivan the Terrible granted large estates along the Kama and Chusovaya Rivers to Anikey Stroganov and his successors.

In 1566, at their own request their lands were included in the oprichnina. Seizing lands from the local population by conquest and colonizing them with incoming Russian peasants, the Stroganovs developed farming, hunting, saltworks, fishing, and ore mining in these areas. They built towns and fortresses and, at the same time, suppressed local unrest with the help of their druzhinas and annexed new lands in the Urals and Siberia in favor of Russia.

Semyon Anikeyevich Stroganov (? - 1609) and Anikey's grandsons Maksim Yakovlevich (? - 1620s) and Nikita Grigoriyevich (? - 1620) financed Yermak's Siberian campaign in 1581.

During the period of Polish intervention in the early 17th century, the Stroganovs offered humanitarian and military support to the Russian government (some 842,000 rubles just in terms of money), for which they received the title of distinguished people in 1610.

In the 17th century, the Stroganovs invested heavily in the salt industry in Solikamsk. In the 1680s, Grigory Dmitriyevich Stroganov (1656 - 1715) united all the scattered lands of the heirs of the children of Anikey Stroganov. He also annexed the saltworks, which belonged to the Shustov and Filatiyev families. In the 18th century, the Stroganovs established a number of ironworks and copper-smelting factories in the Urals.

[edit] Barons Stroganovs

During the Great Northern War of 1700–1721, the Stroganovs rendered sizable financial support to the government of Peter the Great, for which Alexander Grigoriyevich, Nikolay Grigoriyevich, and Sergei Grigoriyevich would be raised to the rank of baron in 1722 and later to that of count.

From then on, the Stroganovs were members of the Russian aristocracy and held important government posts.

Sergei Grigoriyevich (1707-1756) played a significant role during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.
His son Alexander Sergeyevich (1733-1811) was a member of the commission on elaborating the new code of laws during the reign of Catherine the Great. In the late 18th – early 19th century, he held different posts, such as president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, art director of the Public Library, and member of the State Council.
Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov (1772-1817) was a member of the Private Committee (Негласный комитет) of Alexander I and assistant to the minister of the interior.
Sergei Grigoriyevich Stroganov (1794-1882) was the governor general of Moscow in 1859-1860.
Alexander Grigoriyevich Stroganov was the minister of the interior in 1839-1841 and then a member of the State Council (since 1849).

Most of the Stroganovs are known to have shown interest for art, literature, history, and archaeology. They used to own rich libraries, collections of paintings, coins, medals etc. Stroganov Palace (now one of the buildings of the State Russian Museum) is among the chief sights of Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg.

[edit] Modern times

After Russian Revolution of 1917 Stroganov family emigrated with White movement and all family property in Russia was nationalised.

Created in 1992 in the State of New York as a not-for-profit corporation The Stroganoff Foundation is dedicated to conservation and restoration of the Russian heritage of Stroganoff family. The establishment of the Stroganoff Foundation was the inspiration of Baroness Hèlené de Ludinghausen, who lives nowadays in Paris and whose mother, Princess Xenia Alexandrovna Shcherbatova-Stroganova, was born in the Stroganoff Palace.