Razumovsky

Razumovsky (Russian: Разумовский), originally Rozumovsky (Ukrainian: Розумовський), formerly transliterated as Rasumowski, Rasumofsky and Rasoumofsky) is a Ukrainian noble family from Russian Empire. Surviving branch remains in Austria.

History

The root of the family begin with the Register-cossack Yakov (Romanovich) Rozum, who died about 1700. Upon his grandson's Alexei Grigorievich Rozum having been raised to the rank of Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Charles VII, the family name was changed to Razumovsky for all Yakovlevichi, including the lesser Ukrainian lines by Ivan Jakovlevich Rozum that were granted hereditary nobility but not entitled. Notable representatives of the family include:

• Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky (1709–1771) - the favorite and morganatic husband of Empress Elizabeth. He was created Count of the Holy Roman Empire in Frankfurt in 1742 and Count in Russia in 1745.
• Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky (1728–1803) - officially his younger brother, rumored 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 Zaporozhian 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 Kirilovich Razumovsky (1752–1836) - Kirill's second son, who was the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Empire at the Congress of Vienna. Andrey was created the HSH Prince in 1815 and settled there in the end, converting to Catholicism. It was alleged that he had a role in the murders of Gustav III of Sweden and Paul I of Russia, he was architect of the Second Partition of Poland. He is remembered for his patronage of the arts, especially the composer Ludwig van Beethoven: Beethoven both wrote the Razumovsky Quartets (Op. 59 Nos. 1, 2, and 3) for Andrey 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 allegiance 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 Lissotrion helveticus. His branch of the family survives to this day.
• Leon (Lvov) 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 Czech 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 expelled from Czechoslovakia where he was posted as correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 1967 for warning of an imminent invasion by Warsaw Pact troops, analysed and published a book in 1981 on the centrifugal forces leading to the dismembering of Yugoslavia.
• Dorothea Razumovsky (*1935), née Prinzessin zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, well-known media-figure and political analyst, widely criticised for adopting a stance during conflicts arising from the dismemberment of Yugoslavia that was interpreted as being too pro-Serb.
• Katharina (Katerina) Razumovsky (*1961), daughter of the aforementioned, artist living in Vienna, Austria.
• Gregor (Grigoriy) Razumovsky (*1965), son of the aforementioned, President of the Razumovsky Society for Art and Culture which supports artistic exchange and co-operation between East and West. The Razumovsky Society for Art and Culture, in German Razumovsky-Gesellschaft für Kunst und Kultur patrons the Vienna Razumovsky Quartet. Gregor Razumovsky is Honorary President of the European Institute for the furtherance of Democracy, an Austrian-based Think-tank serving to study and further European Union.