Zubov (Russian: Зу́бов) was a Russian noble family which rose to the highest offices of state in the 1790s, when Platon Zubov succeeded Count Orlov and Prince Potemkin as the favourite of Catherine II of Russia.
The Zubovs were an ancient family of good standing, first noticed in the service of Muscovite dukes in the 15th century. Nikolay Vasilievich Zubov (1699–1786) served in the Collegium of Economics, and his son Alexander Zubov (1727–1795) was reputed to have enriched himself serving as Vice-Governor of Vladimir. He had three daughters and four sons, of whom three—Nicholas, Platon, and Valerian—were made counts by Emperor Francis II:
The lines of Count Nicholas and his brother Dmitry continue up to the present. Nicholas's great grandson Valentin (1884–1969) was a leading authority on the reign of Emperor Paul and authored several books on the subject. He founded the Gatchina Palace museum and the Art History Institute in St. Petersburg before emigrating to Paris in 1925.
The Zubovs had two family vaults, one in Moscow, in the Donskoy Monastery, built in 1796-98, and another in Strelna near St. Petersburg, in the Maritime Monastery of St. Sergius, completed in 1809.