- 1. Coat of arms of His Serene Highness Prince Nikolai Mingrelsky
- 2. Coat of arms of Prince Andrei Dadian-Mingrelsky
- 3. Coat of arms of Prince Kazimir-Michael Gedroits
- 4. Coat of arms of Prince Alexander Barclay de Tolly-Weimarn, lieutenant general
- 5. Coat of arms of His Serene Highness Prince Nikolai Lopukhin-Demidov, Colonel
- 6. Coat of arms of Prince Ivan-Paul-Alexander Sapieha
- 7. Coat of arms of Prince Nikolai Odoevsky-Maslov, guard captain
- 8. Coat of arms of the Counts of Tsukato
- 9. Coat of arms of the Counts of Hutten-Czapski
- 10. Coat of arms of Count Pavel Kotzebue, Adjutant General, General of the Cavalry
- 11. Coat of arms of Count Nikolai Ivelich, colonel
- 12. Coat of arms of Count Ewald Ungern-Sternberg
- 13. Coat of arms of the Kapnist counts
- 14. Coat of arms of Count Dmitry Mavros, major general
- 15. Coat of arms of Count Pavel Ignatiev 1st, adjutant general, cavalry general
- 16. Coat of arms of Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov, adjutant general, cavalry general
- 17. Coat of arms of Count Vladimir Vasiliev-Shilovsky
- 18. Coat of arms of the barons of Stal von Holstein
- 19. Coat of arms of Baron Mikhail Bode-Kolychev, Privy Councilor
- 20. Coat of arms of Prince Tenishev, Tatar princes
- 21. Coat of arms of Prince Bayushev, retired staff captain; princes of the Tatars
- 22. Coat of arms of Count Mionchinsky, who has the title of Count of the Roman Empire
- 23. Coat of arms of the Epanchins
- 24. Coat of arms of Podberesky, major
- 25. Coat of arms of Izmalkov, collegiate secretary
- 26. Coat of arms of the Rudnitskys
- 27. Coat of arms of Tarasov
- 28. Coat of arms of Gorlov, actual state councilor
- 29. Coat of arms of Balashev, ancestor Mamon Andreev owned a real estate estate in 1652
- 30. Coat of arms of Vasilevsky, collegiate adviser
- 31. Coat of arms of Paltov
- 32. Coat of arms of Shimansky, collegiate secretary
- 33. Telyakovsky coat of arms
- 34. Coat of arms of Ivan Vasyanov, actual state councilor
- 35. Coat of arms of Korvin-Krukovsky, court councilor
- 36. Coat of arms of Seleznev, retired staff captain
- 37. Coat of arms of Zhukovsky, senator, lieutenant general
- 38. Coat of arms of Bukreev, state councilor
- 39. Coat of arms of the Lishins
- 40. Coat of arms of Kaniovsky
- 41. Coat of arms of Malam, provincial secretary
- 42. Coat of arms of Makoveev, major
- 43. Markevich coat of arms
- 44. Coat of arms of Miodushevsky, actual state councilor
- 45. Coat of arms of Viridarsky, state councilor
- 46. Coat of arms of the Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Tolstoy
- 47. Coat of arms of the Ushakovs, a combined coat of arms, located in the VIII, IX and X parts of the Armorial of the coats of arms of two branches of the Ushakov family
- 48. Coat of arms of the Galkin-Vraskis
- 49. Coat of arms of Mazarakia-Deboltsev, retired colonel
- 50. Coat of arms of Dmitry Shubin-Pozdeev, Privy Councilor
- 51. Coat of arms of Nikolai Buda-Zhemchuzhnikov, retired titular councilor
- 52. Coat of arms of von Tischendorf
- 53. Coat of arms of Akim Mikhailov Serebryakov, St. Petersburg 2nd guild merchant
- 54. Coat of arms of Karl Miller, retired engineer colonel
- 55. Coat of arms of Frisch
- 56. Coat of arms of Plaksin, lieutenant general
- 57. Coat of arms of Benediktov
- 58. Coat of arms of Stobeus
- 59. Coat of arms of Nemerovsky
- 60. Coat of arms of Zervanitsky
- 61. Coat of arms of Apollo Krivoshein, state councilor
- 62. Coat of arms of Kurovsky
- 63. Coat of arms of Peter Merder, adjutant general, lieutenant general
- 64. Coat of arms of Mikhail and Nikolai Ivanov, colonels
- 65. Coat of arms of Pechnikov
- 66. Coat of arms of Pavel Demidov, Prince of San Donato, collegiate adviser
- 67. Coat of arms of Konstantin Bashkirtsev, lieutenant
- 68. Coat of arms of Akhverdov, senator, lieutenant general
- 69. Coat of arms of Dainese
- 70. Coat of arms of Alexey Ivanov Yakovlev, colonel
- 71. Coat of arms of Otto Radlov, lieutenant
- 72. Coat of arms of Gendre, senator, actual privy councilor
- 73. Coat of arms of Becker
- 74. Coat of arms of the Solovyovs, Alexander Fedorov, court councilor, and family (included in the third part of the noble genealogy book of the Simbirsk province)
- 75. Coat of arms of Zashchuk, major
- 76. Coat of arms of Levkovets, collegiate adviser
- 77. Coat of arms of Fedor and Nikolai Voloshinov, second lieutenants
- 78. Coat of arms of Silvansky, collegiate assessor
- 79. Coat of arms of Hasenwinkel, Privy Councilor, Senator
- 80. Coat of arms of Dyakonov, retired lieutenant commander
- 81. Coat of arms of Ertel, descendants of the collegiate adviser Vasily Andreev
- 82. Coat of arms of Gendre, major general
- 83. Coat of arms of Voznesensky, major general
- 84. Coat of arms of Maingard, engineer, collegiate assessor
- 85. Gunnius coat of arms
- 86. Coat of arms of Xenophon Gevlich, colonel
- 87. Coat of arms of Alekseevsky, court councilor
- 88. Coat of arms of Tsytovich, major general
- 89. Coat of arms of Mickwitz, major general
- 90. Coat of arms of von Derviz, actual state councilor
- 91. Weisman coat of arms
- 92. Coat of arms of Bezobrazov, titular councilor
- 93. Coat of arms of Georgy Sakhansky, artillery major general
- 94. Coat of arms of Norpe, collegiate councilor
- 95. Coat of arms of the Galkins
- 96. Coat of arms of Runov
- 97. Coat of arms of Karp Zaretsky, retired military foreman
- 98. Coat of arms of Costand
- 99. Coat of arms of Strugovshchikov, Privy Councilor
- 100. Coat of arms of Boldyrev, major general
- 101. Coat of arms of Kieseritzky, court councilor
- 102. Coat of arms of Aksenov, actual state councilor
- 103. Coat of arms of Bogolyubov, Privy Councilor
- 104. Coat of arms of Elenev, collegiate adviser
- 105. Coat of arms of Korsch
- 106. Coat of arms of Palazhchenko
- 107. Coat of arms of Erantsev, collegiate assessor
- 108. Coat of arms of Nikolai Emelyanov Lazarev, court councilor
- 109. Coat of arms of Gesen, actual state councilor
- 110. Coat of arms of Kotlyarevsky, state councilor
- 111. Coat of arms of Guber
- 112. Coat of arms of Solsky, Privy Councilor
- 113. Coat of arms of Sveshnikov, rear admiral
- 114. Coat of arms of von Berg, state councilor
- 115. Coat of arms of Levestam
- 116. Coat of arms of von Herschelmann, pastor
- 117. Coat of arms of Gedda, senator, privy councilor
- 118. Coat of arms of Krol, actual state councilor
- 119. Coat of arms of the Zhukovs, descendants of Captain Sidor Zhukov
- 120. Coat of arms of Matvey Ivanov Ivanov, state councilor
- 121. Coat of arms of Bichele, collegiate councilor
- 122. Coat of arms of Voloshinsky, major
- 123. Coat of arms of Rudakov, collegiate assessor
- 124. Coat of arms of the Belenitsyns
- 125. Coat of arms of Geschwend
- 126. Coat of arms of Ivan Ostroumov, actual state councilor
- 127. Coat of arms of Vasily Stepanov, Privy Councilor
- 128. Coat of arms of Orlov, master of arms
- 129. Coat of arms of Grasse, state councilor
- 130. Coat of arms of Alexander Emelyanov Lazarev, Privy Councilor
- 131. Coat of arms of Ordin, actual state councilor
- 132. Coat of arms of Merezhkovsky, actual state councilor
- 133. Coat of arms of Kamenetsky, state councilor
- 134. Blum coat of arms
- 135. Coat of arms of Moritz Ilyin Michelson, state councilor, and son Alexei
- 136. Coat of arms of Gaken
- 137. Coat of arms of Reimers, actual state councilor
- 138. Coat of arms of Scriabin, colonel
- 139. Coat of arms of Berezin, captain-lieutenant
- 140. Coat of arms of Koshlyakov
- 141. Coat of arms of Gausmann, major general
- 142. Coat of arms of Hantover, titular councilor
- 143. Coat of arms of Geppener, State Councilor
- 144. Coat of arms of Hermann Conradi, collegiate councilor
- 145. Coat of arms of Osipov, state councilor
- 146. Coat of arms of Lemm, actual state councilor
- 147. Coat of arms of Birin, colonel
- 148. Coat of arms of Lozinsky, state councilor
- 149. Coat of arms of Peretz, Secretary of State, Privy Councilor
- 150. Coat of arms of Andrei Kister, actual state councilor
- 151. Coat of arms of Bragin, court councilor
- 152. Coat of arms of Romanchenko, collegiate assessor
- 153. Coat of arms of Lutskevich, state councilor
- 154. Coat of arms of Regel, actual state councilor
- 155. Coat of arms of Andogsky, collegiate assessor
- 156. Coat of arms of Kantemirov, state councilor
- 157. Coat of arms of Lorberg, State Councilor
- 158. Coat of arms of Kononov, major
- 159. Coat of arms of Goering, lieutenant colonel
- 160. Coat of arms of Heinrich Tetzner, lieutenant colonel
- 161. Coat of arms of Zelensky, state councilor
- 162. Coat of arms of Stepan Denkovsky, major general
- 163. Coat of arms of Stukkei, actual state councilor
- 164. Coat of arms of Brunst, engineer-colonel
- 165. Coat of arms of Alexander Nikolaev Salkov, actual state councilor
- 166. Coat of arms of Peter Palimpsestov, actual state councilor
- 167. Coat of arms of Behrens, collegiate assessor
- 168. Coat of arms of Bruni, collegiate councilor
- 169. Coat of arms of Ernest-Gottlieb-Julius Schroeder, Doctor of Medicine, State Councilor
- 170. Coat of arms of Mikhail Remizov, actual state councilor
- 171. Coat of arms of Petrov, archpriest
- 172. Coat of arms of Vasily Vasilyev Sutugin, doctor of medicine, collegiate adviser
- 173. Coat of arms of Galatov, lieutenant colonel
- 174. Coat of arms of Devien, actual state councilor
- 175. Coat of arms of Stepan Egorov, state councilor
- 176. Coat of arms of Alexander Oppenheim, state councilor
- 177. Coat of arms of Pekarsky, actual state councilor
- 178. Coat of arms of Nikolai Nikolaev Sokolov, titular councilor
- 179. Coat of arms of Kurbatov, collegiate assessor
- 180. Coat of arms of Eduard von Schulz, actual state councilor
- 181. Coat of arms of Edward Frankenstein, court councilor
- 182. Coat of arms of Makulets, court councilor
- 183. Coat of arms of Fyodor Gotvikh, state councilor
- 184. Coat of arms of Alexey Yuryev, provincial secretary
- 185. Coat of arms of Mikhail Pobedimov, state councilor
- 186. Coat of arms of Bedeau, colonel
To the Nobility of the Russian Empire
Golovin, Myasoedov, Abaturov,
Kareev, Kislovsky, Kozhin,
Osorgin, Pestrikov, Rezanov,
Selivanov, Sipyagin, Sushkov,
Yazykov and many other noble
Dedicated to my ancestors.
Complete list of noble families of the Russian Empire (titled and pillar nobility)
We have to see many unfounded claims by various people to nobility (despite the fact that it has not existed in Russia for 100 years), or to descent from one or another noble family, as well as to noble titles (some of which never belonged to that particular family at all). or another family). That is why the idea of this list arose, since the author was unable to find anything similar anywhere that would be sufficiently complete and entirely logical.
This list only includes births hereditary nobles, and to begin with they will only bring titled clans (including clans that received their title from foreign sovereigns and foreign titled nobles, provided that their title was officially recognized in Russia) or ancient(“pillar”, until 1685) clans of the Russian Empire, that is, noble clans that were, respectively, in the V-th and VI-th parts of genealogical books by province, see page Differences among the nobility). Thus, this list probably covers only about 15% of the noble families (but for the rest, information is much more accessible, since the families that arose in the 18th and 19th centuries are recent, the fact of their entry into the hereditary nobility is always well documented and all their 2-6 generations are easily tracked in the noble genealogical books of the corresponding provinces).
Thus, Not includes:
- personal nobles (who did not create a clan),
- hereditary nobles of the first four parts of the genealogical books (who received nobility by grant after 1685, or for service in the army or civil service, as well as untitled foreigners),
- untitled nobles of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland, who, strictly speaking, were not part of the Russian Empire, but were more or less relatively autonomous states in a personal union with Russia (having the same monarch),
- untitled nobles of the Caucasus and other territories annexed after Peter I.
Of course, different clans that bore the same surname are listed separately (in any case, until their connection is clearly established), i.e. we see several Bartenev families, several Golovin families, several Levashov families, several Neklyudov families, etc. Also, titled and untitled branches of the clan (or the same clan changing its title - for example, a count clan becoming a princely clan) stand separately, even if there is no talk of a real decline of the clan. Two different branches of the clan are also placed separately if they used different coats of arms.
Naturally, only titles officially recognized by the supreme power of Russia before 1917 are included. Thus, the grants of titles made by pretenders to the throne and self-proclaimed “emperors” after 1917 NOT INCLUDED, since they are private acts of individuals other than the reigning monarchs (who alone can confer any titles of nobility).
Note
1. About the date of origin(fourth column of the table): we are talking, depending on the cases, about the date of the grant of the patrimony, or the date of the first mention of the surname anywhere, or the date of the grant of the title (in the case of titled clans), or the date of official recognition in Russia of a foreign title kind.
2. Surnames in Russia, in their modern sense, began to appear only in the 16th century. For example, Ivan the Terrible (from the Moscow branch of the Rurikovichs) simply did not have a surname. Accordingly, in the “surname” column (the second column of the table) sometimes there is not the surname itself, but the name by which this or that family was known as the ruling one in some fief (for example, the princes of Rostov, the princes of Chernigov and other Rurikovichs ).
3. Brackets are used when there were several spelling options (for example, Counts of Rzhevussky or Rzhevussky), the same applies to the noble predicates “von” (Germany) or “de”: many genera of German or French origin were written this way, then this, or gradually abandoned the use of the predicate (in such cases it is in parentheses), or, on the contrary, they constantly used it (in which case it appears without a parenthesis). In at least two cases (Counts Devier and Fonvizin), the original predicate was included in the actual Russian surname.
4. A question mark is used when some information seems dubious or unfounded to a number of researchers.
NB! If you see your name on this list, this does not mean at all that you belong to this noble family. For a number of reasons, from the fact that many serfs were recorded at emancipation under the surname of their former owners to the fact that a noble family (received nobility for length of service or for some merit) could bear the same surname and were completely unrelated with her are simple namesakes. The same is with titles - individual branches of a particular family sometimes received a title from the monarch and began a new, titled branch, while the remaining branches remained “just” nobles. Thus, there were, for example, the Putyatin princes, the Putyatin counts, the Putyatin nobles (and the Putyatins who did not have nobility at all), and there are a lot of such examples. Consequently, without careful and serious genealogical searches based on documents, you do not have to “automatically” attribute yourself to one or another famous noble family, even if your last name is Golitsyn or Obolensky.
Against, if you did NOT see your name on this list, this does not mean at all that you do not belong to any noble family - as stated above, the overwhelming majority (more than 4/5) of untitled Russian noble families arose after 1685 and therefore are not included in this list.
Please report any inaccuracies, errors or omissions to [email protected]!
Compiled by: Leo Golovin.
Abbreviations
B: boyar family, i.e. one in which there was at least one boyar
BC: the genus is included in the Velvet Book (1687)
G: the clan has a coat of arms, but it is not included in the published parts of the Armorial Book
Ged: Gediminovichi
DD: a descendant of the ancient nobility (before 1685), but was not included in the Velvet Book
R: Rurikovich
U: extinct clan (for simplicity, this letter also stands for a clan that, for example, ceased to be a count and became a princely one, or even in the case of adding a new part to the surname, for example, the princes of the Beloselskys became under Paul I the princes of the Beloselsky-Belozerskys, so that preserve the extinct Belozersky family)
All titled genera belong to one or more of the following 22 categories :
Princes: UK: former appanage princes (the so-called “natural princes”, who received the title as real rulers, and not as a result of the award of an honorary princely title by the king or emperor), PC: granted princes, IR: foreign princes recognized in Russia, or Russians who received a princely title from foreign states, or natural princes of other countries who were allowed to use their title in Russia, RK: Russian-princely families, KRI: princes of the Roman Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German nation), recognized in Russia, KP: Polish princely families, CT: “Tatar princes”, i.e. descended from the Tatar Murzas, GK: Georgian (Caucasian) princely families, ranked among the Russian nobility after the entry of Georgia, Imereti, Guria, Kartalinia, Kakheti, Mingrelia, Abkhazia into the Russian Empire, recognized by decree of December 6, 1850 (in contrast to the few Russian-princely families of Georgian origin) .
Graphs: PG: granted counts, RG: Russian-count families, ISIS: foreign counts recognized in Russia, or Russians who received the title of count from foreign states, GRI: counts of the Roman Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German nation), recognized in Russia, GP: Polish count surnames, GF: Finnish count surnames.
Barons: PB: granted barons, RB: Russian-baronial families, IS: foreign barons recognized in Russia, or Russians who received a baronial title from foreign states, BB: Baltic baronial families included in the matricules of the nobility before the annexation of the Baltic region to Russia, BRI: barons of the Roman Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German nation), recognized in Russia, BP: Polish baronial surnames, BF: Finnish baronial surnames.
IT : dukes, marquises, baronets, etc., that is, families granted titles that do not exist in Russia and/or officially received permission to use foreign titles that do not exist in Russian laws (which recognized only three titles - princes, counts and barons) .
THERE WILL BE ABOUT 5,000 BIRTH ON THE LIST, BUT SO far ONLY ABOUT 3,700 HAVE BEEN INCLUDED, AND THE LIST IS THUS NOT COMPLETELY COMPLETE!
Scratch a Russian boyar and you will find a foreigner! Sheremetevs, Morozovs, Velyaminovs...
Velyaminovs
The family traces its origins to Shimon (Simon), the son of the Varangian prince African. In 1027 he arrived in the army of Yaroslav the Great and converted to Orthodoxy. Shimon Afrikanovich is famous for the fact that he participated in the battle with the Polovtsians on Alta and contributed the most to the construction of the Pechersk temple in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary: a precious belt and the legacy of his father - a golden crown.
But the Vilyaminovs were known not only for their courage and generosity: a descendant of the family, Ivan Vilyaminov, fled to the Horde in 1375, but was later captured and executed on Kuchkovo Field. Despite the betrayal of Ivan Velyaminov, his family did not lose its significance: the last son of Dmitry Donskoy was baptized by Maria, the widow of Vasily Velyaminov, the Moscow thousand.
The following clans emerged from the Velyaminov family: Aksakovs, Vorontsovs, Vorontsov-Velyaminovs.
Detail: The name of the street “Vorontsovo Field” still reminds Muscovites of the most distinguished Moscow family, the Vorontsov-Velyaminovs.
Morozovs
The Morozov family of boyars is an example of a feudal family from among the Old Moscow untitled nobility. The founder of the family is considered to be a certain Mikhail, who came from Prussia to serve in Novgorod. He was among the “six brave men” who showed special heroism during the Battle of the Neva in 1240.
The Morozovs served Moscow faithfully even under Ivan Kalita and Dmitry Donskoy, occupying prominent positions at the grand ducal court. However, their family suffered greatly from the historical storms that overtook Russia in the 16th century. Many representatives of the noble family disappeared without a trace during the bloody oprichnina terror of Ivan the Terrible.
The 17th century became the last page in the centuries-old history of the family. Boris Morozov had no children, and the only heir of his brother, Gleb Morozov, was his son Ivan. By the way, he was born in marriage with Feodosya Prokofievna Urusova, the heroine of V.I. Surikov’s film “Boyaryna Morozova”. Ivan Morozov did not leave any male offspring and turned out to be the last representative of a noble boyar family, which ceased to exist in the early 80s of the 17th century.
Detail: The heraldry of Russian dynasties took shape under Peter I, which is perhaps why the coat of arms of the Morozov boyars has not been preserved.
Buturlins
According to genealogical books, the Buturlin family descends from an “honest husband” under the name Radsha who left the Semigrad land (Hungary) at the end of the 12th century to join Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky.
“My great-grandfather Racha served Saint Nevsky with a fighting muscle,” wrote A. Pushkin in the poem “My Genealogy.” Radsha became the founder of fifty Russian noble families in Tsarist Moscow, among them the Pushkins, the Buturlins, and the Myatlevs...
But let’s return to the Buturlin family: its representatives faithfully served first the Grand Dukes, then the sovereigns of Moscow and Russia. Their family gave Russia many prominent, honest, noble people, whose names are still known today. Let's name just a few of them:
Ivan Mikhailovich Buturlin served as a guard under Boris Godunov, fought in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, and conquered almost all of Dagestan. He died in battle in 1605 as a result of betrayal and deception of the Turks and mountain foreigners.
His son Vasily Ivanovich Buturlin was the Novgorod governor, an active associate of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in his fight against the Polish invaders.
For military and peaceful deeds, Ivan Ivanovich Buturlin was awarded the title of Knight of St. Andrew, General-in-Chief, Ruler of Little Russia. In 1721, he actively participated in the signing of the Peace of Nystad, which put an end to the long war with the Swedes, for which Peter I awarded him the rank of general.
Vasily Vasilyevich Buturlin was a butler under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who did a lot for the reunification of Ukraine and Russia.
The Sheremetev family traces its origins to Andrei Kobyla. The fifth generation (great-great-grandson) of Andrei Kobyla was Andrei Konstantinovich Bezzubtsev, nicknamed Sheremet, from whom the Sheremetevs descended. According to some versions, the surname is based on the Turkic-Bulgarian “sheremet” (poor fellow) and the Turkic-Persian “shir-Muhammad” (pious, brave Muhammad).
Many boyars, governors, and governors came from the Sheremetev family, not only due to personal merit, but also due to kinship with the reigning dynasty.
Thus, the great-granddaughter of Andrei Sheremet was married to the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Ivan, who was killed by his father in a fit of anger. And five grandchildren of A. Sheremet became members of the Boyar Duma. The Sheremetevs took part in the wars with Lithuania and the Crimean Khan, in the Livonian War and the Kazan campaigns. Estates in the Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ryazan, and Nizhny Novgorod districts complained to them for their service.
Lopukhins
According to legend, they descend from the Kasozh (Circassian) Prince Rededi - the ruler of Tmutarakan, who was killed in 1022 in single combat with Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich (son of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, the baptist of Rus'). However, this fact did not prevent the son of Prince Rededi, Roman, from marrying the daughter of Prince Mstislav Vladimirovich.
It is reliably known that by the beginning of the 15th century. the descendants of the Kasozh prince Rededi already bear the surname Lopukhin, serve in various ranks in the Novgorod principality and in the Moscow state and own lands. And from the end of the 15th century. they become Moscow nobles and tenants at the Sovereign's Court, retaining Novgorod and Tver estates and estates.
The outstanding Lopukhin family gave the Fatherland 11 governors, 9 governors-general and governors who ruled 15 provinces, 13 generals, 2 admirals, served as ministers and senators, headed the Cabinet of Ministers and the State Council.
The boyar family of the Golovins originates from the Byzantine family of Gavras, which ruled Trebizond (Trabzon) and owned the city of Sudak in Crimea with the surrounding villages of Mangup and Balaklava.
Ivan Khovrin, the great-grandson of one of the representatives of this Greek family, was nicknamed “The Head,” as you might guess, for his bright mind. It was from him that the Golovins, representing the Moscow high aristocracy, came from.
From the 15th century, the Golovins were hereditarily the tsar's treasurers, but under Ivan the Terrible, the family fell into disgrace, becoming the victim of a failed conspiracy. Later they were returned to the court, but until Peter the Great they did not reach special heights in the service.
Aksakovs
They come from the noble Varangian Shimon (baptized Simon) Afrikanovich or Ofrikovich - the nephew of the Norwegian king Gakon the Blind. Simon Afrikanovich arrived in Kyiv in 1027 with a 3 thousand army and built at his own expense the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where he was buried.
The surname Oksakov (in the old days), and now Aksakov, came from one of his descendants, Ivan the Lame.
The word “oksak” means lame in Turkic languages.
Members of this family in pre-Petrine times served as governors, solicitors, and stewards and were rewarded with estates from the Moscow sovereigns for their good service.
All our pillar noble families are from the Varangians and other aliens. M. Pogodin.
“Our Nobility, not of Feudal origin, but gathered in later times from different sides, as if in order to replenish the insufficient number of the first Varangian newcomers, from the Horde, from the Crimea, from Prussia, from Italy, from Lithuania...” Historical and critical passages M. Pogodina. Moscow, 1846, p. 9
Before being included in the lists of nobility, the gentlemen of Russia belonged to the boyar class. It is believed that at least a third of the boyar families came from immigrants from Poland and Lithuania. However, indications of the origin of a particular noble family sometimes border on falsification.
In the middle of the 17th century, there were approximately 40 thousand service people, including 2-3 thousand listed in Moscow genealogical books. There were 30 boyar families who had exclusive rights to senior positions, including membership in the royal council, senior administrative positions in major orders, and important diplomatic appointments.
Discord between the boyar families made it difficult to govern the state. Therefore, it was necessary to create next to the ancient caste another, more submissive and less obstinate service class.
Boyars and nobles. The main difference is that the boyars had their own estates, while the nobles did not.
The nobleman had to live on his estate, run the household and wait for the king to call him to war or to court. Boyars and boyar children could appear for service at their own discretion. But the nobles had to serve the king.
Legally, the estate was royal property. The estate could be inherited, divided between heirs, or sold, but the estate could not.In the 16th century, an equalization of the rights of nobles and boyar children took place.During the XVI-XVII centuries. the position of the nobles approached the position of the boyars; in the 18th century, both of these groups merged, and the nobility became the aristocracy of Russia.
However, in the Russian Empire there were two different categories of nobles.
Pillar nobles - this was the name in Russia for hereditary nobles of noble families, listed in columns - genealogical books before the reign of the Romanovs in the 16-17 centuries, in contrast to nobles of later origin.
In 1723, the Finnish “knighthood” became part of the Russian nobility.
The annexation of the Baltic provinces was accompanied (from 1710) by the formation of the Baltic nobility.
By a decree of 1783, the rights of Russian nobles were extended to the nobility of three Ukrainian provinces, and in 1784 - to princes and murzas of Tatar origin. In the last quarter of the 18th century. The formation of the Don nobility began at the beginning of the 19th century. the rights of the Bessarabian nobility were formalized, and from the 40s. 19th century - Georgian.
By the middle of the 19th century. The nobility of the Kingdom of Poland is equal in personal rights with the Russian nobility.
However, there are only 877 real ancient Polish noble families, and there are at least 80 thousand current noble families. These surnames, along with tens of thousands of other similar noble Polish surnames, got their start in the 18th century, on the eve of the first partition of Poland, when the magnates of their lackeys, grooms, hounds, etc. raised their servants to the dignity of gentry, and thus formed almost a third share of the current nobility of the Russian Empire.
How many nobles were there in Russia?
“In 1858 there were 609,973 hereditary nobles, 276,809 personal and office nobles; in 1870 there were 544,188 hereditary nobles, 316,994 personal and office nobles; noble landowners, according to official data for 1877-1878, were counted as 114,716 in European Russia.” Brockhaus and Efron. Article Nobility.
According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.), in total in the Russian Empire (without) Finland) the big bourgeoisie, landowners, high officials, etc. of both sexes were: in 1897 - 3.0 million people, in 1913 4 ,1 million people. The share of the social group in 1897 was 2.4%, in 1913 - 2.5%. The increase from 1913 to 1897 was 36.7%. USSR article. Capitalist system.
The number of nobility (male): in 1651 - 39 thousand people, 108 thousand in 1782, 4.464 thousand people in 1858, that is, over two hundred years it increased 110 times, while the country's population increased only five times: from 12.6 to 68 million people. Korelin A.P. Russian nobility and its class organization (1861-1904). - History of the USSR, 1971, No. 4.
In the 19th century in Russia there were about 250 princely families, more than half of them were Georgian princes, and 40 families traced their ancestry to Rurik (according to legend, in the 9th century called to “rule in Rus'”) and Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who ruled in XIV century in what is now Western Belarus (“Cornet Obolensky” belonged to the Rurikovichs, and “Lieutenant Golitsyn” belonged to the Gediminovichs).
Even more amusing situations arose with the Georgians than with the Poles.
Since in St. Petersburg they were afraid that the princes would again turn to oligarchic freedom, they began to count the princes carefully, namely, they ordered everyone to prove their right to the principality. And they began to prove it - it turned out that almost none of the princes had documents. A large princely factory of documents was established in Tiflis, and the documents were accompanied by the seals of Heraclius, King Teimuraz and King Bakar, which were very similar. The bad thing was that they didn’t share: there were many hunters for the same possessions. Tynyanov Y. Death of Vazir-Mukhtar, M., Soviet Russia, 1981, p. 213.
In Russia, the title of count was introduced by Peter the Great. The first Russian count was Boris Petrovich Sheremetyev, elevated to this dignity in 1706 for pacifying the Astrakhan rebellion.
Barony was the smallest noble title in Russia. Most of the baronial families - there were more than 200 of them - came from Livonia.
Many ancient noble families trace their origins to Mongolian roots. For example, Herzen’s friend Ogarev was a descendant of Ogar-Murza, who went to serve Alexander Nevsky from Batu.
The noble Yushkov family traces its ancestry back to the Horde Khan Zeush, who went into the service of Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy, and the Zagoskins - from Shevkal Zagor, who left the Golden Horde in 1472 for Moscow and received estates in the Novgorod region from John III.
Khitrovo is an ancient noble family that traces its origins to those who left in the second half of the 14th century. from the Golden Horde to the Grand Duke of Ryazan Oleg Ioannovich Edu-Khan, nicknamed Strong-Cunning, named Andrei in baptism. At the same time, his brother Salokhmir-Murza, who left, was baptized in 1371 under the name John and married the sister of Prince Anastasia. He became the founder of the Apraksins, Verderevskys, Kryukovs, Khanykovs and others. The Garshin family is an old noble family, descended, according to legend, from Murza Gorsha or Garsha, a native of the Golden Horde under Ivan III.
V. Arsenyev points out that the Dostoevskys descended from Aslan Murza Chelebey, who left the Golden Horde in 1389: he was the ancestor of the Arsenyevs, Zhdanovs, Pavlovs, Somovs, Rtishchevs and many other Russian noble families.
The Begichevs were descended, naturally, from the Horde citizen Begich; the noble families of the Tukhachevskys and Ushakovs had Horde ancestors. The Turgenevs, Mosolovs, Godunovs, Kudashevs, Arakcheevs, Kareevs (from Edigei-Karey, who moved from the Horde to Ryazan in the 13th century, was baptized and took the name Andrei) - all of them are of Horde origin.
During the era of Grozny, the Tatar elite strengthened even more.
For example, during the Kazan campaign (1552), which in history will be presented as the conquest and annexation of the Kazan Khanate to the Moscow state, the army of Ivan the Terrible included more Tatars than the army of Ediger, the ruler of Kazan.
The Yusupovs came from the Nogai Tatars. Naryshkins - from the Crimean Tatar Naryshki. Apraksins, Akhmatovs, Tenishevs, Kildishevs, Kugushevs, Ogarkovs, Rachmaninovs - noble families from the Volga Tatars.
The Moldavian boyars Matvey Cantacuzin and Scarlat Sturdza, who emigrated to Russia in the 18th century, received the most cordial treatment. The latter's daughter was a maid of honor to Empress Elizabeth, and later became Countess Edling.The Counts Panins traced their ancestry back to the Italian Panini family, which came from Lucca back in the 14th century. The Karazins came from the Greek family of Karadzhi. The Chicherins descend from the Italian Chicheri, who came to Moscow in 1472 in the retinue of Sophia Paleologus.
The Korsakov family from Lithuania (Kors is the name of the Baltic tribe that lived in Kurzeme).
Using the example of one of the central provinces of the empire, one can see that families of foreign origin made up almost half of the provincial nobility. An analysis of the pedigrees of 87 aristocratic families of the Oryol province shows that 41 families (47%) have foreign origins - traveling nobles baptized under Russian names, and 53% (46) of hereditary families have local roots.
12 of the traveling Oryol families have a genealogy from the Golden Horde (Ermolovs, Mansurovs, Bulgakovs, Uvarovs, Naryshkins, Khanykovs, Elchins, Kartashovs, Khitrovo, Khripunovs, Davydovs, Yushkovs); 10 clans left Poland (Pokhvisnevs, Telepnevs, Lunins, Pashkovs, Karyakins, Martynovs, Karpovs, Lavrovs, Voronovs, Yurasovskys); 6 families of nobles from the “German” (Tolstoys, Orlovs, Shepelevs, Grigorovs, Danilovs, Chelishchevs); 6 - with roots from Lithuania (Zinovievs, Sokovnins, Volkovs, Pavlovs, Maslovs, Shatilovs) and 7 - from other countries, incl. France, Prussia, Italy, Moldova (Abaza, Voeikovs, Elagins, Ofrosimovs, Khvostovs, Bezobrazovs, Apukhtins)
A historian who studied the origin of 915 ancient service families provides the following data on their national composition: 229 were of Western European (including German) origin, 223 were of Polish and Lithuanian origin, 156 were Tatar and other eastern, 168 belonged to the house of Rurik.
In other words, 18.3% were descendants of the Rurikovichs, that is, they had Varangian blood; 24.3% were of Polish or Lithuanian origin, 25% came from other Western European countries; 17% from Tatars and other eastern peoples; The nationality of 10.5% was not established, only 4.6% were Great Russians. (N. Zagoskin. Essays on the organization and origin of the service class in pre-Petrine Rus').
Even if we count the descendants of the Rurikovichs and persons of unknown origin as pure Great Russians, it still follows from these calculations that more than two-thirds of the royal servants in the last decades of the Moscow era were of foreign origin. In the eighteenth century, the proportion of foreigners in the service class increased even more. - R. Pipes. Russia under the old regime, p.240.
Our nobility was Russian only in name, but if someone decides that the situation was different in other countries, they will be greatly mistaken. Poland, the Baltic states, numerous Germanic nations, France, England and Turkey were all ruled by aliens.
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The first Russian surnames appeared in the 13th century, but most remained “nicknameless” for another 600 years. All you needed was your first name, patronymic and profession.
When did surnames appear in Rus'?
The fashion for surnames came to Rus' from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Back in the 12th century, Veliky Novgorod established close contacts with this state. Noble Novgorodians can be considered the first official owners of surnames in Rus'. 
Russian surnames appeared in different social strata at different times. The first in the Russian lands to acquire surnames were citizens of Veliky Novgorod and its vast possessions in the north, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Range. Novgorod chroniclers mention many surnames and nicknames already in the 13th century. Thus, in 1240, among the Novgorodians who fell in the Battle of the Neva, the chronicler mentions the following names: “Kostyantin Lugotinits, Gyurata Pineshchinich, Namst, Drochilo Nezdylov, son of a tanner...”(First Novgorod chronicle of the older edition, 1240). Surnames helped in diplomacy and in recording troops. This made it easier to distinguish one Ivan from another.
Somewhat later, in the 14th-15th centuries, family names appeared among princes and boyars. The princes were nicknamed by the name of their inheritance, and the moment of the emergence of the surname should be considered the moment when the prince, having lost his inheritance, still retained his name as a nickname for himself and his descendants: Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Obolensky, Vyazemsky, etc. A minority of princely surnames originate from nicknames: Gagarins, Humpbacks, Glazatye, Lykovs, etc. Surnames like Lobanov-Rostovsky connect the name of the reign with the nickname.
Boyar and princely families
Boyar and noble Russian surnames were also formed from nicknames or from the names of ancestors. The process of formation of boyar surnames from hereditary nicknames is well illustrated by the history of the boyar (later royal) family of the Romanovs.
At the end of the 15th century, the first surnames of foreign origin appeared among the Russian nobles, primarily the surnames of Polish-Lithuanian and Greek (for example, the Philosophers) immigrants; in the 17th century, such surnames of Western origin as the Fonvizins and Lermontovs were added to them. The surnames of the descendants of Tatar immigrants were reminiscent of the names of these immigrants: Yusupov, Akhmatov, Kara-Murza, Karamzin (also from Kara-Murza).
But it should be noted that the eastern origin of a surname does not always indicate the eastern origin of its bearers: sometimes they come from Tatar nicknames that were in fashion in Moscow Rus'. This is the surname Bakhteyarova, which was borne by the branch of the Rostov Rurik princes (from Fyodor Priimkov-Bakhteyar), or the surname Beklemishev, which came from the nickname Beklemish (Turkic - guarding, guarding), which was borne by Fyodor Elizarovich, the boyar of Vasily I. 
In the XIV-XV centuries, Russian princes and boyars began to take surnames. Surnames were often formed from the names of the lands. Thus, the owners of the estate on the Shuya River became the Shuiskys, on Vyazma - the Vyazemskys, on Meshchera - the Meshcherskys, the same story with the Tverskys, Obolenskys, Vorotynskys and other -skys.
It must be said that -sk- is a common Slavic suffix; it can be found in Czech surnames (Komensky), and in Polish (Zapototsky), and in Ukrainian (Artemovsky).
Boyars also often received their surnames from the baptismal name of the ancestor or his nickname: such surnames literally answered the question “whose?” (implied “whose son?”, “what kind?”) and included possessive suffixes.
The suffix -ov- was added to worldly names ending in hard consonants: Smirnoy - Smirnov, Ignat - Ignatov, Petr - Petrov.
The suffix -Ev- was added to names and nicknames that had a soft sign at the end, -iy, -ey or h: Bear - Medvedev, Yuri - Yuryev, Begich - Begichev.
The suffix -in- received surnames formed from names with the vowels “a” and “ya”: Apukhta -Apukhtin, Gavrila - Gavrilin, Ilya -Ilyin.
Why are the Romanovs - Romanovs?
The most famous surname in Russian history is the Romanovs. Their ancestor Andrei Kobyla (a boyar from the time of Ivan Kalita) had three sons: Semyon Zherebets, Alexander Elka Kobylin and Fyodor Koshka. From them descended the Zherebtsovs, Kobylins and Koshkins, respectively. The descendants of Fyodor Koshka for several generations bore the nickname - the surname Koshkins (not all: his son Alexander Bezzubets became the ancestor of the Bezzubtsevs, and another son Fyodor Goltyai became the ancestor of the Goltyaevs). The names of his son Ivan and grandson Zakhary Ivanovich were Koshkins.
Among the children of the latter, Yakov Zakharovich Koshkin became the founder of the noble family of the Yakovlevs, and Yuri Zakharovich began to be called Zakharyin-Koshkin, while the son of the latter was already called Roman Zakharyin-Yuryev. The surname Zakharyin-Yuryev, or simply Zakharyin, was also borne by Roman’s son, Nikita Romanovich (as well as his sister Anastasia, the first wife of Ivan the Terrible); however, the children and grandchildren of Nikita Romanovich were already called Romanovs, including Fyodor Nikitich (Patriarch Filaret) and Mikhail Fedorovich (Tsar).
Aristocratic surnames
The Russian aristocracy initially had noble roots, and among the nobles there were many people who came to Russian service from abroad. It all started with surnames of Greek and Polish-Lithuanian origin at the end of the 15th century, and in the 17th century they were joined by the Fonvizins (German von Wiesen), the Lermontovs (Scottish Lermont) and other surnames with Western roots.
Also, the surnames that were given to illegitimate children of noble people have foreign language bases: Sherov (French cher “dear”), Amantov (French amant “beloved”), Oksov (German Ochs “bull”), Herzen (German Herz “heart” ").
By-product children generally “suffered” a lot from their parents’ imagination. Some of them did not bother to come up with a new surname, but simply shortened the old one: this is how Pnin was born from Repnin, Betskoy from Trubetskoy, Agin from Elagin, and the “Koreans” Go and Te came from Golitsyn and Tenishev. The Tatars also left a significant mark on Russian surnames. This is exactly how the Yusupovs (descendants of Murza Yusup), the Akhmatovs (Khan Akhmat), the Karamzins (Tatar punishment “black”, Murza “lord, prince”), the Kudinovs (distorted Kaz.-Tatar. Kudai “God, Allah”) and other.
Surnames of servicemen
In the 18th-19th centuries, surnames began to spread among employees of the merchant class. At first, only the richest - the “eminent merchants” - were awarded surnames. In the 15th-16th centuries there were few of these, mostly of Northern Russian origin. For example, merchants Merchant - in the old days: a rich merchant, owner of a trading enterprise. The Kalinnikovs, who founded the city of Sol Kamskaya in 1430, or the famous Stroganovs. They, like the princes, were also often called by their place of residence, only with “simpler” suffixes: families living in Tambov became Tambovtsevs, in Vologda - Vologzhaninovs, in Moscow - Moskvichevs and Moskvitinovs. Some were satisfied with the “non-family” suffix, denoting a resident of a given territory in general: Belomorets, Kostromich, Chernomorets, while others received the nickname without any changes - hence Tatyana Dunay, Alexander Galich, Olga Poltava and others.
Among the merchant surnames there were many that reflected the “professional specialization” of their bearers. For example, the surname Rybnikov, derived from the word rybnik, that is, “fish merchant.” One can also recall citizen Kuzma Minin - as is known, he did not belong to the nobility. The nobility is one of the highest classes of feudal society (along with the clergy), which had privileges enshrined in law and inherited. The basis of the economic and political influence of the nobility is land ownership. In 1762, the nobility achieved exemption from compulsory military and civil public service introduced by Peter I; The nobility was not subject to corporal punishment and was exempt from conscription and personal taxes. The charter (1785) of Catherine II (on the rights of liberty and advantages of the Russian nobility) established a wide range of personal privileges for the nobility and introduced noble self-government. As a class, the nobility was liquidated after the October Revolution, but had its own surname already at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries.
Surnames of clergy
The clergy began to have surnames only from the middle of the 18th century. Usually they were formed from the names of parishes and churches (Blagoveshchensky, Kosmodemyansky, Nikolsky, Pokrovsky, Preobrazhensky, Rozhdestvensky, Uspensky, etc.). Before this, priests were usually called Father Alexander, Father Vasily, Father or Father Ivan, without any surname being implied. Their children, if necessary, often received the surname Popov.
Some clergy acquired surnames upon graduation from the seminary: Athensky, Dukhososhestvensky, Palmin, Kiparisov, Reformatsky, Pavsky, Golubinsky, Klyuchevsky, Tikhomirov, Myagkov, Liperovsky (from a Greek root meaning “sad”), Gilyarovsky (from a Latin root meaning “cheerful”) "). At the same time, the best students were given the most euphonious surnames and carrying a purely positive meaning, in Russian or Latin Formation of a literary language - 3-2 centuries BC in: Brilliantov, Dobromyslov, Benemansky, Speransky (Russian analogue: Nadezhdin), Benevolensky (Russian analogue: Dobrovolsky ), Dobrolyubov, etc.; on the contrary, bad students were given dissonant surnames, for example Gibraltar, or derived from the names of negative biblical characters (Saul, Pharaoh). The most interesting of them were those that were translated from Russian into Latin and received the “princely” suffix -sk-. Thus, Bobrov became Kastorsky (Latin castor “beaver”), Skvortsov became Sturnitsky (Latin sturnus “starling”), and Orlov became Aquilev (Latin aquila “eagle”).
Peasant surnames
During this period, Russian peasants usually did not have surnames; their function was performed by nicknames and patronymics, as well as the mention of their owner, since in the 16th century the peasantry of central Russia was subjected to mass enslavement. For example, in archival documents of that time one can find the following entries: “Ivan Mikitin’s son, and his nickname is Menshik,” entry from 1568; “Onton Mikiforov’s son, and nickname is Zhdan,” document from 1590; “Guba Mikiforov, son of Crooked Cheeks, landowner,” entry from 1495; “Danilo Soplya, peasant”, 1495; “Efimko Sparrow, peasant,” 1495.
In those records one can see indications of the status of still free peasants (landowner), as well as the difference between the patronymic and the surname (son of such and such). The peasants of northern Russia, the former Novgorod possessions, could have real surnames in this era, since serfdom did not apply to these areas. Probably the most famous example of this kind is Mikhailo Lomonosov. You can also remember Arina Rodionovna Yakovleva, a Novgorod peasant woman, nanny of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Cossacks also had surnames. Surnames were also given to a significant part of the population of the lands that were previously part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Belarus to Smolensk and Vyazma, Little Russia.
Under Peter I, by Senate Decree of June 18, 1719, in connection with the introduction of the poll tax and conscription, the earliest police registration documents were officially introduced - travel documents (passports). The passport contained information: name, surname (or nickname), where he came from, where he was going, place of residence, characteristics of his type of activity, information about family members who were traveling with him, sometimes information about his father and parents.
By decree of January 20, 1797, Emperor Paul I ordered the compilation of a General Arms Book of noble families, which collected more than 3,000 noble family names and coats of arms. 
Back in 1888, a special decree of the Senate was published, which read:
As practice reveals, even among persons born in a legal marriage, there are many people who do not have surnames, that is, bearing so-called patronymic surnames, which causes significant misunderstandings and even sometimes abuses... To be called by a certain surname is not only a right, but it is also the duty of every full-fledged person, and the designation of the surname on some documents is required by law itself.
The procedure for adopting a law is established by the constitution. The law forms the basis of the state legal system and has supreme legal force in relation to the normative acts of other state bodies. 
In central Russia, surnames among the peasantry were relatively rare until the 19th century. However, we can recall individual examples - the famous Ivan Susanin.
The memory of Susanin was preserved in oral folk tales and traditions. His feat is reflected in fiction and in Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s opera “Life for the Tsar” (“Ivan Susanin”). A monument to Susanin, who lived in the 16th-17th centuries, was erected in Kostroma. In addition, the names of some peasants are known - participants in certain wars, campaigns, defenses of cities or monasteries and other historical disasters. However, in fact, until the 19th century, surnames were not widespread among the peasants of Central Russia. But this is rather due to the fact that in those days there was no need for a complete mention of all peasants, and there are no documents in which peasants were mentioned without exception or in the majority. And for the official document flow of those years, if a peasant was mentioned in it, it was usually quite enough to mention the village in which he lived, the landowner to whom he belonged, and his personal name, sometimes along with his profession. The majority of peasants in central Russia were officially given surnames, recorded in documents only after the abolition of serfdom.
In the 12th century, similar in nature to serfdom, was the exploitation of rolled (arable) purchases and smerds in corvee. According to Russian Pravda, the princely smerd is limited in property and personal rights (his escheated property goes to the prince; the life of a smerd is equal to the life of a serf: the same fine is imposed for their murder - 5 hryvnia). in 1861. 
Some surnames were formed from the surnames of landowners. Some peasants were given the full or changed surname of their former owner, the landowner - this is how entire villages of the Polivanovs, Gagarins, Vorontsovs, Lvovkins, etc. appeared.
At the root of some surnames were the names of settlements (villages and hamlets) from which these peasants came. Mostly these are surnames ending in -"sky", for example - Uspensky, Lebedevsky.
However, most surnames are, in origin, family nicknames, which, in turn, came from the “street” nickname of one or another family member. For the majority of peasants, this very “street” nickname was written down in the document, of which another family could have more than one. Nicknames appeared much earlier than universal family names. These same family nicknames, sometimes with roots going back many generations, actually served as surnames among the peasants of Central Russia - in everyday life, even before they were universally consolidated. They were the first to be included in the census forms, and in fact, family registration was simply the recording of these nicknames in documents. 
Thus, giving a peasant a surname often came down simply to official recognition, legitimization, and assignment of family or personal nicknames to their bearers. This explains the fact that in the era before the mass allocation of surnames to the peasants of Central Russia, we still know individual names and surnames of the peasants who took part in certain important events. When it became necessary to mention a peasant in a chronicle or in a narration about some event in which he was a participant, the corresponding nickname was simply indicated as his surname - his own, or his family's. And then, during the general assignment of surnames to the peasants of Central Russia, which occurred after the abolition of serfdom, these same nicknames were, for the most part, officially recognized and assigned.
Worldly surnames were formed on the basis of the worldly name. Worldly names came from pagan times, when church names did not yet exist or were not accepted by the common people. After all, Christianity did not immediately captivate the minds, much less the souls, of the Slavs. Old traditions were preserved for a long time, the covenants of ancestors were revered sacredly. Every family remembered the names of their ancestors up to the 7th generation and even deeper. Legends from the history of the family were passed down from generation to generation. Instructive stories about the past deeds of the ancestors (ancestor - distant ancestor, ancestor) were told at night to the young successors of the family. Many of the worldly ones were proper names (Gorazd, Zhdan, Lyubim), others arose as nicknames, but then became names (Nekras, Dur, Chertan, Zloba, Neustroy). It should be noted here that in the ancient Russian naming system it was also customary to call babies with protective names, amulets - names with negative content - for protection, scaring away evil forces or for the reverse effect of the name. This is how it is still customary to scold those taking an exam, or to wish a hunter “no feather, no feather.” It was believed that Dur would grow up smart, Nekras would grow up handsome, and Hunger would always be well-fed. Protective names then became familiar nicknames, and then surnames.
For some, the patronymic was recorded as a surname. The royal decrees on conducting a census usually stated that everyone should be recorded “by first name and nickname,” that is, by first name, patronymic and last name. But in the 17th - first half of the 18th centuries, peasants did not have hereditary surnames at all. The peasant family lived only for one life. For example, Procopius was born into the family of Ivan, and in all metric records he is called Procopius Ivanov. When Vasily was born to Procopius, the newborn became Vasily Prokopyev, and not Ivanov at all.
The first census of 1897 showed that up to 75% of the population did not have a surname (however, this applied more to residents of the national outskirts than of indigenous Russia). Finally, surnames appeared for the entire population of the USSR only in the 30s of the 20th century during the era of universal passportization (the introduction of the passport system). 
After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the situation began to improve, and by the time of universal passportization in the 1930s, every resident of the USSR had a surname.
They were formed according to already proven models: the suffixes -ov-, -ev-, -in- were added to names, nicknames, places of residence, and professions.
Structure of Russian surnames 
Anthroponymy- a section of onomastics that studies the origin, change, geographic distribution, and social functioning of people’s proper names. surnames states that most often Russian surnames are formed from personal names through possessive adjectives. The bulk of Russian surnames have the suffixes -ov/-ev, -in, from the answer to the question “whose?” The difference is purely formal: -ov was added to nicknames or names with a hard consonant (Ignat - Ignatov, Mikhail - Mikhailov), -ev to names or nicknames with a soft consonant (Ignaty - Ignatiev, Golodyay - Golodyaev), -in to stems with a, I (Putya - Putin, Erema - Eremin, Ilya - Ilyin). This also suggests that, for example, the surnames Golodaev and Golodyaev, which have the same root, are related, but the outwardly similar Golodov, Golodnov, Golodny are not.
The vast majority of Russian surnames come from dedichestvo, the temporary surname of the father, that is, the name of the grandfather, thus securing the hereditary name in the third generation. This made it easier to designate families of the same root. If the grandfather, whose name formed the basis of the established surname, had two names - one baptismal, the other everyday, then the surname was formed from the second, since baptismal names did not differ in variety.
You should know that Russian officials at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries recorded surnames for residents of the national outskirts by the name of their grandfather, which is how most surnames in Transcaucasia and Central Asia arose.
Why and when did they change their names?
When the peasants began to acquire surnames, for superstitious reasons, from the evil eye, they gave their children surnames that were not the most pleasant: Nelyub, Nenash, Nekhoroshiy, Blockhead, Kruchina. After the revolution, queues began to form at passport offices from those who wanted to change their surname to a more euphonious one.
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