Milukoff
Encyclopedia
Milyukov also spelled Milukoff, Milukov, Melukov, Melukoff, is an old Russian noble family (first recorded in the mid-14th century). Milyukovs were recorded in the ancient nobility books
Russian nobility
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...

 of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Orlov
Orlov, Russia
Orlov is a town and the administrative center of Orlovsky District of Kirov Oblast, Russia, situated on the right bank of the Vyatka River, west of Kirov. Population: It was first mentioned in 1459. Town status was granted to it in 1780...

, Simbirsk, St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

, Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...

, and Tula
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...

 Governorates
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...

. In the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous Milyukovs were voivodes, falconers, stolnik
Stolnik
Stolnik was a court office in Poland and Muscovy, responsible for serving the royal table.- Stolnik in Crown of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania : In Crown of Poland under the first Piast dukes and kings, this was a court office....

s (cup bearers), and gentleman of the bedchamber
Gentleman of the Bedchamber
A Gentleman of the Bedchamber was the holder of an important office in the royal household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain.-Description and functions:...

.

Origins

The House of Milyukov stems from a "foreigner" Semyon Melik, who was a voivode, that fought alongside Prince Dmitry Donskoy and died in the Battle of Kulikovo
Battle of Kulikovo
The Battle of Kulikovo was a battle between Tatar Mamai and Muscovy Dmitriy and portrayed by Russian historiography as a stand-off between Russians and the Golden Horde. However, the political situation at the time was much more complicated and concerned the politics of the Northeastern Rus'...

.. From him on, his children became Melikoff ("from Melik"), later on the name underwent "Russification" to become Milyukov. Since some early Milyukovs had Turkic names, such as Murza and Sabur, and the fact that Malik
Malik
Malik is an Arabic word meaning "king, chieftain".It has been adopted in various other, mainly Islamized or Arabized, Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings...

  translates as (King
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...

), allows to deduct that Semyon Melik was from Armenian nobility
Melik
Мelik , from malik ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title, in various Eastern Armenian principalities known as melikdoms encompassing modern Yerevan, Kars, Nakhchivan, Sevan, Lori, Artsakh, Tabriz and Syunik starting from the Late Middle Ages until the end of the nineteenth century...

. And given the time span of his appearance in Muscovy, most likely from recently fallen kingdom of Cilicia
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia , also known as the Cilician Armenia, Kingdom of Cilician Armenia or New Armenia, was an independent principality formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian refugees fleeing the Seljuk invasion of Armenia...

.

Side branches

Starovo-Milyukov is a cadet line founded by Semyon Ioanovich, one of Semyon Melik's grandchildren, nicknamed "Stary" . Yelizary Tashlykov Starovo-Milyukov was a voivode of Oreshek (1595). Ivan Ionavich was a voivode of Rzhev-Volodimirove
Rzhev
Rzhev is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, southwest of Staritsa and from Tver, on the highway and railway connecting Moscow and Riga. It is the uppermost town situated on the Volga River. Population:...

 (1618). In the 17th century, numerous Starovo-Milyukovs were stolniks and gentlemen of the bedchamber. It seems that the branch became extinct in a male line after the death of Vasily Yakovlevich — lieutenant-governor of Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...

 province. However, the female line still exists in modern day descendants of the third cadet branch of princes Volkonsky
Volkonsky
Volkonsky is a famous Russian, from Rurikid princely house. It inherited some Rurikid land along the Volkona river sometime in the dark centuries of Mongol disturbances in Russia and it is not totally clear what was the route of the inheritance. according to Almagro, Rurikid princes disputed for...

 and ancient aristocrats Bibikoffs
Aleksandr Bibikov
Aleksandr Ilyich Bibikov was a Russian statesman and military officer.Bibikov came from an old noble family; Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was his brother-in-law....

.

Melyukov is the second cadet branch that broke off during the early-1860s (shortly after the abolition of serfdom
Russian serfdom
The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century. Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants, the term for an unfree peasant in the Russian Empire, krepostnoi krestyanin , is translated as serf.-...

 in the Russian Empire). Many other northern noblemen Milyukovs were seriously affected by the abolition, because serfs, who could take winter jobs in the cities, were much more valuable possessions then often frozen land. Milyukovs were forced to go in business for themselves or go broke. They started a trading company and made their name as merchants of fine furs, supplying, among others, the Russian Imperial Family and several German ducal houses
Dukes in Italy, Germany and Austria
-Germany:Although the titled aristocracy of Germany no longer holds a legal rank, nearly all ducal families in Germany continued to be treated as dynastic for marital and genealogical purposes after 1918...

. As a matter of fact, Milyukovs were so successful that they owned one of the first commercial steamships in Russia. Later, during the Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 of 1918, many members participated as members of White Army
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...

, this branch altered the spelling to Melyukovs, to escape the prosecution by the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...

.

Prominent members of the Milyukov family

Milyukov family had numerous notable members throughout the centuries. Below is the list of the most illustrious members of their time.

During the early 16th century, the most prominent one was Mikhail Ioanovich, who was a Grand Falconer
Grand Falconer
Grand Falconer may refer to:* Grand Falconer of France* Hereditary Grand Falconer of England, title of the Duke of St Albans...

 and a namestnik of Bely Gorod
Bely Gorod
Bely Gorod is the central core area of Moscow, Russia. The name comes from the color of its defensive wall, which was erected in 1585-1593 at the behest of tsar Feodor I and Boris Godunov by architect Fyodor Kon...

 (1506).

One of the more illustrious Milyukovs in the 17th century was Semyon (d. 1699), the Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 of Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

, who stringently opposed the rule of Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna
Sophia Alekseyevna
Sophia Alekseyevna was a regent of Russian Tsardom who allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Galitzine, to install herself as a regent during the minority of her brothers, Peter the Great and Ivan V...

 believing that it is not woman's business to rule and that brothers Peter (later Peter I of Russia
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

) and Ivan (later Ivan V of Russia
Ivan V of Russia
Ivan V Alekseyevich Romanov was a joint Tsar of Russia who co-reigned between 1682 and 1696. He was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia and Maria Miloslavskaya. His reign was only formal, since he had serious physical and mental disabilities...

) should take over.
.

In the 19th century, Nikolay Petrovich was a very noteworthy nobleman in Tver; his godfather was Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

 himself. He is mostly famous for owning and later causing the death of Grigory Soroka
Grigory Soroka
Grigoriy Vasilyevich Soroka ; —) was a Russian painter, one of the most notable members of Venetsianov school.- Life :Soroka was born in Pokrovskoye village , in the family of landowner Milyukov. In 1842-1847 he studied art from Alexey Venetsianov then he was returned to his owner. In 1850s-1860s...

.

The most notorious Milyukov in the 20th century was Pavel Milyukov
Pavel Milyukov
Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov , a Russian politician, was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic party...

, founder of the Constitutional Democratic party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...

, a Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...

 representative, and later the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Russian Provisional Government, 1917.

Family estates

The Milyukovs had several estates around the lake Moldino near Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

 . The main manor was Poddubie, with two other manors, Vsekhsvyatskoye and Ostrovki to the north and south, respectively, belonging to various Milyukovs. According to the early 19th century records, Poddubie Manor had eight houses and 651 male field serfs attached to it, where Vsekhsvyatskoye had 34 house serfs and 254 field male serfs. Ostrovki Manor had 19 house serfs with an unknown number of field serfs. An interesting fact is that the famous House of Smirnoff of Smirnoff Vodka had a family manor right across the lake from Poddubie, and just like Melyukov branch had to start business shortly after the abolition of serfdom.
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