Prince Nikolai Ivanovitch Sviatopolk-Mirskii was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 general and politician. In 1895 he purchased the famed Mir Castle Complex

Mir Castle Complex

The Mirsky Castle Complex , is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Belarus located in the town of Mir in the Karelichy District of the Hrodna voblast, at , 29 km to the north-west from another World Heritage site, Nesvizh Castle....

, repaired and rebuilt it.

Nikolai was born to the family of Thomas Bogumile Jean Sviatopolk-Mirskii, the ambassador of the semi-independent Kingdom of Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

 to Russia. Nikolai's patronymic

Patronymic

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...

 Ivanovich was based on a Russified form of the third name of his father. Despite being a descendant of Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 szlachta

Szlachta

The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

 he was brought up in Saint 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...

 and considered himself Russian.

Nikolai graduated from the Page Corps

Page Corps

Page Corps was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service....

 and later served in the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

 under Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov

Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov

Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov , was a Russian prince and field-marshal, renowned for his success in the Napoleonic wars, and most famous for his participation in the Caucasian War from 1844 to 1853....

. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878 he commanded a division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

 that fought at the final Battle of Shipka Pass. Since 1881 he was the ataman

Ataman

Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...

 of the Don Cossack Voisko. In 1898 he became a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia

State Council of Imperial Russia

The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia.-18th century:Early Tsars' Councils were small and dealt primarily with the external politics....

.

Descendants of Nikolay later emigrated to the USA and settled in Philadelphia, PA.

External links

Biography