Khilkov

Khilkov or Khilkoff ( _ru. Хилков) is a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. The descendant of the Great Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Christianizer of Russia, Prince Ivan Vsevolodovich,(c. 958 – 15 July 1015) received from his brother, the Great Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the appanage of Starodub, and this originated the Princes of Starodub; those who later had the Ryapolovskaya volost took the name Prince Ryapolovsky In the sixteenth century, for an unknown reason, the Ryapolovskys changed their name: the older branch to Khilkoff, and the younger to Tatev.

The founder of the Khilkoffs was the great-grandson of Prince Ivan Andreyevich Ryapolovsky (Nagavitsa), Prince Ivan Fyodorovich Khilok. The Khilkoffs have played a notable part in Russian history. Under Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich there were 16 noble families whose members rose straight to the rank of boyar, missing out that of okolnichiy; the Princes Khilkoff were among that number. At the time of the 1917 revolution the Khilkoff family were the 14th wealthiest family in Russia, fleeing Russia to stay with the King of Denmark, then dispersing over Europe. Khilkoff descendants today live in France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, and Moscow - the city they founded in 1147. [Khilkoff, Alexis [http://www.citygroup.asia/russian/insights/index.html Russia Revisited] ]

Notable figures

Prince Andrey Yakovlevich Khilkoff (?-1718) Russian ambassador to Sweden

In 1697 Prince K, in the capacity of a stolnik was sent with a number of others to Italy to study navigation and shipbuilding. Soon after his return to Russia he was sent as ambassador to Sweden (June 1700), and instructed to inform Charles XII of the imminent arrival of great envoys (boyar Prince Ya. Dolgrukiy and okolnichiy Prince F Shakhovsky) for the solemn confirmation of the peace agreements with Sweden.

Peter the Great sent an ambassador to Stockholm exclusively in order to lull the Swedish Government into a false sense of security, and to conceal from it his preparations for war with Sweden, which he decided to begin as soon as peace was concluded with Turkey.

Not finding the King in Stockholm, Prince K followed him to the shores of Denmark, and here, on 19 August 1700, on the royal yacht, he gave Charles XII a scroll and according to orders, made a speech in Italian. At the audience which followed on 30 August, the King announced that the message was "very agreeable", and that he recognised Prince Khilkov as an ambassador to his Court.

At the very same time, on 19 August, war was declared on Sweden "for their many wrongs" in Moscow, and the army was ordered to attack Swedish towns. As soon as the news reached Sweden, a month later the Russian ambassador was arrested and his house put under guard; Prince K did not protest, telling the Swedish Master of Ceremonies that "in their own country they might do as they pleased".

The Swedish Government told Prince Khilkov that it was prepared to exchange him for the Swedish ambassador in Moscow, Knipper, but later refused to do this and Prince Khilkov remained in captivity for 15 years and died there.

The Swedes treated Prince Khilkov extremely badly, as they did the Russian generals and officers who fell into their hands later as prisoners of war. Prince K informed Emperor Peter in 1703 "Better to be a prisoner of the Turks than the Swedes: here a Russian is of no account, they insult and dishonour him; I and the generals are under constant guard; if anyone needs to go somewhere, a guard with a loaded musket is always with him; they torture our merchants with heavy labours, despite all my representations".

In 1711 most of the prisoners of war were exchanged, but Prince K remained in Sweden. In 1713 he was moved from Stockholm to Vesteros; "at this time," he wrote to the Tsar', I a prisoner am not able to serve your Highness in any way". However, even in this small provincial town he tried to ascertain and inform Peter of the Swedish political news. In one of his unpublished messages, now in the State archives, we find a report of the Swedish administrative reforms of 1714. "The king recently sent a lieutenant-colonel to Stockholm with a number of certificates of rank for his subjects, among which were certificates for a new rank, which has never before existed in Sweden: ombudsrod - a rank nearest to a boyar. Six of these Ombudsrods have been created. Justitiae, Military Affairs, Exchequer, Trade Affairs, First Foreign Affairs, German Affairs".

Prince K died in Vesteros in 1718; his body was brought to Petersburg and buried in the Alexander Nevsky monastery, 18 October 1719.

Prince Stepan Aleksandrovich Khilkoff (1786-1854)

Prince Stepan was the eldest son of Prince Alexander Jacobovich Khilkoff. He had a distinguished military career, with his portrait in the hall of heroes in the Hermitage museum. As a Lieutenant-general, he fought in the bloody battle of Austerlitz, and at Gutstadt, Heilsberg and Friedland; in the latter battle he was badly wounded in his right side.

His detachment was attacked by the enemy at the village of Burtsova on 15 September, Prince K turned the rear of the French infantry battalion, attacked and crushed it. He, in turn, was then attacked in the flank by two French squadrons of dragoon guards, but repulsed them with an equally powerful charge. General Dorokhov thanked Prince Khilkov for his success and sent him to demand the enemy's surrender. He was met by rifle fire. Dorokhov ordered another attack, sending Prince Khilkov to cut off the French retreat. K threw half of his squadrons into the attack, but was hit by a bullet in the right of his groin and was carried off the battlefield unconscious.

He took part in the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, the offensive from Silesia to Dresden, the battle of Dresden and in the famous two-day long battle of Kulm on 17 and 18 August; on the 17th he was again hit by a bullet, in his right arm, but he did not leave the field.

On 8th March, Prince K exchanged shots with Napoleon's guard, but avoided an unequal battle and withdrew. On the 10th he followed the enemy army along the Vitry road; having reached the village of Sompuy, he harassed the French rearguard with rifle fire for two days before returning to his regiment.

Prince Khilkov's participation in the 1814 war had a glorious conclusion at the battle of La Fere Champenois, at which the Tsarevich chose the Household Dragoons to take the enemy guns. Prince K's two squadrons were the first to attack, but were attacked themselves in the centre of the French line of battle by three squadrons of French cuirassiers. K turned his men to face the enemy, fell to hard hand-to-hand fighting and overran the cuirassiers. In this battle he was wounded by a pistol bullet in his right hand, fell from his horse and nearly paid for success with his life.

On 22 August 1826, the day of Emperor Nikolay Pavlovich's coronation, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General; on 5 July 1827 he was awarded the order of St Vladimir 2nd Class, and on 6 December 1830 the order of St Anna 1st Class with an Imperial crown, having received over the previous ten years, 22 signs of the monarch's favour.

On 15 September 1834 Prince K was awarded the diamond insignia of the order of St Alexander Nevsky having distinguishing himself in the main events of all the Emperor Alexander's wars with Napoleon and the Polish rebellion.

Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkoff (1837-1909) Minister of Communications - "The Railway Prince"

Minister of Communications and Ways, responsible for the building of the Trans Siberian railway. On graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1853, he served in the Regiment of Chasseurs until 1857.

In 1860 K undertook a 2-year long voyage to Europe and America; on his return to Russia he served as a judicial arbitrator, and 2 years later he again went to America, taking a job as a simple workman with the Anglo-American Transatlantic Railroad Company (in North America). Thanks to his unflagging industry and outstanding abilities, K had risen within 4 years to the position of manager of rolling stock and traction; he then worked for about a year as a metalworker at a locomotive factory in Liverpool; while working there he was offered the position of traction manager on the Kursk-Kiev railway, and from here he went to the Moscow-Ryazan railway.In 1880 General Annenkov appointed K head of the construction of the Kyzyl-Arvat branch railway, but in early 1882 at the invitation of the Bulgarian Government, he became their Minister of social Works, Trade and Agriculture, and contributed significantly to the country's economic progress. In 1885 K returned to Russia and again worked on the Transcaspian railway, in 1892 he was appointed by the Government as Director of the Privislyanskaya railway in Russian Poland, and was later in charge of the Samara-Zlatoust (ru), Orenburg, Oryol-Gryazi and Livenskaya Railways; in 1894 he was Chief Railway Inspector. [ [http://brocgaus.ru/text/107/648.htm Хилков, Михаил Иванович (князь)] in Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary ru icon]

Councillor of State Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov was appointed Director of the Ministry of Communications by imperial decree on 4 January 1895, and on 2 April of the same year was confirmed as Minister of Communications. He was in this Ministerial post during the decisive years of the "Great Siberian Way" construction and also during the Russian-Japanese War. Retired in October 1905, being unable to stop the railway workers' strike during the Revolution of 1905. [ [http://www.gudok.ru/index.php/48134 The Railway Prince] "Gudok", 01-June-2007 ru icon]

Prince Dmitry Aleksandrovich Khilkoff (1858-1914) - "From Tolstoyan to terrorist"

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Prince Dmitry Khilkov was an aristocratic disciple of Tolstoy who was exiled by the government and had his children taken away from him for following Tolstoy's teachings.

In July 1899 Khilkov returned to Europe, and to Switzerland where his family were then living. Initially working closely with Biriukov and the Tolstoyans, Dmitrii was soon to renounce his former pacifism and by 1902 was advocating mass terrorism in Russia to overthrow the Tsarist regime. He became acquainted with leaders of the revolutionary movement, finally joining the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1903. His chief activity at this time was the publication and distribution of revolutionary literature particularly aimed at persecuted sectarians in Russia. He urged also the formation of armed fighting squads to lead the revolutionary struggle. The Revolution of 1905 appeared to signal the imminent end of Tsarism, but Khilkov's hopes of a general uprising were not to be. At the end of the year he returned to Russia under the general amnesty and finally left the Socialist Revolutionary Party, repelled by the hypocrisy of its leaders and the infiltration of provocateurs. His deep concern for the peasants remained and during 1905-1906 he participated in the active peasant movement in Sumy. Before long, however, this movement was suppressed and the revolutionary momentum in Russia stalled by government reaction. It became clear to Khilkov that the path of revolution offered no hope and the direction of his life once more began to change. From 1907 he began to abandon his radical views and was drawn increasingly towards the Orthodox Church.

The military threat to Russia stirred Dmitrii to volunteer to rejoin his old Cossack regiment with his former rank of lieutenant colonel. Early in the war, in October 1914, while leading a patrol on the Eastern front in Galicia, Dmitrii Khilkov was killed by a single shot. His body was returned and buried at Pavlovki. [Camfield, Graham (1999) [http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/949/ From Tolstoyan to terrorist: the revolutionary career of Prince D. A. Khilkov, 1900-1905] . Revolutionary Russia, 12 (1). pp. 1-43. ISSN 0954-6545 ]

Hereditary Commanders of the Knights Hospitaller

of Russian Grand Priory. Ancestral Commanderies established during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I of Russia include those of:

Narychkine, Count Chéréméteff, Prince Youssoupoff †, Stroganov †, Count Samoiloif ‡, Prince Belosselsky, Prince Dolgoroukov, Davydov, Prince Barytinsky, Démidoff, Prince Troubetzkoy, Count Worontzoff, Maruzzi †, Beklechev †, Prince Tioufiakine †, Count Olsoufieff, Gerebtzoff, Count Strogonoff †, Boutourline, Potemkine †, Tchirikoff †, Prince Khilkoff ‡, Prince Odoevsky †, and Prince Youssoupoff †.

Key. † Direct Male line from the first Commander extinct. ‡ Direct Male line is extinct, but the family was reinstated via the female line by the Imperium.

References