Does anybody know anything about russian aristocracy? my great-grandfather's name was leopold knazeff?

Question

my great-grandfather was a russian nobleman and i know very little about him. all i know is that he is from irkutsk and that he fled russia when the russian revolution started. he went to the philippines and lived here for the remainder of his life.

Answer 1

From the etimology sources:

"... в Сибири не было княжеских владений, но, по всей вероятности, переселившиеся в Сибирь люди принесли с собой название той деревни, в которой они жили в Европейской России."

The surname descends from "князь" (Prince or Duke).

Since Siberia never had principalities, Siberian surnames descend from village names in European part of Russia.

Such village (Князево) was a part of Prince's domain: it literally means "Prince's domain" or "Duke's domain".

Typically, villagers received their surnames after village names, so your direct ancestor was a Prince's serf, not a nobleman.

Compare with Баринов (Barinov): it literally means nobleman's [serf].

The process of surnaming was simple:

- Чьих ты? Князев / баринов / бояринов.

- Whose serf are you? Prince's / nobleman's / boyar's.