Peter Dragadze

    One of the most significant mining and metallurgical developments of Siberia took place in the 18th century with the personal encouragement of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine II, Empress of all the Russias. She had joined earlier rulers of this vast country,such as Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, in actively facilitating private enterprise which in turn enriched the State and, of course, the royal offers. Her life long lover, and it is said her secret husband, His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin, was so enthusiastic about the Siberian venture, that he also dispatched his English born factotum, Samuel Bentham, over the Urals to seek for further minerals for his monarch. But in particular, her efforts supported the powerful Stroganoff family of St Petersburg (best known in the west for the steak which bears their name), who exploited the enormous mineral deposits and other wealth of the endless lands both west and east of the Ural mountains. Thanks, in large part, to the Stroganoffs and their imperial patron, Catherine’s crowns were encrusted with even more diamonds and other precious stones, there was even more gold for her dinner plates and iron ore to manufacture the royal cannons.
To celebrate the expansion of her empire, Catherine the Great, as she was known even during her lifetime, presented her favorites – including count Alexander Sergeievich Stroganoff – with estates and titles and to those most distinguished original copies of her official portrait bearing the Order of St Andrew, all by the brush of Dimitri Levitsky, the outstanding court painter of the period. So enamored was Catherine of her likeness in this portrait that she requested Levitsky to himself paint ten identical pieces. The portrait of Catherine with this article was painted by Levitsky in 1786 according to annonations on the canvas, claimed by experts to be those of the author. This version said have passed from private ownership, maybe even that of the Stroganoff’s, to the Alexander III museum in the Siberian town of Ufa, reached the west during the decades when Stalin sold off abroad countless treasures that included part of the Romanov crown jewels and masterpieces of art, among which a score of Rembrand’s This version of Catherine’s portrait was aquired at auction by a Russian princess whose family had emigrated at the time of the 1917 revolution.
The Stroganoff family has its origins in the fourteenth century, when they were based in the city of Novgarod. The family first entered Russian history in 1445, when Luka Kuzmich Stroganoff, paid the ransom for Prince Vassily the Dark, who had been blinded by enemies, and kept hostage by the Tatars. Later moving to Solvychegodsk, the family enlarged their trading and land possessions, with the extraction of salt, an essential and precious commodity of the time.

After the move of the family to Solvychegodsk, the Stroganoffs adventurous spirit was to be rewarded tenfold. The settlement of Solvychegodsk was in the foothills of mountains rich in salt, iron ore, gold and semi-precious stones. The forests were also rich in old timber – much needed for building the new settlements of the Stroganoff family.
In the reign of Ivan IV (the Terrible), the Tsar set about conquering the myriad of Princely states which surrounded him, and finally Novgorod fell, as well as the Northern and Eastern States. Realizing that it would be to their advantage to become desirable to Ivan, the Stroganoffs funded expeditions over the Urals, which brought back the news that the far side of the mountains was as rich as the west.
The Stroganoff family, in the person of Anika Feodorovich (1488-1470) travelled to Moscow, and in a courageous demand, asked the Tsar to confirm their possession of the conquered Ural lands. In exchange for this priviledge, the Stroganoffs agreed to assemble armies to subdue indigenous peoples found there, plant crops, create cities and churches, and promote the Russian civilization and culture. Above all, the Stroganoffs would continue providing salt, gold, semi-precious and precious stones, furs, and river-pearls to the court of the Tsars in Moscow.
Ivan IV created a special commission to investigate the claims of the Stroganoffs, and finally, on April 4, 1558, a charter was granted to Anika’s son Grigory Anikovitch, and accorded the Stroganoff family 3,415,000 dessiatin of land – equal today to about 8.5 million acres.The family was exempt from taxation for twenty years (to encourage settlement) and was permitted to smelt iron ore, search for new lands, and look for lead and combustible sulphur. If silver, gold, copper, or tin were discovered, however, the Treasury in Moscow must be informed. Further grants were issued, and by 1580, the Stroganoffs controlled Siberia.
In the Seventeenth century, the Stroganoff holdings had finally become firm throughout Siberia, and the English Ambassador in Moscow recorded that the entire Perm province was under their control, and that in fact, they held a personal estate of 40,000 square miles: an inhabited area about the size of the American state of Virginia. Peter the Great’s northern campaigns against Sweden were financed entirely by the Stroganoff family. After the Battle of Schlussellberg, Peter gained control of the area where Saint Petersburg was to rise on the banks of the Neva. For their contribution to the state, Grigori Dimitrievitch Stroganoff was granted the title of Baron by the grateful monarch.
The Eighteenth century and the reign of Catherine the Great was to prove to be the most outstanding period for the Stroganoff family. By now partly attached to the court, the Stroganoffs became highly visilble by hiring the imperial architect, the Italian Rastrelli, to build the Stronanoff Palace on the Nevsky Prospect at the Moika Canal, where it still stands in all its glory until this very day. In a time when philanthropy by the very rich was a rarety, the family were also much respected for their vast contributions to fund numerous hospitals, churches, schools and hospices for the impoverished.
Born in 1733, the most celebrated of the Stroganoffs was Alexander Sergeievich who would change the face of the family. Highly educated, Alexander Sergeievich had travelled extensively. His classic al education included physical sciences, geology and metallurgy, which would prove useful in managing the mining concerns in the Urals. He was made a Count in 1761 by Catherine II who included him among her most appreciated advisors.
However, according the documents of the period, the most important facet of Count Stroganoffs character was his love of art and architecture.The palace on the Moika was partly redesigned in the neoclassic style, and the family was inolved in the design and construction of the Kazan Cathedral on the Nevsky Prospect.
Alexander Sergeievich was named president of the St.Petersburg Academy of Art. He was instrumental in attracting the greatest artists of the rime to the Academy, and elected Louise-Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, former portraitist to the Court of Versailles, as a member. The family also founded the Stroganoff Institute of Applied Arts, the first private academy of art in Russia in 1825. Opened in Moscow, the Institute would grow in size and scale over the nineteenth century, completely funded by the family.It even survived the Revolution of 1917, and is today known as the Higher Art and Industry University of Count S.G.Stroganoff.
Only one direct descendant on the female line is alive to tell the tale. Helene de Ludinghausen is the director of the Stroganoff Foundation, and it is her mission to ensure that neither the family nor its accomplishments be forgotten in Russia. It should impossible to ignore a family that created so much that influenced the past and even the future of the great country of Russia.

London
The author acknowledges the valuable contribution of the Stroganoff Foundation in supply material for this article.