Russian nobility

Uncommon card · No. 115095

The Russian nobility or dvoryanstvo (Russian: дворянство) arose in the Middle Ages. In 1914, it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members, out of a total population of 138,200,000 (1.38% of the population). Up until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian noble estates staffed most of the Russian government and possessed a self-governing body, the Assembly of the Nobility. The Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo derives from Slavonic dvor (двор), meaning the court of a prince or duke (knyaz), and later, of the tsar or emperor. This sense of dvor originally referred to servants at the estate of an aristocrat. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the dvor hierarchy developed a system of seniority known as mestnichestvo. The word dvoryane ("those of the court", singular dvoryanin) described the highest rank of gentry, who performed duties at the royal court, lived in it (Moskovskie zhiltsy, "Moscow dwellers"), or were candidates to it, as for many boyar scions (dvorovye deti...

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