Genealogical tree of the Russian President traced to the 18th century

It was the idea of President Vladimir Putin himself to study his genealogical tree. The study was carried out by archive workers of the city of Tver. They went only to the middle of the 18th century, because there are no documents connected with earlier periods of history. There are older documents only in Moscow, in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Statement. Therefore, Vladimir Mogilnikov, a genealogist with 15 years of experience who studies the President family tree, had to work there.

Melnikov searched for the roots of the Putins in documents completed after population censuses. In Russia, 10 censuses, or revisions, were carried out. The first took place in 1719, while the last too place in 1858.

In the Moscow Archive, the documents of the first three revisions – from 1719 to 1764 – are kept safe. There are also scribe books, which are also well preserved. These were the documents with which the genealogist had to do for almost half a year.

The land where Putin’s ancestors lived belonged to Ivan Nikitich Romanov, the uncle of the first Russian tsar. The settlement was called Borodino.

The Putin family starts with landless peasant Yakim Nikitin. Family trees of serf peasants are closely connected with family histories of their masters. In this sense, the Putins were lucky. The president's ancestors belonged to the relatives of the first Russian tsars – the Romanovs. Since the first half of 17th century, the Tver settlement of Torginovo belonged to Boyard Ivan Romanov, the uncle of the first Russian tsar Mikhail Romanov. Namely in this settlement, Yakim Nikitin lived. From where Yakim came is unknown.

In the early 17th century, the city of Tver, like many other Russian cities, was brought to ruin. The scribe book on the Tver region reports that, in 1615, all settlements were burned by theLithuanians and Cossacks, while the peasants were beaten and fled. In the settlement Torginovo, there were only five homesteads, while the village Borodino is not mentioned at all.

After Boris Godunov and pseudo-Dmytry, in 1613, Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar, so Nikita Romanov was the closest relative of the tsar.

The ext owner of the settlement Turgino with other villages was Ivan Romanov’s son, Nikita Romanov. In his barn in the settlement of Izmailovo, near Moscow, the future emperor Peter the Great found an English boat, the find which symbolized the creation of the Russian Fleet.

After Nikita Romanov died without children, the settlement was handed over to the tsar palace. In the census of 1677, the children of Yakim Nikitin are mentioned: peasants Faddei, Frol, and Tit.

In the Peter's time, the settlement Turgino was handed over to Peter’s relative, Count Andrei Apraxin, and later to his son, Fyodor Apraxin (1703-1754), who married countess Alexandra Sheremeteva. One of their five sons, Matvei Apraxin, became the owner of the settlement Turgino and the village Borodino. At this time, Putin’s ancestor, Semen Fyodorov, was resettled to the village of Pominovo, while his grandfather and father died in the village of Borodino.

The further history of the Putins was studied according to the documents of Tver State Archive and described by Oleg Blotsky in his book Valdimir Putin. History of Life.

Thirteen generations of the history of a peasant family is a good result, taking into account the gradation: four generations of century. It is too difficult to study a peasant family with more details. It is possible only in the north, where there were free peasants and no wars.

And now the youngest shoots of the Putins family tree: Vladimir Putin, born October 7, 1952 in Leningrad; his father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin; his mother, Maria Ivanovna; his wife, Lyudmila; and his daughters, Maria (17 years old) and Yekaterina (16 years old).

While roots dating back to ancient times seem to be lost for ever. The village of Borodino (later Bordino) is now a country settlement, whose inhabitants hardly remember longer than last year.

Yelena Kiseleva PRAVDA.Ru

Photograph: Young Vladimir Putin with his mother

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/19/44424.html