Russian nobility in the context of "Gentry"

Catherine II (born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica, Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Романова; 2 May 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796), commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d'etat against her husband, Peter III. Her long reign helped Russia thrive under a golden age under the Enlightenment. This renaissance led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.

After overthrowing and possibly assassinating her husband and her subsequent rule of the Russian Empire, Catherine often relied on noble favourites such as Count Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Alexander Suvorov and Pyotr Rumyantsev and admirals such as Samuel Greig and Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the west, she installed her former lover to the throne of Poland, which was eventually partitioned. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was annexed following victories over the Bar Confederation and the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. With the support of Great Britain, Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the east, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.

A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Comparable to Dukes/Grand Dukes, Boyars were second only to the ruling princes, grand princes or tsars from the 10th to the 17th centuries.

Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (11 October [O.S. 30 September] 1739 – 16 October [O.S. 5 October] 1791) was a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman, and favourite of Catherine the Great. He died during negotiations over the Treaty of Iași, which ended a war with the Ottoman Empire that he had overseen.

Potemkin was born into a family of middle-income landowners of Russian nobility. He first attracted Catherine's favor for helping in her 1762 coup, then distinguished himself as a military commander in the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). He became Catherine's lover, favorite and possibly her consort. After their passion cooled, he remained her lifelong friend and favored statesman. Catherine obtained for him the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and gave him the title of Prince of the Russian Empire among many others: he was both a Grand Admiral and the head of all of Russia's land and irregular forces. Potemkin's achievements include the peaceful annexation of the Crimea (1783) and the successful second Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792), during which the armed forces under his command besieged Ochakov.

The Qajar dynasty (Persian: دودمان قاجار, romanized: Dudemâne Ǧâjâr) is a formerly aristocratic (and from 1789-1925, royal) Iranian dynasty that gained prominence with the rise of Shahverdi Qajar in the early 16th century as heads of the Turkoman Qajar tribe of the Qizilbash confederacy. The dynasty ruled Iran from 1789 until 1925, upon the Unification of Iran (1779–1796) by Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797).

The Russian branch of the Qajar dynasty belonged to the Russian Nobility and were given the titles Prince Persidskii and Princess Persidskaya by the Tsar in the 19th century, of which many members had held high functions in the Imperial Russian Army, such as Aleksander Reza Qoli Mirza Qajar.

Paul I (Russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич, romanized: Pavel I Petrovich; 1 October [O.S. 20 September] 1754 – 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1801) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801.

Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also imposed the first limitations on serfdom with the Manifesto of three-day corvee, sought to curtail the privileges of the nobility, pursued various military reforms which were highly unpopular among officers and was known for his unpredictable behavior, all of which contributed to the conspiracy that took his life.

Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Воронцов; 30 May [O.S. 19] 1782 – 18 November [O.S. 6] 1856) was a Russian nobleman and field marshal, renowned for his success in the Napoleonic Wars and most famous for his participation in the Caucasian War from 1844 to 1853.

The House of Romanov (also transliterated as Romanoff. Russian: Романовы, romanized: Romanovy, IPA: [rɐˈmanəvɨ]) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and his immediate family were executed in 1918, but there are still living descendants of other members of the imperial house.

The house consisted of boyars in Russia (the highest rank in the Russian nobility at the time) under the reigning Rurik dynasty, which became extinct upon the death of Feodor I in 1598. The Time of Troubles, caused by the resulting succession crisis, saw several pretenders and imposters lay claim to the Russian throne during the Polish-Lithuanian occupation. On 21 February 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Michael Romanov as tsar, establishing the Romanovs as Russia's second reigning dynasty.

Graf (German pronunciation: [ɡʁaːf] ; feminine: Gräfin [ˈɡʁɛːfɪn] ) is a historical title of the German nobility and later also of the Russian nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "countess").

The German nobility was gradually divided into high and low nobility. The high nobility included those counts who ruled immediate imperial territories of "princely size and importance" for which they had a seat and vote in the Imperial Diet.