Borzoi History

The last Tsar, Nicholas II, was a first cousin once removed of Grand Duke Nikolai (known as Nikolasha), who owned and hunted from the Pershino Estate. Nicholas II's grandfather, Tsar Alexander II, was the brother of Grand Duke Nikolai's father. The simplified family tree below shows the relationship which is sometimes mistakenly referred to as one of nephew/(great)/uncle. Grand Duke Nikolai and his brother Grand Duke Peter married the Montenegro sisters Princess Anastasia and Princess Milica. There were no children from the marriage of Grand Duke Nikolai. I am publishing this article in The [...]

Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich Romanoff was born in St. Petersburg on November 27, 1856. Member of the Imperial family, he is the son of the Grand Duke Nicolai Nicolayevich (born in 1831), and the nephew of Alexander II (the liberating Tsar who abolished serfdom in 1861). He is also related to the last Tsar of Russia, a great-uncle of Nicholas II, (1868-1918). He is familiar to the Borzoi world for his breeding, the famous "Perchino" kennel. But hunting and breeding were for him mere a hobby. A man of very tall stature (1 m 98), intelligent, but known to be quite nervous, even choleric, he [...]

Very little distinguishes a borzoi from the year 1900 from a borzoi in the year 2000. When we look at other breeds we will almost always see alarming differences. Why is the borzoi so consistent in type over such a long period of time? We owe this consistency and the high level of soundness to the Perchino hunt of Grand Duke Nicholas, Dimitri Walzoff and a small number of hunter/breeders surrounding Perchino. In the short period from about 1870 to 1915, by breeding a large number of borzois in all colors, including black each year and through scrupulous selection of only the fittest, they [...]

Peter Feodrovich Durassov (1835 – 1894), was a famous borzoi breeder in Russia. He was the son of Senator F. Durassov, in 1884 Equerry (Chief of stables) at the highest court, a wealthy nobleman - he owned 38 000 ha of land in six governments, factories and two houses in the Royal Village, Tsarskoje Selo. Russian name: Ца́рское Село́, "Tsar's Village" was the town containing the former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located 24 kilometers,15 miles south from the center of Saint Petersburg.[1] It is now part of the town of Pushkin. In 1873, Peter Fedorovich was [...]

Excerpts from a story “Small memories of a borziatnik” by V.F. Péléchevski, published in the “Hunting Magazine” in January 1876. The name and first name of the General cited in the story are not specified, but it is almost certainly that of the famous Borzoi breeder, General Alexander Vasilievich Jikharev (1790-1881) (Zhikharev) who lived in the village of Krasnoselie, in the Tambov region. "In the region where the author of these memoirs lived, there also lived a hunter, a veteran of the old fashioned hunt: General J.A.V.(1). This distinguished gentleman had reached the age of 68 years, which [...]

Prior to our visit to the village of Pershino in 1992 I was given books and magazines in Moscow as mementos of our historic trip to Russia. I am publishing these articles in The Borzoi Encyclopedia to encourage better understanding of the function of the Borzoi and its development as a breed. They are for all to enjoy reading but no part of my contributions to The Borzoi Encyclopedia may be copied, downloaded, printed or used in any way without my prior express written consent. This article is based on the compilations of Boris Markov, a very talented man and well respected Russian huntsman [...]

An early name for the Borzoi in the UK was "Siberian Wolfhound" with the word "Borzoi" appearing later in the 19th Century. This much travelled lithograph showing the Siberian Wolfhound (Borzoi) in the Greyhound family was originally drawn and published in "Der Hund und seine Racen" by Leopold Joseph Franz Johann Fitzinger (1802-1884) in Germany in 1876. Subsequently it was published in UK dog books five years later. I purchased this copy in Sydney, Australia during a visit in 1996 and brought it back to the UK. This lithograph of Siberian Wolfhounds was included in The Book of The Dog by Vero [...]

Canadian database first version. Where dogs names were gained from published show results, the year refers to the first date the dog was shown. It is not a year of birth. For puppies, a guess was made for a birth date in the year before or sometimes in the year the dog was shown. In this database it was helpful to add the town or state for unknown dogs to give them a location in the vast country of Canada. Generally the areas are east coast around Toronto, Ottawa etc then the major area in the middle of the country with the states of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Several breeders in the [...]

Catherine Estes has given us this beautiful article about one of the most famous and skilled painters of hunting scenes in the old Russia. Born to a modest German shopkeeper and his wife in Berlin, Rudolf Fedorovich Frenz entered this world on October 2, 1831, and graduated from the Berlin Academy of Arts either in 1854 or 1859. Between 1869/1870, he moved to Russia, where his depiction of grand hunting scenes and animal paintings would begin. His affiliation with members of the Royal Family and the upper echelon enabled him to accompany them on travels and hunting expeditions, and committing [...]

Historic research by Margaret Davis! Revision of the early American Borzoi history! The American system of partial registration leaves so much of the early history out of the studbooks, Here are chronological lists for 4 of the earliest foundation breeders in America and Canada (Terra Cotta). This information is collected from official AKC catalogues as well as studbooks and Gazette or newspaper articles to give the big picture. By comparing all four breeders, it was possible to amend or update litter information and other exchanges of dogs between them. A big jigsaw puzzle but some more [...]