Borzoi History

Compiled by Margaret Davis for the years 1804 - 1891 One of the borzoi pioneers in the UK was Lady Emily Peel. She imported her first dogs directly from the Tzars kennels at Gatchina! 1804 Borzoi owned by 5th Earl of Sandwich sketched by H B Chalon 1832 Fawn colour Russian greyhound at the Zoological Gardens 1842 Two black/tans from Duke de Nemours in France to Prince Albert (parents were imported from Gatchina in Russia) 1846 Pair from Imperial Hunt Gatchina to Queen Victoria 1853 Pair from Imperial Hunt Gatchina to Queen Victoria. The bitch was used in Deerhound lines. 1856 Pair from [...]

This story was written by Elena Badikova and published in the newspaper "Atkarsk News" Olga Zilberman published it and Andrus Kozlov commented on the article: "About Nikolai Mikhailovich Karakozovs dogs (1809-1866) and about the Borzoi Kosmach written in the book by L. Sabaneeva - so this is not a journalists fiction". Link to the book of L. Sabaneeva Aristocratic dogs Many people remember the scene of a hound hunt from the film "Peculiarities of the nationality of the hunt" Under the sounds of a hunting horn, a pack of elegant greyhounds drives a wolf through the snow, a hunter in a red [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]