Dvorianstvo / Gentry
The term dvorianstvo is sometimes translated as "gentry," but often historically such a translation is simply incorrect. At other times, such as between the years 1667 and 1700, and again after 1762 (or 1785) until 1917, "gentry" is misleading but not totally wrong. The Russian nobility (dvorianstvo) had neither the same origin nor the same traditions as what is called by that name in Western Europe.
The dvorianstvo - the hereditary cultured class, a Russian writer with aristocratic tendencies defined it - was an institution special to Russia, unknown to Europe, unique of its kind. Two things especially were distinctive of it: in the first place it never was anything but a tool of the ruling power, being literally nothing but the men in the service of the state united into a body ; in the second place it was always open to all and, being continually renovated by influx from below, it has been preserved from any tendency towards exclusiveness, all caste spirit.
Thus the Russian nobility is admitted by its most serious panegyrists to have no counterpart in Western Europe ; some even would fain say no antecedent in history. It was only when they look at their country through foreign glasses and allow themselves to be taken in by an entirely external likeness, that certain Russians forget their national traditions over their European training and give themselves airs as English lords or German Herren.
To render the term dvorianstvo by those of noblesse, adel, nobility, it is only from lack of equivalents in the languages as well as in the institutions of the West. The term which designated officially the highest class in the state at the same time told the story of its origin. The Russian word dvoriaisn means "a man of the court" and might be translated "courtier" had not this word taken an entirely different sense. Dvorianin, plural dvorianie, from dvor, "court," also "yard," with all the meanings attaching to these words and a few more besides. Thus it is dvornik, "porter, janitor," and dvoravyit, the "household serfs," are words derived from the same radical as that designating the national nobility.
It appears that originally the dvorianin was an officer or dignitary of the Moscovite court, more or less analogous to the chamberlains of Western Europe. Later on, this term was extended to all who were in the personal service of the sovereign or, what amounted to the same, of the state. The dvorianstvo kept, through history, the stamp of its origin ; it was a court nobility, a serving nobility, which, can be acquired by the tchin, i.e., a given grade or rank in the army or administration.
The dvorianstvo had nothing, either in name or form, or in the country's memory, to keep it permanently distinct from the mass of the nation. The bulk of nobles were not set apart by any external sign, there is nothing to proclaim their quality, they have no title to show but an inscription in the registers of their province. Many Russians, when abroad, added to their names the French prefix de or the German von. There was nothing of the sort in their own language. Russian names often took the form of a genitive, or rather a nominal adjective : Davydof from David, Semidnof from Semion (Simon) ; but far from belonging specially to the nobility, such names were met with among the priests, the merchants, the peasantry. If there is any kind of distinction in this matter, it lay not in the family names, but in the desinence "vitch" (feminine, vna), which the Russians added to their father's given name, which they then used as a patronymic : Alexander Petrovitch, Alexandra Petrovna. In old-time Moscovia this now almost universal desinence was used only by persons of some standing. Only one merchant family, which formed in itself a sort of privileged class, the Stragonofs (later counts), were entitled to it. The desinence "of" instead of "vitch" is used in this way for the lower classes: Ivan Petrof, Alexis Ivonof. This is probably the origin of the many names in of.
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