Belosselsky-Belozersky family
The Belosselsky-Belozersky princely and Rurikid family is an aristocratic Russian family that descends in a direct male line from the Earliest Kievan Rus rulers and later of the medieval sovereigns of the Principality of Beloozero.
Origins
The family of Belosselsky-Belozersky claims the descendance directly from the first Russian Princes, from the "Kiev Rus" period and specifically from Prince Rurik, who created their seat in Kiev around the years 870–890. The family traces its patrimonic, father-to-son roots throughout the ruling houses of Russia until the mid 16th century, to Yuri Dolgoruky and his grandsons who were grand-dukes/princes of Kiev as well as of Vladimir-Suzdal principality. After the ascendance of Ivan Kalita and the Romanov dynasty, the family were rulers of the Belozersk principality, north of Moscow. Gleb Vassilkovich was the first Belozersky prince to rule there. While on one of the required annual visits to Sarai, the headquarters of the Golden Horde, to renew his patent received from the reigning Khan and ruler of the Golden Horde Sartak Khan, allowing thus Gleb to rule and tax his lands for another year. On this visit, Gleb married Feodora, Sartak's daughter . The family was relegated thereafter to a more minor ruling role over the lands of "Belo Selo" south of Belozersk when the Moscow principality led by Moscow Romanovs were slowly taking control over all the former semi-independent principalities of Russia. After a period of lesser prominence, but still providing military and political leaders, it became a major factor in support to Peter the Great's reforms, in building the Russian navy and providing diplomats and military leaders. In early 1800 Alexander Mikhailovich Belosselsky-Belozersky, due to his significant contributions to Russia in diplomacy, science and culture, was granted the right to bear the double princely name of Belosselsky-Belozersky from Emperor Paul I, in recognition of the Belosselsky branch being the single remaining such branch of the princes having ruled Belo Ozero and being of the Belozersky dynasty.On Krestovsky Island
The Belosselsky-Belozersky princes owned the island of Krestovsky after it was purchased by Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Belosselsky-Belozersky, then used mainly as a summer residence. Around 1885, they moved there from their Nevsky Prospect No. 41 "Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace", by the Fontanka canal and Anichkov Bridge, having sold their palace to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Two of the last Belosselsky-Belozersky Princes to reside on Krestovsky Island were the sons of Konstantin Esperovich, Sergei Konstantinovich and Esper Konstantinovich Belosselsky-Belozersky. The "Krestovsky" was their estate in St. Petersburg until the Russian Revolution in 1917 forced them to leave Russia and all their possessions behind, including the Krestovsky Island and their estate on it.on Nevsky Avenue in St. Petersburg
The two young Belosselsky-Belozersky Princes were successful sportsmen and promoters of equestrian and sailing sports. Sergei Konstantinovich was the second representative of Russia on the International Olympic Committee and worked closely with Baron de Coubertin. Sergei was invited to be a member of the Organizing committee of the Paris Olympics of 1900 and took part in the equestrian competitions. His younger brother, Esper Konstantinovich was an avid sailor who won a bronze medal for Russia in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
After the Russian Revolution (1917)
The Belosselsky-Belozersky/Belosselsky Belozersky family was forced to flee to the West during the 1917 revolution, leaving no one in Russia.Prince Konstantin and his wife Nadezhda Dimitrievna had three daughters and two sons. The Russian Revolution split the family and their lives apart.
Prince Konstantin Esperovich and Princess Nadezhda Dimitrievna fled to Vyborg in Finland during the late spring/summer of 1917. Eventually, as it became obvious that the events in Petrograd were not "temporary" and as the Finnish Civil War had commenced as well, between the Reds and the Whites, they gave up hope in returning to Petrograd and moved to London and then to Paris. They never returned to Russia.
Their daughter Princess Olga Orlova, her son Prince Nicholas Vladimirovich with his wife Princess Nadejda Petrovna of Russia and daughter Princess Irina Nicholayevna, fled via Crimea to France in the company of Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna on the British warship .
The second daughter, sister of Princess Olga Konstantinovna, Princess Elena Konstantinovna left with her husband Prince Victor Sergeievich Kotchoubey, their estate "Dikanka" in Ukraine for France and Paris. The youngest daughter, sister of Olga and Elena Konstantinovna, Princess Maria Konstantinovna ended up living in Brussels.
Of the two sons of Konstantin Esperovich and Nadezhda Dimitrievna, the older son Prince Sergei Konstantinovich, after a military career, including as a commanding officer of the Novorossiisk Dragoons, regiment of the Lancers of her Imperial Majesty, etc. fled with his family also to Vyborg at first and participated after this in the "White Movement" among other, as an advisor to General Yudenich, the commander of the Northwestern White Army and head of the Russian counter-revolutionary Northwestern "government", created with the help of Britain based at that time in Finland. In this capacity, he spent considerable time in 1918 in Finland as an envoy and liaison to General, later Marshal, Gustaf Mannerheim, a fellow-General and friend from the Russian Imperial Army who was the head of the White Army of Finland. Sergei Konstantinovich's attempts to persuade Mannerheim and the White Army of Finland to join the Yudenich army's attempt to take back Petrograd/St. Petersburg, failed. Later he performed for the White Russian monarchists as well as Finns duties and services as a special envoy for London. When the Northwest armies led by Rozhdianko and Yudenich failed in their attempt to capture Petrograd he moved permanently to England late 1919.
Prince Sergei Konstantinovich's older son Prince Sergei Sergeievich Belosselsky-Belozersky, fought with the Horse Guard in the WW I battles, returned to then Petrograd in 1918 and after having been arrested in Petrograd in mid-1918 by Red Guards and imprisoned in both the Peter and Paul Fortress and Kronstadt island naval base, but released on the orders of Moisei Uritsky fled to Finland at first, where he joined his father, grandfather and others of the Belosselsky-Belozersky family members. In the summer of 1919 he went to Tallinn to join the Northwest white army in the final attempts to defeat the Reds and capture Petrograd. When this failed, they managed to return to Finland in late 1919 and in early January 1920 to move to London and Paris before finally moving to the United States prior to WW II. Sergei Konstantinovich's younger, at this time eleven-year-old son Andrei Sergeievich had moved with his parents to London and Tonbridge. He died childless. Surviving family of this Sergei Konstantinovich branch are daughters of Sergei Sergeievich and their families; Princess Marina Sergeievna and Princess Tatiana Sergeievna . No direct male Belosselsky-Belozersky descendants remain in this "Sergeievich" branch of the family. However, in July 2012, the head of the current ruling Romanov family, HIH Maria Vladimirovna, as titular head of Russian Nobility, granted by decree the right to the eldest son of the elder daughter of Sergei Sergeievich Belosselsky-Belozersky, Peter Belosselsky-Blozersky Kasarda, the right to assume the name and title of his grandfather, along with all the heraldic and other rights of nobility tied to this.
The younger son of Prince Konstantin Esperovich Belosselsky-Belozersky, Prince Esper Konstantinovich, was an officer of the Baltic Fleet in the elite "Guarde-Marine" corps and had served as an officer on the imperial yachts "Alexandria" and the "Polar Star". During the violent first mutinies by the Baltic Fleet's sailors, based in Kronstadt island naval base outside of Petrograd, Esper Konstantinovich barely avoided capture -and likely murder- by the sailors. Together with his two young sons Georges Esperovich, Paul Esperovich, their mother Madeleine Jakovlena, née Moulin he fled to Finland at first, during the summer of 1917. Together with the rest of the extended family at that time in Finland, they awaited the developments until it was clear that there was little hope to return to Russia. They made their way to Paris and France in late 1919. Meanwhile, Esper Konstantinovich' oldest son Konstantin Esperovich, a freshly promoted ensign of the Horse Guards in October 1917, an 18-year-old officer, was with his Horse Guards detachment in Kiev where he was murdered on January 28, 1918 by a red guardist sailor who shot him in the back of the head in the streets of Kiev in connection with the first revolutionary and nationalistic waves of fighting in Kiev, where Russian imperial officers were targeted by all.
Modern descendants
Esper Konstantinovich Belosselsky-Belozersky moved to France, Paris, via Finland and is buried in the Batignolles cemetery in the Paris' 17th arrondissement. Of his three sons, two had male descendants.After the death of Esper Konstantinovich his sons Georges Esperovitch and Paul Esperovich moved to Finland in 1922 with their mother and stepfather, Her Majesty's Life Guard Cuirassiers Colonel Vitaly Vitalievich Tselebrovsky.
Upon arriving to Finland, they lived on the large Tselebrovsky estate by the name of "Sosnovka" in Kivennapa, on lake Suulajärvi in former Finnish Karelia. Georges Esperovich, returned to France in the mid-1930s and remained in France until his death in 2005. He had three sons, Patrick, Stephane and Michel Georgevich. Patrick and Stephane have sons Vincent Patrickevich and Antoine Stephanovich, respectively. Georges Esperovich's children, grandchildren and their families all live in France.
Paul Esperovich stayed in Finland throughout his life, being forced to leave the estate in Karelia in November 1939 as the Soviet Union attacked Finland. As most of Karelia, including the area of their estate, was lost to Soviet Union in WWII, Paul Esperovich along with his parents and personnel of the estate were evacuated to Hauho commune in Tavastland in Southern Central Finland. After having served as a volunteer in the Finnish Army, throughout the WWII he eventually moved to Helsinki, the capital, where he died in 2005. Paul Esperovich and Marjatta Leonardovna's only child, a son, Paul Pavlovich moved to the United States in the early 1970s and resides in the US and Finland. He in turn has a son Christian Pavlovich was born in 1977 and daughter Alison Pavlovna in 1979. Paul Pavlovich and his wife Jeanie Pavlovna reside in USA and Finland. Constantin Pavlovich, with his wife Antonina, daughters Alyona Ekaterina Pavlovna and son Aleksey Constantinovitch live in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. Alison Pavlovna and her husband Adam Lane, daughter Kayden and son Wyatt reside in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Current living Belosselsky-Belozersky direct male descendants are, in order of date of birth, Princes Paul Pavlovich, Patrick Georgevich , Stephane Georgevich, Michel Georgevich, Christian "Constantin" Pavlovich, Vincent Patrickevich, Antoine Stephanovich and Alexey Constantinovich. The living Belosselsky-Belozersky direct female descendants from the "Sergeyevich" branch are Princesses Marina Sergeievna and Tatiana Sergeievna from the "Esperovich" branch of Belosselsky-Belozersky are, Princesses Veronique Georgevna, Diane Georgevna, Alison Pavlovna, Melissa Michailovna, Severine Patrickovna, Melody Michailovna,Chloe Stephanovna, Margaux Patrickovna, Thérése Patrickovna Elisabeth Patrickovna Ekaterina Constantinovna.
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As of late 2017, the Rurikid Belosselsky-Belozersky Princes and Pricesses are eight direct male descendants and thirteen female descendants-; now in the 33rd generation of surviving Rurikids. The "Esperovich" branch and their offspring, are the only surviving direct uninterrupted male branch of the princely Belosselsky-Belozerskys today. The Peter Belosselsky-Belozersky Kazarda-branch has both sons and daughter.
In an official "UKAZE" announced in July, 2012, upon petition by Belosselsky-Belozersky Kazarda, the titular head of the Romanov Family, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, confirmed the princely rights of offspring of Prince Esper Konstantinovich Belosselsky-Belozersky and Madelaine Jakovlevna Moulin as well as issued new rights for the eldest son of Princess Marina Sergeievna Belosselsky-Belozersky to carry the title of Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky Kazarda. All the latter have the full rights to their Princely names, titles and heraldic insignia, according to the All-Russian Nobility Heraldic traditions.