The Russian nobility (Russian: Дворянство Dvoryanstvo) arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.
The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo (дворянство), derives from the Russian word dvor (двор), meaning the Court of a prince or duke (kniaz) and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin (pl. dvoryane). As in other countries, nobility was a status, a social category, but not a title.
Read more about Russian Nobility: Categories, History, Acquisition of Nobility, Privileges of The Nobility, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words russian and/or nobility:
““I suppose with the French Revolution for a father and the Russian Revolution for a mother, you can very well dispense with a family,” he observed.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“The ideal of brotherhood of man, the building of the Just City, is one that cannot be discarded without lifelong feelings of disappointment and loss. But, if we are to live in the real world, discard it we must. Its very nobility makes the results of its breakdown doubly horrifying, and it breaks down, as it always will, not by some external agency but because it cannot work.”
—Kingsley Amis (1922–1995)