Rumyantsev Family

Categories / Capital/Personalia
RUMYANTSEV FAMILY, a noble family (from 1743 a family of Counts), known since the late 14th century. Those most closely associated with St. Petersburg include Peter Alexandrovich Rumyantsev (1725-1796), Count (1743) and Field Marshal General (1775), who was granted the honorary title Zadunaysky (Trans-Danubian) in 1775 for excellence in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74. His name was also given to a square (present-day Rumyantsevsky Garden), where the Rumyantsev Obelisk was erected. A sculpture of Rumyantsev forms a part of the pedestal of the monument to Catherine II. Another Rumyantsev (Kagulsky) Obelisk was erected in Tsarskoe Selo (architect A. Rinaldi). His son was Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev (1754, St. Petersburg -1826), State Chancellor (1809), Chief House Master(1796), Senator (1796), Member of the Standing Assembly (1801-09), Minister of Commerce (1802-10), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1808-14, Ministry Administrator since 1807), Chairman of the State Assembly and the Committee of Ministers (1810-12). He was also a bibliophile, numismatist, and collector of manuscripts and ethnographic sources. In 1802, he bought a house at 44 Angliiskaya Embankment (see Rumyantsev house), which became one of the centres of St. Petersburg cultural and scientific life. A circle of historians (both professional and amateur) gathered around Rumyantsev; they organized a number of scientific expeditions and published the collected data at Rumyantsev's own expense. His brother was Sergey Petrovich Rumyantsev (1755-1838), Full Privy Councillor (1798), Honorary Fellow of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1810), and Fellow of the Russian Academy (1828). His posts included membership in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs (1796-97), Presidency of the State Subsidiary Bank for the Nobility (1797-1800), Minister of Imperial Lands (1798-1800), Member of the Council to the Supreme Court (1800-08), and Member of the Senate (1801) and the Standing Assembly (1802). Sergey Rumyantsev initiated the Decree of Free Plowmen (1803). In 1828, he granted the house on Angliiskaya Embankment, which he inherited from his brother (including the library and all the collections), to the State Treasury, along with his own house on Galernaya Street, which was adjacent to his brother's. In 1831, the Rumyantsev's Museum was opened in these buildings.

References: Николай Петрович Румянцев: Жизнь и деятельность (1754-1826): Библиогр. указ. кн., ст. из сб., журн., газ. на рус. яз. М., 2001; Фельдмаршал Румянцев: Документы. Письма. Воспоминания / Сост. А. П. Капитонов. М., 2001; Соловьева Т. А. Румянцевский особняк в Санкт-Петербурге. СПб., 2002; Сараскина Л. И. Граф Н. П. Румянцев и его время. М., 2003.

M. O. Meltsin. Catherine II, Empress
Rinaldi Antonio
Rumyantsev Nikolay Petrovich, Count
Rumyantsev Peter Alexandrovich, Count
Rumyantsev Sergey Petrovich
the Rumyantsevs
Angliiskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 44
Galernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Фельдмаршал Румянцев: Документы. Письма. Воспоминания / Сост. А. П. Капитонов. М., 2001
Николай Петрович Румянцев: Жизнь и деятельность (1754-1826): Биобиблиогр. указ. кн., ст. из сб., журн., газ. на рус. яз. М., 2001
Н. П. Румянцев и славянская культура. М., 2000
Соловьева Т. А. Румянцевский особняк в Санкт-Петербурге. СПб., 2002 Rumyantsevsky Obelisk
State Assembly
Russian Academy of Sciences
Rumyantsev Museum