The House of Golitsyn is the second largest and noblest Princely house in Russia. Among its members were warlords, landlords, Knyaz, knights, diplomats, Prime Ministers, admirals, stewards, State Counsellors and statesmen. The Galitzines claim their seniority in the Lithuanian dynasty of Gediminas (the Gediminids) which has existed since the 13th century. Descendants of this family in Europe and the west write their name in the form Galitzine. The family is among the first Russian aristocratic dynasties and its members bear the honorific predicate His Serene Highness. The family produced many well-known statesmen and figures of the Russian Empire, among them notably Vasily, Boris, Dmitry and Nikolai Golitsyn, the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire. Numerous pieces of art or geographic locations were named after the family, such as the Galitzin Triptych created by Pietro Perugino in 1485 or the Galitzine Quartet No. 12 commissioned by Nikolai Galitzin and delivered by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1825, the Golitsyn craters A and B on the far side of the Moon, the Gallitzinberg, in Vienna, the Gallitzin borough in Pennsylvania, the Gallitzin Tunnel and Gallitzin State Forest, the Golitsyn Hospital in Moscow and various places, localities and municipalities in Russia.

Origins

According to legend, the family descends from Lithuanian prince Jurgis (George), son of Patrikas and grandson of Narimantas and thus a great-grandson of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. After the extinction of the Korecki family in the 17th century, the Golitsyns claimed dynastic seniority in the House of Gediminas. Prince George immigrated to the court of Vasily I of Moscow and married Vasily's sister. His children and grandchildren, among them Vassian Patrikeyev, were considered premier Russian boyars. One of them, Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Bulgark (The Bulgarian), earned the nickname Golitsa (glove, geležìs in Old Lithuanian) for an iron (or strong leather) glove he wore in the Battle of Orsha in 1514. His son Yuri Mikhailovich Bulgakov continued with the family line Golytsin and his great-grandson Prince Vasily Golitsyn was claimant to the Russian throne during the Time of Troubles and went as an ambassador to Poland to offer the Russian crown to Prince Władysław; he died in prison.

Notable Golitsyns

Prince (knyaz) Andrey Andreyevich Golitsyn, governor of Siberia (1633–1635), was the ancestor of all existing princes Golitsyns. He had four sons, from whom four branches of the Golitsyn family descended: By the 18th century, the family was divided into four major branches. One branch died out while the other three and their subdivisions contained about 1,100 members.

Branch Vasilyevich

Branch Alexeevich

Branch Mikhailovich

19th century

20th century

The Bolsheviks arrested dozens of Golitsyns only to be shot or killed in the Gulag; dozens disappeared in the storm of the revolution and the Russian Civil War, and their fate remained unknown.