Statute on the Imperial Family

(Uchrezhdenie ob Imperatorskoi Familii), the name given to the laws of Apr. 5, 1797, and July 2, 1886, that fixed the rights and responsibilities of members of the imperial family.

The Statute of 1797 defined the makeup of the imperial family and the order of succession. It also regulated the size of the family members’ allowances and determined the titles and coats of arms the members were to bear. In addition, the statute dealt with such matters as marriage and inheritance and created a special department—the Department of Appanages—to administer the lands and peasants belonging to the imperial family. The statute defined the imperial family to include children, brothers, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of the emperor. These members of the family were given the title grand duke or grand duchess. They were to be addressed as imperatorskoe vysochestvo (imperial highness). The heir to the throne also received the title tsesarevich (crown prince), more commonly rendered in English as tsarevich.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the imperial family consisted only of the nine children of Paul I. By 1885, however, the imperial family had grown so large that there were 24 grand dukes. As a result, the Statute of 1886 was introduced to modify the Statute of 1797. Membership in the imperial family was redefined and allowances were altered accordingly. Great-grandchildren of an emperor, their eldest sons, and the eldest sons’ descendants in the male line were reduced to the title prince or princess of the blood imperial and were given the form of address vysochestvo (highness). The younger children of an emperor’s great-grandchildren and their descendants in the male line were also to be called prince or princess of the blood imperial but were to be addressed with the form svetlost’ (serenity).