Zakharin

Zakhar’in

 

old Moscow boyar family. The family’s progenitor was Zakharii Ivanovich Koshkin, a boyar of Grand Prince Vasilii Temnyi and the grandson of Fedor Koshka, a boyar of Dmitrii Donskoi. The two main branches of the family arose from Zakharii’s sons, Iurii and lakov (boyars under Ivan III)—the Zakhar’in-Iur’evs and the Zakhar’inlakovlias. The power and status of the Zakhar’in family rose considerably after 1547, as a result of the marriage of Ivan IV to Anastasia Romanovna Zakhar’ina-Iur’eva.

The more outstanding members of the family included Mikhail Iur’evich (died 1539), a military commander and diplomat, who was in charge of relations with Poland-Lithuania. In 1533–34 he was one of the group of boyars ruling the Russian state.

Vasilii Mikhailovich (died 1567) became one of the members of the Privy Duma in 1553 and was one of the initiators of the oprichnina, in which his son Protasii served.

Daniil Romanovich (died 1564), brother of tsaritsa Anastasia Romanovna, was also a member of the Privy Duma.

During the boyar “revolt” of 1553, the Zakhar’in party was led by Nikita Romanovich (died 1586), a brother of Daniil and Anastasia, later a member of the regency council in the early part of the reign of Fedor Ivanovich. He was also the founder of the Romanov family, to which the later tsars and emperors of Russia belonged.

REFERENCES

Smirnov, I. I.Ochcrki politichexkoi istorii Russkogo gosndarstva 30–50-kh gg. XVI v. Moscow-Leningrad, 1958.
Veselovskii. S. B.Isslcdoviiniia po istorii klassa sluzhilykh zemlcvladel’txev. Moscow, 1969.
Zimin, A. A.Reformy Ivana Groznogo. Moscow, 1960.
Zimin, A. A.Oprichnina Ivana Groznogo. Moscow, 1964.

V. B. KOBRIN