Khilkoff

Khilkoff is a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. The descendant of the Great Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Christianizer of Russia, Prince Ivan Vsevolodovich, received from his brother, the Great Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, the appanage of Starodub, and this originated the Princes of Starodub; those who later had the Ryapolovskaya volost took the name Prince Ryapolovsky In the sixteenth century, for an unknown reason, the Ryapolovskys changed their name: the older branch to Khilkoff, and the younger to Tatev.

The founder of the Khilkoffs was the great-grandson of Prince Ivan Andreyevich Ryapolovsky (Nagavitsa), Prince Ivan Fyodorovich Khilok. The Khilkoffs have played a notable part in Russian history. Under Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich there were 16 noble families whose members rose straight to the rank of boyar, missing out that of okolnichiy; the Princes Khilkoff were among that number.

Hereditary Commanders of the Knights Hospitaller

The Khilkoffs are Hereditary Commanders of the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller. Those favoured by Paul I of Russia, had been given beneficed Commanderies, and others were encouraged to use their wealth to create their own Commanderies; it is these which were known as Family or Ancestral Commanderies. Ancestral Commanderies during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I of Russia were:

1. Narychkine, 2. Count Chéréméteff, 3. Prince Youssoupoff †, 4. Stroganov †, 5. Count Samoiloif ‡, 6. Prince Belosselsky, 7. Prince Dolgoroukov, 8. Davydov, 9. Prince Barytinsky, 10. Démidoff, 11. Prince Troubetzkoy, 12. Count Worontzoff, 13. Maruzzi †, 14. Beklechev †, 15. Prince Tioufiakine †, 16. Count Olsoufieff, 17. Gerebtzoff, 18. Count Strogonoff †, 19. Boutourline, 20. Potemkine †, 21. Tchirikoff †, 22. Prince Khilkoff ‡, 23. Prince Odoevsky †, 24 Prince Youssoupoff †.

Key. † Direct Male line from the first Commander extinct. ‡ Direct Male line is extinct, but the family was reinstated via the female line by the Imperium.

Notable figures

Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkoff (1837-1909) Minister of Communications

Minister of Communications and Ways (1834-1909), responsible for the building of the Trans Siberian railway; on graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1853, he served in the Regiment of Chasseurs until 1857. In 1860 K undertook a 2-year long voyage to Europe and America; on his return to Russia he served as a judicial arbitrator, and 2 years later he again went to America.

In 1880. General Annenkov appointed K head of the construction of the Kizil-Arvat branch railway but in early 1882 at the invitation of the Bulgarian Government, he became their Minister of social Works, Trade and Agriculture, and contributed significantly to the country's economic progress. In 1885 K returned to Russia and again worked on the Transcaspian railway, in 1892 he was appointed by the Government as Director of the Privishyanskaya railway, and was later in charge of the Samora-Zlatoust, Orenburg, Oryol-Gryazi and Liverskaya Railways; in 1894 he was Chief Railway Inspector. Councillor of State Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Khilkov was appointed Director of the Ministry of Communications by imperial decree on 4 January 1895, and on 2 April of the same year was confirmed as Minister of Communications.