Colonel V. A. Pashkov and the Late Nineteenth-Century Protestant Movement in Russia, Jan M. Surer, 1999

ve social life were the typical pursuits in that elevated segment of Russian society. And it was among this cosmopolitan elite that Lord Radstock's message received a welcome and produced such a notable and surprising response. The Early Pashkovites The most prominent of Lord Radstock's converts was Vasily Alexandrovich Pashkov (1831-1902). He came from a family of that rank of nobility known as "ancient”, which meant that the Pashkovs had been elevated to the nobility before 1685. 1 Thus, in the words of his fellow Radstockist, Count Korf, he was "a real Bojarin." 2 He became a page to the emperor in 1849, presumably after attendance at the exclusive boys' school, the Corps des Pages. He then served in the elite Chevaliers Gardes and attained the rank of Colonel, retiring in 1858. 3 He x D. Lieven, Russia's Rulers under the Old Regime . Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1989, p. 324, n. 89. 2 Heier, p. 109. 3 N. Ikonnikov, La Noblesse de Russie . second edition, Paris, 1958-1966, vol. L.2, pp. 502-03. Five members of the Pashkov family had served in the Chevaliers Gardes between 1829 and 1908. See D. Lieven, Russia's Rulers . p. 3 25, n. 90. Several of the 24 25 was close to the Imperial court; Pollock and Heier describe Alexander II as Pashkov's "personal friend." 4 . By all accounts he was an extremely wealthy man. His two St. Petersburg homes, the site of many of the surprisingly egalitarian meetings of the Radstockists, were among the city's finest. Mrs. Trotter, writing in 1914, describes one as the French embassy at the time of her writing. 5 Heier notes the Pashkov palace's great size, almost that of the Tsar's own palace, and its location on the banks of the Neva. The Pashkov family holdings included copper mines in the Urals and lands in the provinces of Novgorod, Moscow, Tambov, and Orenburg. 6 Count Modest Modestovich Korf (1842-1931), Pashkov's partner in many of the movement's undertakings, was a descendant of a sixteenth-century Westphalian family which, with its three branches, was one of the most numerous of the Baltic region. He became Master of Ceremonies at court, a Guards regiments were "elite" in the sense that aristocratic connections were a prerequisite for admission and aristocratic incomes a necessity for meeting the expenses of being a Guards officer. Such expenses included several elegant uniforms, gambling debts, and the general costs of the high society life they were expected to lead. See P. de Gmeline, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse Russe, Editions Contrepoint, Paris, 1978, pp. 920-926. 4 Heier, p. 131. See also Pollock, p. 65. 5 Trotter, p. 192. 6 On Pashkov's homes and lands, see Heier, pp. 43; 109. A. M. Anfimov lists the possessions of almost 150 of the largest landowners in Russia at the turn of the century. V. A. Pashkov owned thirteen different estates in nine districts with an area of over 400,000 desiatines. Approximately one