Basmanov Family

Basmanov Family 

a boyar family in Russia in the 15th through 17th centuries; major landowners.

Danila Andreevich Basman. Founder of the Basmanov family; died in captivity in Lithuania after 1514. He was the son of the boyar A. N. Pleshcheev.

Aleksei Danilovich Basmanov. The son of Danila Basman, he is first mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1542. He was a prominent military figure and statesman, who particularly distinguished himself in the Kazan campaigns, in the repulsion of the attack of Crimean Tatars, and in the Livo-nian War.

A. D. Basmanov became an okol’nichii (a noble ranking below the boyars) in 1552 and a boyar in 1555 or 1556. He was favored by Ivan IV, and was an instigator of the oprichnina. He participated in Russian-Lithuanian, Russian-Swedish, and Russian-Danish negotiations. According to the testimony of A. M. Kurbskii, he was killed around 1570 by his own son Fedor on the tsar’s order.

Fedor Alekseevich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1562, he was Ivan IV’s closest favorite during the years of the oprichnina. He became a boyar steward in 1567 and commander in chief of the oprichnina troops in the south in 1569. He died in exile around 1570. He was the father of Petr Fedorovich and Ivan Fedorovich Basmanov.

Petr Fedorovich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1590, he was one of the persons closest to Boris Godunov. He became an okol’nichii in 1599, and a boyar in April or May 1605. After the death of Godunov, Basmanov betrayed Godunov’s son at the battle of Kromy (May 7, 1605), and subsequently became one of the most trusted friends of the False Dmitrii I. He was killed on May 17, 1606, during the insurrection in Moscow.

Ivan Fedorovich Basmanov. First mentioned in the lists of the nobility in 1590, he was a prominent statesman and military figure, becoming an okol’nichii in 1602. In September 1603, he was killed while suppressing a peasant revolt led by Khlopko.

The male line of the Basmanovs ended with the deaths of Petr Fedorovich and Ivan Fedorovich.

REFERENCE

Zimin, A. A. Oprichnina Ivana Groznogo. Moscow, 1964.

V. D. NAZAROV