> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The christening of Prince Dolgorukov's son and the will of his aunt, Baroness Stroganova
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/baronessa-natalia-mikhailovna-stroganova-izvestnaia-svoei-bogatoi-kollektsiei-knig-i-ogromnym-sostoianiem-poluchennym-ot-ee-supruga-nikolaia-ovdovela-v-sorok-let-i-ostalas-s-odnim-synom/
- Published: 2019-03-10T11:58:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:51:59.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Archive, Mores, People

Baroness Natalya Mikhailovna Stroganova, known for her rich collection of books and the vast fortune she received from her husband Nikolai, was widowed at forty and left with one son.

Her nephew, Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov, left a most amusing account of his relations with his aunt.

Chance joined the fates of Natalya Mikhailovna and Prince Dolgorukov beneath the canopy of divine providence. When the time came to christen Dolgorukov's firstborn, Ivan Mikhalych asked his perpetually melancholy aunt, together with his own mother and wife, to convey the infant to church in state, as the custom of the day required. Considering that the christening was to take place in a church which, though small, belonged to the court, the aunt agreed with delight.

"Who would not have dreamed of setting foot in a tsar's house?" Dolgorukov recalled. In the church the baroness was met by the heir to the throne, Pavel Petrovich, who was fond of Dolgorukov and favoured him with his attention; the future emperor appointed himself godfather on the spot and on this occasion asked the baroness to become his co-godparent.

Thus Stroganova became godmother to the younger Dolgorukov.

N.M. lived a long life, outliving by several years her forty-year-old son, who died of a grave illness. At her death the baroness left her godson one thousand roubles. Which wounded both the godson and his father to the heart.

Other nephews, in-laws and cousins received from Stroganova's colossal inheritance fifty and even a hundred thousand roubles each; sums just as generous went even to some outsiders, physicians and hangers-on.

Dolgorukov, however, did not number among the favourites, for he was neither successful nor famous, but a plain court councillor, and moreover rather reserved and unsociable. To the adjutant general the old lady bequeathed large sums only because the fact of bestowing her bounty on such a personage flattered her vanity.

Relating this story, not a merry one but instructive, Dolgorukov himself said of the baroness quite simply: "Well, God be with her!"