Social Victorians/People/Gourko

Also Known As

• Family name: Gourko or Gurko
• Romeyko-Gurko or Romeiko-Gourko
• M. Nicolas Gourko or Nicholas Gourko or Gurko
• M. Gourko
• Still constructing this man's information; any part of it may be wrongly associated with him, as I have found no reliable source for his identity. Sometimes spelled as Gowiko.
• Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko
  • VIAF IF: 28134204: https://viaf.org/viaf/28134204/
• Vasily Iosifovich Romeyko-Gurko
  • VIAF ID: 115090209: https://viaf.org/viaf/115090209/

Demographics

• Nationality: Count Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko, Russian, of Polish and Lithuanian descent; Maria Andreevna Salias de Turnemir, French

Residences

• Nicholas Romeiko-Gourko: Chesham Place, S.W., Belgrave Square, Chesham House, Russian Embassy (1902)

Family

• Count Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko (1828 – 15 January 1901)
• Maria Andreevna Salias de Turnemir (1838-1906)
  1. Alexei (–1889?)
  2. Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko (12 December 1862 – 18 February 1927)
  3. Vasily Iosifovich Romeyko-Gurko (20 May 1864 – 11 February 1937)
  4. M. Nicholas Romeiko Gourko
  5. ? Nicolas Gourko, the one who died in jail

Count Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko

Count Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko is the father, the famous Russian general and governor of Poland ultimately fired because of his brutality by Tsar Nicholas II, who then promoted him within Russia, probably to appease him. His wife, Maria Andreevna Salias de Turnemir, was at least as anti-Polish as he was and came from a known French family.

Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko

Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko was also important in the Russian military, but he was also more political. He wrote Features and of the Past Government and Opinion in the Reign of Nicholas II (Russell & Russell, 1939. Eds., J.E. Wallace Sterling, Xenia Joukoff Euden, and H.H. Fisher. Trans. Laura Matveev. https://archive.org/details/featuresandfigur011843mbp).

He is the one involved in the Gurko-Lidval corruption affair, a grain-deal scandal in 1906. He moved to Ukraine when he had to leave Moscow in 1918.

A M. V. Gourko, part of the Russian Council of the Empire so almost certainly Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko, was presented to George V and Queen Mary on 10 May 1916.

Vasily Iosifovich Romeyko-Gurko

Vasily Iosifovich Romeyko-Gurko's name was anglicized to Basil. Before he left Russia, he was Chief of the Russian Imperial General Staff, November 1916 – March 1917, and Commander-in-Chief of Western Armies, March 1917 – June 1917. Vasily Gurko is the one who was in the Transvaal and 2nd Boer War. He was exiled to the U.K. in 1917: he was given "permission to leave the country as soon as possible," as he put it. His wife was killed by a German bomb as she was working as a nurse around 28 March 1918.

He wrote War and Revolution in Russia, 1914–1917, which was published in 1919 in London, where he lived for a time before moving back to the continent, though not back to Russia.

Nicholas Romeiko Gourko

M. Nicholas Romeiko Gourko was 2nd Lieutenant in 1896. He spent a number of years as Second Secretary of the Russian Embassy, formally presented to the Prince and Princess of Wales on 15 February 1895. The stories about the ball in the Morning Post and the Times both mention his name in their coverage of the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 fancy-dress ball: the Morning Post says he's Nicolas but spells his last name Gowiko; the Times doesn't have a first name but gives his last name as Gourko.

Nicolas Gourko

The Nicolas Gourko at the center of the 1898 robbery and attempted murder in Monte Carlo cannot be the Nicholas Romeiko Gourko who worked at the Russian Embassy in London. The narrative of the newspaper coverage of the robbery and attempted murder begins in October 1898 in the Timeline, below. The Embassy Nicholas Gourko is in place both before and after the 1898 scandal and death of the man arrested. The newspapers consistently called the robber Nicholas Gourko: he told the arresting police that's what his name was and that he was the son of General Gourko, but then he also said that his name was Jean Ivanoff and that he had found the papers identifying him as Nicholas Gourko on a train. No newspaper story confirms that the Embassy Nicholas Gourko had lost his papers on a train.

If his name was Gourko, it seems at this point quite possible that the criminal was a member of the family, because Colonel Gourko his brother — or someone whom they believed was his brother — visited him in the prison just before he died. Also, these are very high-status people who could control much of the information available to the press. Also, although his reason is speculation, the old General's health got decided worse after the scandal and the announcement about the young man's death. There were doubts about the cause of the young man's death, although the official position was clear that it was not suicide.

Relations

• A M. W. Gourko was present at the British Russian Club, which hosted a delegation to explain Bolshevism.

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

• Prince San Donato E. Demidoff, both secretaries at the Russian Embassy

Timeline

1894 November 3, Friday, the Times reported that "M. Nicolas de Gourko, the new secretary of the Imperial Russian Embassy, has arrived in London from Madrid and assumed the duties of his post in succession to M. Sazonoff, who has gone to Rome as Secretary of Legation to the Holy See."

1895 February 15, Friday, the Russian ambassador de Staal presented to Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and thus to Queen Victoria "M. Romeike Gourko, Secretary of Embassy, and Capt. Prince Oukhtomsky, Naval Attaché."

1895 April 26, Friday, M. Gourko attended "the annual festival of the German hospital, Dalston," a dinner held at the Hôtel Métropole.

1895 July 3, Wednesday, 4:30–7:00 p.m., M. Gourko attended a garden party at Clarence House, at which were present a number of royals and international dignitaries.

1896 February 5, Wednesday, M. Gourko was present for the public funeral of Prince Henry of Battenburg, Princess Beatrice's husband, in Westminster Abbey. (5, Col. 7a)

1896 February 14, Friday, along with many of the Diplomatic Corps, M. Gourko attended the funeral of Captain Le Clerc, Naval Attaché of the French embassy.

1896 May 1, Friday, M. Gourko was among the group at Victoria Station to see the Russian ambassador off to Moscow for the coronation of the czar:

His Excellency M. de Staal, the Russian Ambassador, left London last evening for Russia in order to present at the coronation of the Czar on the 26th inst. There were present at Victoria Station, to see his Excellency off, Count Pahlen, First Secretary at the Embassy; M. Gourko, Second Secretary; Count Yermoloff, Military Attaché; M. Orloff, of the Chancellery; and M. Volborth, Russian Consul-General in London.

1896 May 4, Monday, "Second Lieutenant Gourko Romeiko" was assigned to attend the American mission as attaché during the coronation of the czar in Russia. 1897 May 18, Tuesday, possibly more than one person named Gourko accompanied de Staal, the Russian ambassador.

Yesterday being the twenty-ninth anniversary of the birth of the Emperor Nicholas II, the Imperial Russian standard was displayed from the flagstaff surmounting the Embassy, Chesham House, S.W. M. de Staal, the Russian Ambassador, who was accompanied by M. Boulatzel [Boutlatzell], and by MM. Gourko, Gerebtzov, de Stoeckl, Demidoff, and Prince de San Donato Colonel Yermoloff, and Captain Gregorovitch, and other members of the Embassy, attended a special service at the Russian Church, Welbeck-street, W.

1897 June 18, Friday, the Archbishop of Finland was hosted at a reception at the Russian embassy; M. Romeiko-Gourko was there, among many others. (5, Col. 5c)

1897 July 2, M. Gourko (at 108), misspelled as Gowiko in the descriptions in the Morning Post and the Gentlewoman but spelled correctly in the story in the Times, attended the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 fancy-dress ball.

1898 March 12, the Army and Navy Gazette reported that General Gourko, General Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko, Nicolas Gourka's father, had been replaced as Governor of Poland and Commander in Chief in Warsaw and promoted to Field-Marshal.

1898 April 28, Thursday, M. Gourko represented the Russian ambassador at the reunion of the Foreign Press Association at the Savoy.

1898 September 12, Monday, Messrs. Nicholas Gourko and Serge de Fatischeff, representing the Russian Embassy called at the Austrian Embassy to pay their respects in honor of the assassination of the Empress of Austria.

1898 October 24, Monday, the Morning Post published a description of a Lieutenant Nicolas Gourko's robbery and attempted murder of the Russian Secretary of State:

Attempt to Murder a Prince. — An attempt was made to murder Prince Polouzoff, Russian Councillor of State and Chief of the Imperial Police, at the Grand Hotel of Monte Carlo two nights ago. The Prince was awakened about midnight by a man who had entered his room. The visitor demanded the Prince's money and valuables, and was given a casket containing 70,000fr. in bank notes and a jewel worth 30,000fr. Still dissatisfied, the miscreant demanded more, and when told there was nothing else struck Prince Polouzoff several blows on the head with a stick, at the same time trying to take hold of his tongue to prevent him from calling for help. Prince Polouzoff bit his assailant, who thereupon fled, taking the casket with him. It was subsequently found empty in the street. A valet was attracted by the noise of the struggle, but he arrived too late to secure the thief. The blows received by Prince Polouzoff were not dangerous, and he has already completely recovered from their effects. General Kouropatkine, Russian Minister of War, called on Prince Polouzoff and had a long conversation with him yesterday. When the Marseilles train arrived at Paris yesterday a very elegantly-dressed young man responding completely to Prince Polouzoff's description of his aggressor was arrested by the police. At the police-station his hand was found to have been bitten, and on the discovery of this damaging evidence the young man fainted. When he regained consciousness he said that he was Nicholas Gourko, a Lieutenant in the Russian Navy, and son of the Grand Marshal of the Court, and he produced papers in proof of his assertion. Then he contradicted this statement, and said he had found the papers in a train a month ago. His real name, he said, was Jean Ivanoff, twenty-six years of age, without any domicile and of no profession. He confessed to the robbery in the Grand Hotel of Monte Carlo, but energetically refused to give any details. Nearly all the stolen property was found in his possession, as well as the large stick with which he committed the assault. He will be sent for trial at Monte Carlo.

1898 October 25, Tuesday, Nicolas Gourko arrested and identified, said to be "otherwise highly connected" with a "large quantity of luggage with him":

MONTE CARLO HOTEL ROBBERY.

PARIS, Tuesday.

The young man arrested at the Gare de Lyon last night for the robbery of a large sum of money from M. Polowtsow, Secretary of State to the Tsar, gave the name of John Ivanoff, but papers found upon him go to show that he is a Russian naval lieutenant named Nicholas Gourko, the son of a Russian general, and a man otherwise highly connected. It seems he had occupied the next room to M. Polowtsow the Grand Hotel, Monte Carlo. There was found upon him 43,300f in French banknotes, 7,500 lire in Italian banknotes, 1,200 rouble notes, and a few hundred francs in gold. He had a large quantity of luggage with him, in which was discovered the whole of the jewellery stolen from M. Polowtsow.— Dalziel

1898 November 11, Friday, the London Daily Telegraph says his name is not Nicholas Gourko but John Ivanoff Grouko, perhaps based on the identity he originally gave them:

Paris Day by Day

The person called John Ivanoff, who turns out to be the son of General Gourko, and a Lieutenant in the Russian Navy, is now a prisoner in Paris, and his extradition has been applied for to the French Government by the judicial authorities at Monaco, who accuse him of the attempted murder of M. Polovtsoff at Monte Carlo. The young man is described in the French police records as John Ivanoff Gourko. He came to Paris after the perpetration of the crime in the Principality of Monaco, and was soon found. He has selected M. Robert as his advocate, and is at present in the infirmary of the Depôt at the Prefecture of Police, owing to the cerebral excitement with which he is said to be affected since his arrest. Dr. Garnier, a celebrated specialist, has been instructed to inquire into the young man's mental condition, in order to ascertain if he be responsible for his actions. It is announced here in a telegram from St. Petersburg that Lieutenant Gourko's name has been erased from the Imperial Navy List. It may be added that very little has been allowed to leak out concerning young Gourko's arrest in Paris. It was known, in fact, only to very few that he came here from Monte Carlo after the crime, and the announcement made in the The Daily Telegraph to-day that his father, General Gourko, had a stroke of paralysis, probably owing to the serious charges brought against the young man, has caused no small sensation.

1898 November 16, Wednesday, Lieutenant Nicolas Gourko died in prison on Wednesday after having been visited by his brother Tuesday evening. Three newspaper stories are quoted here:

THE MONTE CARLO AFFAIR.

LIEUTENANT GOURKO FOUND DEAD.

Paris, Nov. l6.

The Russian ex-naval Lieutenant Gourko, who was arrested for attempting to murder a Russian Secretary of State at Monte Carlo, and who has been in custody here pending proceedings for his extradition, was found dead this morning in his cell.

On Tuesday last he was visited by his brother, and it is stated that after the latter's departure the prisoner was seized with a fit of vomiting. He expired at one o'clock on Wednesday.

The Public Prosecutor has opened an inquiry.—Reuter.

The death of Lieutenant Nicholas Gourko, son of General Gourko, the hero of the Balkans during the Russo-Turkish war, was terribly sudden, mysterious, and dramatic, and it is very questionable whether the true circumstances attending it will ever be disclosed.

He was arrested at Lyons Station in Paris on suspicion of having robbed M. De Polovtzoff, the Russian Secretary of State, of 600,000f. and jewellery at an hotel at Monte Carlo in the end of October.

M. Do Polovtzoff returned to his room late at night and placed a large sum of money he had won at the gaming-tables in a despatch-box. Soon after he had got into bed he was disturbed by the window being opened and turning on the electric light saw a man with his hand upon the despatch-box.

A STRUGGLE ENSUED,

and the burglar succeeded in escaping with his booty, leaving the Russian official helpless from a blow from a huge stick.

On being arrested Gourko denied his identity but the papers found on him proved it. The Russian Government immediately publicly dismissed him from the navy and his veteran father, upon learning of the disgrace which had befallen him, was seized with a paralytic stroke.

The Government of Monaco demanded extradition of the young Russian, but his nervous condition giving rise to fears lest he should temporarily

LOSE HIS REASON,

he was removed to the hospital attached to the Palais de Justice and watched by a specialist.

On Wednesday morning Colonel Gourko, his brother, called to see him, talked to him at a certain distance in the presence of a warder, and, it is affirmed, was not once allowed to approach near enough to shake hands. Anyhow, the moment the Colonel, having said good-bye, crossed the threshold of the door, the ill-starred youth shook in every limb and dropped heavily to the ground. The doctor pronounced life to be extinct.

There is to be an investigation with a view to ascertaining whether he died from heart disease produced by emotion or deliberately committed suicide.

Lieutenant Gourko's Death. — The circumstances surrounding the death of Lieutenant Gourko, who was charged with attempting to murder General de Polovtsoft, into whose apartment in the Grand Hotel at Nice he had broken, are highly mysterious. On Tuesday Nicolas Gourko was visited in Prison by his brother. The interview was, of course, of a very painful nature. In the course of the evening Nicolas Gourko was seized with violent sickness. The prison Doctors were at once called in to attend on him, but in spite of their efforts his condition grew steadily worse, and he died in the small hours of the morning. The Police admit having suspected that Nicolas Gourko succumbed to a dose of poison left with him by his brother, but it is said that the results of the post-mortem examination do not support this hypothesis, and the death is officially attributed to congestion of the brain.

THE MONTE CARLO SCANDAL.

LIEUTENANT GOURKO FOUND DEAD.

... Lieutenant Gourko was a son of General Gourko, formerly Governor-General of Poland.

1899 December 12, Tuesday, the Morning Post reported on Wednesday that the Russian Ministry of War was sending Lieutenant-Colonel Vasily Gourko and General Maximoff as "special military representative[s] to the Transvaal," that they'd be leaving for Brussels to meet with Dr. Leyds and then proceed to "the headquarters of the Boer forces in South Africa."

1899 December 16, Saturday, the Shoreditch Observer reported that General Vasily Gourko, son of the field-marshal, was sailing for Pretoria to lead Russian troops to fight on the side of the Boers.

1899 December 18, Monday, the Homeward Mail from India, China and the East reported that Colonel Vasily Gourko was sailing traveling from Marseilles for Lorenzo Marques on the S.S. Natal, of Messageries Maritimes Co.; the ship's destinations are listed as Tamatave, Réunion, and Mauritius.

1899 December 27, Wednesday, the London Daily Telegraph reported on Lieutenant-Colonel Vasily Gourko on his way to the Transvaal.

According to despatches from Marseilles, a steamer called the Natal has left that port for Lourenço Marquez, having among the passengers on board Lieutenant-Colonel Gourko, who goes to South Africa as a delegate of the Tsar’s army, and three other Russian officers, who intend to assist the Boers against the British. These officers—a captain and two lieutenants—have received papers from Dr. Leyds, duly giving them rank in the Transvaal forces, but they are going the seat of war at their own expense. It is further stated that the Muscovite military men on board the Natal affirmed before their departure from Marseilles that the movement in favour of the Boers is gradually extending in Russia, and that both officers and soldiers are asking to be allowed to go to South Africa in order join the burghers of the two Republics there. While waiting in the railway station at Warsaw, on their way to France, the Russian officers were loudly cheered by a large crowd of anti-English Poles. The latter are described to be every whit as enthusiastic about the Boers as the Russians, and a wealthy Lithuanian landowner is reported be organising a corps of 300 volunteers, whom he intends to send altogether at his own expense to the Transvaal. It is evident that the Russians and Poles do not intend to be behind their friends the French in giving, not only their sympathy, but also their practical support to the enemies of England.

1899 December 30, Saturday, the Pall Mall Gazette editorialized about General Vasily Gourko's interview with the Daily Mail in Marseilles:

Scratch the Russian and you will find the Tartar. Scratch the Russian military attaché and you will find the filibuster. General Gourko hardly displayed the precision which we are accustomed to associate with military men when enlarging to the Marseilles correspondent of the Daily Mail on the pretexts under which he is making for the Transvaal. We gather that, while he will be accredited to the Government of the South African Republic as a military attaché of sorts, he hopes to smuggle through some thirty friends of his as members of the Russian Red Cross Society. He was, at all events, candid enough as to his intentions when he reaches Pretoria, and they are to take over the command of an army corps.. This admission would entirely justify our Government in having the Natal overhauled at Lourenço Marques, and this brazen adventurer politely but firmly despatched back to his native country. We may not shoot the mercenary when we catch him, but we really cannot be expected to look the other way while he comes swaggering into a neutral port.

1900 September 8, Saturday, the Times reported that "Col. Gourko, Russian Military Attaché, was sailing to England with other soldiers mostly from the U.K. on the Tantallon Castle.

1901 February 1, Friday, the Grand Duke Michael — "accompanied by General Count Vorontzow-Dachkau, A.D.C. to the Emperor, with Lieutenant-Captain Count Sheremetieff in attendance" — arrived in London after Queen Victoria's death, and "Waiting on the platform to receive him were Baron Graevenitz, M. N. Gourko, and Prince Demidoff, secretaries of the Russian Embassy; Colonel Yermoloff, the Military Attaché, Captain Oupensky, the Naval Attaché, and the Very Rev. Eugene Smirnoff."

1902 March 14, Friday, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra held an Official and Diplomatic Court at Buckingham Palace, and among the Diplomatic Corps were "Mons. Gourko, T.S.H. Prince and Princess Radziwell, [and] Col. Yermolov."

1906 December 28, Friday, Olga Novikoff wrote a letter to the editor of the Times defending Assistant Minister of the Interior M. Gourka about a contract for wheat, which would be Vladimir Gourko.

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Nicolas Gourko (at 108) was dressed as a "Gentleman of the Court of Catherine of Russia" and walked in that procession

Questions and Notes

1. Need to find a family history to be sure of the relationships. This is cited on a Russian site (it's a translation), but I haven't seen it: Kolupaev VE Gurko family history // Sõja-Ajalooarhiiv. M., 2005. No. 6. S. 115-129. Or Kolupaev VE Gurko perekonna ajalugu // Sõja-Ajalooarhiiv. M., 2005. nr 6. S. 115-129.