The Baranovs — a noble family of Tatar origin

The Baranovs (in German form von Baranoff) are the best-known noble family of Tatar origin in the Baltic. Unlike the Muslim Mišär merchants from whom today's Estonian Tatars descend, this was an early, Christianised line that assimilated into the Baltic German nobility — yet its Tatar root is well documented. Among its ties to Tallinn is the general Peter von Baranoff, who was born and died there.

The Tatar root: Murza Baran (1430)

By the family's origin tradition, the ancestor Murza Zhdan, nicknamed Baran (Turkic-Tatar for “ram”), came to Moscow in 1430, declared loyalty to Grand Duke Vasili II (the Blind) and was baptised Orthodox; his descendants came to be called Baranov. The name derives from the nickname “baran” — the Turkic-Tatar word for a ram — which the family arms also echo (a horned beast on a red field).

Service and the move to Estonia

The Baranovs served in Moscow's army: Feodor Baranov fell in 1552 at the siege of Kazan, and Grigori Baranov at a siege of Narva. For their services they received fiefs in Estonia (the Arroküll–Waetz branch). During the Livonian War four brothers switched allegiance from the Russian tsar to the Swedish king; when Estonia passed to Sweden (Treaty of Teusina, 1595), the former Russian boyars entered Swedish service. So a Tatar family from the east became Estonian landed nobility.

Baltic German nobility: from Baranov to Baranoff

In Estonia the Baranovs adopted Lutheranism and adapted the Russian Baranov into the German form Baranoff, merging into the Baltic German nobility. The family was enrolled in the Swedish nobility in 1666, the Estonian Knighthood in 1745 (with an attestation that it had belonged to the local nobility since 1592), the Livonian Knighthood in 1830 and the Oesel (Saaremaa) Knighthood in 1843. The Estonian Knighthood was seated in Tallinn, on Toompea. Under Russian rule the Baranovs served as high officials and officers of the empire until the 1917 Revolution.

Peter von Baranoff (1843–1924)

The family's best-known son of Tallinn was Peter von Baranoff, born 9 May 1843 in Tallinn (Reval) and died 22 December 1924 in Tallinn. He rose to General of the Cavalry in the Imperial Russian Army, commanding among others the Sumy Hussars and Her Majesty's Ulan Guards, and took part in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the First World War; after the 1914 Battle of Łódź he investigated the conduct of General Rennenkampf. He belonged to the family's Arroküll–Waetz branch.

The link to the Estonian Tatars

The Baranovs represent an older and different layer of Tatar presence in Estonia than today's community. They are of Tatar origin but a Christianised, assimilated noble family that reached Estonia already in the 16th century as soldiers and landowners — not part of the 19th-century Mišär merchant migration out of which the Estonian Muslim Tatar community grew. The only thread the two stories share is a distant Tatar root; in faith, language and community they are separate. See also Tatar soldiers in Estonia.

Sources: Peter von Baranoff (Wikipedia); The Baranov family (Ruggeri-Laderchi genealogy); Baltic German nobility (Wikipedia); Estonian Tatar community sources.