Ivan Dimitrievich Ratiev (russian: Иван Дмитриевич Ратиев), also known as Ivane Dimitris dze Ratishvili ( ka, ივანე რატიშვილი) (July 17, 1868 – April 26, 1958) was a Georgian prince and a prominent officer of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, Romanization of Russian, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the earl ...

. Serving as a high-ranking official at the

Winter Palace The Winter Palace ( rus, Зимний дворец, Zimnij dvorets, p=ˈzʲimnʲɪj dvɐˈrʲɛts) is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the Emperor of all the Russias, Russian Emperor from 1732 to 1917. The p ...

during the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, Ratiev is best known for saving the imperial treasures from being looted during the revolutionary turmoil.Тропинка в семейном саду
("A Path in the Family Garden"). ''

Nauka i Zhizn ''Nauka i Zhizn'' (''Science and Life'', russian: Наука и жизнь) is a science magazine first issued during the years 1890–1900 in Imperial Russia, and then since 1934 in the Soviet Union (and continued in the Russian Federation ...

'', 1999: №9. Ratiev spent several years in the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

but had his sentence commuted, at which point he retired to

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

where he remained until his death.

Early life and career

Ivan Ratiev was born in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fe ...

of a branch of the Georgian princely house of

Ratishvili The Ratishvili ( ka, რატიშვილი) are a noble family from Georgia. They had the status of prince (''tavadi'') in the kingdom of Kartli and they were confirmed in their rank in the Russian Empire as princes (''knyaz'') Ratiev (russia ...

, which had emigrated to the Russian Empire in 1724. His father was an officer in the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...

. Ivan Ratiev graduated from the Oryol

Cadet Corps A corps of cadets, also called cadet corps, was originally a kind of military school for boys. Initially such schools admitted only sons of the nobility or gentry, but in time many of the schools were opened also to members of other social classes. ...

and then from the . In 1890 he joined the 44th Nizhegorod Dragoon Regiment, deployed in

. There he married, in 1896, Ekaterina Irakliyevna, the Serene Princess Gruzinskaya (February 13, 1872 – 1917), a great-granddaughter of King

Heraclius II of Georgia Heraclius II ( ka, ერეკლე II), also known as Erekle II and The Little Kakhetian ( ka, პატარა კახი ) (7 November 1720 or 7 October 1721 C. ToumanoffHitchins, KeithHeraclius II. ''Encyclopædia Iranica Online edit ...

and a

lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom ...

of the empress consort Alexandra Feodorovna. Grebelsky, P. Kh., Dumin, S. V., Lapin, V. V. (1993), Дворянские роды Российской империи (''Noble families of Russian Empire''), vol. 4., p. 192. IPK Vesti.

Winter Palace

Ratiev retired from army service due to a trauma sustained in a

horse race Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

in 1907. He then studied at

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

and, after his return to Russia, worked for the

Ministry of the Imperial Court The Ministry of the Imperial Court (russian: Министерство императорского двора) was established in Russia in 1826, and embraced in one institution all the former separate branches of the Court administration. The Min ...

. He was assigned to an army cavalry unit of the

with the rank of

rittmeister __NOTOC__ (German and Scandinavian for "riding master" or "cavalry master") is or was a military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in the armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, and some other countries. A ''Rittmeister'' is typi ...

. By the imperial order of December 6, 1913, he was made a lieutenant-colonel (

podpolkovnik ''Podpolkovnik'' (russian: подполко́вник, lit=sub –, junior – , or lower regimentary) is a military rank in Slavic and nearby countries which corresponds to the lieutenant colonel in the English-speaking states and military. ...

) of the Imperial Guard cavalry and an acting Police Master of the Winter Palace. Promoted to the rank of colonel in 1916, Prince Ratiev was appointed as a deputy commandant of the Winter Palace in April 1917, two months after the February Revolution overthrew the

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the te ...

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

During the storm of the Winter Palace by the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

revolutionaries A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

on October 25, 1917, Ratiev did not flee, but ordered his guardsmen to evacuate the former imperial treasures to safer areas of the Palace. He dispatched his 16-year son Dimitri and two most trusted grenadiers to guard the secret depository, which, among other precious objects, housed the tsar's

scepter A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty. Antiquity Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia The ''Was'' and other ...

incorporating the Orlov diamond. He then negotiated with the Bolshevik leader

Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko Vladimir Alexandrovich Antonov-Ovseenko (russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Анто́нов-Овсе́енко; ua, Володимир Антонов-Овсєєнко; 9 March 1883 – 10 February 1938), real surna ...

, who oversaw the storm of the Palace, thereby saving the treasures of the Palace from being looted and destroyed. The Soviet leadership publicly expressed their gratitude to Prince Ratiev on the pages of ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...

'' (November 5, 1917) for "self-sacrificing efforts to protect and preserve the people's treasures" and appointed him the chief commandant of the Winter Palace and of all state museums and palaces of the Petrograd district.

Later life

In March 1919, Ratiev escorted the "golden echelon", a train carrying Russia's

gold reserve A gold reserve is the gold held by a national central bank, intended mainly as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g. paper money), or trading peers, during the eras of the gold standard, and also as a store of v ...

, upon the transfer of the Russian government from

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The road to Moscow was uneasy, Ratiev being pressured into surrendering the train and even being fired upon at

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russia ...

. Ratiev retired from the state service shortly thereafter and worked as a translator for various organizations of Moscow for several years. His subsequent life was marred by the loss of his wife and a son, who drowned while swimming in the river. Gogidze, Shalva (1987)
"ამხანაგი თავადი" — განძეულობათა გადამრჩენი
(''"Comrade Prince" — Rescuer of the Treasures''). Tbilisi: Khelovneba. In March 1924, Ivan Ratiev, his daughter Olga, and sister Sophia were arrested on charges of being members of "a counterrevolutionary monarchist organization." Due to his service in 1917, Ivan Ratiev's sentence of 5 years in

was commuted to exile to

Ekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administrati ...

, where the family spent 3 years. kk.memo.ru/page%202/dvor/.../ratiev.doc О Ратиевых ("The Ratiev family")

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

. Accessed January 12, 2013. In 1931, Ratiev moved to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, where he lived as a "state pensioner" and died at the age of 90. Ratiev's daughter, Olga (died 1987), was married to the Russian Rurikid prince Yuri Sergeyevich Lvov (1897–1937), a grandnephew of Prince

Georgy Lvov Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov (7/8 March 1925) was a Russian aristocrat and statesman who served as the first prime minister of republican Russia from 15 March to 20 July 1917. During this time he served as Russia's ''de facto'' head of s ...

, the Russian Prime Minister in 1917. Their daughter, Ekaterina, married the noted Georgian physicist Professor Vladimir Roinishvili.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratiev, Ivan 1868 births 1958 deaths Russian people of Georgian descent Nobility of Georgia (country) People of the Russian Revolution Russian military personnel