Ivan Dimitrievich Ratiev (), 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 () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. Serving as a high-ranking official at the

Winter Palace The Winter Palace is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the House of Romanov, previous emperors, from 1732 to 1917. The palace and its precincts now house the Hermitage Museum. The floor area is 233,345 square ...

during the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, 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'', ) is a science magazine first issued during the years 1890–1900 in Russian Empire, and then since 1934 in the Soviet Union (and continued in the Russian Federation today). See also *Tekhnika Molodezhi ...

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

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

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 ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

where he remained until his death.

Early life and career

Ivan Ratiev was born in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

of a branch of the Georgian princely house of Ratishvili, which had emigrated to the Russian Empire in 1724. His father was an officer in the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

. Ivan Ratiev graduated from the Oryol Cadet Corps 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, also known as Erekle II ( ka, ერეკლე II) and The Little Kakhetian ( ka, პატარა კახი, link=no ; 7 November 1720 or 7 October 1721 Cyril_Toumanoff.html" ;"title="ccording to Cyril Toumanoff">C. Touman ...

and a

lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting (alternatively written lady in waiting) or court lady is a female personal assistant at a Royal court, court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking nobility, noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was o ...

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 activity, 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 bas ...

in 1907. He then studied at

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and, after his return to Russia, worked for the

Ministry of the Imperial Court The Ministry of the Imperial Court () was established in the Russian Empire in 1826, and embraced in one institution all the former separate branches of the Court administration. The Ministry of the Court was under the personal cognizance of Empe ...

. He was assigned to an army cavalry unit of the

with the rank of

rittmeister Rittmaster () is usually a commissioned officer military rank used in a few armies, usually equivalent to Captain. Historically it has been used in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, and some other countries. A is typically in charge of a s ...

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

podpolkovnik ''Podpolkovnik'' () is a military rank in Slavic and nearby countries which corresponds to the lieutenant colonel in the English-speaking states and military. In different languages the exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spelling ...

) 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 The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

overthrew the

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

During the storm of the Winter Palace by the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

revolutionaries A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

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 (or scepter in American English) is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia, signifying sovereign authority. 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 (; ; 9 March 1883 – 10 February 1938), real surname Ovseenko, party aliases 'Bayonet' () and 'Nikita' (), literary pseudonym A. Galsky (), was a prominent Bolshevik leader, Soviet statesman, mili ...

, 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, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

'' (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, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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

Tver Tver (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa rivers. Tver is located northwest of Moscow. Population: The city is ...

. 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 (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

, 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 such as home ...

. 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 The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage allegedly founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the ...

prince Yuri Sergeyevich Lvov (1897–1937), a grandnephew of Prince

Georgy Lvov Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov ( – 7/8 March 1925) was a Russian aristocrat, statesman and the first prime minister of the Russian Republic from 15 March to 20 July 1917. As Russia's ''de facto'' head of state, he led the Provisional Governme ...

, 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 Imperial Russian Army officers People from the Russian Empire