Imperlistic Russian Stud Book (I)
I am going to provide some information
about the first volume of the Russian stud book for the benefit
of listmembers. This stud book was written entirely in Russian (the
Cyrillic alphabet was used). The translated title is "Stud
Book for Arabian Horses in Russia with their Pedigrees. Volume I."
It was published in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1903 by order of the
Main Administration of State Horsebreeding (this was the government
of the Tsar of Russia).
The stud book is divided into two parts (with each part having two sections--one for stallions and one for broodmares--arranged alphabetically according to the Cyrillic alphabet). The production record for each mare is provided through 1902 (and to which stallion the mare is bred for 1903 is given too), including the name, sire of, sex of each foal, and whether it was sold (and to whom and/or where). The pedigrees of mares and stallions are shown in narrative form, not in a pedgree chart. The sire and dam are given, but the emphasis is really on the tail female line, with each description going down the bottom of the pedigree. I will transliterate the Cyrillic and then translate the titles of each part. Transliteration: Transliteration: Look at the two words, "Chistokrovnyya" and "Krovnyya". They are similar, but the "chisto" part means "pure". The horses in the second part of the book are not quite the same as those in first part. The Russians were quite definite as to why horses went into one part or the other. For one thing, every single horse in Part I has a strain, and it is formally stated. As everyone should know, this is very important in Arabian horses and indicates provenance. Only one of the horses in Part II has a strain (and this is a stallion whose listing is very sparse--far different than the stallions in Part I). It is really easy to see the difference when comparing the entries of Part I horses with Part II horses. Now who are the horse? Part I includes desert imports and their descendants. Imports from Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt, such as Sobha and the Mesaoud son Naaman. Many of the Part I horses were bred by Count Stroganov, Prince Shcherbatov, or the Derkulsk State Horse Stud (owner of Sobha). Part II includes the horses of Prince Roman Sangushko and Count Joseph Potocki (I'm using the Polish spelling here since people are more familiar with it than the Russian one of Pototski). *None* of the Sangushko Arabs or Potocki Arabs are in Part I. It is to these horses, Krovnyya Arabians, that the majority of American Arabians trace. Other breeders in Part II include Shimansky, Valevsky, Kazimir, Erdeli, Derkulsk State Horse Stud (also has horses in Part I), and Count Radzivill. Count Potocki owned the famed Antoniny Stud (located in the city of Antoniny, Russia), and Prince Sangushko owned the Khristovetsk Stud (referred to in Polish as Chrestowka or Slawuta--btw, "Slawuta" is "Slavuta" in Russian and it is a town!). The Potocki and Sangushko families were related by marriage, and it was from Khristovetsk that Count Potocki got his foundation Arabians. On page 13 there is information on Khristovetsk which was founded in the year 1506 on local, countrybred horses, but which imported its first Arabians in 1798 from Syria . The Arabians of Khristovetsk are, "from 66% to 85% pure Arabian blood." Some of the Part II stallions: Azra, Dervish, Mazepa, Tybet, and Faraon. Tybet was very heavily used as a sire at Antoniny. Tybet's sire was the stallion Zarif who Count Potocki got from the Babolna Stud in a stallion exchange program. Zarif was out of a Gidran Arab (yep, same as some of the South American Arabians) mare. Tybet was repeatedly bred to Skowronek's dam Yaskulka. One of those foals, Sikora, later produced the stallion Ornis (by Ibrahim) who was exported from Antoniny to Spain. The US now has thousands of descendants of Ornis through Spanish imports and their offspring. Thus we have the Gidran Arab blood registered by the AHRA, in addition to the Krovnyya Arabians from Antoniny. And this is only one example. Some of the Part II mares are: Adua, Antonida, Arabella, Armida, Baronessa, Bayaderka, Gama, Garfa (half sister of Yaskulka, dam of Skowronek), Gasta, Grammatika, Grenada, Dalmatsiya, Debora, Dumka, Elissa, Zarifka, Zuzulya, Kadranka, Kalga, Kalifa, Kaluga, Kirgizka, Kokhailyanka, Kreolka, Krymka, Lama, Legenda, Lezhginka, Limita, Lora, Lyuba, Lyarissa, Madera, Mazaika, Malvina, Mankovka, Melpomena, Mulatka, Narva, Natura, Negressa, Nerissa, Niva, Nirvana, Niagara, Niobe, Novarra, Novellya (half sister of Yaskulka), Normandiya, Oaza II, Odaliska, Odaliska II, Omara, Omega, Optima, Orleanka, Ofeliya, Oferta, Parsalya, Podolyanka, Pusta, Pustanka, Semiramida, Urgenda, Fantaziya III, Frida, Khiva (Chiwa in Polish, fyi), Tsigaretta, Tsetsora, Shaika, Evreka, Elba, Elkara II, Elfrida, Energiya, Entsiklopediya, Esmeralda, Yancharka, Yaponiya, and Yaskulka (dam of Skowronek). When the Krovnyya Arabians of Part II or their descendants were sold to Poland, they were placed in the purebred section of the Polish Arabian Stud Book (Volume I came out in 1932, with a purebred section and a not quite purebred section). Poland had a lower standard for what qualified as purebred than did Russia, so the Krovnyya Arabians of Russia were registered as purebreds in Poland. A few of the Krovnyya Arabians went into the not quite purebred section in Poland, but for the most part they went into the purebred section. If the Poles hadn't done this, they would have had almost no purebreds and a very tiny stud book. However, not many people asked them to provide their definition of what consituted a purebred. That creates a bit of a problem today, since the Poles did not require Arabians to trace in all lines back to the desert in order to be registered as purebreds. Many of their foundation stock came from Sangushko and Potocki, and as I've already pointed out, their horses had no strains (in other words the female lines were not founded by Arabians). Hundreds of thousands of American Arabians trace to these horses. What about Skowronek? First of all I want to say that he was a truly magnificent animal. He was extremely typy, of the finest quality, and one of the best sires in the history of the breed. IMHO he was one of the most beautiful Arabians who ever lived, and I consider him to be a purebred Arabian. He wasn't in Volume I the Russian stud book since he wasn't born when it was published. However, he would have been ineligible for registration as a purebred in Russia, because his mother wasn't a purebred. When Skowronek was exported from Antoniny, Russia to England, he was registered as a purebred by both the Arab Horse Society and the General Stud Book. It's this problem with definitions again. How would the AHS or the GSB have known that a Krovnyya Arabian wasn't of completely desert blood? Well, they wouldn't (the same as the Argentinian registry didn't realize that the imports from Babolna that they registered as purebred weren't of completely desert origin). In any case, by virtue of being registered in a purebred stud book, that is what Skowronek is, a purebred. Both Prince Sangushko * and Count Potocki were perfectly open and honest about their horses. While we might have wished they didn't use certain blood, there is no doubt by the historical record that they did. We can't change that fact. It happened, and we should be able to acknowledge it with the same candor they did. Prince Sangushko and Count Potocki were wonderful, honorable men who bred beautiful Arabian horses. I'm proud to say that all six of my purebred Arabians have Skowronek and other horses bred by these two men in their pedigrees.
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