Princess Sofia Golitsyna

Mother of Count Alexander Pavlovich Stroganov. Born in Moscow in the family of Prince Vladimir Golitsyn and Countess Natalia Chernysheva (1775). Brought up abroad. Married Count Pavel Stroganov (1793). Ran a salon in St Petersburg visited by all the leading poets and writers of the day. Gavrila Derzhavin dedicated poems to her. Translated the second part of Dante’s Divine Comedy into Russian. After the death of her husband (1817), devoted herself to the management of the family estate, making important and progressive reforms in order to improve the welfare, social position, education and living conditions of her peasants in Perm region and Novgorod Province. Died in St Petersburg and buried at the St Lazarus Cemetery in the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1845). After her death, all her property, along with the title of count, passed to Baron Sergei Stroganov, who had married her eldest daughter Natalia.