HISTORY OF THE BORZOI BREED  …

... dignified, elegant, independent and  noble dog

When I think of Borzoi, the first thing that appears in my mind is the picture of Tsar's Russia and the vastness of that big country. Aristocrats are riding horses.  By each rider walk few tall and strong dogs bright with passion. Their nostrils are expanding, their necks are elongated, all the muscles are stretched tight, and sometimes they raise their ears lurking for a sound. Their big eyes, the color of dark velvet, are scanning the horizon. They feel the tense of the hunt. And then they slice through the air with their slender bodies. After the rush the only thing that exists is the silence that holds the continuous gallop, the hard breath of horses and the squeaking saddle. With incredible speed and agility they hunt down their prey. They represent the perfect combination of harmony and efficiency.

Origins of Russkaya Psovaya Borzaya (what means a fast dog) are found in the past. The correct year of their appearance is unknown. It probably originated as the hybrid of an Asian and Russian domestic dog breeds. Although the first standard was assigned in 1650, the first writing testament which mentions Borzoi is French Chronicles from 11th century. It says there that Ana Laroslavna (the daughter of Kiev's duke), while coming to France to become the wife of Henry I, brought three Borzois with her. The first known picture record of Borzoi is a fresco found in the cathedral of st. Sophia in Kiev dating from 11th century which shows the hunt with dogs of Borzoi type.

In that time period the Russian greyhounds were described as strong, long-legged dogs with rich hair which was protecting them from cold winters. They used them for hunting wolves (which were many at the time), and rabbits and other game which was then used to feed the owners’ family.

The change in the use of breed started during the reign of Russian Tsar Peter the Great (1689-1725), a reformer who accepted to new knowledge. Besides the knowledge and culture, Russian people were importing popular European sports and Europeans high societies’ hunting customs. So besides the well known customs, they have imported a lot of shorthair hunting dogs. The need for hunting was slowly being forsaken and changed as an amusement for the aristocracy.

Big hunting grounds in Russia were available thanks to the Russia’s feudal order. Russian aristocracy had full control over their serfs. They were in master-slave relationship. Feudal period in Russia has lasted much longer compared to the similar reigns in Europe.

From 1805 -1812, with the short peaceful periods, lasts the war between Napoleon and Russia. Hunting and court amusements have been suppressed in the second plan. 

After the war with Napoleon the sport activities have again recapitalized that days when Borzoi was just a hunting dog and his working abilities were major. Nobody cared how they looked like. Working on their improvement they inter-crossed them with another sort, so there remained only a small number of purebred Borzois. In 1824 Borzoi exhibited for the first time in Moscow. After that event, theirs look also becomes very important. They wanted to have a dog who is both excellent hunter and dog – show winner. Therefore inter-crossing with other dog breeds was  stopped.  

The Serfdom was abolished in 1861. Measures of imperial economy opened a large field of capitalistic development. Industrialization increased the number of workers. Many peasants left the grounds which could not become theirs except if they would buy it. Because they had no money to do that, they moved to cities. Aristocracy followed their example: they also left their estates and moved to cities. Their kennels were left unused and abandoned, so they collapsed. Those were very difficult times in history for Borzois who faced with extinction.

Later, when aristocracy came back to their estates they didn’t manage to restore the kennels to previous condition. Big hunting estates and hunting with dogs, which were always the part of Russian tradition, has been kept only as an isolated event. That was the end of a fascinating big era but miracle of life continues.

In 1873, in Moscow was constituted the Society for the Development of Hunting Dogs. They organized exhibitions and interceded for Borzois body and hunting abilities improvement.

In 1887 duke Nikolai Nikolayev's Romanov bought the estate near village Pershino. Duke, as a passionate hunter, collected the fastest and the bravest greyhounds. He owned 160 Borzois, and he took a great care about them. His kennel Pershino became the most renowned in the western world. However her history began much earlier, when the Russian tsarina Cathrine has gifted the well known bank manager Lasarieff a big estate in the province of Tulsk. His son in law known as a big fan of hunt was first who started to breed Borzois on the estate. The following years that came had been full of both prosperity and poverty. The kennel Pershino will experience good progress during the reign of duke Nikolai. As the president of the Society for the Encouragement of Sport in 1889 he produced the Borzoi standard. 

Other Russian nobles were also establishing kennels with lots of greyhounds. Depending on personal hunting ambitions of noble – owner, and depending on the “western” imported dogs, which were used to mate with their own dogs, originated different types of Borzois, which were named by the names of kennels. The vastness of the country contributed to the varieties in the breed. The distances between the estates were great and every kennel was like island in a ocean. Thanks to a few breeders the native type of Borzoi was preserved to the end of 19th century, and their attributes have become more determined. Two of the bigger kennels, Gustopsovoy i Christopsovoy, exchanged the dogs and together raised the unique type – which are Borzois as we know them today. According to the logs and notations there were seven big kennels at the end of 19th century: The most renowned and popular was the Pershino breeder and the others were: Oseroff, Boldereff, Tschelischtscheff, Sumarokoff, Gejeroff and Bibikoff.

The breed soon recovered and that part of history was maybe the most fortunate period of their existing. They had lived the life for which they were created – the life of hunter. They represented a big treasure which could be owned only by nobility. It was unthinkable to sell them or buy them. Borzois were gifted to loyal people of the empire or were gifted as an expensive gift to the crowned heads of Europe.

They lived in better conditions than the most of the Russian population at the time. They were aristocratic dogs. Alleged; till the 1918, there was a legal act which provided death penalty for illegal ownership of Borzois. Nobility was strongly against illegal hunting on their estates, especially by using the dog as perfect as Borzoi.

In 1904 the Russian - Japanese war had began. Failures and big victims in that war had accelerated revolutionary expansion through decades of accumulated disappointments. In 1905 began the first bourgeoisies-democratic revolution and nine years after the First World War (1914-1918).The archaic economy of Imperial Russia could not satisfy the needs of the Russian army.  The exhausted country had approached to the total catastrophe. Bourgeoisie had made beneficial acts using the war situations. The attitude of workers was suddenly changed. All those disappointments of imperial regime made a revolutionary situation in the country. In 1917 and 1918 a democratic revolution proceeded in the proletarian revolution. For the first time on a sixth part of a planet Earth, in a Big October, has been realized the dictatorship of proletarians.

Nobility disappeared in Russia. It was a big tragedy for humans and animals. Everything associated on aristocracy was destroyed. Most of the kennels disappeared, and a small part of aristocracy has succeeded to flee with their dogs in Europe, mostly in Holland. Some of Borzois escaped to the woods and became wild. Most of them were killed by the furious revolutionary soldiers. The breed was again at the beginning of extinction. In 1920 the whole Russia had just a few sections of purebred Borzois, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Fortunately the communist reign admitted Chelischev, Sumarokov and Mamontov to save their dogs. They continued their work in national kennels. They started from nothing but they managed to save the breed. Today in Russia there are around 2000 Borzois with authentic pedigree. 

Borzoi, the magnificent dog bred only for hunting, with a perfect body for that purpose, these days does not hunt almost anywhere. A dog which was not bred as a pet, unaccustomed to pampering, complete individual, has become a dog only for exhibitions. The looks are the most important thing. Today the breed is again endangered.