Historical Introduction
The first mention of Korzuns
(apparently, originally it was a nickname meaning "gap-toothed")
refers to the second half of the XIV century. This time is characterized by
civil wars throughout Eurasia. The Hundred Years War in France, the final stage
of the Reconquista in Spain, the so-called "Velikaya
Zamyatnya" (“Great Troubles”) in the Golden
Horde / in Russia.
The only large, centralized state in Europe for
decades was the Kingdom of Poland, gradually, by concluding treaties (Unions),
united with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Samogait.
The Russian people before the rise
of Moscow under Knyaz (Prince) Dmitry Donskoy was split into 2 States – the Horde and
Lithuania.
Dmitry Donskoy
Russia in 1453, with independent
Moscow State and Novgorod Republic
"Velikaya Zamyatnya" and the subsequent collapse of the Golden
Horde lasted for several decades. Khans replaced (deposed) each other more
often than once a year. The defeated khans and beks
went with their hordes to the West to serve the Lithuanian Knyaz
(Prince) or the Polish King; later, with the rise of Moscow, the Moscow Grand
Duke. Poland pursued a wise Imperial policy: Tatar Khans and Beks were attached to the existing Polish coats of arms.
Having received the same rights that the Poles and their nobles had, the Tatars
quickly became related with the Poles and Russians. It is known that Elena Glinskaya, the mother of Ivan IV, came from a Lithuanian szlachta (nobility) family, in which there was a legend
about their origin from Khan Mamai.
Khan Tokhtamysh, having been
defeated by Tamerlane, went to the Crimea. Later, Tamerlane ousted him from the
Crimea to the Bratslav region belonging to Lithuania
(present-day Kherson region). Tokhtamysh was a genghisite (unlike Mamai), that
is, a descendant of the great Genghis Khan, through his eldest son Jochi, the founder of the Golden Horde. Many believe that Jochi was not the natural son of Genghis Khan; he was the
son of his first and main wife Borte, who, according
to the "The Secret History of the Mongols", was at one time a
concubine of merkit Chilgir-Boko.
Monument to Genghis Khan in
Mongolia, 40 meters high
Below is the translated from the Polish fragment of
the book of Polish archivist S. Dziadulewicz. This
book is a collection of genealogical facts about the families of the
Polish-Tatar nobility. My notes are in
italics (Oleg K.).
Herbarz rodzin tatarskich w Polsce
Stanislaw Dziadulewicz
Wilno, 1929
(about Korzun
family: p.p. 413-414)
Korzuns, belonging to the coat of arms of the “Sea Cat with
an addition”, nicknamed Strykienicz, (coat of arms of
the Sea Cat with an addition of a torn arrow). The addition of the arrow apparently "cloned" the ancient
Polish coat of arms, that Korzun
family joined, resulting in a separate coat of arms of Korzuns.
Ancient
(1469) image of “Sea Cat” (Germ. “Meerkatze” i.e. sailors' pet monkey-marmoset);
over time,
the monkey turned into a cat.
Coat of arms “Sea Cat”,
one of the
48 coats of arms of the Union of Horodlo
“Sea Cat with an addition”
The family name Korzun is of
Turkish or Turanian origin.
“Turan” is
an Iranian word meaning the Central Asia lands where the Turkic people live.
Poles used this term on a par with the term of Russian origin
"Tatars". All szlachta (Polish nobility)
surnames are divided into Polish, Russian, Tatar, Karaite, maybe some other.
Since ancient times, the family has settled in the
Kiev region and Bratslav region. Judging by the mention of the Bratslav
region, the Turks had nothing to do with it, because only the Tatars who
remained in the Crimea were associated with the Ottoman Turks.
King Wladyslaw II Jagielo granted the Korzuns in
1386 for their loyal service the Moninsk majorat in the Russian territories, in the upper reaches of
the Dvina and Berezina rivers.
King Wladyslaw
II Jagielo
Jeremij Strykienicz Korzun, Governor of Kiev, with the permission of King Wladyslaw Jagielo, sells in 1407 Michalow Samsonowicz Kupstiow land Pustowske in stan Ivanovsky - Rozovskii Settlement,
12 empty "sluzba" in powiat
(district) Seversky - Biwiszcze,
and at the same time – 40 “wloka” with people, who
settled upon them, and 2,5 “wloka” in Smolensk powiat, provided that he continues military service to
"the Kings of Poland and the Russian Grand Dukes” (the title of the Polish King after the Union with Lithuania). The Polish “wloka”
is approximately 16 hectares. The Polish word “sluzba”
means peasant house from which the tax is taken.
This sale was witnessed by Hrehory
Korzun, the Key Keeper of the Kiev castle.
Korzuns participated in the The Sejm (Congress) of the Knights in Horodlo
in 1413.
The "Union of Horodlo" was concluded at this Sejm,
3 years after the defeat of the Teutonic Order by
Poles/Russians/Tatars/Lithuanians in the battle of Grunwald
(German name of the battle – “the battle of Tannenberg”,
Lithuanian name of the battle – “the battle of Zalgiris”).
Zacharjasz, armoured
cavalry captain, received from King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk "for great services and significant
chivalrous works and especially great losses suffered at Varna" new
privileges and confirmation of the former. The battle of
Varna (1444) is the decisive battle of the last Crusade.
King Kazimierz
IV Jagiellonczyk
From Zachariasz descended:
Michal, ensign; Jan, lieutenant JKM(?), who died in
1734; Symon, ensign JKM(?); Sylwester, cupbearer (“czesnik”) of Starodub, (deceased?) in 1739. Sylwester
owned the Laskowka majorat
in Mstislav Voivodeship.
Siemien received from King Zygmunt I in 1532 the right to the
property of Bronisz together with the Dvorzhishche in the land of Novogrudok,
provided that he was obliged to perform military service. Novogrudok – the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Samogitian.
King Zygmunt I
King Zygmunt II August confirmed this right to the
property to Siemion's brother Jurij
on 12.08.1551.
King Zygmunt II August
Siemion Olelkowicz, Knyaz (Prince) of Slutsk,
for loyal and good services granted Stefan and Jan 5 “wloka”
of land in the Kosienicze district in the land of Novogrudok of the Principality of Slutsk
in 1578, subject to their military service.
Protas,
a cavalier (“towarzysz”, i.e. a common horseman of noble birth) from the hussar regiment,
after several years of military service, returned to Kosienicz
and demanded his part.
Janusz Radziwill, head of
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, jointly with the assessor court divided the
property, armor and equipment in 1602 with his brother Jesif.
Janusz Radziwill
From Jesif descended Jan Korzon, a judge of the Oszmianski
district (“Powiat oszmianski”)
(1787).
His son Dymitr, landowner of
Zubowicze in the district of Slutsk,
Grozovsky parish. Grandson Teofil-Leonard
abandoned Zubowicze in favor of Koratkiewicz's
sister and moved to Minsk. Teofil-Leonard had sons: Konrad, Wladyslaw, Tadeusz and Stefan, daughters: Antonina,
married to Konstantin Proszynski, Elzbieta,
Juljanna, married to Feliks
Kieniewicz.
Fedor
was a Superintendent of Bridges of Oszmiansk, (1560).
Stanislaw signed the election of king Stanislaw Leszczynski in 1733.
King Stanislaw Leszczynski
Aleksander, the Huntsman of the land of Dobrzynsk,
filed a Manifesto on behalf of Dominik about the
burning of family papers and privileges, in particular – the right granted from
the Radziwills to the Zabolocie
majorat in the Novogrudok voivodeship of Kopylsk parish,
given to Samuel.
Jan, a cavalier of the Pyatigorsk
brigade, a Minsk tax collector who lived in Minsk, signed the act as ”Jan Strykinicz Korzun" in 1792,
then, when Kazimierz hr. Zawiscy
was elected Deputy to the Empress Catherine II, puts his signature as "Jan
Korzon".
He had a son, Adam, and a grandson, Taduesz Korzon, a prominent Polish historian, born in Minsk in
1839.
Tadeusz Korzon