Boris Grigoryevich Yusupov

From the house of Yusupov, a Russian noble family descended from 10th-century khans, he was elected a senator and became governor general of Moscow and St Petersburg.

His parents were Grigory Dmitriyevich Yusupov (1676–1730), friend and minister of war to Peter I of Russia, and his wife Anna Nikitchna Akinfova, daughter of an okolnichy (noble rank below that of boyar).

He became a chamberlain in 1730, governor general of Moscow in 1738 and a senator from 18 June 1695 to 3 March 1759.

Under Elizabeth I of Russia he was put in control of the Russian imperial schools and in 1749 was made governor of St Petersburg.

He married Irina Mikhaïlovna Zinovieva (1718-1788), daughter of Mikhaïl Petrovitch Zinoviev, with whom he had five children: