The Bakunin family claims descent from Stephen Báthory, the Prince of Transylvania who campaigned against Ivan the Terrible for control over Livonia.[2] According to the family legend, the Bakunin dynasty was founded in 1492 by Zenislav Bakunin, one of the three brothers of the Báthory family who left Hungary to serve under Vasili III of Russia. Zenislav was subsequently baptised as Peter Bakunin and granted estates in Ryazan, where his family continued to serve the Russian Empire.[3] But the first documented ancestor of the Bakunins was a 17th-century Moscow clerk Nikifor Evdokimov, who became a noble in 1677, going by the nickname of "Bakunin".[4]
Pyotr Vasilyevich-Bolshoy Bakunin [ru] (1724—1800) — official of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs,[2] rose to the rank of Active State Councillor. From 1783 to 1785 he was the leader of the nobility in Luga district, married to Ekaterina Andreevna Barteneva, had three daughters: Anna, Alexandra and Maria.
^Khmelevsky, A.N., ed. (22 October 1800). "Герб рода Бакуниных" [Bakunin coat of arms]. All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire (in Russian). Vol. 5. p. 41 – via gerbovnik.ru.
