Alanian roots, engineers and scientists, chess champions. The story of the family I belong to — with respect both for what documents confirm and for what is kept as family tradition.
A lineage is not the past. It is the ground you stand on and the measure you hold yourself to. Renat Besolov
The Besolov family (Ossetian: Besoltæ) comes from the Alagir Gorge of Ossetia — heir to medieval Alania, the Christian kingdom of the Alans, ancestors of the Ossetians. By family tradition the line links its origins to the era of the last Alanian king Os-Bagatar (d. 1306) of the heroic Akhsartaggata house — the warrior lineage celebrated in the Ossetian Nart epic.
Os-Bagatar is a historical figure: around 1292 he established himself in Transcaucasia, controlled the Alagir Gorge and made the last attempt to revive Alanian statehood. This is the verified historical setting of the family; the direct pedigree from him to the present day is an honoured family tradition rather than a documented line. By family tradition Os-Bagatar is the founding ancestor of the Besolov line.
By family records, the Besolovs included people's judges of Dagom, officers and military commanders — a name with a martial and civic tradition, whose standing in Ossetia was anchored by an ancestral tower.
Patrilineal line per family records. Its medieval portion reflects family tradition: more than seven centuries separate Os-Bagatar (1306) from the present, and the list of names is an honoured tradition rather than a complete documented pedigree.
The Besolov name itself produced people of remarkable fate. By family records these include officers and military commanders, people's judges of Dagom, and the industrialist Georgy Besolov, whose sawmill in Canada employed about 500 people.
Colonel of artillery in the Russian army; emigrated to Turkey. During the Russo-Turkish war a general of the Turkish army, then deputy minister of the Navy of Turkey.
Major-General of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).
According to family records, the maternal line is connected to the Zvorykin family of Murom — one of the city's oldest merchant dynasties. This family includes figures of world stature. The connection is supported by the fact that the documented Zvorykin sibling group includes a sister named Milica — the same name that appears in our pedigree (Milica Zvorykina → Marian Besolov). Renat Besolov's great-grandmother was Milica Zvorykina: through her the family connects to this name.
Connection per family records. Highlighted: the node through which the branch enters the Besolov family, and Renat Besolov himself.
Russian-American engineer, creator of the iconoscope and kinescope — the basis of all electronic television; over 120 patents, U.S. National Medal of Science (1966). Called the "father of television."
Russian engineer-technologist; in 1893 he laid the scientific theory of metal cutting; professor and director of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Uncle of Vladimir Zworykin.
Soviet chess player, international grandmaster, three-time USSR champion, two-time Chess Olympiad winner, 1960 world-championship challenger. A relative of inventor V. K. Zworykin.
The Zvorykins are one of Murom's oldest merchant dynasties, attested from the 17th century: grain traders and owners of an Oka-river steamship line. Their family mansion now houses the Murom Historical-Art Museum, and in 2013 a monument to Vladimir Zworykin was unveiled in the city. Murom →
The Butaevs are an allied Ossetian family from the same Alagir Gorge, joined to our line through the female side (Varika Butaeva → the Besolovs). Among them are people who brought honour to Ossetia. Direct kinship by specific names is being verified, but this is a family of the same gorge and the same history. Renat Besolov's great-great-grandmother was Varika Butaeva: through her the Butaev name entered the family.
Connection per family records. Highlighted: the node through which the branch enters the Besolov family, and Renat Besolov himself.
Soviet economist, professor and director of the Institute of Red Professors in Moscow, first secretary of the North Ossetian regional committee. A street in Vladikavkaz and school No. 24 bear his name.
In Ossetia, a family's standing and independence were measured by its ancestral tower (masyg). By family records, in the 18th century the Besolovs built several ancestral towers in the Alagir Gorge, by the Sadon silver mines. Ossetian family towers are a documented cultural heritage: over a hundred survive today as protected monuments.
The family archive also records the Dzyubenko and Shmarlovsky lines. By family records, the Dzyubenko line includes an academic connected with a university in Crimea; this and other branches are currently being verified against independent sources and will be expanded as confirmation is found.