As for Count Sergei Stroganov, the Russian envoy, the history of his family can be traced back to the Moscow Grand Duchy era, and they are truly old nobility of Tsarist Russia. When Grand Duke Vasily II of Moscow was imprisoned by the Tatars, it was they who paid for his ransom.
During Ivan the Terrible's reign, they supported Russia's conquest of Siberia, and in return, besides granting the Stroganov family large territories along the eastern frontier of the Kama River and the Chusova River Basin, Ivan the Terrible also rewarded them.
