History of the breed

The mystery of a Russian blue cat is shrouded in myths and contradictions. But the fate of the breed helps us reveal it. Russian, Spanish, Arkhangelskaya, Maltese, Exotic, Foreign, Eastern and even American blue - these are confusing variants of the original name of the breed. Similar cats have been seen and pictured in the Kola Peninsula, in the northern and central parts of Russia, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Baltic States, Spain… since the 16th century. The opinions of the origin of the breed have been divided. Some cat fanciers admit that it is a native Russian breed, others affirm that this breed has nothing to do with Russia. It is generally known that the Russian blue cat was the breed of the English selection to a considerable extent, but at the same time it is a fact that it has never been met in England in natural conditions. The opinions of the Russian blue cat are contradictory: it is called a cat for experts and delicate connoisseurs, a polite and arrogant aristocrat of the Victorian period, and besides a rural and folklore female-cat, a hot-tempered hunter and a rat-catcher and sometimes an urban female-cat that dwells in the gateway. It was depicted as both a bit wild and affectionate, as independent and tenderly attached to a human being, as sociable and disposed towards loneliness, as quite a big female-cat with strong bones or as a light graceful creature. Contradictions touched upon the standard of the Russian blue female-cat as well. Now and then the standard ascribed a triangular or a wedge-shaped form of the head, round or almond-shaped eyes, oval or round paws.

The Russian blue is one of the most ancient breeds. It has been mentioned in the English chronicles since 1860. British sailors who worked on boards merchant vessels would bring blue cats with grey fur and a bluish skin from the shore of the White Sea, Arkhangelsk. The inhabitants of the harbour would keenly buy these cats as they had been unknown to them: they were good mice-catchers and had thick and brilliant fur that resembled a fur-seal or a beaver. It is possible that British people should have learnt of their existence much earlier. As long as 1553 British people founded a trading station in Arkhangelsk to export timber and furs. And at that time they may have got to know blue cats. In the legend, Catherine the Great presented a blue cat to the British Royal family. However should it be, Arkhangelsk cats have been exported to England regularly since the second half of the 19th century. They were taken away from homesteads together with cheap popular prints (the first pictures of the Russian blue female-cats). The pictures hung in Russian huts, we can see their simple plots in present days: for instance we can see the mice burying the cat in one of those pictures. An interest in female-cats had been growing and it became prestigious to acquire and keep them in the mansions of the nobility. Several blue female-cats are considered to have been sent to the court by the tsar Nicholas the Second. It was rumoured that these female-cats had a magic ability to send evil spirits away; so they were put in babies' cradles.

In the seventies of the 19th century British cat fanciers were interested in Arkhangelsk blue cats. The fanciers made up their minds to use them to grade up the local British blue cats, the fur of which couldn't be compared with beautiful silvery-blue plush fur of foreign cats. In 1880 Arkhangelsk cats were exhibited for the first time. After the exhibition an intensive export from Russia took place. It was in 1883 when a great amount of cats were exported. Till the end of the 19th century and in the first decade of the 20th century Arkhangelsk cats were exhibited in one class together with British and French blue short-furry cats. They were united according to the colour. Due to lack of partners they were quite often interbred with blue cats on both sides of the La Manche.

At the turn of the centuries Mrs. Carry-Cox became the most famous selectionist of Arkhangelsk blue cats. She imported cats from Russia and she was the first to give them a testimonial. She wrote: "In 1890 I got Kolya - a beautiful blue and white cat. It was exported from the Kola Peninsula located between the White Sea and the Barents Sea. It changed several masters in the open sea and finally it was exchanged for a leg of mutton in London docks. Kolya was a very nice little cat. It had an absolutely round muzzle and very soft fur. It died in November of 1900". There were apparently bicolours among the cats that had been exported. They may have been bred side by side with one-colour ones at first. It accounts for the appearance of white spots at times, of medallions and hairs in the later breeding up to the present days. In 1893 Mrs. Carry-Cox brought the cat Olga from Arkhangelsk, then Limpopo, Moscow, Boyard, Fashida, Odessa and Julia. They became well-known. Today we can see the pictures of Julia and Boyard. They are a little bit more thick-set than the modern Russian blue female-cats, the form of the head is more brightly-outlined, one can't help noticing a moustache cushion; a posture and a form of ears, proportions of the body and short plush "standing" fur are very close to the contemporary conception of the breed and completely coincide with phenotype of aboriginal Russian blue cat, that you can see, f.i., in Arkhangelsk or in Dubna. In Carry-Cox s inscriptions under the photos we can read: "Julia, Russian, Arkhangelsk. The owner and breeder Carrieu-Cox", "The imported cat Boyard, was born in 1898". Julia came to her in 1901, Boyard, the famous sire of the cattery, became the ancestor of many English Russian blue. cats.
In 1903 in England "The book of cats" by Miss Simpson was published in which it's said clearly that Russian blue cat takes it origin from environs of Arkhangelsk. Carrieu-Cox's notes about Russian blue placed in this book are till now actual: "Blue short-haired cats from Russia are loved as home companions very much. In any season they look well groomed and they excel all the others in their intelligence and breeding. …Most imported cats have heads of rather sharp than round form, some of them have not only narrow lean face but also big ears. The ears are gently fur-trimmed inside and covered with soft silvery hair outside. Some of imported cats have more round muzzle and round head with small ears placed apart. These cats were given the preference in the shows." Primordially Russian sign of breed is considered to be short thick silky hair that sharply distinguished imported cats from English blue domestic cats. Some of the imported cats had amber-colored or golden eyes, but most of them had green eyes. The first name of this cat -Arkhangelsk blue- had been kept till 1912.

The merits of England in formation of the breed are unquestionable: the cat was named, its origin was determined, it took part in a show for the first time and got a description. However, almost at the same time with the English experiments the breeding of Russian blue appeared in the other European countries. The famous Norwegian cattery was "Canon Guilderstone", Carrieu-Cox got pair of pedigree cats from its owner as a gift. Cats were found in natural conditions in the northern Scandinavia: on the opinion of some researchers of the breed, this is the evidence of cats' Russian origin since the time of the Vikings. At the beginning of the XX century Arkhangelsk cats appeared in the USA. In the Yale university library there are documents where Russian blue cat is mentioned, the large glaucous cat belonging to Alexis, the son of Nicholas II, is described.

The division of English blue cats into two categories - more heavy blue British type and lightened foreign blue type - became the important event in history of the breed. The new name of a cat:" Foreign blue" - was registered in 1912. The tradition of this name is still alive in some standards of Russian blue, where the type of build is described by the word "foreign". The number of admirers of the breed was increasing, and in the 30-s the Association of fanciers of Russian blue cats was founded, the standard was defined more exactly, green color of the eyes becoming a strict requirement. And the name Russian blue appeared at the first time in Great Britain only in 1939 and the first generations of cats and under such a name they come to the fore with their show-class.

The First World War interrupted the breeding and the breed was on the brink of destruction. Russian blue cats were kept by the British Zoo Dunlow. Its employees have always felt a sympathy for the breed that suffered a lot during the war. After the war there were a few cats left. British and Swedish factory-owners began their interbreeding with Siamese cats to save and rehabilitate the breed. They wanted to create a new base, grade up the colour of eyes and have nothing to do with the British kind. The experiment lasted long years and unfortunately it produced harmful consequences: disproportions (lengthening of the body, head and extremities), a tubular body, skeleton emaciation, diminution of dimensions.

At the beginning of the sixties the Russian blue cat acquires evident qualities of an oriental kind. This fact troubled the factory-owners and prompted them to join forces and formulate a new standard in 1965 that contained the main points of the modern Russian blue cat. The Siamese kind was declared undesirable. The cardinal attention was given to the quality of the fur, the profile was reviewed, the main element of that was the angle of the upper part of brows; the form of a moustache cushion that was becoming a distinctive expressive aspect of the head was taken into consideration as well. The new standard was assumed as a basis for all further standards and its principal tendency is a Siamese phobia that can be seen in new (including American) standards depicting their round eyes-form. After 1965 a lean kind of the Russian blue cat was disappearing gradually. In 1972 the breed won its fanciers' confidence. This episode may serve as a caution against a dangerous interbreeding with alien rears that leads to undesirable and often irremovable genes. The genes produce consequences of long duration for breeding. There is a Siamese colour in the brood of the Russian blue female-cat. As for a lightweight it was being preserved during the 1980th - 90th. This breed still gets the highest points, for instance in American exhibitions.

In the 1970th the original kind of the Russian blue cat was restored on the whole. By that time European, especially Swedish nurseries (where the factory-owners always collaborated with B ritish selectionists) had taken an active part in breeding. The Dutch breeding was guided by the import lines at first: in 1965 two Swedish cats were imported, then two cats adapted in the Dutch nursery "Van Bern de San-Pier". Belgian and Swiss (by the way quite successfully) factory-owners joined the selection. In France the breeding bore an episodic character but in Germany a group of enthusiasts formed in Darmstadt as a center. The pioneer of the new treatment of the breed was the nursery "Laurinburg" (Frau Vassil, the factory-owner). The cat Popov became very popular, its master Frau Weber propagandized the breed in the mass media. However, the European breeding of that time didn't lead to considerable consequences; it is possible that the animals may have been interbred in a narrow circle and this fact may have caused their miniaturization. Recession followed the reviving of the 1970th. The further development of the breed seemed to have ceased in wait for something.

Eastern Europe was opened for the West in the second half of the 1980th and a slow influx of new forces took place. In the 1990th Russia joined the breeding of the Russian blue cats at last.

It is generally known that the first Russian blue cats came to our country from the Republic of Czech and Slovak where the lines and methods of the European breeding were used. Czech cats inherited a beautiful oval form of large liquid green eyes, the fur that is of light colours as a rule. They turned out to be more tolerant (in contrast with the European cats) to get over the consequences of Siamesation but nevertheless the birth-marks of the Siamese kind wouldn't disappear, that's why the bones were a bit weak, the profile was a bit straight, the head was quite often narrow in the lower part and there was a lack of hairs.

The strangers excited a lot of Russian interest in aboriginal phenotypic Russian blue cats that resembled them in the type. The strangers returned them the classical thick fur of their ancestors and correct body and head proportions though sometimes they didn't resemble in colours (dark colours prevailed, there was a lack of "silver" in the fur). In the 1990th the imported Dutch cats were bred as well. Their pedigree was of the British lines.

Elizabeth Kulova
The magazine "Between Cat and Dog", 2002, №19, pp. 30-35.