Memoirs of a Revolutionist by Peter Kropotkin

Our father was very proud of the origin of his family, and would point with solemnity to a piece of parchment which hung on a wall of his study. It was decorated with our arms -- the arms of the principality of Smolénsk covered with the ermine mantle and the crown of the Monomáchs -- and there was written on it, and certified by the Heraldry Department, that our family originated with a grandson of Rostisláv Mstislávich the Bold (a name familiar in Russian history as that of a Grand Prince of Kiev), and that our ancestors had been Grand Princes of Smolénsk.

"It cost me three hundred rubles to obtain that parchment," our father used to say. Like most people of his generation, he was not much versed in Russian history, and valued the parchment more for its cost than for its historical associations.