Malcolm Rifkind — foreign secretary with roots in the Russian Empire
Malcolm Leslie Rifkind was born in Edinburgh on 21 June 1946, into a Jewish family of Lithuanian origin; his father was a credit draper. His connection to the Russian Empire runs through his grandfather's generation. Among his cousins were the politician Leon Brittan and the economist Samuel Brittan.
In his memoirs, Power and Pragmatism (2016), Rifkind records what his father had been told by his own father: that the family came from Mshad, known in Lithuanian as Mosėdis, a small town in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. The first to arrive in Edinburgh, in 1896, was his grandfather's brother, who had travelled from the family's home in Russia; the rest of the family followed in the same decade, like many Scottish Jewish families of Lithuanian origin. In 2003 Rifkind and three of his cousins travelled to independent Lithuania to see the town for themselves.
He was educated at George Watson's College and at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied law and took a postgraduate degree in political science, and from 1967 to 1969 taught at the university in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. Called to the Scottish bar, he practised as an advocate and later became a Queen's Counsel. He sat on Edinburgh City Council from 1970 and in February 1974 was elected Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Pentlands.
After the Conservative victory of 1979 he became a minister at the Scottish Office and then at the Foreign Office. In January 1986 Margaret Thatcher brought him into the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland; he became Secretary of State for Transport in 1990, for Defence in 1992 and, under John Major, Foreign Secretary from 1995 to 1997. He was one of the few ministers to serve throughout both premierships. He lost his seat in 1997 and was knighted that year.
He returned to the Commons in 2005 as Member for Kensington and Chelsea, and for Kensington from 2010, and chaired the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015, when he left Parliament. He has since been a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute and a visiting professor at King's College London.
"His grandfather's brother settled in Edinburgh in 1896, having come from the family's home in Mosėdis (Mshad), Kovno Governorate; the rest of the family followed in the 1890s."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Mosėdis (Mshad), Kovno Governorate (now Lithuania) — grandfather's family
In his memoirs he records that the family came from Mshad (Mosėdis), a small town in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire, and that his grandfather's brother was the first to settle in Edinburgh, in 1896. His father was a credit draper in Edinburgh.
His family emigrated from the Russian Empire (Lithuania) to Scotland.
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Mosėdis (Mshad), Kovno Governorate (now Lithuania) — grandfather's family. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.