The Borozdin lineage is an ancient branch of the Russian nobility, traceable to the early 14th century.
The progenitor, Yuri Lozynich (Юрий Лозынич), a nobleman of Volhynian origin, entered the service of the Grand Prince of Tver around 1327. His descendants served as Tver boyars, then transferred to Muscovite service after Tver's annexation under Ivan III, and were later entered in the Velvet Book (1688) and the General Armorial of the Russian Empire. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the family had reached the height of Imperial influence, producing senior military officers, senators, and civil administrators, most notably the Mikhailovich brothers: Generals Mikhail (1767-1837) and Nikolai (1777-1830) Borozdin, distinguished commanders during the Napoleonic Wars.
Following the 1917 Revolution, members of the family generally followed the trajectory of the service nobility: some emigrated, while others adapted to Soviet institutions. Ilya Nikolaevich Borozdin (1883-1959), a historian-orientalist, typified the "stay and adapt" path, maintaining an academic career despite arrest and exile during the 1935 "Slavists' Case" repressions.
Eduard Konstantinovich Borozdin (b. 1933, Leningrad) represents the mid-to-late Soviet shift toward applied agricultural science. He described himself as born into a family of former nobles. A Doctor of Agricultural Sciences and academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN), his early research was conducted at the All-Russian Research Institute of Agriculture of the Far North (1958-1978); from 1979 to 1998 he headed units at the All-Russian Research Institute of animal genetics, selection, and reproduction.