 His father (1768–1854) was a career diplomat who served in Italy and France, and upon his return settled down at the paternal estate and became a Marshal of Nobility.According to the family legend, the Bakunin dynasty was founded in 1492 by one of the three brothers of the noble Báthory family who left Hungary to serve under Vasili III of Russia.But the first documented ancestor was a 17th-century Moscow dyak (clerk) Nikifor Evdokimov nicknamed Bakunya (from the Russian "bakunya", "bakulya" meaning "chatterbox, phrase monger").