In the 18th and 19th centuries the Odoyevsky family formed part of the highest aristocracy. However, despite their illustrious background, the members of the family occupied relatively mediocre ranks and offices, becoming (for example) as colonels, ministerial officials and junior generals, while many family members held regular junior officers' ranks. Prince Alexander Ivanovich Odoyevsky (1802–1839), a cornet in the Imperial guards, was a member of the and took part in the revolt of 1825. He was sentenced to katorga, but in 1837 he was transferred to the Caucasus with the rank of private. The last member of the Odoyevsky family, Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky (1803–1869) was a writer, philosopher and a musical critic; he served as an employee at a series of institutions; from 1846 he was the assistant to the head of the Russian Imperial Public Library and the curator of the Rumyantsev Museum. In 1861 he was appointed a Senator. He died childless.