Ryazan Governorate
Pyotr Borisovich Gannushkin was born in the Russian Empire in 1875 in the village of Novosyolki in the Pronsk district of the Ryazan Governorate (the present-day Ryazan Oblast). His father Boris was a physician, a compassionate and precise man. His mother Olga (née Mozharova) came of an impoverished Russian landed family. Well-bred and educated, she was fluent in French and German, interested in philosophy, and fond of music, poetry and art. She was, moreover, a gregarious and kind-hearted woman.