Origin and development
Cats of this breed fall in Western Europe with ships coming from the Russian town of Arkhangelsk, which is why they called them “blue archangels”. According to one version, the Russian Queen Ekaterina II in 1790 gave a rare pair of this breed to the English royal family, and according to another version, “blue archangels” landed on the British island with merchant ships in 1860.
In 1880 in London one of the first exhibitions of cats was shown to have several specimens of this breed. Since then, serious selection work has begun in England. Probably, in its over 100-year-old breeding history, the Russian blue cat has been crossed with different gray-blue cats from different countries and places, so it is now almost everywhere in Europe.
It is almost impossible to prove whether they are the descendants of the former breed of cats exported from Russia as a leather raw material for hats and coats. It is known that for many years Russian blue cats were ruthlessly slaughtered for the beautiful skins from which they made expensive women’s coats.
Over time, the former blue archangels were divided into heavy (British blue cat type) and light (Russian blue cat). In the breeding process, the Russian blue cat was also crossed with Siamese cats in 1940 to achieve the desired ease and slimness of the body. In this way the desired level of the standard was achieved and a few years later the standard was endorsed.
Appearance and standard
The Russian blue cat has a graceful, long-sleek, elegant body. The neck is long, straight, with an elegant curve. There is a relatively short wedge-shaped head, straight nose, large pointed ears, broad in its base, vertically placed. The nose is right, not too pointed. The eyes are large and expressive, wide, almond-shaped and green-colored. The limbs are tall and elegant.
There are oval paws and a relatively long pointed poop. But the most beautiful peculiarity is the uniform gray-blue coloration of the coat, which is silky-soft, with short, dense, tender and soft hairs with subcoat, which is equal in length to the hairs. When a sunlight came over the fur, it sparkled with steel glare. The color is uniform throughout the body, with a silver-gray bluish tinge.
The nose and paw pads are gray-blue in color. The disadvantages of the breed are: massive, large body, square or round head, yellow eyes and eyes with oval shape, white spots and stripes on the hair cover, wide at its base tail. An undesirable mark is the similarity with the Siamese cat.
The breed is presented with only one option:
RUS a – Russian blue cat.
Qualities and behavior
The Russian blue cat has a calm and balanced character. She is flattering and easily attached to family members, but at times she shows mistrust, especially for guests. It has a particularly pronounced hunting instinct. It is distinguished by its high purity, taking great care of its hair cover.