 He was married to Alexandra Karazina (née Mukhina) from Moscow, who was well known as one of Russian freelance translators of French literature into Russian; her stepfather was the Russian Imperial General major Egor von Blankennagel.Vasily Karazin was educated in nobility schools in Kharkov and then in Kremenchug.At the age of eighteen, he left for Saint Petersburg, and underwent military training in the 1st Semyonovsky Independent Rifle Regiment.