Bezborodko

Bezborodko [Безбородько; Bezborod'ko]. A family line of landowning Cossack starshyna officers from the Pereiaslav region. The family originated with the Polish nobleman Damian Księżycki who joined the Cossacks and served under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. According to legend, in one of the battles of the Cossack-Polish War, his chin was cut off by the Poles, and since then his family bore the surname Bezborodko (‘chin-less’). Yakiv Bezborodko (d ca 1730) was a fellow of the banner in the Pereiaslav regiment from 1724 to 1730. His son Andrii (1711–80), a graduate of the Kyivan Mohyla Academy, became the general chancellor of the Hetman state in 1741–2 and 1750–62 and, from 1762, a general judge in retirement. He was the virtual head of the Ukrainian government during the hetmancy of Kyrylo Rozumovsky. An intellectual who had personal contacts with Voltaire and Denis Diderot, Andrii assembled a large collection of paintings, books, and antiques. He was also a generous philanthropist who supported Ukrainian educational institutions and the church. His sons were Prince Oleksander Bezborodko (1747–99), a well-known statesman in the Russian Empire during the latter half of the 18th century, and Count Illia Bezborodko (1756–1815), a participant in the Russo-Turkish wars of 1768–74 and 1787–91, who became lieutenant general in 1795 and later a privy councillor to the tsar and senator. Illia was the founder of the Nizhyn Lyceum (originally known as the Bezborodko Gymnasium). The Bezborodko lineage died out during the first half of the 19th century. Oleksander bequeathed his huge estate and collection of paintings, bronzes, and porcelain to Illia’s daughter who married Admiral Kushelev, and their descendants were entitled to a double-barrelled surname of Kushelev-Bezborodko.

Pavlo Mykhed

[This article was updated in 2024.]