Bibikov, Dimitrii

Bibikov, Dimitrii, b 1792, d 6 March 1870 in Saint Petersburg. (Photo: Dimitrii Bibikov.) Russian political figure and general. From 1837 to 1852 Bibikov was military governor of Kyiv and governor-general of Kyiv gubernia, Podilia gubernia, and Volhynia gubernia; from 1852 to 1855 he was minister of the interior. He conducted a policy of Russification in Right-Bank Ukraine, extended the network of Russian schools, restricted the privileges of the Polish landlords and gentry, confiscated the properties of the Catholic clergy, and annulled the Lithuanian Statute. He was particularly active in the destruction of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. In 1847–8 he introduced regulations defining peasant work obligations and payments. He founded the Kyiv Central Archive of Old Documents.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]