Borysov, Petro

Borysov, Petro [Борисов, Петро], b 1800 in Sevastopol, d 12 October 1854 in Malaia Razvodnaia, Siberia. Officer in the Russian army, member of the Ukrainian petty gentry, and a participant of the Decembrist movement. Borysov organized secret groups of the Society of Friends of Nature among the officers in Reshetylivka, Poltava gubernia, in 1818. He was the founder and president of the Society of United Slavs, which was organized in 1823 in Zviahel, Volhynia, and in 1825 merged with the Southern Society. Borysov participated in the revolt of the Chernihiv Regiment and was sentenced for this action in 1826 to hard labor for life. Eventually the sentence was changed to a lighter one. In 1839 he was resettled in Siberia. Petro’s brother, Andrii Borysov (1798–12 October 1854), helped organize the secret military societies mentioned above.

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