Hudovych

Hudovych [Hudovyč]. Name of a Cossack starshyna family. Among its members was Vasyl Hudovych (d 1764), a fellow of the standard and a general treasurer (1764) in the Hetman state. He was a member of the delegation that went to the Russian government in 1745–9 with the request to restore the Hetman state.

Vasyl's son Ivan (1741–1820) had an illustrious career in the Russian service. He was named a count in 1797 for his exploits during the Russo-Turkish wars and as governor-general of Caucasia was appointed the military governor of Kyiv and, later, Kamianets-Podilskyi, with jurisdiction in Volhynia gubernia and Minsk gubernia (1798–1800). In 1807 he became a field marshal for his role in annexing and subduing Caucasia in 1806–7. In 1804 he became commander of the Russian army in Moscow and a member of the State Council. He retired in 1812. He was married to the daughter of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky, Praskoviia.

Another son, Andrii (b 1731, d 24 June 1808), studied, like his brother Ivan, at the universities of Königsberg, Halle, and Leipzig. He had close ties with Prussian governing circles. He was an adjutant general and adviser to Tsar Peter III (1761–2) and took part in the diplomatic negotiations ending the Seven Years' War. After Empress Catherine II came to power, he went into retirement, traveled abroad, and lived on his large estates in Starodub regiment and Chernihiv regiment. He maintained close ties with members of the Novhorod-Siverskyi patriotic circle and with Vasyl Kapnist. For his loyalty to Peter III, his son, Tsar Paul I, made Andrii Hudovych a general and a knight in 1796. The Hudovych family had familial and social ties with most of the Ukrainian elite of the period.

Oleksander Ohloblyn

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]