Vynsky, Hryhorii

Vynsky, Hryhorii [Винський, Григорій; Vyns'kyj, Hryhorij], b 1752 in Pochep, Starodub regiment, d after 1818. Writer. A member of the Ukrainian petty nobility, he studied at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy. Vynsky served in the Russian army in Saint Petersburg (1770–5) and lived there until 1779, when he was imprisoned for his freethinking (he translated and disseminated works of the French Enlighteners) and was forced to live in exile in Orenburg gubernia. He stayed there after being amnestied in 1805. Late in his life he wrote his memoirs, Moë vremia (My Time, published 1914); they are a valuable source for the study of Ukrainian society in the late 18th century.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]