Count
Kirill Grigorievich RazumovskyRazumovsky or Rozumovsky is a Ukrainian-Russian comital family whose remaining branch went into exile in Austria in the early 19th century. The root of the family begin from the cossack Grigoriy, Hryts, who was a runaway serf...
(born March 18, 1728 - died January 1, 1803) was a
UkrainianUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
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CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
from the Polk of Kozelec in north-western Ukraine, who ruled as the last
HetmanHetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Rzeczpospolita....
of Left- (from 1750) and Right-Bank (from 1754) Ukraine until 1764; Razumovsky was subsequently elected Duke of the sovereign Zaporozhian Host in 1759, a position that he managed to nominally conserve until 1769, even though he had lost all factual power to exercise this office with his abdication in November 1764.
Kirill
Rozum was appointed President of the
Russian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is...
when he just turned 18 years old.
Count
Kirill Grigorievich RazumovskyRazumovsky or Rozumovsky is a Ukrainian-Russian comital family whose remaining branch went into exile in Austria in the early 19th century. The root of the family begin from the cossack Grigoriy, Hryts, who was a runaway serf...
(born March 18, 1728 - died January 1, 1803) was a
UkrainianUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
Register-
CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
from the Polk of Kozelec in north-western Ukraine, who ruled as the last
HetmanHetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Rzeczpospolita....
of Left- (from 1750) and Right-Bank (from 1754) Ukraine until 1764; Razumovsky was subsequently elected Duke of the sovereign Zaporozhian Host in 1759, a position that he managed to nominally conserve until 1769, even though he had lost all factual power to exercise this office with his abdication in November 1764.
Kirill
Rozum was appointed President of the
Russian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals.Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is...
when he just turned 18 years old. This was due to the influence of his brother, Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky, the morganatic husband of Czarina Elisabeth I and father of Princess Augusta Tarakanova, known as nona Dosifeja of the Ivanovskiy Monastir in Moscow.
In 1750, he was elected and subsequently anointed
Hetman of the Ukrainian CossacksHetman was the title used by commanders of the Ruthenian Dnieper Cossacks from the end of the sixteenth century. The title hetman was adopted from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
, a title he held until
Catherine II of RussiaCatherine II , also known as Catherine the Great, born . She was Empress of Russia from until . Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines...
forced him to abdicate in 1764. During his reign,
BaturynBaturyn , is a historic town in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine. It is located in the Bakhmatskyi Raion of the oblast, on the banks of the Seym River...
was re-established as capital of the Hetmanate and Razumovsky had opulent baroque palaces erected both in Baturyn as well as in Hlukhiv by the imperial architect
Andrey KvasovFor the Kyrgyz-Kazakhstani swimmer with the same name see Andrey Kvasov Andrey Vasilievich Kvasov was a notable baroque architect who worked in Russia and Ukraine. Very little is known about his life, and its dates are still uncertain.In 1741, Kvasov helped Mikhail Zemtsov to...
and Charles Cameron. He also planned to open a Ukrainian
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in Baturyn.
In July 1762, Razumovsky supported the coup d'état Catherine the Great staged against her husband, the legitimate ruler of the Russian Empire, Czar Peter III. Shortly thereafter, in May 1763, Kirill Razumovsky, backed by the Heneralna Starshyna of the Hetmanate, declared the Ukrainian state's sovereignty and the heredity of the title in primogeniture for his descendants in the male line. Into the phase of the ensuing power struggle between the Hetman and the Czarina, fell the failed attempt to free the deposed Czar Ivan VI in Schluesselburg by one of Razumovsky's followers, a young cossack noble by the name of Myrovych. However, Razumovsky's active support or even tacit approval was never proven. In November 1764, the Hetman eventually gave in to the military threat exerted by the Empress and abdicated. From 1765 to 1766, he traveled extensively to Western Europe, yet always accompanied by a Russian "honour guard", which was a privilege associated with the rank of Field-Marshal, conveniently accorded to him by Catherine II. Effectively, Razumovsky was banned from traveling to his Ukrainian homeland until the last bastion of the Hetmanate, the Zaporozhian Host, had been vanquished by Grigori Potemkin in 1776. Kirill Razumovsky died in January 1803 in Baturyn, where he was interred according to his wishes without any pomp, in stark contrast to his rather flamboyant lifestyle.
Kirill had five sons, of whom Count Aleksey Kirillovich (1748-1822) was the Minister of Education in 1810-16, and Prince
Andrey KirillovichCount Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky was a Russian diplomat who spent many years of his life in Vienna.-Life :...
(1752-1836) was the Russian plenipotentiary ambassador in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
in the years of the Congress 1814-1815. However, Andrey has become better known for his role as patron of Ludwig van Beethoven who dedicated three String Quartets, Op.59 1, 2 and 3, as well as the 5th and 6th Symphonies to him. Any living descendants in the male line of Kirill Razumovsky arise from the progeniture of his fourth son Gregor Razumovsky (1759-1837), who had to emigrate to Western Europe due to his critique of czarist totalitarian rule and acquired relative fame as natural scientist and member of a number of distinguished scientific societies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
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