Kirill Razumovsky

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Count Kirill Razumovsky, by Louis Toke (Tokke)
Count Kirill Razumovsky, by Louis Toke (Tokke)

Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky, more correctly Rozumovsky, (Russian: Разумовский; Ukrainian: Розумовський) (1728-1803) was a Ukrainian Cossack who was appointed President of the Russian Academy of Sciences when he just turned 18 years old. This was due to the influence of his brother, Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky, called the "Night Emperor of Russia".

In 1750, he was made Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Selecting Hlukhiv and Baturyn as places of hetman's residence, Razumovsky had opulent baroque palaces erected in these sleepy towns by the imperial architect Andrey Kvasov. He also planned to open a Ukrainian university in Baturyn.

Catherine the Great, whom he wholeheartedly supported during the reign of her husband, made him a Field-Marshal, although he never saw a battle. She was soon disappointed, however, by his management of Ukraine. She didn't like his idea to make hetmanship a hereditary office, either, and abolished it altogether.

Kirill had several sons, of whom Count Aleksey Kirillovich (1748-1822) was the Minister of Education in 1810-16, and Prince Andrey Kirillovich (1752-1836) was the Russian ambassador in Vienna.

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