Senator D. P. Troshchinsky — “The Benefactor of Little Russia”

Abstract

D. P. Troshchinsky, a native of the heartland of Ukraine, a descendant of an ancient Cossack family, who became one of the most influential people in the empire, a confidant of Empress Catherine II and Emperor Paul I, never forgot about his native land. The young N. V. Gogol used to call him “the benefactor of Little Russia”. During the Patriotic War of 1812, Troshchinsky founded a local Cossack people’s militia of Little Russia and, in letters full of fervent patriotism and appeals to M. I. Kutuzov, encouraged him to fight the enemy, knowing that Russia had to win because “the strength of our people is great”. Troshchinsky’s Poltava estate in the village of Kibintsy was a significant cultural center of the region, called “Little-Russian Athens”. The senator constantly supported many writers and artists from his country, including N. V. Gogol, V. V. Kapnist, V. L. Borovikovsky and others. The scene from the prose of T. G. Shevchenko in which one of the heroes seeks to go to the Poltava region to “bow to the ashes of the glorious Cossack-nobleman Troshchinsky” can serve as an example of his great fame in his homeland.