Ukrainian Origins
A Ukrainian by birth, Alexander Bezborodko (Ukrainian: Олександр Андрійович Безбородько) was born at Hlukhiv on the 14th of March 1747, and educated at home and in the seminary at Kiev. He entered the public service as a clerk in the office of Count P. A. Rumyantsev, then governor-general of Ukraine, whom he accompanied to the Turkish War in 1768. He was present at the engagements of Larga and Kagul, and at the storming of Silistria.
On the conclusion of the peace of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) the field marshal recommended him to Catherine II, and she appointed him in 1775 her petition-secretary. He thus had the opportunity of impressing the empress with his brilliant gifts, the most remarkable of which were exquisite manners, a marvellous memory and a clear and pregnant style. At the same time he set to work to acquire the principal European languages, especially French, of which he became a master. It was at this time that he wrote his historical sketches of the Tatar wars and of Ukraine.
His activity was prodigious, and Catherine called him her factotum. In 1780 he accompanied her on her journey through Novorossiya, meeting the emperor Joseph, who urged him to study diplomacy. On his return from a delicate mission to Copenhagen, he presented to the empress "a memorial on political affairs" which comprised the first plan of a partition of Turkey between Russia and Austria. This document was transmitted almost word for word to Vienna as the Russian proposals. He followed this up by Epitomised Historical Information concerning Moldavia. For these two state papers he was rewarded with the posts of "plenipotentiary for all negotiations " in the foreign office and postmaster-general.
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