Vasily Kochubey
Vasily Leontivych Kochubey (
Ukrainian: 'асилiй Леонтiйович Кочубей) (circa
1640 -
July 15,
1708) was a Ukrainian nobleman and statesman. His great-grandson was the eminent imperial statesman
Viktor Kochubey.
Between
1687 and
1704 Kochubey was a close associate of the Ukrainian hetman
Ivan Mazepa. He was nominated chief judge of the
Cossack Hetmanate and
stolnik. As a
Cossack military leader, Kochubey took part in the
Azov campaigns of
1695 and
1696.
In
1704 63-year-old
Ivan Mazepa proposed to marry Kochubey's 16-year-old daughter, Matryona. Kochubey refused his marital advances and distanced himself from Mazepa. Between
1704 and
1707 he warned repeatedly Tsar
Peter I of Russia about Mazepa's secret intention to break away from Russia. In
1707 he approached the governor of
Kiev,
Prince Dmitry Golitsyn, submitting detailed information about Mazepa's dealings with the Poles and Swedes and divulging the hetman's plan to side with
Stanislaus I Leszczyński and
Charles XII against
Russia.
The tsar, however, flatly refused to believe Kochubey. He commissioned
Gavriil Golovkin and
Peter Shafirov to investigate Kochubey's allegations. Presently, Vasily Kochubey was arrested and put to torture.
On July 15, 1708 Vasily Kochubey was beheaded in the village of Borshagovka, near
Bila Tserkva. Within few months Mazepa's treason became known and Kochubey was given dignified burial at
Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Kochubey's story was romanticised by
Aleksandr Pushkin in his poem
Poltava and by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his opera
Mazeppa.
*
Brockhaus-Efron entry 
