You know, I still hope that one day I’ll publish a book about the life of our wonderful fellow townsman, Roman Maksimovich Tsebrikov.
He was born in Kharkiv on October 1, 1763, into the family of a member of the Cossack leadership who, however, had himself come from a Cossack background. His father, Maxim Trofimovich Tsebrikov, died young, leaving his wife and children without a means of support. The family lived in poverty; Roman was taught to read and write by his older brother, Ivan, who lived in Kharkiv. Ivan also arranged for Roman to attend supplementary classes, which Roman completed in 1779, after which he entered the service of the Kiev governor’s office. That same year, he left to work as a translator for the Putivl merchants Tikhonov and Dekhteev. He then enrolled at the University of Leipzig, where he studied theology, philosophy, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and purchased hundreds of books. In 1785, Tsebريكov graduated from the university with honors, and upon returning to St. Petersburg, he joined the Collegium of Foreign Affairs as a clerk.
Upon arriving at Potemkin’s headquarters, he served as an official on a secret foreign expedition; in 1789, he was promoted to the rank of translator, and in 1792, he was granted the rank of collegiate assessor and awarded 4,500 desiatinas of land in the Tiraspol District.
That same year, he served at the mission of Count Yakov Sivers, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, in Poland. In 1799, Tsebrikov was promoted to the rank of Collegiate Counselor, and was instructed to keep cipher keys, imperial decrees, and other documents pertaining to the secret department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in his custody; beginning in 1800, he was entrusted with reviewing translations for newspapers published twice a week. From 1803, Tsebrikov served as a State Counselor, and from 1806, he was a Knight of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th Class, “for outstanding service under General of Infantry Count Budberch and for the translation from German of Olof Dalin’s History of Sweden… In 1808, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 2nd Class. On January 1, 1811, Roman Maksimovich Tsebريك was promoted to the rank of full State Councilor, and in 1817 he was nominated for the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class, with diamonds.
In addition to his official duties, Tsebrikov was engaged in literary work. He worked on a play about the capture of Bender, kept diaries, and maintained a journal of the military operations of 1788. He worked on a translation from French of A. Gudar’s political treatise *Peace in Europe Can Be Restored Only Through a Prolonged Truce, or A Plan for Universal Reconciliation…*. An anonymous German work written in English, *Letters to Two Young Married Women on Important Matters*. At the behest of Catherine II, he translated W. F. Dalin’s *History of the Swedish State…* from German.
Also published in Tsebrikov’s German translation are: “Practical Logic, or Active Logic…” by P. Viom; “Observations on the Sense of the Beautiful and the Sublime in the Judgment of Human Nature in General and of National Characters in Particular” by I. Kant; “A Collection of Outstanding Works on Legislation and the Administration of the State Economy, Especially Finance and Commerce…”; “Criminal Law” by P. Feuerbach; “Selected Sayings of Massilion, Bishop of Clermont”; “The Newest German-Russian Self-Study Dictionary…” and others.
The library he assembled contained more than 10,000 books and, according to his contemporaries, was one of the finest private libraries of its time. Among Tsebrikov’s acquaintances and friends were Karamzin, Fonvizin, the Plavilshchikovs, the Knyazhnins, Virst, Admiral Krusenstern, the navigator and astronomer Gamaleya, the composer Bortnyansky, and the renowned jurist and professor of philosophy Lody and Radishchev.
Roman Maksimovich Tsebrikov was married to Ekaterina Alexandrovna Karaulova, whose sister, Varvara Alexandrovna, was married to General of the Infantry B. Ya. Knyazhnin, the son of Ya. B. Knyazhnin.
Here is a short excerpt from a book about him that I would like to publish:
… There were quite a few stops at the stations just before Kharkiv; but despite all that, on the morning of the second day of this annual celebration, I saw, two versts away, the gilded domes of the cathedral and other churches of my homeland. I am unable to put into words the emotions that overwhelmed me at that time, twenty-two years after my departure from the place where I was born; I can only recall that, amid many turbulent thoughts about my past life, I was in a very melancholy state of mind and heart. Upon entering the city, I saw a great change in its buildings; I was quite surprised by the multitude of stone houses where previously there had been only wooden ones. Not a single wooden church met my eyes—there had still been five of them when I last left my homeland. So much had changed in the city’s appearance over the course of twenty-two years; and I noticed this only while passing through it; but after staying for about a week, I saw even greater changes in the buildings, streets, and so on.
Meanwhile, I found myself in my brother’s courtyard: upon entering the room, I saw a beautiful young woman; she hurried to meet me—we embraced; she says: “Uncle, we’ve been expecting you any minute, ever since we received your last letter about your departure from St. Petersburg to come here.” Just then, my brother comes out of a side room—tall, lean, and looking a bit worn out, having just finished his morning prayers; “Hello,” he says, “my dear brother”—“Hello”—we embrace, kiss, and shed tears of joy, tears of reunion, and tears of mixed sorrow, recalling at the same time the loss of our dearest friends in life; our priceless spouses, who left this world in the month of March and passed away ten days apart, one after the other. Amid these first embraces and tears, another niece enters—just as beautiful as the first who appeared earlier—and flies into my arms. My brother tells me, “This is my younger daughter; go call the older one, Varenka: wherever she is, let her leave her kitchen duties.” All three of them have their designated days for managing the household. – Finally, the third one appears—a sweet, lovely, modest young lady—and the same rapture, the same admiration, the same tears all over again: “Mother, Auntie is no longer with us!!!” He ordered that his brother and his three young sons—my nephews—be woken up; and again there were hugs, kisses, and tears; at that moment I remembered my own little ones, spending the holidays without me, without their mother! Then my emotional turmoil gradually subsided: I was then able to look upon my dear nieces and nephews with great pleasure and a greater sense of peace of mind; a lively joy spread through our hearts—they were mine, after all—and joy was written on our faces; words flowed from our lips, and conversations came to life: first, individual ones; then, shared ones; each spoke in turn, repeating what only the fullness of heartfelt emotions compelled them to say, to express, or to add to another’s words. Tea was served;—and then all three nieces tried to please me in the most delightful way, showing affection, talking, telling stories, and sharing their opinions; my brother and I laughed heartily at their innocent chatter; the liveliness of their youth comforted us; but the pleasantness and ease of their expressions captivated me. The little nephews also did not fail to babble a bit and talk about their absent brothers, about seeing them again, and so on. In short, our conversation resembled a gathering of numerous revelers; but the participants in this conversation consisted solely of blood relatives, who gave free rein to their heartfelt emotions—whatever could be expressed in words—without any pretense or the slightest compulsion…”
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