Vinskii, Grigorh Stepanovich

Born 1752 in Pochep; died after 1818. Ukrainian nobleman and small landowner; author of Notes which covers the period from the 1750’s to 1793 and reflects the ideas of the Enlightenment.

In his Notes, Vinskii criticized the upbringing and morality of the gentry of his day and their abnormal mania for foreign things, the sham liberalism of Catherine II, and the fruitlessness of many reforms. He expressed sympathy for the serfs, although he did not draw any conclusions with regard to serfdom.

In 1818, Vinskii drafted and sent to the authorities “A Project for Strengthening Russian Trade With Upper Asia Through Khiva and Bukharia” (Russkii arkhiv, 1878, vol. 1, book 4), in which he proposed the organization of a military expedition to annex Khiva and justified his proposal by the necessity of ensuring the safety of the trade routes.