After the German army attacked Poland in 1939, the Polish government had been residing in Zalishchyky town (Ternopil Oblast) for some time. When the Soviet Union entered the war, this government was evacuated to England through Romania and had been considered the legitimate government of Poland till 1945.
At the beginning of the XVIII century, in Lemesh village (Chernihiv Oblast) a boy Oleksiy Rozum was born. In time free from herding cows, he sang in the church choir where he was noticed and sent to St. Petersburg. Later, he became Count Rozumovsky and the crowned husband Empress Elizabeth (although, with no rights of succession to the throne). The count’s brother, Kyrylo, headed the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg at the age of 18 years, and later became the hetman of Left-bank Ukraine.
In Berdychiv town (Zhytomyr Oblast), in the church of St. Barbara, on March 14, 1850, a local beauty Ewelina Hanska wedded Honore de Balzac. In this very town, Frederic Chopin used to live for a long time. Apart from writing music, he also coordinated the renovation worksof the pipe organ of the church.
In 1601, in Hoshcha village (Rivne Oblast), the ancestral lands of Princes of Ostrog, in the local Arian school, a new student Hryhoriy (Yuriy) Otrepiev appears. After some time, either because of his own ambition or the ventures of his Polish protectors, he becomesthe King of all Rus – Lzhedmytriy I. In all fairness, it should be noted that he was quite a progressive king.
In Hlukhiv town (Sumy Oblast), on May 12, 1870, a rumor spread that their famous countryman Tereshchenko, Artemiy Yakovlevych, a well-known sugar manufacturer and philanthropist, was granted hereditary nobility by imperial decree. Later, his sons carried the title with dignity. However, his numerous grandsonswere engaged in other businesses. Mykhailo Tereshchenko became a Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs affiliated to the government of Alexander Kerenskyi; Tereshchenko, Fedir Fedorovych was a talented aircraft designer and washighly valued by the Żukowski’s noble family; his aircraft designs were used bythe Russian army in the World War I.
During the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa) in 1899-1902, the commander of one of the Boer detachments, the Ukrainian Yuriy Budyak, saved a young English journalist from execution. Later, the latter helped Yuriy Budyak to enter the University of Oxford. In 1917, Yuriy Budyak worked in the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. In 1943, he died in a Soviet concentration camp. The name of the English journalist was Winston Churchill.
The last twenty years of his long and turbulent life, Hetman Petro Doroshenko spent in honorable exile in Russia. He was the governor of Vyatka. The Russian Tsar granted him a mansion in the small town Yaropolche (Volokolamsk district nearby Moscow), 1 000 yards, and a pension of 1000 rubles. There he died andwas buried on November 9, 1698. He was married three times, had two daughters and three sons. His granddaughter, from the last marriage to Agatha Yeropkina was Nataliya Honcharova, the wife of Alexander Pushkin.
In Baturyn city (Chernihiv Oblast), on November 5, 1702, in the family of the general secretary PylypOrlyk, son Hryhor was born. Later, they will be forced to leave Ukraine. Pylyp Orlyk will be holding a position of hetman for over thirty years;however, the most part of his ruling will take place in exile. Hryhor Orlyk will become a prominent state and military leader of France, a general and a confidant of King Louis XV; he will receive the title of count and many European awards. In 1747,he will merry Louise Hélène Le Brun de Dinteville and become a rich landowner in France. He will also own a castle in Paris. In the middle of the XX century,in the territory that once belonged to Hryhor Orlyk, the international Orly Airport will be built.
