Note 51 — PRINCESS EKATERINA ROMANOVNA DASHKOV

Polubotok was a candidate for the office of Hetman after Mazeppa’s treason. Peter the Great appointed the weak Skuropadsky, saying that Polubotok was ‘much too clever’ and might be another Mazeppa. He owned more than two thousand peasant homesteads, and was one of the richest men in Little Russia; he did his utmost to defend the interests of his country against the encroachments of the Tsar’s officials, and for some time with success, but in 1723 he was imprisoned in the Peter-Paul fortress, where he died a year later.—(Translator’s Note.)