A student of the Nizhyn Lyceum, writer Nikolai Maksimovich Sementovsky (1819–1879) was born in the Poltava region. All his life he served as an official in various government organizations and at the same time was engaged in literary activities. With his move to St. Petersburg, Sementovsky begins to actively collaborate in magazines; especially in “Illustration”, published by his classmate N.V. Kukolnik, where he published several studies on the history and archeology of his native land. Among his most significant works are the drama “The Beggar” (1843), the novel “Baroness Flagsberg” (1848), the historical novels “Kochubey” (1845), “Potemkin” (1851), etc. This volume presents the novel “Kochubey” , which tells about the fate of the Ukrainian statesman and military leader of Left Bank Ukraine Vasily Leontyevich Kochubey. Having learned about the secret negotiations of Hetman Mazepa with the Swedish king Charles XII and the Polish king Stanislav Leshchinsky with the aim of separating Ukraine from Russia, Kochubey several times warned Peter I about the impending treason. However, the tsar, trusting the hetman, considered this information slander and handed over to Mazepa Kochubey and his like-minded Colonel Iskra, who fled to Russia, who were executed after torture.