Background
Vasily Alexeyevich Bilbasov was born on June 7, 1837, Poltava, Krasnodar, Russian Federation.
Vasily Alexeyevich Bilbasov was born on June 7, 1837, Poltava, Krasnodar, Russian Federation.
Vasily Alexeyevich graduated from the second gymnasium in Petersburg (1857), then еhe History and Philology Faculty of Petersburg University (1861). He defended his master's (1863) and doctoral (1867) dissertation. In 1867 he got the degree of doctor of general history.
Vasily Alexeyevich worked in Petersburg (1866) and Kiev University (1866-1871). In 1871 he retired and moved to Petersburg. In 1871-1883 he was the editor-in-chief of Golos, the influential liberal newspaper in Saint Petersburg.
His magnum opus, the fundamental History of Catherine the Second, published in 1890, and revealing aspects of the great Russian ruler's life that had been hitherto unknown, caused a furore, the second volume of it in 1891 was banned. By 1896, two more volumes of the treatise came out, but it remained unfinished.
