Vasily Kapnist

Count Vasily Vasilievich Kapnist (Russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Капни́ст, 23 February 1758 – 9 November 1823), was a Russian (Little Russian) poet, playwright and nobleman who was known as an active critic of serfdom in Russia and as a proponent of restoration of the Zaporozhian host in the region of southern Ukraine. Kapnist was the grandson of a Greek merchant from Zakynthos. He was a descendant of the noble family of Capnissi (whose name derives from the Zakynthos surname Καπνίσης, cf. Kostas Kapnisis).

Kapnist was opposed to slavery and the serfdom, writing abolitionist poems during the 1780s. In the 1790s, he satirized judges and officers of the law as corrupt thieves and extortioners. He was denounced by the Russian censors for writing "libertarian" works. His comedy style later influenced two other comedy writers, Aleksander Griboyedov and Nikolai Gogol.

In April 1791, someone named "Kapnist" had a secret meeting with the Prussian chancellor Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg, trying to persuade the Prussian government to declare war on the Russian Empire in case of an uprising of Zaporozhian Cossacks against Russian rule. Friedrich Wilhelm II refused to give his own consent for such an action. While this Kapnist has been identified with Vasily Kapnist by some historians, two of Kapnist's brothers are also possible candidates for conspiring against the Empire.