Simeon Piščević

Simeon Piščević (Sid, 4 September 1731-Imperial Russia, November 1798) was a Serbian memoirist and Russian general.

Originally from the famed Serbian Paštrovići tribe, the Piščević family took their name from their own native village of Pišči. During the Great Migration of 1690 the Piščević family (in question) were soldiers in Austrian service. Simeon's grandfather, Gavrilo Piščević, was a light infantry officer on the Military Frontier dividing the Ottoman and Habsburg empires. Simeon's father Stevan Piščević was also a Military Frontier officer in the service of Empress Maria Theresa.

Simeon Piščević received his education in Šid, Novi Sad, Segedin, Osijek and Vienna. During the last two years of the War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748) Stevan Piščević took Simeon, his son, along as a volunteer in the Slavonian regiment of the Austrian Army. Being well-educated Simeon became an adjutant in no time. At 17 Simeon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Srem Hussar regiment. In 1749 General Jovan Šević gave him the rank of captain and ordered him to prepare to move to Russia. In the mid-eighteenth century, the demilitarization of the Military frontier of the Tisza River and Mures River districts compelled thousands of Serb frontiersmen to immigrate to Russia where they established a number of settlements, notably New Serbia and Slavo-Serbia. A reorganization of Serb border militias in Slavonia lead to the immigration of a number of high-ranking officers who distinguished themselves in the Russian military service, Peter Tekeli, Semyon Zorich, Rajko Preradović, Jovan Horvat, Jovan Šević and Simeon Piščević, among many others.

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