He bore himself scornfully, even harshly, towards everything foreign, and always strove to counteract each foreign thing by something of native Russian origin.
Denis Ivanovitch Von Vizin (1744-1792), as his name suggests, was the descendant of an ancient German family, of knightly rank.

An ancestor had been taken prisoner in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, and had ended by settling in Russia and assuming Russian citizenship.

The family became thoroughly Russified when they joined the Russian Church.

Von Vizin was of a noble and independent character, to which he added a keen, fine mind, and a caustic tongue.

His father, he tells us, in his "A Frank Confession of Deeds and Thoughts" (imitated from Rousseau's "Confession"), was also of an independent character in general, and in particular--contrary to the custom of the epoch--detested extortion and bribery, and never accepted gifts.