 Karazin was born in village, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), his father was Nazary Aleksandrovich Karazin, a Russian Imperial Army officer (noted for his involvement in Pârvu Cantacuzino's 1769 rebellion in Wallachia).His mother Varvara belonged to Russian nobility and was of partial Cossack starshyna ancestry.Vasily Karazin considered himself to be ethnic Serbian, though his paternal family originally known as Karadji stemmed from Greek people.