His father was Fyodor Poltoratsky, who settled in the centenary town of Sosnitsa of the Chernigov Regiment of the Hetman's Ukraine and accepted the priesthood.

In 1744 Mark's voice was heard by Count Alexei Razumovsky (a former chorister), who accompanied Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on her trip to Ukraine.

Mark Poltoratsky selected the "small singers", listening to church, monastic, school and other choirs in the hetman's regiments.

Dmitry Bortniansky, 9 years old, the son of a Cossack of the Glukhovsky Hundreds of the Nezhinsky Regiment, got into the register of "small singers" of 30 October 1760.

She "skillfully disposed of enormous wealth and large economy, holding her servants, kin and a bunch of already married children in her fists".