Simeon's grandfather, Gavril(o) Piščević, was a light infantry officer on the Military Frontier dividing the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.
Piščević wrote that such districts (oblast) as Hlyns'k, Krylov, and Kryukiv in today's Ukraine were the only fortified places in the Pandur regiment.
He refers to the latter as "our absolute and tyrannical ruler" and, sometimes with indignation, sometimes with envy for Horvat's versatility, quotes many episodes, shocking even to contemporaries, who were accustomed to the crude rule of singular power.
After the death of his father Stevan who was himself in the Russian service,[1] in 1777 Piščević traveled to St. Petersburg where he met Potemkin and was received at an audience with the Empress Catherine the Great.
Piščević had a son, Aleksandar, who also served in the Imperial Russian Army, and later wrote about his experiences in a biography entitled Moj život (My Life).