Anna Ivanovna Shirai (née Bezborodko) was born on September 9, 1766, and passed away on July 27, 1824. She came from a noble and wealthy Little Russian family and was a cousin of S. M. Shirai. Anna Ivanovna had a significant influence on her husband, the renowned general and participant in the Russo-Turkish wars, senator Ilya Bezborodko. Since July 21, 1816, she was honored with the title of lady of the order of Saint Catherine of the lesser cross.

Contemporaries described her as a woman with a kind heart. The family lived in luxury in their own house on Post Office Street, where horn music played, and invited dinners were held on Thursdays and Sundays. All Little Russians visiting St. Petersburg were warmly welcomed, and some were even provided with rooms in the house.

Anna Ivanovna died in St. Petersburg from dropsy and was buried next to her husband. The autopsy and embalming of her body were conducted by I. V. Buyalsky, who discovered complete closure of the gallbladder due to an abscess in the liver. This condition developed long before her death and, according to Buyalsky, was an example of unusual appetite despite inflammation in the right side that lasted for 10 years until her death.

In marriage, Anna Ivanovna had three children. All of Ilya Bezborodko's estate passed to his youngest daughter and the Kushelev grandchildren, as the only son died before his father. Bezborodko's daughters inherited all the property of their uncle A. A. Bezborodko, making them some of the wealthiest brides in Russia.