Schemes of Ukrainian hetmans. Hetmans of Ukraine. The most famous hetmans

The title of hetman was also used by the leaders of the Cossack uprisings, who were not subordinate to the government of the Commonwealth (see below).

The emergence of the institution of hetmanship in the Zaporozhye Cossacks (1572)[ | ]

In the Kingdom of Poland, as well as in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, there were state positions of hetmans: grand hetmans (respectively, crown and Lithuanian), who, in fact, were ministers of defense in the relevant parts of the Commonwealth (on the lands of the Crown / that is, in fact, the Kingdom of Poland / and Lithuania / that is, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania /), as well as full hetmans (also, respectively, crown and Lithuanian), who were commanders-in-chief active armies Crown and Lithuania.

Registered Cossacks, unlike the rest (grassroots, who were considered serfs in the Commonwealth), received privileges, equating to a no-arms gentry (without political rights), and payment for their service. The registrars themselves elected their commanders, who were then confirmed in office by the Polish king or the Senate of the Commonwealth. The head of the registered Cossacks bore the title " Hetman of His Royal Grace of the Zaporizhian Army».

The title of hetman was also used by the leaders of the Cossack movements that were not subordinate to the government of the Commonwealth (K. Kosinsky, S. Nalivaiko, T. Fedorovich, P. Pavlyuk, Ya. Ostryanin, D. Gunya, M. Zheleznyak).

Hetman's powers[ | ]

Initially, the hetman was just a military leader, whose power extended only to registered Cossacks.

The hetman could transfer part of his powers to the nakazny hetman, who temporarily performed hetman's duties. Each hetman tried to strengthen the institution of hetmanship, to strengthen his power. The most coveted desire of the hetman (as well as of the entire Cossack elite) was to obtain equal rights with the gentry class of the Commonwealth.

Hetmans of the Zaporozhye Host after the Khmelnytsky uprising[ | ]

Hetmans began to strive to increase their power at the expense of the army, to heredity; so as not to depend on the noisy military black council, they wanted to strengthen their position either through Poland, or through Moscow, and did not achieve their goal; except for Bogdan Khmelnitsky, not one of them ended well, they were constantly overthrown by their own.

After several failed attempts at unification by both sides, the Truce of Andrusov was concluded in 1667, formalizing the division of the Hetmanate along the Dnieper.

The weakening of the power of hetmans[ | ]

Troops of Zaporizhia on both sides of the Dnieper Hetman and the glorious rank of the Holy Apostle Andrew Cavalier Ivan Mazepa

Since that time, the Right-Bank Hetmanate has become an arena of struggle between the Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire and individual Cossack detachments. In this struggle, the title of hetman is widely used, which is alternately worn by proteges of the warring parties. Under these conditions, there is a significant weakening of the hetman's power on the Right Bank.

On the Left Bank, the gradual restriction of the powers of the hetman began almost immediately after the separation. Here the hetmans were under pressure from two sides at once: on the one hand, their power was steadily reduced by the Russian government; on the other hand, the Cossack foremen also did not want to strengthen them. As a result, the hetmans, forced to maneuver, often made concessions to one side or the other, gradually losing power.

After the division of the Hetmanate, Chigirin remained the residence of the right-bank hetman; on the Left Bank, the cities of Gadyach, Glukhov, and Baturyn became successively such residences.

Polubotok attempted a number of reforms:

• Judicial reform:

On August 19, 1722, he issued a universal, which: 1) forbade the abuse of secular and clergy against persons of the Cossack state; 2) provided for the reform of legal proceedings, namely, determined the procedure for judicial appeals and regulated the process of judicial proceedings.

• financial reform:

• initiated the submission of collective petitions and petitions to the Senate of the Russian Empire on behalf of the foreman, Cossacks and Commonwealth in order to abolish the financial subordination of the Hetmanate to the Little Russian Collegium;
• sabotaged the financial orders of the Little Russian Collegium.

• social reform:

Polubotok succeeded due to the absence of Peter I in the autumn of 1722:

• slow down for a short time incorporation reform [specify] ;
• to get the Senate to cancel some of Velyaminov's orders.

On May 22, 1723, Polubotok with a foreman was summoned to St. Petersburg "for an answer" for organizing anti-Russian activities and inciting the people against the emperor. In St. Petersburg, Polubotok continued to appeal to the emperor and the Senate about the illegal actions of the Little Russian Collegium, demanded its liquidation and offered to replace it with the General Court of seven persons. On June 23, Peter I, by his decree, forbade the Cossack foreman to hold new elections for the hetman. Some elders, who dared to disagree with the king on this issue, ended up in custody. In September 1723, interrogations of Polubotok and the foremen began in the Secret Office. Danilo the Apostle and the foreman brought to St. Petersburg on behalf of the entire Zaporozhye Host Kolomatsky petitions (ukr.)Russian, in which they asked for permission to hold hetman elections and eliminate taxes imposed by the Little Russian Collegium, after which on November 10, 1723, the angry Peter I ordered Polubotok, the foreman and everyone who helped them to be imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Interrogations went on for about a year, and in the middle of 1724 the Polubotok case was referred to the Supreme Court. However, it did not come to a trial: on December 29, 1724, Polubotok died in a cell from an illness.

The rest of the elders arrested with him stayed in the Peter and Paul Fortress until the death of Peter I in 1725.

After that, in the territory controlled by Russia, the new hetman was re-elected only in 1727 (by permission of Emperor Peter II). It was Daniel the Apostle. Despite some expansion of the territory of the hetman's jurisdiction (under whose authority Kyiv was transferred), the dissolution of the Little Russian Collegium and a number of reforms he carried out, his powers were further curtailed. After the death of the Apostle in 1734, hetmans were no longer appointed.

List of hetmans of the Zaporozhye Host[ | ]

Hetmans of the grassroots Cossacks and registry Troops of Zaporozhye
№	Image	Name	Years of hetmanship	Comments
1		Ruzhinsky Bogdan	-
2		Kosinsky Krishtof	-
3		Loboda Gregory	-
4		Shaula Matvey
5		Vasilevich Gnat	-
6		Baibuza Tikhon	-
7		Polous Fedor
8		Puffer Semyon
9		Cat Samoilo	-
10		Sagaidachny Peter	-
11		Doroshenko Michael	-
12		Ostryanin Jacob	-

Hetmans of the Zaporozhye Host
№	Image	Name	Years of hetmanship	Comments
1		Khmelnitsky Bogdan	-	Also titled Hetman of All Rus' .
2		Khmelnitsky Yuri
3		Vygovsky Ivan	-	From 1658 he was titled Grand Hetman Russian principality.
4		Khmelnitsky Yuri	-

Hetmans of the Right-Bank Zaporozhye Host					Hetmans of the Left-Bank Zaporozhye Host
№	Image	Name	Years of hetmanship	Comments	№	Image	Name	Years of hetmanship	Comments
4		Khmelnitsky Yuri	-		4		Somko Yakim	-	appointed hetman
5

Dmitry Sinyak

The Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 is still considered to be the unification of Ukraine and Russia. In reality, it was a situational alliance with Muscovy: before it, the allies of the Cossacks were the Tatars, after - the Swedes. And the “alliance” with the hetman turned out to be such a failure for Muscovy that Vasily Buturlin, the butler of the Moscow Tsar, who concluded it, committed suicide to avoid execution.

"The tsar was already angry with Buturlin and sent an order, so that they cut his head off for three yogos: first - that he took the swag from the quiet places and castles; the other - that, having healed the place, he devastated them, and did not trap at his own dominion; third - that he made peace with the khan. Having found out from Kiev that the tsar did not succeed in the failure of the Lviv campaign, and may have crushed his head, the boyar Vasily Buturlin broke away on December 31, 1655."

M. Grushevsky

"History of Ukraine-Rus"

The Tver governor, close boyar and butler of the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, Vasily Buturlin, was preparing for death. In the morning he went to the bathhouse and defended the service in the church, confessed and took communion. Then he ordered the upper room to be removed and dressed in the best clothes. Now all he had to do was take the goblet of poison from the table... But Buturlin could not bring himself to touch the goblet.

Highest Messenger

The windows of the palace of his cousin Andrey, whom Buturlin, thanks to his connections, managed to install as governor of Kyiv, overlooked Hagia Sophia. Glancing at the domes shining in the winter evening sky, the boyar crossed himself in a chilly way and, getting up from the table, began to walk up and down the room.

Two weeks ago, an old Moscow friend, the boyar Kirill Naryshkin, warned him about the royal wrath and the threat of imminent execution through a faithful person. And today, a Moscow messenger brought Buturlin an order to transfer command of the army to Vasily Sheremetyev and arrive in the Kremlin as soon as possible. Buturlin reasoned as follows: if he dies "on the way", his wealth is unlikely to be confiscated from his children. But when he returns to Moscow, he can lose everything before his death.

He didn't have a chance to justify himself. It's not about judging winners. And he seems to have lost everything.

Buturlin sighed heavily and again looked out the window at the snow-covered triangles of the Kyiv roofs, over which the crosses of Sophia sank in the evening twilight. Two years ago, he was overjoyed when the tsar offered him the high honor of heading an embassy to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky to annex Ukrainian lands that previously belonged to the Commonwealth.

Khmelnytsky, whose Cossacks had been at war with the Commonwealth since 1648, repeatedly tried to negotiate this with the tsar, but he, not wanting a war with the Polish crown, made a final decision only by October 1653. In order to give the case a legal form, the tsar assembled the Zemsky Sobor, which decided: "... Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the entire Zaporozhye Host with their cities and lands should be taken under the state high hand for the Orthodox Christian faith and the holy churches of God…"

And in November, the Moscow kingdom declared war on the Commonwealth.

When, on the way to Khmelnitsky, Buturlin unfolded the royal letter addressed to the Cossacks, even he was surprised to see that the tsar calls himself the autocrat of not only Great, but also Little Rus'. " good name for the new Moscow lands, which until now the whole world knew as Ukraine," the boyar thought with a grin.

ROYAL MERCY. Letter from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on granting Vasily Buturlin a title of nobility, a fur coat, sables and an increase in salary for the Pereyaslav Rada. 1655

Price of freedom

But with the hetman's elite, everything immediately went wrong, as Vasily Buturlin had hoped. Firstly, Khmelnytsky, contrary to the wishes of the king, decided to take the oath not in the holy city of Kyiv and not in the capital Chyhyryn, but in the seedy border Pereyaslav - they say, it is not of great importance. Secondly, it turned out that the Cossacks, waging a bloody war, were looking not so much for a "royal hand" as a military alliance, and did not want to part with their freedom. Therefore, Khmelnitsky immediately demanded that Buturlin be the first on behalf of the tsar to swear allegiance to the Cossacks that he would not extradite them to the Polish king, would not violate their rights and liberties, and "write royal letters on all their estates."

Buturlin would lose his head if he accepted such a condition. All he could do was promise. And he promised: and what the Cossacks asked for, and even more. “Good subjects always “repair the faith of the kings”, and for this they “keep them in their state gracious salary and contempt,” Buturlin said.

True, his promises were hardly believed. And when, on the day of the Pereyaslav Rada, the hetman said with displeasure that he should discuss the position of the Moscow ambassador with the Cossacks, and left the Assumption Church, where he was supposed to take the oath, the boyar thought that there would be no annexation of "Little Rus'". Soon the Pereyaslav colonel Pavlo Teterya and the Mirgorod colonel Grigory Lesnitsky returned to the church. They again demanded that Buturlin, on behalf of the tsar, take upon himself written or oath promises in relation to the Cossacks and to all of Ukraine. The colonels stressed that the crown Polish hetmans always did this when concluding such agreements, which the Cossacks had concluded with them more than once.

The boyar was in despair. What does the Polish hetmans have to do with it? Muscovy has always lived by different rules! He again convinced, promised, saying that the kings of Poland were "not autocrats, they do not keep their oath, and the sovereign's word does not change." But the colonels stood their ground, answering him one thing: "The Cossacks do not believe." It was just after Christmas 1654...

Buturlin looked out the dark window again. "These Cossacks were spoiled by the Polish kings and hetmans," he thought, continuing to walk up and down the room. “They are all looking for the law, but they don’t understand that in Muscovy the tsar is the law.”

Photo 1

Photo 2

Royal "cats"

On that day, in the end, everything was decided by the authority of Khmelnitsky, who ordered: "We swear!"

But there were many who disagreed. Ivan Bohun, Petro Doroshenko, Ivan Sirko, Osip Glukh, Grigory Gulyanitsky, Mikhailo Khanenko and other Ukrainian colonels, whose names Buturlin no longer remembered, did not come to the Assumption Church. There would have been much more of them if the boyar had not sent tsarist spies to many of them ahead of time - the steward Rodion Streshnev and the clerk Martemyan Bredikhin with rich gifts. And yet, in the end, surprisingly few Cossacks took the oath - only 284 people.

And when, after the solemn divine service, Buturlin presented the hetman's associates with sable coats on behalf of the tsar, in the sparse crowd that had gathered at the church, they heard: "It is not good for Cossacks to sell themselves for royal cats!" Khmelnitsky, who never tolerated insults, seemed not to hear them this time.

Buturlin remembered well how the next day the Pereyaslav people had to be driven by force to the Assumption Church. I recalled the reports about the beating of the royal envoys with sticks after they tried to swear in the mob and gentry in the possessions of recalcitrant colonels. The Bratslav, Poltava, Uman and Kropivyansky Cossack regiments, part of the townspeople of Kyiv, Pereyaslav, Chernobyl flatly refused to swear allegiance to the tsar ... The Zaporizhzhya Sich did not swear allegiance either. Although Buturlin later reported to Alexei Mikhailovich that the entire "Little Rus'" had been sworn in, he himself knew that his envoys rarely left the regimental cities.

On January 16, 1654, Vasily Buturlin arrived in Kyiv and the very next day swore in some of the city's Cossacks and townspeople. The boyar was very embarrassed that the church hierarchs of Ukraine did not want to swear allegiance to the tsar - Metropolitan of Kiev Sylvester Kossov and Archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Joseph Trizna. Both were well aware that after the oath, the Ukrainian church would most likely lose its independence. And they yielded only after the personal intervention of Khmelnitsky.

WHO WAS BEATING WHOM. Bogdan Khmelnitsky made the most of the treaty with the tsar, and a year after the Pereyaslav Rada he was negotiating an alliance with the Swedish king, under whose care he planned to leave after breaking with Muscovy. Portrait of a hetman from an engraving by Wilhelm Hondius,

17th century

Ohmatov battle

But in Moscow in the winter of 1954, Buturlin was greeted as a hero. The tsar received him affectionately, but said that he had to complete the annexation of "Little Rus'" by signing all the necessary papers with Khmelnitsky. After long negotiations, the so-called March Articles appeared. According to them, Ukraine, being under the protectorate of Muscovy, retained statehood with the fullness of the hetman's power.

The king received a share of the taxes that went to the Ukrainian treasury, and the promise of Khmelnitsky not to have relations with the Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth. Overjoyed that he managed to strengthen his influence in Ukraine, Alexei Mikhailovich then granted Buturlin a title of nobility, a fur coat, four bags of sables and 150 rubles of an increase in salary. And also - a part of the state fees and income in lifetime possession.

The appointment to the post of commander of the 20,000-strong army, which next winter was to oppose Poland together with the army of Khmelnitsky, was perceived by the boyar as another royal favor. Indeed, from campaigns near Smolensk and Minsk, Moscow commanders returned as real rich, shamelessly robbing the population of the conquered territories.

But in January 1655, the boyar, who was approaching the White Church with his army, learned that the Crimean Khan Mehmed IV Giray, who returned from exile after the death of his younger brother, offered Khmelnitsky to restore the military alliance. And when he was refused, he sided with the Poles and laid siege to Uman, which was defended by Ivan Bohun with his regiment. At the small fortress of Okhmatov near Uman, at night, in severe frost, the first battle of the allies with the Polish-Tatar army took place.

Then Buturlin realized for the first time how much the Cossacks, who had fought for the seventh year in a row, were superior to his archers in military affairs. When a detachment of the crown convoy of Polish troops Stefan Czarniecki broke through to the Moscow camp, the archers threw down their weapons and fled, leaving the attackers with trophies, among which were 20 cannons and 300 barrels of gunpowder.

During the raid in Western Ukraine, the biggest problem for Buturlin was Khmelnytsky's categorical ban on robbing Ukrainian cities and villages.

The Cossacks prevented the Poles from developing success. They built fortifications from what they found in the camp, propping up the barricades with the bodies of the dead. Only thanks to this, the Poles were not able to finally defeat Buturlin's army. Three days later, both sides ran out of steam, having suffered heavy losses, and Khmelnitsky, taking advantage of the respite, began negotiations with Mehmed Gerai. As a result, the Khan declared neutrality.

After that, the regiment of Ivan Bohun, who left the Uman fortress, unexpectedly hit the rear of the Polish army. The Poles were forced to retreat. Under Okhmatov, Buturlin lost half of his army, which for the first time in his life aroused the serious wrath of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. However, then he - the hero of Pereyaslav still forgave everything.

Lviv campaign

During the raid into Western Ukraine, the biggest problem for Buturlin was Khmelnytsky's categorical ban on robbing Ukrainian cities and villages: this way the campaign lost all meaning for him. Neither his archers, nor he himself imagined the war otherwise than a series of robberies and robberies, following, like a shadow, military victories.

However, on the lands between the Dniester and the Bug, on which then waves of Tatar, Polish and Cossack troops rolled almost every year, there was especially nothing to profit from. Almost 300 large and small Ukrainian cities lay in ruins, only strong fortresses survived.

In the early autumn of 1655, the combined Cossack-Moscow army unsuccessfully stormed Kamenets-Podolsky for three weeks. Buturlin wanted to vent his anger on the inhabitants of small Ternopil, who also offered fierce resistance to the allies - the boyar ordered to cut out all the inhabitants to the last person, but the Cossacks, having learned about this, took up their sabers and defended the townspeople. When the indignant Buturlin came to the hetman's tent, Khmelnitsky, throwing aside diplomacy, told him bluntly: "Are you out of your mind, boyar? There are no number of our people in the city. And is it chivalrous to kill small children and women?"

Buturlin was furious. Is it fitting for him, the royal butler, to listen to some robber! In war, one should not play knights, but show one's strength to the enemy. If Ternopil had been slaughtered then, who knows how many more Polish cities would have surrendered without a fight, saving their people and strength. But Khmelnitsky not only did not allow the massacre, he also opposed the forcible resettlement of the inhabitants of the captured cities deep into Muscovy, which Buturlin insisted on. The hostility between the commanders grew with each passing day.

However, this did not prevent the combined Ukrainian-Moscow troops from defeating the army of the Polish crown hetman Stanislav Potocki near Lvov and taking Lublin, Pulawy, Kazimierz, devastating the lands up to the Vistula itself. Buturlin rigorously ensured that local residents everywhere swore allegiance to the Moscow Tsar. Those who refused were executed. The biggest victory, according to the plan of the boyar, was to be the capture of Lvov, the last big city - all the others were taken by the Muscovites or the Swedes.

Having sent scouts to the city, Buturlin found out that Lvov was defended only by a four-thousand Polish garrison, which clearly could not offer serious resistance to an army that was ten times larger in number. He was already rubbing his hands, imagining how he was reporting to the tsar about the oath of the Lvov people, but strange things began to happen in the camp of Khmelnitsky near the church of Yura.

MONUMENT TO DVORETSKY. The world's only sculptural image of Vasily Buturlin (in the center),"attached" Ukraine to Muscovy (who now has a broken nose) to still stands in the center of Kyiv, under the arch of Friendship of Peoples

The hetman began to feast with the Polish ambassadors for several days, negotiating a ransom. Khmelnitsky (whose Cossacks stormed the fortress on the High Castle seven years ago) refused all Buturlin's proposals to plan a military operation and capture Lvov, citing the impregnability of the city walls. And once Buturlin was informed that the citizens of Lvov were receiving letters from the general clerk Ivan Vyhovsky, the second person after Khmelnitsky, who advised them "not to surrender to the royal name."

One of the trusted people of the boyar reported that, demanding capitulation from the Lviv people, Khmelnitsky directly expressed his displeasure with the Muscovites, and his confessor, reading the prayer, did not mention the royal name.

When the hetman finally received the promised 60,000 gold florins, he lifted the siege without warning Buturlin. He was furious when he learned that Khmelnytsky staged a military parade, holding all his 34 regiments under the walls of Lvov - almost 30,000 fighters. These regiments did not return to their positions, but went east. Buturlin had no choice but to hastily gather his army of 12 thousand people and follow the hetman.

When Buturlin demanded an explanation, Khmelnitsky said that the army of Mehmed Giray, who had united with the Nogai, Belgorod and Ochakov Tatars, was approaching Galicia, and the Polish detachment of the Bratslav governor Peter Pototsky was coming along with the khan. Buturlin was even more shocked by the second news: the great Lithuanian hetman Jan Radzivil accepted the citizenship of Sweden, and the Swedish king took possession of Warsaw and Krakow. The surviving Polish troops of Stanisław Potocki have already sworn allegiance to King Charles X and are now considered Swedish troops. "Are we going to fight with Sweden without royal permission?" - asked the boyar Khmelnitsky in a letter.

Buturlin had nothing to answer.

Battle of Ozernaya

Vasily Buturlin lost his last chance to return home in triumph after the battle with the Tatars near the town of Ozernaya near Zborov. It lasted all day - November 9, 1655, and in the evening, to the great displeasure of the boyar, Khmelnitsky began negotiations. No matter how raging Buturlin, the hetman stood his ground.

Khmelnitsky not only did not allow the massacre, he also opposed the forcible resettlement of the inhabitants of the captured cities deep into Muscovy

In the end, Mehmed Giray promised "forever and ever" not to attack Ukraine and to maintain neutrality in relations between Ukraine, Muscovy and Poland. Khmelnitsky in response promised that he would break with the Muscovites, would provide military assistance to the Polish king and would not allow the Cossacks to go on campaigns to the Crimea and Turkey. But for Buturlin, the most painful thing was that the Tatars had to give up the convoy - everything that he and his archers had stolen in Poland. Having lost the opportunity to bring rich gifts to the tsar as compensation for an unsuccessful campaign, the boyar realized that he had disappeared.

It was not possible to expand the Muscovite kingdom, Vasily Buturlin lost most of the army in Poland. The Ukrainians made peace with the fierce enemy of the Russian Tsar, Khan Mehmed Gerai, and the Tatars took all the loot from the Poles. It was not difficult to understand that in Moscow Buturlina was waiting for the chopping block.

Khmelnytsky, on the contrary, won. In the eyes of European sovereigns, the official recognition of his power over Ukraine by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich de facto turned Bogdan Khmelnitsky from a rebel into a full-fledged ruler. And having liberated Western Ukraine, the hetman almost achieved his long-standing goal - to bring all ethnic Ukrainian lands under his mace. Finally, Buturlin became aware that even near Kamenetz-Podolsk, the hetman hosted the Swedish ambassador and since then had been in secret correspondence with King Charles X (later this resulted in an alliance with Sweden, the development of which was prevented by the death of Khmelnitsky).

Aleksey Mikhailovich was not in a position to punish the obstinate hetman for all this. But the execution of the butler is in his power. Thinking about this, the boyar again clenched his fists in impotent rage. But he couldn't change anything. Behind the open window now hung a black impenetrable night, in which neither Sophia's crosses nor the lights in the houses could be seen. It was also dark in the upper room, but the boyar knew that behind him on the table was a silver bowl with poison.

The anger of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich at Vasily Buturlin was so great that, having learned about the death of the boyar, he ordered his body to be burned. And only at the request of Patriarch Nikon, he allowed the remains of his close boyar and butler to be brought to Moscow for burial.

Pereyaslav 2.0. Master class on falsification from the Moscow Tsar

Monument to Bogdanov Khmelnytsky

The Cossacks is a unique phenomenon in Eastern Europe, which is not found anywhere else in the world. The homeland of the Cossacks is the lower reaches of the Dnieper. On the islands of this deep river, the first Sichs were located - the fortifications of the Cossack troops.
Hetmans of Ukraine were known far beyond their lands. The exploits of the Cossacks in the fight against the Ottoman Empire are remembered in many countries of Western and Eastern Europe.

The history of the emergence of the Cossacks

The very concept of "Cossack" is not of Slavic origin. It is attributed to the Turkic or It means "guardian", "free man". The first news about the Cossacks dates back to the 15th century. In the complaint of the Crimean Khan to the Lithuanian prince, people are mentioned who wrecked Turkish ships at the mouth of the Dnieper between Cherkassy and Kiev.

After that, Cossacks are increasingly mentioned in documents and annals as militant groups who lived their way. Their number increased each time due to the "departure". So called enslaved villagers who did not have their own land and in search of a better life went to the sparsely populated lands of the forest-steppe belt of modern Ukraine.

Later they will create their own state of the Zaporizhian Army. This name is due to the fact that the Cossacks settled beyond the rapids of the Dnieper. It was there that they created their fortifications and fought against the raids of the Tatars. They were headed by the hetmans of Ukraine.

Creation of the first Cossack Sich

The first hetmans of Ukraine (atamans) are little known. The name of Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky (1550-1563), who is mentioned in folklore under the nickname Bayda, is associated with the creation of the first Sich. It is known that he was from a family of Volyn landowners.

In 1553, he gathered a group of 300 Cossacks and went beyond the thresholds of the Dnieper to fight the Tatars, who devastated the lands and kept the small population of the border territories in fear.

On the island of Malaya Khortitsa, the first Sich was created. The Tatars tried several times to destroy this fortification. They succeeded in 1557. Prince Vishnevetsky was forced to leave the Sich. However, he did not stop fighting the Tatars.

The death of the first hetman is shrouded in many legends. It is known that he was captured by the Turkish army in 1563 in Moldova. He was taken to Istanbul (Tsargrad), where he was killed. He was hung by a metal hook over the sea.

Some legends say that Bayda was very impressed with the Turkish Sultan and he invited him to convert to Islam, marry his daughter and become the best warrior. But the Cossack refused and publicly insulted the faith of the Sultan and his entire family. For this, the first hetman of Ukraine was executed.

The first "registries" of the Cossacks

Since the Cossacks increased in numbers and had a special military organization, it became a serious threat not only to the oncoming Tatars, but also to the Kingdom of Poland. It was he who owned the Ukrainian lands after signing the Union of Lublin with the Principality of Lithuania in 1569.

To control this military power, it was necessary to subjugate the Cossacks. Such an attempt was made by Zhigmont August. He invited 300 Cossacks to enter the "registry" and receive a certain payment from the king for their service. At the head were the hetmans of Ukraine. However, this number was an insignificant part of those who considered themselves Zaporozhye Cossacks.

The importance of the hetman in the Zaporizhian Host

The Sich became the administrative and political center by the 16th century. All power in the Cossack order belonged to the Sich Rada. Each Cossack had the right to vote.

Hetmans of Ukraine

Administration of the Zaporozhian Sich
Sich Rada	Conducted domestic and foreign policy, declared war, made peace, repaired the court, worked with embassies.
Getman (ataman)	The highest military, administrative, judicial power. During the war, his power is unlimited; in peacetime, all his decisions were coordinated with the Sich Rada.
Troop clerk	Management of the Sich Chancellery, diplomatic correspondence and all documentation.
Military Judge	Judgment, enforcement of laws.
Troop osavul	Hetman's assistant in military and administrative affairs.

It is clear from the table that all power belonged to the Sich Rada. The hetmans of Ukraine were limited in their decisions. In addition, their position was elective, it was not inherited. If necessary, the ataman could be changed.

The most famous hetmans

The Cossacks existed since the 15th century. During this time, many hetmans and atamans were elected to the Sich. All of them played their part in history. However, the most famous are the following hetmans of Ukraine.

The list is presented in chronological order of their reigns:

1. Dmitry Vishnevetsky (Baida).
2. Petro Konashevich (Sagaydachny).
3. Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
4. Ivan Mazepa.
5. Kirill Razumovsky.

A separate book should be devoted to each of them. The first representative of the list was mentioned above.

Petro Konashevich (1614-1622)

His name is associated with the era of the heroic campaigns of the Cossacks against the Ottoman Empire. At this time, the Cossacks made many naval raids on Turkish galleys. They freed prisoners and plundered captured ships.

It is known that Petro Konashevich was born in the village of Kulchitsy (modern Lviv region) in the family of a small Ukrainian landowner. He was educated at the Ostroh Academy and the Lvov Fraternal School.

His nickname is associated with the name of the bow and quiver for arrows - sagaydak. Thanks to the skill to accurately shoot from a bow, he was nicknamed Sahaidachny.

The victory in the Battle of Khotyn in 1621 brought glory and death to the hetman. This battle decided the outcome of the Turkish-Polish war. In addition, she showed that it was possible to defeat the Ottoman army, and stopped the further capture of the European world. Enraged by the defeat, the Janissaries killed their own sultan, which led to the further decline of the Turkish Empire.

Seriously wounded, he died a few months later in Kyiv as the greatest hetman of Ukraine. Sahaidachny divided all his property between his wife and fraternal schools.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky(1648-1657)

Born in 1595 in the family of a Cossack centurion. He also took part in the Turkish-Polish war. His father was killed in it. Khmelnitsky himself was seized by the Turks and sent to Constantinople, where he spent two years in captivity.

After many successful sea campaigns against the Turks, he was appointed centurion. with the Cossacks took part in the war with Spain on the side of France in 1646. Thanks to them, the fortress of Dunkirk was taken.

Khmelnytsky became the one who raised the national liberation uprising in the Ukrainian lands against the Polish omnipotence, which embraced all segments of the population. A Cossack state was created, which conducted foreign policy with many countries. In his policy, the hetman was looking for allies from different sides: among the Moscow kingdom, the countries of Europe. He stopped his choice on cooperation with Russia, which he approved with the entire Zaporozhye Host at the Pereyaslav Rada.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky died in 1657. After that, the period of Ruins (devastation) began on the Ukrainian lands. The Hetmanate, like all Ukrainian lands, will be divided between Poland and Russia into the Right-Bank and Left-Bank, respectively. In each of the parts, their hetmans of Ukraine are elected. The list of Cossack leaders has doubled since that time.

Ivan Mazepa (1687-1708)

The most controversial personality among the hetmans is Ivan Mazepa. His mind, education, ability to manipulate people allowed him to be a hetman for more than 20 years.

He was born in 1639, received a good education, was in the service of the Polish king, later the Hetman of the Right-Bank Ukraine, Petro Doroshenko. While completing the assignment, he was captured and handed over to the Left Bank Hetman, but he was able to gain a foothold in the new conditions.

He found a common language with Peter the Great, received land from him as a gift and was one with the richest people Europe. He donated a lot of money to the development of education, the construction of Orthodox churches. The style of these buildings will eventually be attributed to the Mazepevsky or Cossack baroque.

In the outbreak of the Northern War, Ivan Mazepa (hetman of Ukraine) goes over to the side of Sweden. However, he did not receive the support of the entire Cossacks and was defeated in 1709. Together with the Swedish king Karl Mazepa hid in Moldova, where he died in the same year at the age of 70.

His act in Soviet time viewed solely as a betrayal. Modern Ukrainian historians tend to believe that Ivan Mazepa, first of all, defended the interests of himself and the Hetmanate.

Kirill Razumovsky (1750-1764)

The last hetman of Ukraine is Kirill Razumovsky. He was an educated young man who was appointed to govern the Hetmanate at the age of 22. The choice was due to the fact that his older brother Alexei was the favorite of the Russian Empress Elizabeth.

He did not look like the former chieftains and spent most of his time in St. Petersburg. However, the period of his reign is rightfully considered the “golden autumn” of the Hetmanate.

With the coming to power of Catherine II, everything changes and in 1764 the last hetman of Ukraine renounces the mace. Part of the Cossacks became the Army of the Faithful Cossacks, later the Black Sea, and even later the Kuban Cossack Host. Those who did not submit went over to the side of the Turkish Sultan and founded the Transdanubian Sich.

How many hetmans were there in Ukraine? Who they are, you will learn from this article.

Who is a hetman?

Hetman is a special name for the highest military command in such military-state and public entities, as: the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Zaporozhian Host and the Commonwealth of Both Nations.

How many hetmans were there in Ukraine?

The Ukrainian state during the period of hetmanship, and this is as much as 116 years of existence (from 1648 to 1764) had only 17 hetmans. Among them:

1. Bogdan Khmelnitsky - 1648-1657.

2. Ivan Vygovsky - 1657 - 1659.

3. Yuri Khmelnitsky - 1659 - 1663.

4. Pavel Teterya, right bank - 1663 - 1676.

5. Ivan Bryukhovetsky, left bank - 1663 - 1668.

6. Stepan Opara, right bank - 1665.

7. Petro Doroshenko - 1665 - 1676.

8. Koshevoy hetman Sukhoviyenko - 1668 - 1669.

9. Demyan Mnogohrishny, left bank - 1668 - 1672.

10. Mikhail Khanenko, right bank - 1669 - 1674.

11. Ivan Samoilovich - 1672 - 1687.

12. Ivan Mazepa - 1687 - 1709.

13. Ivan Skoropadsky - 1708 - 1722.

14. Philip Orlik, was a hetman in exile - 1710 - 1742.

15. Pavel Polubotok, Hetman of the Nakazny - 1722 - 1724

16. Danilo the Apostle - 1727 - 1734.

17. Kirill Razumovsky - 1750 - 1764.

Also the history of the Cossacks counts 166 times when the positions of hetman changed. These were temporary, mandated hetmans. But these 17 major military commanders created history by constantly fighting for the independence and well-being of their native country.

Modern Ukraine also boasts modern Cossack hetmans. Among them were:

* Vladimir Mulyava - 1992-1998.

* Ivan Bilas - 1998-2004.

* Anatoly Shevchenko - since 2002.

* Anatoly Popovich - 2002-2012.

The word hetman, or hetman, is of Czech origin and is the name of a military commander. The Hetmanate in Ukraine began with the creation of a registered Cossack army. This historical event took place in 1572. The full title sounded like this: "Hetman of his royal grace of the Zaporizhzhya Army." Many hetmans of Ukraine were bright personalities - in the broadest sense of the word.

Bogdan Mikhailovich Ruzhinsky

The first hetman of Ukraine is Bohdan Ruzhinsky (1575-1576), a Polish prince and magnate. He is also remembered for the fact that he made an incredible campaign against the Crimea - the stronghold of the Tatar army. He devastated their patrimony, freed the captives. Almost immediately after that, he practically destroyed a number of Turkish cities (Trabzon, Sinop, Istanbul). They say that the reason for the violent campaigns of the Cossack against the Muslims lay in personal hatred for the fact that they killed his wife and mother, but this is not known for certain.

And the hetmans would have remained simple military leaders, if not for the events of 1648 - then the troops of the national hero of Ukraine, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, began full-scale fighting against Poland to liberate their land.

Bogdan - Zinovy ​​​​Mikhailovich Khmelnitsky

At the beginning of that year, he forced the Polish garrison to flee from the Zaporizhzhya Sich and received a new title from his army - the hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, and in fact he became the ruler of Ukraine. Victory after victory, Hetman Khmelnitsky liberated Ukraine from the Poles (and this was just in a year!). The uprising in Ukraine lasted from 1648 to 1657.

Then, in 1648, the liberation movement began in Belarus - they were also helped by the Cossacks of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Having concluded an agreement with Russia, Hetman Khmelnytsky began to be called the Hetman of His Royal Majesty the Zaporizhian Army.

Khmelnitsky again turned to Moscow and began to persistently ask the tsar to accept him as a citizen. On October 1, 1653, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, at which the issue of accepting Bogdan Khmelnitsky with the Zaporizhian army into Russian citizenship was resolved in the affirmative.

On January 8, 1654, a council was assembled in Pereyaslavl, at which, after Khmelnitsky's speech, pointing out the need for Ukraine to choose one of the four sovereigns: the Turkish sultan, the Crimean khan, the Polish king or the Russian tsar and surrender to his citizenship, the people shouted: “We will (that is, we wish) under the Russian Tsar”!

Pereyaslav Rada of 1654

After the death of Khmelnytsky began Civil War, since the left-bank part of his army did not support the elected new hetman Ivan Vyhovsky.

Ivan Evstafievich Vygovskoy

Part of the Cossacks advocated reunification with the Commonwealth, part - for unity with the Russian Empire. This period is known in the history of Ukraine as "Ruina", i.e. "Ruin". Pavel Teterya, an ally of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, went over to the side of Poland. After receiving the title of nakaznaya (i.e., acting) hetman Teterya tried to usurp power and become a hetman (after the defeat of Yuri Khmelnitsky in Moscow in 1662). There were five colonels who appropriated the title of hetman, but it was Teterya who was appointed as such for right-bank Ukraine and remained so until 1665.

Pavel Ivanovich Teterya

He was replaced by Hetman Doroshenko. Petro Doroshenko not only pushed back the possibility of a new unification of the Cossack lands, but practically destroyed it with his activities.

Petr Dorofeevich Doroshenko

And although Vyhovsky was soon forced to withdraw his powers due to pressure from the masses of the people, Yuri Khmelnitsky, who replaced him in office (son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky), could not stop the war and went over to the side of the Commonwealth.

Yuri Bogdanovich Khmelnitsky

Left-bank Ukraine then elected a new leader. Hetman Somko became them. At the same time, the Zaporizhian Host was finally divided: into those who submitted to Russia, and those who submitted to the Commonwealth.

Yakim Semyonovich Somko

Several times after that, they again tried to “gather together” Ukraine, but neither one nor the other side succeeded in this. The result was the Andrusovo truce (1667), which secured the division of the country's territory along the Dnieper River.

It is noteworthy that after these events, internecine wars began in the Commonwealth in parallel with the struggle against the Ottoman Empire. The power of the hetmans then greatly weakened, and in 1707 Ivan Mazepa (being the hetman of the left bank of Ukraine) occupied the right bank. Hetman Mazepa seized power, taking advantage of the internal strife of the Commonwealth and the invasion of Swedish troops in Poland.

Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa

King of Sweden Charles XII and Hetman Mazepa at the Battle of Poltava

The weakening of the power of the hetmans did not stop - Russia did not want to see strong rulers, and the Cossack elders, who had their own privileges, did not need it either. From 1672 to 1687, Ivan Samoylovich was the hetman of the left-bank Ukraine. He was one of the main participants in the coup against Russia, although he later found a way to negotiate with the emperor. He was accused of treason (supposedly because of him the first campaign of Russian troops against the Tatars failed, although this is not so), and besides, the hatred of the people for the hetman because of his despotism, bribery and arbitrariness did their job. A denunciation, and hetman Samoylovich was relieved of his title, arrested and exiled to Nizhny Novgorod, and then to Novovolsk.

Ivan Samoilovich Samoilovich

Mazepa's transfer to the side of the Swedish king Charles XII served as an acceleration of the weakening of the hetman's influence. Already hetman Skoropadsky (1646-1722, hetman in 1708-1722) could feel the consequences of that misconduct - from 1709 he was constantly with a Russian official who controlled his political and military decisions. Immediately after the death of Ivan Skoropadsky, the hetman's powers were transferred to the Little Russian Collegium, which was directly subordinate to the Russian Senate.

Ivan Ilyich Skoropadsky

Shortly after his death, Pavel Polubotok went to Peter I to petition for autonomy for Ukraine, which greatly angered the emperor. The appointed hetman Polubotok was imprisoned for this in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he died in 1724.

Pavel Leontievich Polubotok

Although Charles XII and Ivan Mazepa lost the war, for some time the hetmanship still lived on the right-bank Ukraine. Mazepa's successor was Philip Orlyk. Hetman Orlyk was elected by Mazepa's supporters in 1710 and held this title until his death in exile in 1742.

Philip Stepanovich Orlik

After the Battle of Poltava in 1709 and the death of Skoropadsky, the Russian Empire did not allow the Zaporozhian Sich to elect hetmans for a long time. Again, this was allowed only in 1727 by Emperor Peter II. Hetman Apostol was even more limited in rights than his predecessor, despite the liquidation of the Little Russian Collegium and the receipt of even more land in his department, incl. Kyiv. Daniil Apostol died in 1734, and again the appointment of hetmans was abolished.

Daniel Pavlovich Apostle

The last hetman of Ukraine in the Russian Empire- Kirill Razumovsky. He was appointed in 1750 and resigned in 1764.

Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky

The last point in the era of Ukrainian hetmanship was put by Empress Catherine II. By her decree, she abolished the hetman's title, later recreated the Little Russian Collegium and created the post of governor-general.