Petro Dorofeyevych Doroshenko (1627–1698) was
a Cossack political and military
leader, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine (1665–1672) and a
Russian voyevoda.
Hetman Pavlo Teteria promoted Doroshenko to
the rank of his chief (general) yesaul in 1663. Doroshenko
became the leader of the Cossack starshyna (senior officers) and
elements within the ecclesiastical authorities who opposed 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav.
Supported by Crimean
Tatars and Ottoman
Turkey in 1665, Doroshenko crushed the pro-Russian
Cossack bands and eventually became Hetman of Ukraine (Right-bank Ukraine).
Poland withdrew from the right-bank Ukraine due to numerous peasant
and cossack uprisings, whose rebels sought to secure their liberties with
military support from countries other than Poland and Moscow. They found it in
the realm of the Ottoman
Empire, the Crimean
Khanate.
In the beginning the first Hetman recognized by Crimea was
Sotnyk (captain) Stepan Opara from the Medvedesky company. However, that same
summer of 1665 he was replaced by Doroshenko. In order to strengthen his new
position, Doroshenko introduced reforms in hope of winning the respect of the
rank and file Cossacks.
Doroshenko would often organize general councils where
he would listen to the lower classes' opinions. And in order to rid himself of the
dependence on the starshyna (senior officers), the hetman created the Serdiuk regiments which consisted of
20,000 mercenary infantry units who took orders only from him.
When his hetmancy began, Doroshenko,
like all Right-bank hetmans, followed a pro-Polish line, but he quickly changed
this policy upon hearing the signing of the 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo. The
treaty officially divided Ukraine between Russia and Poland, with Russia
gaining sovereignty over Left-bank
Ukraine and Poland acquiring Right-bank Ukraine. Once
the news reached Doroshenko, he reportedly suffered a seizure upon learning of
Ukraine's partitioning. Doroshenko
quickly deserted his pro-Polish position and decided to seek aid from the Ottoman Empire.
In
the fall of 1667 Doroshenko, with support Crimean Tatars, defeated the Polish forces at
the Battle of Brailiv (Brailiv)
in Podolia. After the battle the Doroshenko's opposition led by the Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko and
Tatars stopped his further advance against Poles. With the Right-Bank seemingly
secured, Doroshenko and his men crossed into Left-bank Ukraine and
supported an uprising of Ivan Briukhovetsky against Muscovy. Following Briukhovetsky's execution, Doroshenko was proclaimed the
hetman of all Ukraine on 18
June [O.S. 8
June] 1668. As Doroshenko
was reaching his zenith of power after successfully reuniting Ukraine, his
numerous enemies united against him.
The new Polish offensive forced him to
return the Right-bank Ukraine appointing Demian Mnohohrishny acting hetman of the Left-bank. Doroshenko managed to
secure the release from Polish captivity the Metropolitan of Kiev Yosyf Tukalsky-Neliubovych who
moved his seat to Chyhyryn. In January of 1668 the Council of Officers (Seniors) in Chyhyrynexpressed its support for Doroshenko's intentions for the alliance with
the Ottoman Empire. In autumn of 1668
Cossack delegation was sent to Istanbul with
proposal for military alliance between the Cossack state and the Ottoman Empire. The alliance was
once again approved at the 1669 Korsun Cossack Council (General
Military Council) on March 10–12. The
alliance was eventually proclaimed by the sultan Mehmed IV on
May 1, 1669.
In
1672, with a force of 12,000 he aided the 100,000 strong Ottoman Army which invaded Poland defeated
Polish army at the battle of Chertvenivka and
laid siege to Kamenets (it
had been captured and sacked) as
well as Lviv. The war ended with the capture of Podolia and the signing of the Peace of Buchach. According to the terms of the treaty,
the Podolia voivodeship was turned into an Ottoman province. And
the Bratslav Voivodeship and the southern portion of the Kyiv Voivodship were to be recognized as Cossack
territory administered by Doroshenko under a Turkish protectorate. But the war left consequences for
Doroshenko, devastating his country.
The vast Ukrainian territory was laid
waste, cities were burned down, and hundreds of people were taken into
captivity by the Crimean Tatars. Meanwhile in summer of 1672, Demian
Mnohohrishny was replaced by Ivan Samoylovych at
the 1672 Cossack general council near Konotop, Cossack Grove. As the Right-bank faced devastation by the Turkish
power, Doroshenko began to lose the respect of his previously loyal civilians
because of his collaboration with the "hated infidels." Although the alliance did perform an integral part in his
successes, the rest of the population suffered at the hands of the Turks.
As
his forces were weakened from the ongoing wars, Doroshenko was forced to rely
increasingly on the Ottomans. This was very unpopular with the majority of
deeply Orthodox ChristianCossacks.
As the Turks were considered the hated infidels of
Europe. On the 1674 Council of
Officers in Pereyaslav (March 17) Samoylovych was proclaimed the Hetman of all
Ukraine. However the title was
not in force until Doroshenko would abdicate.
In
summer of 1674 Samoylovych along with the Muscovite Grigory Romodanovsky launched an expedition against
Doroshenko and besieged Chyhyryn. At that time Mykhailo Khanenko surrendered
his hetman title to Samoylovych in exchange for some land estates. The Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa managed in time to lift the siege and
drive the Muscovite forces beyond Dnieper. However, already in the fall of 1675 at the Cossack council in Chyhyryn Doroshenko
abdicated and pledged his allegiance to Muscovy witnessing by Ivan Sirko.
However, the Muscovite government
demanded him to do that at the Left-bank Ukraine
and it should be witnessed by Samoylovych and Romodanovsky,
the request of which Doroshenko refused. In
the fall of 1676 Samoylovych with 30,000 army crossed Dnieper and
once again besiege Chyhyryn. After
several hours of battle Doroshenko asked his 2,000 Serdiuk garrison stop
resistance as he decided to abdicate (September 19, 1676). Doroshenko was
arrested and brought to Moscow where
he was kept in honorary exile, never
to return to Ukraine.
Related post: Pavlo Teteria (Hetman of Zaporozhian Host)
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