Yurii Khmelnytsky
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| Yurii Khmelnytsky | |
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| In office August 27, 1657 – October 21, 1657 |
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| Preceded by | Bohdan Khmelnytsky |
| Succeeded by | Ivan Vyhovsky |
| In office October 17, 1659 – 1663 |
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| Preceded by | Ivan Vyhovsky |
| Succeeded by | Pavlo Teteria |
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| In office 1678 – 1681 |
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| Preceded by | Petro Doroshenko |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
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| Born | 1641 Subotiv, near Chyhyryn, Ukraine |
| Died | 1685 Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine |
| Religion | Greek Orthodox |
Yurii Khmelnytsky (Ukrainian: Юрій Хмельницький) (1641–1685), son of the famous Bohdan Khmelnytsky, was a Cossack political and military leader. Although he spent half of his adult life as a monk, he also was Hetman of Ukraine on several occasions — in 1659-1660 and 1678–1681.
[edit] Biography
Yurii Khmelnytsky was born in Subotiv near Chyhyryn in central Ukraine. In 1659 the Cossack Rada elected 17-year-old Yurii as their hetman in Bila Tserkva instead of deposed Ivan Vyhovsky. The young hetman was faced with the uneasy alliance with Muscovite Russia and the ongoing wars against Poland and the Crimean Khanate.
During the latter conflict, Yurii Khmelnytsky's Cossacks were defeated Near the town of Korsun, he was captured by the Poles and later pledged loyalty to king Jan II Kazimierz. This provoked a civil war within Ukraine in 1661, when the new ataman Yakym Somko led the pro-Russian Cossacks against Yurii and his new Polish allies. At the battle near the town of Pereiaslav in the summer of 1662 Yurii Khmelnytsky was defeated by Somko's Cossacks and the Russians under Grigory Romodanovsky.
After the defeat, Khmelnytsky entered an alliance with the Crimean Tatars but this resulted in little beyond massive looting and raiding of Ukrainian towns by the Tatars. Thereupon Yurii gave up his hetman title and became a monk at one of Korsun monasteries in the fall of 1662. Between 1664 and 1667 he was imprisoned in Lviv by hetman Pavlo Teteria.
In 1672 the monk Yurii was captured near Uman by Tatars and brought to Constantinople, where he was allowed to live in a Greek Orthodox monastery. In 1676 — after the Sultan's ally, Petro Doroshenko, surrendered to the Russians — the Porte decided to use Khmelnytsky's famous name to reinforce their claim to the Right-bank Ukraine.
In 1678 the Turkish army captured Chyhyryn and declared Yurii Khmelnytsky as a new hetman of Ukraine, although in reality he was only a puppet for the Ottoman sultan. Together with his Muslim army Yurii captured and burned down Kaniv and other Ukrainian towns. He then established his capital at Nemirov, reigning as a vassal of sultan Mehmed IV until 1681, when the Turks removed him from power due to his unstable mental health and unprecedented cruelty. Two years later, he was briefly re-instated by the Poles. Finally in 1685 the Turks captured Yurii and executed him in Kamianets-Podilskyi.
In the minds of many Ukrainians he was remembered as a complete opposite of his father Bohdan Khmelnytsky, that is, not a national hero and great military leader but a mere puppet of foreign powers who was a cruel tyrant to his people.[citation needed]
| Preceded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky |
Hetman of Ukraine 1657–1657 |
Succeeded by Ivan Vyhovsky |
| Preceded by Ivan Vyhovsky |
Hetman of Ukraine 1659–1663 |
Succeeded by Pavlo Teteria |
| Preceded by Pavlo Teteria |
Hetman of Ukraine 1678–1681 |
Succeeded by Pavlo Teteria |
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