Ivan Vyhovsky

(? —1664)

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Ivan Ostapovych Vyhovsky (date of birth unknown – 27(17) March 1664) was the successor of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host (1657–1659), a jurist, talented administrator, military commander, and diplomat of the Cossack Revolution of 1648–1676.

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He was born in the early 17th century. His exact birthplace is unknown, though it was likely the small town of Hoholiv in the Kyiv Voivodeship (now a village in the Brovary District of Kyiv Oblast). He came from a family of Orthodox nobles: his father, Ostap Vyhovsky, bore the Abdank coat of arms, and his mother, Olena Lasko, belonged to the Leliwa coat of arms. The family estate was located in Vyhov, in the Ovruch region.

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Ivan likely completed his studies at the Kyiv Brotherhood School and was fluent in Latin, Church Slavonic, Muscovite, and Polish. He married twice. From the 1630s he worked at the Kyiv Castle Court. He later served in the quarter (royal) army, rising from tovarishch (comrade) to rotmistr (captain). Subsequently, he fulfilled the duties of a scribe to a government commissioner.

During the Battle of Zhovti Vody, Vyhovsky was captured by the Tatars. According to tradition, Bohdan Khmelnytsky ransomed him, after which Vyhovsky swore personal loyalty to the Hetman, soon became his right-hand man, and embarked on a brilliant political career. By late 1649 or early 1650 he had become the General Scribe of the Zaporizhian Host.

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Between 1648 and 1657 he participated in military campaigns, diplomatic missions, and negotiations with representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transylvania, and Muscovy. His signature appears on the Treaty of Bila Tserkva (1651). He took part in drafting the "March Articles" of 1654 and was involved in preparing the “Korsun Treaty” of 1657.

After Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s death he received the hetman’s mace. The Chyhyryn Council of Officers elected him Hetman until Yurii Khmelnytsky reached adulthood. In October 1657, a general Cossack council in Korsun (now the city of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi) officially elected him Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host.

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From the very beginning of his rule, Vyhovsky had to overcome social tensions in contemporary society, confront large masses of “newly-cossackized” peasants, withstand opposition from officers who rejected his foreign policy orientation toward reconciliation with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and suppress resistance from the Zaporizhian Sich and the Poltava Regiment led by Martyn Pushkar and the kish otaman Yakiv Barabash.

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Muscovy gradually became involved in the conflict, seeking to inflame internal strife further and to turn the Hetmanate into an autonomous part of the Tsardom of Muscovy.

By March 1658 the socio-political struggle within the Hetmanate escalated into civil war. Muscovy began preparing its army to enter Ukrainian lands. Under these circumstances the hetman and his closest circle drafted an agreement with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that would transform the Cossack-Hetman State into the Rus’ Principality—the third equal component of a Polish–Lithuanian–Ukrainian federation.

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The Treaty of Hadiach, of which Vyhovsky was one of the co-authors, received mixed reactions among the Cossack elite, which inevitably shaped attitudes toward those involved in its creation.

Upon learning of the signing of the Hadiach Articles, the Muscovite government decided to move its troops into the Hetmanate. The war with Muscovy began on 29 June 1659. Through coordinated action by forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, and regiments loyal to Vyhovsky, the Muscovite army was defeated at the river Kukolka near the town of Konotop.

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The allied army achieved a stunning victory over the Muscovites, but the hetman was unable to take advantage of it. Resistance from Cossacks and officers dissatisfied with the terms of the Hadiach Treaty forced Vyhovsky to renounce the mace in favor of Yurii Khmelnytsky in September 1659.

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After losing his hetmancy, Ivan Ostapovych was reinstated in noble rights by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, received estates in the Chełm region and Podillia, and was appointed starosta of Chyhyryn and Bar. In 1660 he became a senator. He resided periodically in Dubno, Bar, and Lviv.

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In the early 1660s Vyhovsky fell victim to the intrigues of his son-in-law Pavlo Morzhkovsky (Teteria) and Chancellor Mikołaj Prażmowski. At Teteria’s order, Polish colonel Sebastian Machowski arrested the former Kyiv voivode. One version claims that Vyhovsky was involved in organizing an anti-Polish uprising aimed at uniting the Right-Bank and Left-Bank Hetmanates into an independent state. Another argues that he had no connection with the rebels. Teteria allegedly sought to eliminate the former hetman solely to appropriate all Vyhovsky family estates.

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Whatever the truth, Ivan Vyhovsky was sentenced by a military tribunal and immediately executed by firing squad on 19 March 1664 in Olkhivka near Korsun (today the village of Vilkhivets, Zvenyhorodka District, Cherkasy Oblast).

His body was later exhumed and returned to his wife, who buried him somewhere in Galicia. Some versions point to the Maniava Skete, others to Korsun, Ruda in the Stryi region, Yusiptychi (Yosypovychi) in the Stryi region, or the Spas Monastery near Maniava. To this day, no grave has been definitively identified.

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Sources Used

(Bibliographic references preserved in original order and orthography)

Kostomarov N. Hetmanstvo Vygovskogo. In: Kostomarov N.I. Sobranie sochinenii: Istoricheskie monografii i issledovaniia, vol. 2. St. Petersburg, 1872.
Herasymchuk V. Vyhovskyi i Yurii Khmelnytskyi. ZNTSh, 1904, vol. 59–60.
Herasymchuk V. Vyhovshchyna i Hadiachkyi traktat. ZNTSh, 1909, vol. 87–89.
Herasymchuk V. Smert Ivana Vyhovskoho. In: Yuvileinyi zbirnyk na poshanu akademika Mykhaila Hrushevskoho. Kyiv, 1928.
Apanovych O. Nastupnyk Bohdana Khmelnytskoho — Ivan Vyhovskyi. In: Aпанoвич O.M. Hetmany Ukrainy i koshovi otamany Zaporizkoi Sichi. Kyiv, 1993.
Bulvinskyi A. Konotopska bytva 1659 r. UIZh, 1998, № 3, 4.
Hrushevskyi M.S. Istoriia Ukrainy-Rusy, vol. 10. Kyiv, 1998.
Smolii V., Stepankov V. Ukrainska natsionalna revoliutsiia XVII st. (1648–1676 rr.): Ukraina kriz viky, vol. 7. Kyiv, 1999.
Levadnyi I. Orhanizator Konotopskoi peremohy Ivan Vyhovskyi. New York: OOChSU, 1987. 32 pp.
Mytsyk Yu. Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi. Kyiv: KM Akademiia, 2004. 83 pp.
Seniutovych-Berezhnyi V. Rid i rodyna Vyhovskykh (istorychno-rodovidna rozvidka). Ukrainskyi istoryk (New York — Munich), year VII, issues 1–3, 1970, pp. 149–167.
Sokyrko O. Konotopska bytva 1659 r. Triumf v chas Ruiny. Kyiv: Tempora, 2008. 70 pp.

 

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