Hetman of Zaporizhian Host

Brief history

As a head of state the position was established at first by Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Cossack Hetmanate in the mid 17th century. During that period the office was electoral. All elections except for the first one were adapted by the Senior Council in Chyhyryn which until 1669 served the capital of Hetmanate.

Since the council in Pereyaslav of 1654 several senior cossacks sided with the Tsardom of Russia and in 1663 they staged "Black Council" (Chorna Rada) in Nizhyn which elected Ivan Briukhovetsky as an alternative hetman. Since the defeat of Petro Doroshenko in 1669 the Hetman title was adapted by pro-Russian elected hetmans who resided in Baturyn. In the course of the Great Northern War one of them, Ivan Mazepa, decided to revolt against Russian rule in 1708 which later drew terrible consequences for the Cossack Hetmanate as well as the Zaporizhian Host. The administration was moved to Hlukhiv where the Mazepa's doll was publicly executed and anathema was laid against him by the Russian Orthodox Church. Later in the late 18th century it was successfully disbanded by the Russian government during the expansion of the Russian territory towards the Black Sea coast.

In 1764 the Russian Empress Catherine the Great issued a secret instruction to Prince Vyazemsky who was Procurator General of the Governing Senate.

List of office holders

Some historians among which is Mykola Arkas question legitimacy of the Teteria's elections accusing the later in corruption. Also some sources claim election of Teteria having taken place in January 1663. The election of Teteria led to the Povoloch Regiment Uprising in 1663, followed by bigger number of unrest in the modern region of Kirovohrad Oblast as well as Polesie (all in the Right-bank Ukraine). Moreover, the political crisis that followed the Pushkar–Barabash Uprising divided the Cossack Hetmanate completely on both bank of Dnieper River. Coincidentally, on 10 January 1663 the Tsardom of Muscovy created the new Little Russian Office (Prikaz) within its Ambassadorial Office.

Vouched by Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel, Yuriy Khmelnytsky was freed from the Ottoman captivity, appointed and along with Pasha Ibragim was sent to Ukraine fight the Moscow forces of Samoilovych and Romadanovsky. In 1681 Mehmed IV appointed George Ducas the Hetman of Ukraine, replacing Khmelnytsky.

Following the anathema on Mazepa and the election of Ivan Skoropadsky, Cossack Hetmanate was included into the Russian Government of Kiev in December 1708. Upon the death of Skoropadsky, the Hetman elections were disrupted and were awarded as a gift and a type of princely titles, first to Moldavian nobleman and later to the Russian Empress favorite.

On 5 April 1710 the council of cossacks, veterans of the battle at Poltava, elected Pylyp Orlyk as the Hetman of Ukraine in exile. Orlyk waged a guerrilla warfare at the southern borders of the Russian Empire with the support from Ottoman and Swedish empires.