Ivan Skoropadsky (1646 - September 3, 1722; reigned 1708–1722) was a
Hetman ofHetman of Ukraine may refer to:* Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks* Petro Doroshenko* Pavlo Skoropadskyi...
the
UkrainianUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
Cossacks, and the successor to the famous Hetman
Ivan MazepaIvan Stepanovych Mazepa , Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, in 1687–1708...
.
Biography
Born into a noble Cossack family in
UmanUman is a city located in the Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
in 1646, Skoropadsky was educated in Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 1675 he joined Cossack military service under Hetman
Ivan SamoylovychIvan Samoylovych was the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine from 1672 to 1687. His term in office was marked by further incorporation of the Cossack Hetmanate into the nascent Russian Empire and by attempts to win the Right-bank Ukraine from Poland-Lithuania....
and distinguished himself in
Russo-Turkish War of 1676-1681The Russo–Turkish War of 1676–1681, a war between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, caused by the spreading Turkish aggression in the second half of the 17th century...
and once again in the
Crimean expeditionThe Russo–Turkish War of 1686–1700 was part of the joint European effort to confront the Ottoman Empire. The larger European conflict was known as the Great Turkish War....
against the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
and
Crimean KhanateThe Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea was a Crimean Tatar state from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Yurt The Crimean Khanate or the Khanate of Crimea was a Crimean Tatar state from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Yurt...
in 1688.
Ivan Skoropadsky was briefly an ambassador representing
Cossack HetmanateThe Hetmanate or officially Viysko Zaporozke was the Ukrainian Cossack state in the central and north-eastern regions of Ukraine between 1649 and 1775...
in negotiations with the Russian Tsar
Peter the GreatPeter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V....
. During the
Great Northern WarThe Great Northern War was a war in which the so-called Northern Alliance composed of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania and Saxony engaged Sweden for the supremacy in the Baltic Sea. The war ended with a defeat for Sweden in 1721, leaving Russia as the new major power in the Baltic Sea and...
Skoropadsky was a Cossack colonel of the Russian Starodub regiment and after Swedish army crossed into Ukraine in 1708, refused to join Ivan Mazepa who decided to switch sides and fight against Russia. Only about 3,000 Cossacks, mostly Zaporozhians, followed Mazepa, while others remained loyal to the Tsar. With Mazepa disposed, Ivan Skoropadsky was elected as new Hetman on November 11, 1708. The fear of other reprisals and suspicion of Mazepa's newfound Swedish ally
Charles XIICharles XII was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718....
prevented most of Ukraine's population from siding with the rebels.
Ivan Skoropadsky moved the capital of the
Cossack HetmanateThe Hetmanate or officially Viysko Zaporozke was the Ukrainian Cossack state in the central and north-eastern regions of Ukraine between 1649 and 1775...
from
BaturynBaturyn , is a historic town in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine. It is located in the Bakhmatskyi Raion of the oblast, on the banks of the Seym River...
which was razed by the Russian army for Mazepa's rebellion, to the town of Hlukhiv. Following Mazepa's defeat in the
Battle of PoltavaThe Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over Swedish Empire in one of the most famous of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is said to have started the end of Sweden's role as a Great Power and the Russians took their place as the leading nation...
, Skoropadsky thought to regain Peter I' trust and yet negotiate greater autonomy for the Hetmanate and greater rights for the Cossack nobility, often resisting Peter the Great's policy of incorporation of the Hetmanate lands into the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His careful negotiations allowed him to achieve both, and the Hetmanate regained much of its lost prominence.
In 1718 his daughter married Count Pyotr Pyotrovich Tolstoy, the son of
Pyotr Andreyevich TolstoyCount Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy was a Russian statesman prominent during and after the reign of Peter the Great. He was the ancestor of all the Counts Tolstoy, including the novelist Leo Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy (1645–1729) was a Russian statesman...
(a prominent Russian statesman) and Ivan Skoropadsky was granted numerous estates in the Ukraine becoming its largest land-owner. The Hetman had no male children but
Pavlo SkoropadskyPavlo Petrovich Skoropadskyi 3 May 1873, Wiesbaden, Germany — 26 April 1945, Metten monastery clinic, Bavaria, Germany) was a Ukrainian politician, earlier an aristocrat and decorated Imperial Russian Army general...
, a descendant of his brother, briefly ruled Ukraine 200 years later, and also carried the title of Hetman in his Hetmanate-influenced government.
See also
- Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks
Hetman was the title used by commanders of the Ruthenian Dnieper Cossacks from the end of the sixteenth century. The title hetman was adopted from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....