Taras Fedorovych
(
pseudonym
,
Taras Triasylo
,
Hassan Tarasa
,
Assan Trasso
) (
Ukrainian
:
Тара?с Федоро?вич
,
Polish
:
Taras Fedorowicz
) (died after 1636) was a prominent leader of the
Dnieper Cossacks
, a popular
Hetman
(Cossack leader) elected by
unregistered Cossacks
.
Between 1629 and 1636, Fedorovych played a key role in the regional conflicts involving the rebellion of the
Ruthenian
(Ukrainian)
Cossacks
and peasants against the
Polish rule
over the
Dnieper Ukraine
territory as well as in the conflicts that included the
Polish?Lithuanian Commonwealth
, the
Tsardom of Russia
and the Ukrainians torn between those two neighbors.
With many circumstances of his life remaining mysterious to this day, Fedorovych is a revered figure in both
Ukrainian folklore
and in the Ukrainian national idea, a hero of poems by
Taras Shevchenko
, a personage of the earliest Ukrainian motion picture and one of only four Cossack leaders explicitly mentioned in the
Pavlo Chubynsky
poem that later became the basis of the modern
National Anthem of Ukraine
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Taras Fedorovych was born to a
Tatar
family in Crimea, his given name was Hassan. It is unclear when he converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks Host. He is initially documented by references in the 1620s to his position as the Cossack
Polkovnyk
(Colonel) Hassan Tarasa in Hungarian chronicles, noted for considerable cruelty during his participation in the Thirty Year War as a Habsburg mercenary.
[1]
[2]
[3]
In 1629, after the pro-Polish
Cossack Hetman
Mykhailo Doroshenko
was killed in
Crimea
, the
unregistered Cossacks
elected Fedorovych to the
Hetmanship
and, under his leadership, participated in the subsequent Crimean campaign.
[2]
[3]
Fedorovych uprising
[
edit
]
Hostilities
[
edit
]
In March 1630, Fedorovych became the leader of a Cossack and peasant revolt, which became known as the
Fedorovych Uprising
carried out by the
unregistered Cossacks
dissatisfied with the conditions of the 1625
Treaty of Kurukove
(also known as the Treaty of Lake Kurukove) signed earlier by Doroshenko, which restricted the number of the registry to only six thousand. In the meantime, the real numbers of Cossacks swelled by the constant flow of runaway peasants and, especially, at the end of the
Polish-Swedish War (1625?1629)
, by the addition of a huge number of demobilized Ukrainians who refused to accept a return under Polish serfdom.
[4]
The ranks of Cossacks who joined the resistance reached forty thousand.
The Cossack uprising fell on the fertile ground of the overall condition of Ukrainian peasantry who under Polish control were subject to continued
enserfment
and exploitation by mostly Polish or
polonized
szlachta
(nobility).
[5]
Particularly resented was the attempt to
impose Roman Catholicism
on the unwilling Ukrainians, who had been traditionally
Eastern Orthodox
.
[6]
About ten thousand rebels proceeded from the
Zaporizhian Sich
towards the upper
Dnieper
territories, overrunning the Polish forces stationed there. The rebels captured and executed the Hetman of the registered Cossacks
Hryhoriy Chorny
for his pro-Polish stance and support of the Union of Brest, and subsequently came to an agreement on a new leadership by nominating Fedorovych for the position of Hetman.
[4]
[5]
Fedorovych addressed the Ukrainian commoners with several
Universals
calling upon everyone to join his uprising against the Polish "usurpers". The turbulence spread over the nearby territories, with many Cossacks and peasants rising against the local Polish nobles as well as wealthy
Jewish
merchants who, despite their limited involvement in the local power structure were also hated by the peasants as Polish land owners frequently gave to the Jews the role of
arendators
(see
tax farming
) in the local taxation system. As religious services such as
baptism
,
wedding
ceremonies and funerals conducted in the
Eastern Orthodox
tradition customary for Ruthenians, were now to be taxed, with most of the commoners and especially the Cossacks being fiercely Orthodox, the Jews were perceived by many Ruthenians as a part of the oppressor/exploiter group.
As clashes increased, casualties rose on both sides. After a victory at
Korsun
over the Polish army sent against them,
[5]
the rebel Cossacks controlled a large territory that included Korsun,
Pereiaslav
,
Kaniv
as well as other cities, with Pereiaslav becoming their main base.
In response to their successes, a large Polish army led by
Stanisław Koniecpolski
was sent to confront the Cossacks. The army, strengthened by German mercenary forces, was harassed by the rebels, and, in turn, plundered and massacred
Lysianka
,
Dymer
and several other Ukrainian settlements, then crossed the
Dnieper
where they were met by the rebels, both front and rear, as more Ukrainians rose in what became an area-wide rebellion against the Poles. The indecisive skirmishes around Pereiaslav lasted three weeks until the 25 May [
O.S.
15 May] 1630. Koniecpolski laid siege to the Cossack stronghold, but lacking the support of artillery and infantry, he could not break its walls; the Cossacks, however, were lacking supplies and agreed to negotiations. Though the Polish army was not defeated, its inability to defeat the rebellious Cossacks meant that the latter gained an upper hand in the negotiations; Ukrainian historiography calls the battle at Pereiaslav a victory, but this is disputed by Polish historiography.
Negotiations
[
edit
]
Fedorovych's military successes forced Koniecpolski to start negotiations with the
Cossack leadership
, which resulted in the
1630 Treaty of Pereiaslav
. Many of the demands of the non-registered Cossacks and Fedorovych, their leader, were discarded in the treaty negotiations by other Cossack leaders. The main demand voiced by Fedorovych and his supporters?that the Cossack privileges routinely guaranteed to the limited number of registered Cossacks should be granted to all runaway peasants who claimed Cossackdom?was rejected and, according to a narrow compromise, the Cossack register was enlarged from six to eight thousand. In return, Koniecpolski demanded that Fedorovych be delivered into Polish custody.
Fedorovych, uncertain of the decision that would be reached, over his head, by the "compromising" faction of Cossack leadership, left Pereiaslav along with other Cossacks dissatisfied with the agreement and headed for the Cossack stronghold of the Zaporizhian Sich. Meanwhile, the Cossack leadership faction inclined to a compromise with Poland, elected
Timofiy Orendarenko
whose Hetmanship was confirmed with Koniecpolski's agreement. Fedorovych, disgruntled with this turn of events, tried to raise the Cossack masses to start a new uprising, but the energy for such an undertaking was no longer forthcoming.
Russia's ally
[
edit
]
Fedorovych fought on the
Russian
side in the
Smolensk War
against Poland (1632?34). In the winter of 1634-35 he yet again tried to convince the Cossacks to turn against the Poles at the
Kaniv Council
, but received only very limited support.
In 1635 he negotiated with the Russians the resettlement of 700 Cossacks in Russian-leaning
Sloboda territories
and, in 1636, suggested the creation of a pro-Russian Cossack regiment. His proposal was rejected by the Russians who did not want to endanger their new relationship with Poland after the recently concluded
Treaty of Polyanovka
.
Details of his later life are unknown.
Legacy and place in history
[
edit
]
Documentation of most of the details of Taras Fedorovych's life has been lost in time, including the year and circumstances of his death. There is no specific record of his activities before the mid- to late-1620s, and after 1636. The brief period, however, in which he played one of the leading roles in the region's history, established his name as an ancient and lasting source of inspiration to future generations of Ukrainians.
Taras Shevchenko
wrote a heroic poem,
Taras Night
, around Triasylo's character.
Fedorovych is one of four Ukrainian hetmans mentioned in the original version (published in 1863) of
Pavlo Chubynsky
's poem "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina" ("Ukraine Has Not Perished") which was later transformed into the
Ukrainian national anthem
. A quatrain of the poem reads: "
Nalyvaiko
,
Zalizniak
/ And Taras Triasylo / Call us from beyond the grave / To the holy battle".
In 1926, a feature film,
Taras Triasylo
, directed by
Pyotr Chardynin
, was released by the All-Ukrainian Kino Foto Direction (BUFKU).
[7]
It recounted the then nearly three-hundred-year-old events through the silent-movie prism of the
Soviet
film industry.
Taras Tryasila Street exists in
Kyiv
References
[
edit
]
- ^
George Gajecky
& Alexander Baran, "Cossacks in the Thirty Year War" Vol.1 Rome 1969, p. 41, Vol.2 p. 73.
- ^
a
b
Ihor Pidkova (editor), Roman Shust (editor), "
Dovidnyk z istorii Ukrainy
", 3 Volumes, "
(t. 3)
, Kiev, 1993-1999,
ISBN
5-7707-5190-8
(t. 1),
ISBN
5-7707-8552-7
(t. 2),
ISBN
966-504-237-8
(t. 3). Article:
Taras Fedorovych
- ^
a
b
Kubiyovych, Volodymyr
, Kuzelia, Zenon.
Енциклопед?я укра?нознавства (Encyclopedia of Ukrainian studies)
, 3 volumes (1994). Article: "Fedorovych, Taras". Kiev.
ISBN
5-7702-0554-7
- ^
a
b
Holubets, Mykola
Велика ?стор?я Укра?ни
[Velyka Istoriya Ukrayiny] (The Grand History of Ukraine)
, Section:
"Vid Konashevycha do Ostryanina"
("From
Konashevych
to
Ostryanin
"), originally published
Lwow
(1935). Reprinted
Kiev
: Hlobus (1993).
ISBN
5-86248-015-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Ihor Pidkova (editor), Roman Shust (editor), "
Dovidnyk z istorii Ukrainy
", 3 Volumes, "
(t. 3)
, Kiev, 1993-1999,
ISBN
5-7707-5190-8
(t. 1),
ISBN
5-7707-8552-7
(t. 2),
ISBN
966-504-237-8
(t. 3). Article:
Fedorovych Uprising
- ^
"
Poland, history of
". In
Encyclopædia Britannica
Online
.
- ^
Тарас Трясило
, Энциклопедия отечественного кино, ред. Любовь Аркус
- Ivan Krypyakevych, "Istoriia ukrainskogo viyska", Repr. d. Ausg. L'viv 1936. Kiev, Pamyatky Ukraini. 1992.
LCCN
55-34275