Doroshenko, Petro

Doroshenko, Petro [Дорошенко, Петро; Dorošenko], b 1627 in Chyhyryn, d 19 November 1698 in the village of Yaropolcha (now Yaropolets) near Moscow. Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine from 1665 to 1676, grandson of Hetman Mykhailo Doroshenko. He served under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky in a military and diplomatic capacity. In 1649 he was appointed artillery secretary of the Chyhyryn regiment. He carried out various diplomatic assignments from the hetman. In 1657–9 he was colonel of the Pryluky regiment. After Khmelnytsky's death Doroshenko supported Ivan Vyhovsky and signed the Treaty of Hadiach in 1658. During the hetmancy of Yurii Khmelnytsky, Doroshenko took part in negotiations with Moscow. He supported the Zherdiv Articles, proposals drawn up by Yurii Khmelnytsky's followers to ensure maximum freedom for the Cossack state. However, he was forced to accept the Treaty of Pereiaslav of 1659, dictated by the Russians. As colonel of Chyhyryn (1660–3) and the representative of the acting hetman, Doroshenko signed the Treaty of Slobodyshche with Poland in 1660. Under Hetman Pavlo Teteria, Doroshenko held the post of general osaul (1663–4) and then colonel of Cherkasy (1665). In October 1665 the Council of Officers in Chyhyryn elected him acting hetman, and in January 1666, hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine.

Doroshenko's main aim was to restore the Hetman state on both banks of the Dnipro River. In the struggle with Poland over Right-Bank Ukraine, Doroshenko crushed the Polish army with Crimean Tatar help at Brailiv in Podilia, but the victory proved to be inconsequential because of Tatar treachery and Zaporozhian Otaman Ivan Sirko's opposition. Meanwhile a revolt against Muscovy broke out on the Left Bank, where after Ivan Briukhovetsky's execution Doroshenko was proclaimed hetman of all Ukraine on 8 June 1668. However, an unexpected Polish offensive forced Doroshenko to return to the Right Bank. He secured the release from Polish captivity of Metropolitan Yosyf Tukalsky-Neliubovych and installed him in Chyhyryn. Doroshenko’s opponents on the Left Bank took advantage of the situation and, with Russian support, elected Doroshenko's acting hetman, Demian Mnohohrishny, hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine (1668–72). To make matters worse, Zaporozhian Cossacks who were hostile to Doroshenko proposed one of their kish chancellors, Petro Sukhovii, for hetman, and this candidacy was supported by the Tatars. Doroshenko lost control of Left-Bank Ukraine.

The Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667 and the partition of Ukraine by Muscovy and Poland forced Doroshenko to seek help from Turkey. The Council of Officers that met in Chyhyryn in January 1668 expressed its support of an alliance with Turkey, and in the fall of that year Cossack emissaries in Istanbul presented a proposal for an Ottoman protectorate over Ukraine. This was to be a military-political alliance of two independent states—Turkey and the Zaporozhian Host—aimed at liberating ‘all the Ruthenian [Ukrainian] people,’ who were to be ruled by a hetman elected for life by the Zaporozhians without interference from Turkey or the Tatars. The Turks and Crimean Khanate could not establish peace or an alliance with Poland or Muscovy without the consent of the hetman and the Host. The national interests of Ukraine were to be safeguarded, and the rights of the patriarch of Constantinople were to be guaranteed. The general military council in Korsun, which met on 10–12 March 1669, approved the alliance, which was proclaimed by the sultan on 1 May 1669.

Various international and internal factors hindered the implementation of the treaty. Poland and Muscovy were hostile to it, as were the Crimean Tatars. The idea also proved unpopular in Ukraine. Doroshenko's opponents, led by the colonel of Uman, Mykhailo Khanenko, took advantage of this unpopularity. Doroshenko's efforts to reach an understanding with Poland based on the principles of the Treaty of Hadiach of 1658 through the Ostroh Commission of 1670 proved in vain, and the Polish government recognized Khanenko hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine. In 1672 Doroshenko and Sultan Mehmed IV set out on a large campaign against Poland and defeated Khanenko and his Polish supporters at Chetvertynivka. The war ended with the capture of Kamianets-Podilskyi. In the Buchach Peace Treaty of 1672 Poland surrendered Podilia and Cossack Ukraine to Turkey as an independent protectorate.

The next serious threat to Doroshenko arose in Left-Bank Ukraine. Muscovy wanted to abolish the Hetmanate on the Right Bank, all the more since it was allied with Turkey. The new hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine, Ivan Samoilovych, sought to unify both banks under his rule. A number of Right-Bank colonels changed sides and at the Council of Pereiaslav summoned by Samoilovych proclaimed him hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine on 17 March 1674. An army of Left-Bank Cossacks and Russians led by Prince G. Romodanovsky besieged Doroshenko in Chyhyryn in June 1674. But Vizier M. Kara Mustafa came to the rescue with a Turkish army, and Samoilovych's forces retreated to the Left Bank. Right-Bank Ukraine was retained by Doroshenko, but the land was devastated and the population did not support the hetman. Disappointed with the Turkish protectorate, Doroshenko decided to abdicate and handed over his hetman insignia to Ivan Sirko, who received them in the name of the tsar. But the Russians demanded from Doroshenko a special oath to be taken on the Left Bank. Chyhyryn was again besieged in September 1676, and after brief fighting Doroshenko surrendered to Samoilovych on 19 September 1676. He then settled in Sosnytsia, but was soon taken to Moscow, where he was kept in honorary exile. In 1679–82 Doroshenko was the voivode of Viatka and then lived out his last years at the village of Yaropolcha near Volokolamsk, which was granted to him by the tsar.

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Dorošenko, D.; Rypka, J. ‘Hejtman P. Dorošenko a jeho turecká politika,' Časopis Národního Musea, 1–2 (Prague 1933, and separately)
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Borys Krupnytsky, Oleksander Ohloblyn, Orest Subtelny

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]