Okolski, Szymon

Okolski, Szymon, b 1580 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, d 10 June 1653 in Lviv. Polish historian and heraldist. He was a monk of the Dominican order, and in 1637–8 served as the chaplain for Mikołaj Potocki’s Polish forces which suppressed the Cossack rebellion of Pavlo Pavliuk, Karpo Skydan, Yakiv Ostrianyn, and Dmytro Hunia. Okolski's two diaries (see Diiariiush) of this period provided a detailed record of the Polish campaign and of the Cossacks’ military tactics. Published in Zamość (a 1638 printing of the 1637 diary) and Cracow (a 1639 printing of the 1638 diary), they were translated into Ukrainian and used in works by Samiilo Velychko and Stepan Lukomsky during the 18th century. Later they appeared in Memuary, otnosiashchiesia k istorii Iuzhnoi Rusi (Memoirs Relating to the History of Southern Rus’, vol 2, 1896).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]