Hladky, Matvii

Hladky, Matvii [Hladkyj, Matvij], b ?, d May 1652. Colonel of Myrhorod regiment (1648 or 1649–April 1652) and military leader in Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky's army during the Cossack-Polish War 1648–54. Hladky took part in the Battle of Korsun and the Battle of Pyliavtsi in 1648 and in the siege of Zbarazh in 1649. In autumn 1648 he assumed command of Cossack forces fighting the army of the Lithuanian nobility in Belarus. When the Tatars temporarily captured Khmelnytsky during the Battle of Berestechko (1651), he fulfilled the duties of hetman and acquired the reputation of being an excellent commander. After the Treaty of Bila Tserkva (1651) restored the privileges of the Polish nobles, he opposed the advance of the Polish army into Left-Bank Ukraine. According to the Samovydets Chronicle, Hladky aspired to become hetman and was executed on the orders of Khmelnytsky.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]