Holy, Hnat

Holy, Hnat [Holyj], b and d ? Zaporozhian Cossack and haidamaka chieftain. In the 1730s and 1740s he led a detachment of haidamakas that raided the estates of Polish nobles, lessors, and merchants in the Vinnytsia and Cherkasy regions. In 1741 he executed the Polish ally Sava Chaly and in 1743 captured Zvenyhorodka. His detachment was active until 1748. Holy became a popular hero and was remembered in folk songs.

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