Khmelnytsky, Mykhailo

Khmelnytsky, Mykhailo [Хмельницький, Михайло; Xmel’nyc’kyj, Myxajlo], b ?, d October 1620. The father of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, he was a petty Orthodox nobleman probably from the village of Khmelnyk in the Peremyshl region. As a young man he worked at the court of Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski in Zhovkva and then at the court of Jan Daniłowicz, the starosta of Chyhyryn and Korsun. In the Chyhyryn region, he established a number of new settlements, acquired his own estate in Subotiv, and eventually became vice-starosta. He maintained close links with the Zaporozhian Cossacks. During the Polish-Turkish War of 1620–1, Khmelnytsky commanded a detachment of volunteers from Chyhyryn in Żółkiewski's army in the Moldavian campaign. He died while fighting the Tatars at the Battle of Cecora.

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