Krychevsky, Mykhailo

Krychevsky, Mykhailo [Кричевський, Михайло; Kryčevs'kyj, Myxajlo], b ?, d 24 July 1649 in Loev, Belarus. Nobleman from the Brest region and Cossack officer. He was the colonel of the Chyhyryn registered Cossacks from 1643. In 1647 he convinced Aleksander Koniecpolski to release Bohdan Khmelnytsky from prison by guaranteeing his conduct. He then helped Khmelnytsky to escape to the Zaporizhia, and the next year he joined the rebellion led by him. He became the colonel of Kyiv regiment and in 1649 he led a 30,000-man Cossack army to repel a Polish-Lithuanian invasion of Ukraine. He was killed at the Battle of Loev, where his army was defeated. Krychevsky is the subject of a biography by Viacheslav Lypynsky in Z dziejów Ukrainy (From the History of Ukraine, 1912).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]