Kumeiky, Battle of

Kumeiky, Battle of. Battle between Ukrainian peasants and Cossacks and the army of the Polish nobility, which ended the Pavliuk rebellion. In the spring of 1637 Pavlo Pavliuk led an insurrection of the Ukrainian peasantry in Right-Bank Ukraine against the Polish lords. The uprising spread to a substantial portion of Left-Bank Ukraine. On 16 December 1637 near Kumeiky (now in Cherkasy oblast) Polish forces led by Hetman Mikołaj Potocki engaged the Ukrainians. On 20 December the Polish army surrounded the insurgents at Borovytsia. Unable to capture the town, Potocki proposed negotiations, to which the Cossack starshyna agreed. During the talks, Pavliuk and the other leaders of the rebellion were taken prisoner, sent to Warsaw, and executed. Despite the defeat at Kumeiky, another rebellion arose in the spring of 1638 (see Yakiv Ostrianyn).

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