Nechai, Danylo

Nechai, Danylo [Nečaj], b ?, d 21 February 1651 in Krasne, Podilia. Cossack leader during the Cossack-Polish War; brother of Ivan Nechai. The first colonel of Bratslav regiment (1648–51), he came from a noble family and distinguished himself in the Battle of Pyliavtsi in 1648 and the Battle of Medzhybizh, the Battle of Zbarazh, and the Battle of Zboriv in 1649. After the Treaty of Zboriv he protected the peasantry from the Polish nobility. Together with Tymish Khmelnytsky he took part in the campaign against Moldavia, during which he captured Iaşi in September 1650. During the war of 1651 he defended the southwest sector of the front and died in battle against a numerically superior Polish force led by Marcin Kalinowski. Nechai was glorified in Ukrainian historical songs and dumas. Books about him by L. Polukhin (1954) and O. Lola (1956) have been published in Kyiv.