Semen Olelkovych

Semen Olelkovych [Olel’kovyč], b ca 1420, d December 1470 in Kyiv. The last appanage prince of Kyiv (from 1454); son of Olelko Volodymyrovych, brother of Mykhailo Olelkovych, and great-grandson of the grand duke of Lithuania, Algirdas. He served as the representative of the Rus’ population in the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state and sought to expand the autonomy of the Kyiv principality. He supported the Lithuanian opposition to the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellończyk. He was backed by Lithuanian and Ruthenian boyars in an unsuccessful bid for the Lithuanian throne. After his death Kyiv principality was abolished.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]