Tsiutsiura, Tymish

Tsiutsiura, Tymish [Цюцюра, Тиміш; Cjucjura, Tymiš (Цицьра, Цецюра; Tsytsiura, Tsetsiura)], b ? and d after 1669. Cossack statesman, originally from the Pereiaslav region, active during the period of the Ruin. He was a captain in the Boryspil regiment (1656–8) and the colonel of Pereiaslav regiment (1658–60). At first a follower of Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, Tsiutsiura helped him to defeat the Muscovite army at Konotop in 1659. Later he planned the mutiny against Vyhovsky and maintained a pro-Muscovite policy with an eye to obtaining the hetman’s post for himself. Tsiutsiura’s conduct enabled Moscow to initiate proceedings against Hetman Yurii Khmelnytsky during the drawing up of the Pereiaslav Articles of 1659. In 1660 Tsiutsiura went to Moscow with his petition, and that year he participated in the Muscovite voivode Vasilii Sheremetev’s campaign against Poland as acting hetman in charge of the regiments of Left-Bank Ukraine (20,000 Cossacks). After the defeat of Sheremetev near Chudniv in 1660, Tsiutsiura abdicated and joined Khmelnytsky and the Poles, but he was imprisoned in Cracow nonetheless (1660–2). After his release Tsiutsiura returned to Pereiaslav, whence he was sent to Moscow and exiled to Tomsk, Siberia (1667).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]