- Ivan Sirko
Ivan Sirko (Ukrainian: "c". 1610 – 1680) was a
Cossack military leader,Koshovyi Otaman of theZaporozhian Host and author of the famousReply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks that inspired a major painting by the 19th-century artistIlya Repin .Biography
Ivan Sirko was born in the
stanitsa Merefa near modern Ukrainian city ofKharkiv . He was changing his political orientation very often. In 1654 he came toZaporozhian Sich becamepolkovnyk (colonel) and in 1659 together with Russian princeAleksei Trubetskoi fought againstCrimean Khanate . In 1663 Ivan Sirko became Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host and in alliance withMuscovy won several battles against Poles, Tatars andhetman Petro Doroshenko . He was a first Cossackataman to accept bands of Kalmyks into his army. Despite his pro-Moscow orientation he distrusted and hated pro-Russian hetmanIvan Briukhovetsky . In 1668 this rivalry even forced Ivan Sirko to switch sides and briefly join Petro Doroshenko in his fight against “Muscoviteboyar s andVoivode s” , but in 1670 once gain Sirko pledged loyalty to Russiantsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Afterwards he captured Turkish strongholdOchakov and fought against Doroshenko.Following the death of
Demyan Mnohohrishny in 1672 Sirko entered the struggle for the hetman title, but instead was sent by the Russian tsar toTobolsk ,Siberia .In 1673 he returned toUkraine and once again fought against Tatars and Turks captured fortressesArslan and Ochakov.In 1675 Zaporozhian Cossacks defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in a major battle, however, theSultan of TurkeyMehmed IV still demanded that the Cossacks submit to Turkish rule. The Cossacks led by Ivan Sirko replied in an uncharacteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities.After his death Ivan Sirko — one of the most popular atamans in Ukrainian history — was remembered as a legendary Cossack and became a hero of many myths, folk songs and poems.See also
*
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
*Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks References
* [http://www.rulex.ru/01180715.htm biography of Serko Ivan Dmitrievich (Sirko)] - in Russian.
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