Ivan Petrizhitsky-Kulaga, also Petrazhytsky-Kaluha ( uk, Іван Петражицький-Кулага; ca. 1570 – 1632) was a Cossack hetman in the years 1631–32. Seen as a supporter of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, he was stripped of his hetman position in an internal Cossack conflict and executed in 1632.

Biography

Petrizhitsky-Kulaga was born around 1570 into a notable Cossack family. Little is known from his earlier years. He participated in the battle of Chocim (Khotyn) in 1621 and, later, in large scale Cossack expeditions against the Ottomans in 1628 and 1630. Petrizhitsky-Kulaga succeeded the hetman Tymofii Orendarenko after the Cossack hetman election in 1631. He was seen as a supporter of Poland. Shortly after his election in 1631 he handed the Swedish diplomats l'Admiral and Des Greves, who attempted to negotiate with the Cossacks, to the Polish government. He is remembered for submitting the Cossack petition at the

election sejm of 1632 An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

. In this petition, the Cossacks requested that they, as warriors and defenders of the state, be given full political equality with the Polish nobility (''

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

''). They also asked that the Cossacks be allowed to participate in the

royal election Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

. Not only did the Polish senators reject the petition, but in response to the Cossacks' describing themselves in the petition as the "limbs of the nation", they infamously replied that the Cossacks were like nails or hair that needs to be cut down. That same year Petrizhitsky-Kulaga declared his support for the newly founded Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. His unpopular stance as a Polish loyalist and an internal power struggle among the Cossacks triggered a '' coup d'etat''. He was accused of supporting the unpopular

Uniate The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

sect (see

Union of Brest The Union of Brest (; ; ; ) was the 1595–96 decision of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church eparchies (dioceses) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to break relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church and to enter into communion with, and place i ...

). His opponents, supported by bishop Isaia Kopynsky, elected a new hetman. Petrizhitsky-Kulaga himself was executed in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

later that year by other Cossacks and succeeded as hetman by Andrii Didenko.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrizhitsky-Kulaga, Ivan Hetmans of the Zaporozhian Cossacks 1570s births 1632 deaths Executed Ukrainian people Executed Polish people 17th-century executions