12 Facts About Petro Doroshenko

Petro Dorofiiovich Doroshenko was a Cossack political and military leader, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine and a Russian voivode.

Petro Doroshenko was born in Chyhyryn into a noble Cossack family with a strong tradition of leadership.

Petro Doroshenko became fluent in Latin and Polish and had a broad knowledge of history.

Petro Doroshenko primarily served in the Chyhyryn regiment, where he held the rank of artillery secretary, eventually being appointed colonel of the Pryluky regiment in 1657.

When Khmelnytsky died in 1657 Petro Doroshenko supported the election of General Chancellor Ivan Vyhovsky as Khmelnytsky's successor.

Petro Doroshenko became the leader of the Cossack starshyna and of the elements within the ecclesiastical authorities who opposed the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement between the Cossacks and the Tsardom of Russia.

Petro Doroshenko quickly deserted his pro-Polish position and decided to seek aid from the Ottoman Empire.

In 1670 in Ostroh through the local commission, Petro Doroshenko unsuccessfully tried to revive the principles 1658 Treaty of Hadiach in negotiations with Poland.

However, already in the fall of 1675 at the Cossack council in Chyhyryn Petro Doroshenko abdicated and pledged his allegiance to Russia, with Ivan Sirko witnessing it.

Petro Doroshenko was arrested and brought to Moscow where he was kept in honorary exile, never to return to Ukraine.

In 1676 Petro Doroshenko asked new Russian Tsar Feodor III to forgive him and promised his loyalty.

In 2013, with the support of the museum "Muzei Hetmanstva" the "Hetman Petro Doroshenko fund" was created.