Ivan Sirko

Ivan Dmytrovych Sirko
Ivan Dmytrovych Sirko
Born	1605 (1610); Zaporizhian Host
Allegiance	Zaporozhian Host; Left-bank Ukraine;
Years of service	1648–1680
Rank	Kosh Otaman
Battles/wars	Thirty Years' War; Khmelnytsky Uprising; Russo-Polish War (1654-1667); The Ruin;
Spouse(s)	Sofia
Children	two sons (Peter and Roman) and two daughters

Ivan Sirko (

Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host and putative co-author of the famous semi-legendary Cossack letter to the Ottoman sultan that inspired the major painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks by the 19th-century artist Ilya Repin

.

Biography

Origin

The first biography of Ivan Sirko, written by

Moscovy). Mytsyik also recalls that another historian, Volodymyr Borysenko, allowed for the possibility that Sirko was born in Murafa near the city of Sharhorod (now in Vinnytsia Oblast). The author explains during that time when people were fleeing the war (known as the Ruin, 1659–1686) they may have established a similarly named town in Sloboda Ukraine

further east.

Further, Mytsyik in his book states that Sirko probably was not of Cossack heritage, but rather of the Ukrainian (Ruthenian) Orthodox szlachta. Mytsyik points out that a local Podilian nobleman, Wojciech Sirko, married a certain Olena Kozynska sometime in 1592. Also in official letters the Polish administration referred to Sirko as urodzonim, implying a native-born Polish subject. Mytsyik states that Sirko stood about 174–176 cm tall and had a birthmark on the right side of the lower lip, a detail which Ilya Repin failed to depict in his artwork when he used General Dragomirov as a prototype of the otaman. Mytsyik also recalls the letter of the Field Hetman of the Crown John III Sobieski (later king of Poland) which referred to Sirko as "a very quiet, noble, polite [man], and has ... great trust among Cossacks".^{[citation needed]}

Career

Sirko changed his political orientation several times. In 1654 he came to the

Pereyaslav Rada after he became Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host in 1663 he won several battles against Poles, Tatars and hetman Petro Doroshenko in alliance with Muscovy. In 1664, he was one of the inspirators of an uprising in Right-bank Ukraine against Poland which is known from his letter to the Czar.^[3]

He was the first Cossack

Turkish stronghold Ochakiv and besieged Ismail

which he captured.

Following the death of Demian Mnohohrishny in 1672 Sirko entered the struggle for the hetman title, but instead was sent by the Russian tsar to Tobolsk, Siberia. In 1673 he returned to Ukraine and once again fought against Tatars and Turks, and captured the fortresses Arslan and Ochakiv. In 1675 Zaporozhian Cossacks defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in a major battle, however, the Sultan of Turkey Mehmed 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, which later became the subject of a painting by Ilya Repin. After his death, Ivan Sirko – one of the most popular otamans in Ukrainian history^{[citation needed]} – was remembered as a legendary Cossack, a military genius, and became a hero of many myths, folk songs and poems.

Burial

Sirko died at his estate Hrushivka (today Soloniansky Raion,

Leningrad laboratory for a plastic-archaeological reconstruction for the Ethnographic Institute of the Soviet Academy of Science. It was not until 1987 when writer Yuriy Mushketyk remembered the 'beheaded otaman' and wrote a letter to the Association for Preservation of History and Culture of Ukraine. The journal Pamyatky Ukrainy (Attractions of Ukraine) responded to the call of the writer and after over 20 years with the help of anthropologist Serhiy Seheda

the remains of Ivan Sirko were returned to his native land.

Legacy

The otaman is widely remembered in numerous literary works of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, Adrian Kashchenko, Volodymyr Malyk, Mykola Zerov, Borys Modzalevsky, and many others.^[specify] He is the Urus-Shaitan in Malyk's Ambassador of Urus-Shaitan. ^[7]

In 1966 when the President of France Charles de Gaulle was visiting the Soviet Union, he personally requested to bring him to the burial location of Ivan Sirko.^[8]

In August 2019 the

Volodymyr Zelensky.^[9]

References

^ according to chronicler Samiylo Velychko
^ Otaman Ivan Sirko by Yuriy Mytsyik Archived November 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ «Исполняя с Войском Запорожским службу вашему царскому пресветлому величеству, я, Иван Серко, месяца января 8 числа, пошел на две реки, Буг и Днестр, где Божиею милостью и предстательством Пресвятой Богородицы и вашего великого государя счастьем, напав на турецкие селения выше Тягина города, побил много бусурман и великую добычу взял. Оборотясь же из-под турецкого города Тягина, пошел под черкасские города. Услыша же о моём, Ивана Серка, приходе, горожане сами начали сечь и рубить жидов и поляков, а все полки и посполитые, претерпевшие столько бед, неволю и мучения, начали сдаваться. Чрез нас, Ивана Серка, обращена вновь к вашему царскому величеству вся Малая Россия, города над Бугом и за Бугом, а именно: Брацлавский и Калницкий полки, Могилев, Рашков, Уманский повет, до самого Днепра и Днестра; безвинные люди обещались своими душами держаться под крепкою рукою вашего царского пресветлого величества до тех пор, пока души их будут в телах» // Яворницкий Д.I. Історія запорозьких козаків. Т. II, 1990, с. 262-263.
^ "Іван Сірко: походи в Крим та Волоську землю". Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipro.
^ "Іван Сірко: дійсність і легенди - Україна Incognita". incognita.day.kyiv.ua. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
^ "Sirko, Ivan". www.encyclopediaofukraine.com. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
^ "Атаман - Ataman (Аркадий Польшаков) / Проза.ру". proza.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
^ Ivan Sirko – National Hero of France. Kaniv-Trakhtemyriv Cossack Sich portal.
^ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №618/2019" [DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE №618 / 2019] (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

Bibliography

Mytsyik, Yuriy. Otaman Ivan Sirko. Zaporizka Spadschyna (Zaporizhian Heritage), Ed.11. Zaporizhia: RA "Tandem-U", 1999.
Evarnitsky, D. Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko, glavnyi koshevoi ataman zaporozhskikh nizovykh kazakov (Ivan Sirko, The Chief Kosh Otaman of Zaporizhian Cossacks). Saint-Petersburg, 1894.

External links

Ivan Sirko at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Mysyk, Yu. Legendary Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko. Krymska Svitlytsia (from "Ukrayina Kozatska"). 17 August 2007
Seheda, S. The skull of the Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko two years was laying in my apartment. Gazette in Ukrainian. 29 January 2010.
Ivan Sirko
biography of Serko Ivan Dmitrievich (Sirko) - in Russian.

[1] rding to chronicler Samiylo Velychko

[2] Otaman Ivan Sirko by Yuriy Mytsyik Archived November 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[3] «Исполняя с Войском Запорожским службу вашему царскому пресветлому величеству, я, Иван Серко, месяца января 8 числа, пошел на две реки, Буг и Днестр, где Божиею милостью и предстательством Пресвятой Богородицы и вашего великого государя счастьем, напав на турецкие селения выше Тягина города, побил много бусурман и великую добычу взял. Оборотясь же из-под турецкого города Тягина, пошел под черкасские города. Услыша же о моём, Ивана Серка, приходе, горожане сами начали сечь и рубить жидов и поляков, а все полки и посполитые, претерпевшие столько бед, неволю и мучения, начали сдаваться. Чрез нас, Ивана Серка, обращена вновь к вашему царскому величеству вся Малая Россия, города над Бугом и за Бугом, а именно: Брацлавский и Калницкий полки, Могилев, Рашков, Уманский повет, до самого Днепра и Днестра; безвинные люди обещались своими душами держаться под крепкою рукою вашего царского пресветлого величества до тех пор, пока души их будут в телах» // Яворницкий Д.I. Історія запорозьких козаків. Т. II, 1990, с. 262-263.

[4] "Іван Сірко: походи в Крим та Волоську землю". Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipro.

[:1-5] "Іван Сірко: дійсність і легенди - Україна Incognita". incognita.day.kyiv.ua. Retrieved 2020-04-27.

[:0-6] "Sirko, Ivan". www.encyclopediaofukraine.com. Retrieved 2020-04-27.

[7] "Атаман - Ataman (Аркадий Польшаков) / Проза.ру". proza.ru. Retrieved 2022-03-04.

[8] Ivan Sirko – National Hero of France. Kaniv-Trakhtemyriv Cossack Sich portal.

[NN№618/2019IShwa-9] "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №618/2019" [DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE №618 / 2019] (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

[3]

[7]

[8]

[9]

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