Pavlo Polubotok
Pavlo Polubotok | |
---|---|
Павло Полуботок | |
Acting Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine | |
In office 1722–1724 | |
Preceded by | Ivan Skoropadsky |
Succeeded by | Danylo Apostol |
Personal details | |
Born | 1660 Borzna/Shramkivka, Cossack Hetmanate |
Died | 29 December 1724 (aged 63–64) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
Nationality | Ukrainian |
Spouse | Hanna Lazarevych |
Military service | |
Years of service | 1706–1724 |
Rank | Colonel |
Commands | Chernihiv regiment |
Battles/wars | Great Northern War |
Pavlo Polubotok (
Biography
Pavlo Polubotok was born around 1660 in Borzna (according to another version, at his family's khutor-farm Polubotivka, today part of Shramkivka) into a rich Cossack family and as a young man served under his relative Hetman Ivan Samoylovych.
In 1706 he became
In 1722, after the death of Skoropadsky, Pavlo Polubotok was named as his temporary replacement. As Hetman, Polubotok supported greater autonomy for
Legacy
Historians are divided on Polubotok's legacy. Soviet historians saw him as a "greedy man who concentrated on overt class interests." Most modern Ukrainians consider him a martyr and a hero of the Ukrainian struggle for independence.
Polubotok was written about in the poem "Son" ("A Dream", 1844) by Taras Shevchenko.
The Gold of Polubotok
The Gold of Polubotok is the legend of a large amount of gold which Hetman Polubotok supposedly deposited into an English bank in 1723, and which would have been returned upon the independence of Ukraine with an astronomical amount of interest. According to the story, being the head of state, Pavlo Polubotok had access to the state treasury. However, when he lost control and was forced to leave the country, he had put money from the treasury into the bank. In his will, Polubotok allegedly bequeathed eighty percent of the gold to a future independent Ukraine, and the rest to his successors. Even for today, a lot of Ukrainians know this story as an intriguing moment in Ukraine–United Kingdom relations.[1]
The story first became widely known in 1907, when it was published in the Russian journal New Time by Professor Alexander Rubets.
See also
- Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks
- Collegium of Little Russia (1722-27)
- History of Ukraine
- Gold of Polubotok
References
- JSTOR 40869994.
External links
- Pavlo Polubotok - Kyiv-Mohyla Academyalumnus
Predecessor Yukhym Lyzohub |
Chernihiv Regiment 1706–1722 |
Successor Mikhail Bogdanov |