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Mykhailo Doroshenko

Mykhailo Doroshenko was a Cossack hetman (appointed by Polish commissioners in 1625, successor of Petro Sahaidachny), the last representative of the "party of peaceful politics" within the Cossacks. He is best known as the leader of the 1628 campaign to Crimea in aid of Khan Shahin-Giray against Khan-Temir, in which he died.

Overview

Under the Kurukove Agreement of 1625, the Cossacks were obliged to restrict themselves to a registered host no larger than 6,000 men, subordinate to the Polish hetmans, with a ban on sea campaigns against Turkish possessions and on unauthorized contacts with foreign rulers. As a guarantee of compliance, the Polish government asserted its own control over the election of Cossack leaders: the Polish commissioners, without Cossack participation, appointed Mykhailo Doroshenko as "senior of the Zaporozhian Host."

Doroshenko represented the trend within the Cossacks that sought to follow in the footsteps of Sahaidachny — to preserve the government-recognized legal foundations of the Zaporozhian Host's existence without breaking relations with the Polish government, while demanding concessions for the Ukrainian population from it. After Sahaidachny's death, this "legal line" came under pressure from the Cossacks' mass protest movement, which culminated in the Zhmaylo uprising and the subsequent restriction of the register.

During his first three years as hetman, Doroshenko balanced between loyalty to the king and the demands of the Cossacks: - 1626 — together with the entire Zaporozhian Host, he took part in the campaign of commander Stefan Khmielecki against the Tatars; the Budjak Tatars, who had invaded the Kyiv region with a 40,000-strong army, were defeated at Bila Tserkva. - 1627 — he refused Crown Prince Wladyslaw a campaign against Sweden, citing unpaid wages, extortions, and the oppression of the Orthodox faith.

In 1628, a crisis arose on the southern borders of the Zaporizhia region that gave Doroshenko the opportunity to act actively while remaining partly on legal ground. The pretext was the internal affairs of the Crimean Khanate: after the removal of Janibek-Giray (1623), the sultan elevated Mehmed-Giray III to the khan's throne, who, relying on his brother Shahin-Giray (qalga), refused to carry out the Porte's orders. The Porte, seeking a replacement for him, turned its attention to the strongest Nogai mirza — Khan-Temir, head of the Budjak Horde, to whom it granted the title of Silistria pasha (a direct vassal of the sultan). Khan-Temir defeated Shahin-Giray on the Danube and, pursuing him, besieged both Girays in Bakhchisarai. Meanwhile, the Divan in Constantinople proclaimed Mehmed-Giray and Shahin-Giray traitors and sent Janibek-Giray with a Turkish fleet against the khanate.

The besieged Girays turned to the Cossacks for help: Shahin-Giray sent the Bulgar mirza to the Zaporizhia region. At the Lower Dnieper (Nyz) the hetman Doroshenko himself was then present (with a thousand registered Cossacks to prevent sea campaigns). Negotiations ended with an agreement: Shahin-Giray undertook to pay the Cossacks 100,000 chervonets and surrender the fortress of Islam-Kermen in exchange for timely assistance. Doroshenko immediately set out for Crimea with 4,000 Cossacks (registered men joined by free Zaporozhians).

Just beyond Perekop, the Cossacks were surrounded by the Nogais, but they formed a camp and, defending themselves for six days, advanced toward Bakhchisarai. During the march Doroshenko died along with a quarter of his army. Those who survived did break through to Bakhchisarai, where beneath its walls they routed Khan-Temir, forcing him to flee to Kafa under the protection of the Turkish garrison, and relieved the siege of the Girays.

However, the appearance of the Turkish fleet with Janibek-Giray destroyed Mehmed-Giray's authority; he and Shahin fled Crimea, and the Cossacks returned to the Zaporizhia region, where Shahin-Giray also arrived. Under the agreement he surrendered Islam-Kermen; the Cossacks demolished the fortifications and removed the artillery, temporarily allowing the khan to roam the Zaporozhian lands. The Polish government did not punish the Cossacks for the unauthorized campaign and confirmed a new "senior": after Doroshenko's death, Moyzhenytsia was elected (executed for concealing military funds), and later — Hrytsko Chorny (Hryhorii Savych), the last of Sahaidachny's party of peaceful politicians.

In 1629, the Cossacks took part in a campaign against the Tatars who invaded Red Ruthenia under the leadership of the qalga Devlet-Giray (September 1629): the Cossack–Polish forces under Khmielecki won a brilliant victory at Burshtyn, scattering the Tatar army; among the prisoners was Islam-Giray, the future khan of the Khmelnytsky era.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Appointment by the Polish authorities (1625): unlike the hetmans elected by the Cossacks, Doroshenko was installed as "senior of the Zaporozhian Host" directly by Polish commissioners under the Kurukove Agreement — as a guarantee of loyalty to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  • The "Sahaidachny line": orientation toward the legal, government-recognized existence of the Zaporozhian Host, demanding concessions through patience and negotiation rather than radical uprising.
  • Conflict with Wladyslaw (1627): refusal to the crown prince of a Swedish campaign due to unpaid wages and the oppression of Orthodoxy — a manifestation that loyalty did not preclude the defense of Ukrainian interests.
  • The 1628 campaign to Crimea: Doroshenko's only major independent military action — an alliance with Shahin-Giray against Khan-Temir for 100,000 chervonets and the fortress of Islam-Kermen; encirclement near Perekop, six days of fighting, the death of the hetman with 1/4 of the army, the breakthrough and rout of Khan-Temir near Bakhchisarai.
  • Death and succession: after Doroshenko's death at Bakhchisarai, power passed to Moyzhenytsia (executed), and later to Hrytsko Chorny — the last of Sahaidachny's "party of peaceful politics."
  • Diplomatic consequence: before the king, the Cossacks justified the campaign by claiming they had intervened in the Tatar infighting "exclusively for the political benefit of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth," seeking to weaken the khanate.
  • "Doroshenko leads his army ahead...": 390 years since the Crimean campaign — an article by Serhii Konashevych in the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (2018, No. 23-24), a retelling of K. Melnyk's publication (1896) about Mykhailo Doroshenko's 1628 campaign to Crimea.
  • Khan's Ukraine — the era of Cossack-Crimean alliances and the Crimean Khanate's protectorate over the Ukrainian Cossacks.
  • Cossack cemetery near Perekop — material evidence of Cossack campaigns through Perekop into Crimea, in which Doroshenko also took part.
  • Battle painting of the Cossack era — the artistic reinterpretation of Cossack campaigns to Crimea, including "The Zaporozhians' Campaign to Crimea."
  • Mamai — the early connection of the Cossacks with Crimea and a figure who became a symbol of the Cossacks.
  • Andrii Shchekun — editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia," where the source about Doroshenko was published.
  • Harold Lamb — author of the "Cossack cycle" depicting the Zaporozhians in the lands of the Crimean Khanate.
  • Bernard Pretwich — defender of the Ukrainian borderlands against Tatar raids, an era before the formation of the registered Cossacks.