Ivan Sirko

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Ivan Sirko; Detail from Ilya Repin's painting The Zaporozhian Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan (1891)

Ivan Dmytrowytsch Sirko ( Ukrainian Іван Дмитрович Сірко ; * approx. 1605/10 in Murafa ; † 1680 in Hruschiwky ) was a Ukrainian ataman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and a figure around whom many legends were created in the subsequent period. In the 19th century, Ivan Sirko inspired the Russian painter Ilya Repin to write his famous painting The Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan .

Life

Ivan Sirko came to the Zaporozhye in 1654 . In 1659 he fought together with the Russian prince and voivode Alexei Trubezkoi against the Crimean Khanate . In 1663 Ivan Sirko became the hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and, in alliance with Russia, won several battles against Poles , Crimean Tatars and the hetman Petro Doroshenko . Despite his pro-Russian orientation, he distrusted and hated the Moscow-friendly hetman Ivan Brjuchowezkyj . In 1668, this rivalry even forced Ivan Sirko to briefly change sides and support Doroshenko in his fight against "Muscovite boyars and voivodes". Nevertheless, in 1670 Sirko again made an oath of allegiance to the Russian Tsar Alexei I. Afterwards he conquered the Ottoman fortress Ochakov and fought again against Doroshenko.

After Demjan Mnohohrischnyj's death in 1672, Sirko took up the fight for the hetman title, but was sent to Tobolsk in Siberia by the tsar . In 1673 he came back to Ukraine and fought again against Tatars and Turks. This time he took the fortresses of Arslan, and for the second time Ochakov.

In 1675, the Zaporozhian Cossacks defeated the Ottomans in a great battle. Nevertheless, the Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV demanded their subordination to the Ottoman rule. According to legend, the Cossacks replied in an unusual way: they wrote him a letter in reply with insults and profanity .

Aftermath

After his death, Iwan Sirko became one of the most popular hetmans in Ukrainian history and a hero of many myths, folk songs and poems. His grave is in the town of Nikopol on the Kachowka reservoir .

Web links

Commons : Ivan Sirko  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article Sirko, Ivan in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine ; Retrieved April 10, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Sirko, Ivan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sirko, Ivan Dmytrowytsch (full name); Сірко, Іван Дмитрович (Ukrainian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian Cossack leader
DATE OF BIRTH around 1610
PLACE OF BIRTH Murafa
DATE OF DEATH 1680
Place of death Hruschiwky