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Henry M. Robert
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TREACHERY WITHOUT LOVE

6 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Ihor SIUNDIUKOV, special to The Day

Every nation has the sacred right to take pride in its heroes' great achievements.
This is important all the more so in overcoming one's own inferiority complex
and heritage of servility. At the same time, we cannot afford to forget
all the antiheroes in Ukrainian history and their dark deeds, because such
memory is needed not so much by historians as by coming generations; knowing
from history the traitor's, careerist's, demagogue's, and dictator's brand
of Cain, it will be easier for our descendants to deal with them.

Such antiheroes have much in common, no matter in what epoch they lived
(and there have been quite enough such characters at all times): thirst
for power, mercenary nature, and utter disregard of the people. All this
was inherent in Pavlo Teteria-Morzhkovsky, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine
in the seventeenth century. Perhaps as no one else he contributed to inciting
fratricidal civil war in his native land, turning it into an open bleeding
wound.

Born into an aristocratic Kyiv family (other sources say the family
was from Volyn), Pavlo Teteria finished Jesuit school (although everyone
else in the family for several generations was Eastern Orthodox) and spent
some time working as a clerk in a court of law. He must have been well
educated, clever, and not without talent. But this made his dark deeds
even darker, because the future Hetman's gift was generously diluted with
boundless cruelty and treachery. And there was not a trace of love left
in his heart. Of course, he knew about love. He loved himself and the power
he wielded, as eloquently evidenced by his activities.

In 1648, Teteria sided with - joined would seem a better word - Bohdan
Khmelnytsky's Cossack insurgent army. Before long he took a place of note
among the starshyna Cossack officer corps. In 1653, he was promoted
to Colonel of Pereyaslav, and marrying the Hetman's daughter Stepanyda
Khmelnytsky helped his career a great deal. Apart from everything else,
after Bohdan Khmelnytsky's death, the young upstart found himself with
wealth, which would later prove useful in his quest for power.

He made every effort to enact the Treaty of Hadiach (1658) with Poland.
Even then it was obvious that he was all for Poland and his campaigning
had a definite cynical edge (Arkas says he propagandized Poland at Hadiach
as follows: "Let us side with Poland, gentlemen! We will get more out of
it, for mildness governs more than anger."). Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky appreciated
his loyalty, appointing him General Scribe, without knowing that he was
promoting his own murderer. Moreover, the newly appointed General Scribe
immediately came to terms with the Poles, winning their explicit confidence,
and he would remain true to it, serving the Polish crown faithfully, spilling
rivers of Ukrainian blood.

In 1659, Vyhovsky lost his Hetman's mace, accused of plotting to finally
sell out Ukraine to the Poles. Bohdan Khmelnytsky's son Yuras was elected
Hetman (described by Mykhailo Hrushevsky as "an inexperienced dunce").
Hetman Yuras proved utterly incompetent. He started by swearing allegiance
to the Russian tsar and a year later to the Polish (on both occasions Ukraine's
rights and freedoms were dramatically curtailed). In the meantime Ukraine
broke into two halves: Left Bank, Moscow-oriented and refusing to recognize
Yuras's office as a "Polish traitor," and Right Bank where Pavlo Teteria
coveted the Hetman's mace. The civil war (known as the Ruin in history)
went apace. The whole country was swept under the tidal wave of anarchy
and fratricide. Finally, in the spring of 1662, Yuras Khmelnytsky abdicated
and then took the vows under the name of Gedeon.

This left Teteria as the strongest and likeliest successor to the Cossack
throne. He was certain that his hour of glory had come. He spared little
in bribing the starshyna and removing all potential adversaries,
and in the end the former Colonel of Pereyaslav became Hetman. He promptly
forwarded a letter of most faithful assurances to Polish King Jan Kazimierz,
announcing that the latter was his natural and legitimate sovereign. Of
course, such servility quickly met with strong resistance among patriotic
Cossacks. Colonel Ivan Popovych of Pavoloch conspired with the Left Bank
Moscow-minded Assigned Hetman Yakym Somko and a revolt broke out against
Teteria. Popovych and Somko several times defeated Polish troops in the
spring of 1663, but then Teteria stepped in. At the time Somko had to leave
for the Left Bank. He took advantage of his absence and launched a surprise
attack. Popovych held the fort at Pavoloch, preparing for a long siege,
yet he wanted to avoid bloodshed. Then Teteria promised to pardon the rebels
they laid down their arms. A fatal mistake! The vengeful Hetman subjected
Popovych to long tortures and then ordered him and his comrades-in-arms
executed.

Now was the time to prove his faithfulness to the Polish king. In the
second half of 1663 Jan Kazimierz set out with his army for Left Bank Ukraine
to bring it back under Polish control. Needless to say, Teteria was among
the entourage, along with Colonels Hohol (great grandfather of the writer
Nikolai Gogol), Khanenko, Bohun, and many others. The king avoided the
larger cities, nor did he besiege Kyiv, Nizhyn, or Baturyn. Rather quickly
the Polish army reached the Russian border, but pressed by Poland's enemies,
koshovy otaman Cossack leader Sirko, and Left Bank Hetman Briukhovetsky,
returned home. It was then that Colonel Bohun, Khmelnytsky's celebrated
associate, was placed in front of a Polish firing squad, reported by the
treacherous Teteria (or so all historians believe). His next victim was
his former mentor, Ivan Vyhovsky. Teteria conspired with Polish Colonel
Machowski and had him stand trial on ridiculous charges of high treason.
Vyhovsky was shot March 26, 1664.

The year 1664 witnessed a number of other devilish schemes accomplished
by Teteria and his Polish accomplices in the Poltava province. He reported
Colonel Hulanytsky and Metropolitan Yosyp Tukalsky to the Polish authorities.
Both were arrested and sent to the fortress of Marienburg. There were constant
revolts to topple Teteria and he was running out of manpower and resources
to suppress them, but then Polish military leader Stefan Czarniecki came
to his rescue. He quickly proved even more vicious than the Ukrainian Hetman.
After seizing the rebellious town of Stavyshche in Kyiv province, Czerniecki
massacred the residents, children and babies included. It was also then
that he ordered Hetman Khmelnytsky's remains retrieved from the grave and
burned (it was in Subotov). Fortunately for Ukraine, Czerniecki died shortly
before his order was carried out.

Naturally, the people's hatred of Teteria grew in Right Bank Ukraine
and his vicious purges and retributions did not help. In the spring of
1665, Drozdenko, leader of yet another revolt, beat his forces at Breslau
(Wroclaw) and made him abdicate whereupon Teteria fled to Poland.

In Poland, he converted to Catholicism, but then got involved in a series
of lawsuits fighting for estates with local Polish aristocrats. In Warsaw,
he was robbed by the Jesuits, and the government ignored his petitions
for help. It was then that the former Hetman, accursed in Ukraine, went
to serve the Turks. He arrived in the Moldavian city of Jassy and proceeded
to recruit men to fight Poland, but then he died under mysterious circumstances
in late 1670.

Pavlo Teteria stood out among others with his cruel egotism and fanatical
careerism, including such odious figures of the Ruin as Briukhovetsky to
whom Velychko's Chronicle applies equally well: "Each of them would
go further than allowing gouging out one eye in return for pieces of gold
and silver; each would sacrifice his brother, even father. So how could
they possibly feel any concern about their dying Mother Ukraine?" Teteria
must have believed that he would long stay in power, but things turned
our differently. Although he died not at the executioner's or assassin's
hands, his time in office was exactly two years. One must remember his
dark deeds, and perhaps this will reduce the risk of new, latter-day Teterias
that now and then lurk on the late twentieth century horizon.

 

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