The directory «Plots»

Orlyk (Орлик) Pylyp Stepanovich
(1672—1742)

Pylyp Orlyk was a Zaporozhian Cossack starshyna, Hetman in exile, diplomat, secretary and close associate of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Pylyp Orlyk was born in the village of Kosuta, Ashmyany county, (Vileyka district of modern day Belarus), in a family of Czech origin.

Orlyk first studied at the Jesuit college in Vilnius and until 1694 at Kyiv Mohyla Academy. In 1698 he was appointed secretary of the consistory of Kiev metropolia. In 1699 he became a senior member of Hetman Ivan Mazepa's General Military Chancellery and 1706 was appointed general chancellor and at that position he was Mazepa's closest aide, facilitated Mazepa's secret correspondence with the Poles and Swedes, and assisted Mazepa in his efforts to form an anti-Russian coalition.

After the Battle of Poltava in 1709, he escaped together with Hetman Ivan Mazepa and king Charles XII of Sweden to Bender in Ottoman Empire, where Mazepa soon died. Pylyp Orlyk was then chosen as a Hetman in exile by the cossacks and the Swedish king Charles XII. While in Bender Orlyk wrote one of the first state constitutions in Europe. This Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk was confirmed by Charles XII and it also names him as the protector of Ukraine.

Between 1711 and 1714, together with Crimean Tatars and small groups of Cossacks, Orlyk carried out unsuccessful raids into Right-bank Ukraine. Afterwards, Pylyp Orlyk now together with several other cossacks followed the Swedish king Charles XII to Sweden via Vienna and Stralsund. Orlyk with his wife Hanna Hertsyk and six children arrived in Ystad, Sweden on the new year's day of 1716. They now lived in the city of Kristianstad for some years. Orlyk and his family left Stockholm in 1720 but as late as 1747 his widow and children received financial support from the Parliament of Sweden. From Sweden Orlyk first went to Hamburg, Hannover, Prague, Wrocław and Kraków, where he left his family to stay in a monastery. Orlyk went on to France and in 1722 he arrived in Iaşi in Ottoman Turkey in order to organize an alliance against Russian Empire. From there he went on to Thessaloniki and from the mid 1730s he is known to have lived in Budjak. He died 1742 in Iaşi.

Orlyk wrote numerous proclamations and essays about Ukraine including the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk.

Ukraine, 1997, Pylyp Orlyk

Ukraine, 2010, Pylyp Orlyk