The directory «Plots»

Polubotok (Полуботок) Pavlo Leontievich
(c. 1660—1723)

Pavlo Polubotok was a Cossack political and military leader and Acting Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine between 1722 and 1724.

Pavlo Polubotok was born to a noble Cossack family and as a young man served under his relative Hetman Ivan Samoylovych. In 1706 he became polkovnyk (colonel) of Chernihiv regiment and during the Great Northern War remained loyal to the Russians and fought against Ivan Mazepa. Pavel Polubotok was seen by many as a possible replacement of the disgraced Hetman, but Russian Tsar Peter the Great distrusted Polubotok and supported Ivan Skoropadsky, who became the next Hetman. Nonetheless, Polubotok's loyalty was rewarded when wealthy estates throughout Ukraine were given to him.

In 1722, after the death of Skoropadsky, Pavlo Polubotok was named as his temporary replacement. As Hetman, Polubotok supported greater autonomy for Cossack Hetmante within the Russian Empire and defended old privileges of Cossack nobility. He wrote numerous petitions to Peter the Great asking him to re-instate the former way of electing the Hetman by the starshyna. In 1723 Alexander Rumyantsev was sent to Ukraine to investigate Polubotok. Within several months Polubotok was arrested, implicated in secret dealing with Pylyp Orlyk and accused of treason. The Hetman was incarcerated in the Petropavlovsk fortress and died there less than a year later on December 29, 1724.

Historians are divided on Polubotok's legacy. Soviet historians saw him as a greedy man who concentrated on overt class interests. Some modern Ukrainians consider him as a martyr and a hero of Ukrainian struggle for independence.

Ukraine, 1919, Pavel Polubotok

Ukraine, 1999, Pavlo Polubotok

Ukraine, 2010, Pavlo Polubotok