Ostrianin, Iakov

(I. Ostrianitsa). Year of birth unknown; died Apr. 26 (May 6), 1641. A leader of the peasant and cossack uprising of 1638 in the Ukraine.

Ostrianin was first mentioned in documents in 1633 as a leader of registered cossacks. After the suppression of the Uprising of 1637–38, which was headed by But, the cossacks again rebelled in the spring of 1638. After electing Ostrianin as their hetman, they came to the aid of the insurgent peasants of the Kiev and Poltava regions. The rebels created a well-fortified camp near the town of Goltva (in the Poltava region) and successfully defended themselves against the forces of the Polish hetman Potocki. The latter received reinforcements and subsequently defeated the uncoordinated detachments of peasants and cossacks a number of times. After the defeat of the uprising, Ostrianin took some of the cossacks and their families (about 3,000 persons) and in June 1638 crossed the frontier into Russia. The cossacks settled on the site of what it now the city of Chuguev, Khar’kov Oblast, and took part in the fight against the Tatars, who were raiding the southern frontiers of the Russian state. Ostrianin was killed by cossacks who rebelled against the oppression of their cossack starshina (elders).