Skoropadskii, Ivan Ilich
Skoropadskii, Ivan Il’ich
Born 1646 in Uman’; died July 3 (14), 1722. Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine from 1708 to 1722.
Skoropadskii was the son of a well-to-do cossack. From 1706 to 1708 he was colonel of the Starodub Regiment. He was chosen hetman after I. S. Mazepa joined the enemy. During the Northern War of 1700–21, Skoropadskii called on the Ukrainian people to continue the struggle together with the Russian troops against the Swedish invaders.
Skoropadskii had immense landholdings, numbering approximately 20,000 households. He further enserfed the Ukrainian peasantry and cruelly suppressed all manifestations of dissatisfaction on the part of the peasants and cossacks. Sko-ropadskii’s attempts to strengthen the influence of the cossack starshina (group of elders) met with no success.