Teteria, Pavel Ivanovich

Teteria, Pavel Ivanovich

 

(also P. I. Morzhkovskii, P. I. Merezhkovskii). Died circa 1670. Hetman of the Right-bank Ukraine from 1663 to 1665; member of the Volynian szlachta (gentry).

Teteria was an intimate of the elders of the registered cossacks, including Bogdan Khmel’nitskii, and later became Khmel’nit-skii’s son-in-law. In 1648 he joined the popular uprising in the Ukraine, but in the late 1650’s came to oppose the reunification of the Ukraine with Russia and strove to return the country to Poland. In 1658 he took part in concluding the Gadiach Union.

Teteria became hetman of the Right-bank Ukraine in 1663 and joined the campaign (1663–64) of the Polish king, Jan Casimir, across the Dnieper, which resulted in the devastation of the Left-bank Ukraine. With the aid of Polish troops, Teteria suppressed the popular uprising of 1663–65 in the Right-bank Ukraine. After his policies lost the support of the cossacks, Teteria fled to Poland in 1665.