TREACHERY WITHOUT LOVE

Such antiheroes have much in common, no matter in what epoch they lived (and there have been quite enough such characters at all times): thirst for power, mercenary nature, and utter disregard of the people. All this was inherent in Pavlo Teteria-Morzhkovsky, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine in the seventeenth century. Perhaps as no one else he contributed to inciting fratricidal civil war in his native land, turning it into an open bleeding wound.

Born into an aristocratic Kyiv family (other sources say the family was from Volyn), Pavlo Teteria finished Jesuit school (although everyone else in the family for several generations was Eastern Orthodox) and spent some time working as a clerk in a court of law. He must have been well educated, clever, and not without talent. But this made his dark deeds even darker, because the future Hetman's gift was generously diluted with boundless cruelty and treachery. And there was not a trace of love left in his heart. Of course, he knew about love. He loved himself and the power he wielded, as eloquently evidenced by his activities.

In 1648, Teteria sided with - joined would seem a better word - Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossack insurgent army. Before long he took a place of note among the starshyna Cossack officer corps. In 1653, he was promoted to Colonel of Pereyaslav, and marrying the Hetman's daughter Stepanyda Khmelnytsky helped his career a great deal. Apart from everything else, after Bohdan Khmelnytsky's death, the young upstart found himself with wealth, which would later prove useful in his quest for power.

He made every effort to enact the Treaty of Hadiach (1658) with Poland. Even then it was obvious that he was all for Poland and his campaigning had a definite cynical edge (Arkas says he propagandized Poland at Hadiach as follows: "Let us side with Poland, gentlemen! We will get more out of it, for mildness governs more than anger."). Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky appreciated his loyalty, appointing him General Scribe, without knowing that he was promoting his own murderer. Moreover, the newly appointed General Scribe immediately came to terms with the Poles, winning their explicit confidence, and he would remain true to it, serving the Polish crown faithfully, spilling rivers of Ukrainian blood.

In 1659, Vyhovsky lost his Hetman's mace, accused of plotting to finally sell out Ukraine to the Poles. Bohdan Khmelnytsky's son Yuras was elected Hetman (described by Mykhailo Hrushevsky as "an inexperienced dunce"). Hetman Yuras proved utterly incompetent. He started by swearing allegiance to the Russian tsar and a year later to the Polish (on both occasions Ukraine's rights and freedoms were dramatically curtailed). In the meantime Ukraine broke into two halves: Left Bank, Moscow-oriented and refusing to recognize Yuras's office as a "Polish traitor," and Right Bank where Pavlo Teteria coveted the Hetman's mace. The civil war (known as the Ruin in history) went apace. The whole country was swept under the tidal wave of anarchy and fratricide. Finally, in the spring of 1662, Yuras Khmelnytsky abdicated and then took the vows under the name of Gedeon.

This left Teteria as the strongest and likeliest successor to the Cossack throne. He was certain that his hour of glory had come. He spared little in bribing the starshyna and removing all potential adversaries, and in the end the former Colonel of Pereyaslav became Hetman. He promptly forwarded a letter of most faithful assurances to Polish King Jan Kazimierz, announcing that the latter was his natural and legitimate sovereign. Of course, such servility quickly met with strong resistance among patriotic Cossacks. Colonel Ivan Popovych of Pavoloch conspired with the Left Bank Moscow-minded Assigned Hetman Yakym Somko and a revolt broke out against Teteria. Popovych and Somko several times defeated Polish troops in the spring of 1663, but then Teteria stepped in. At the time Somko had to leave for the Left Bank. He took advantage of his absence and launched a surprise attack. Popovych held the fort at Pavoloch, preparing for a long siege, yet he wanted to avoid bloodshed. Then Teteria promised to pardon the rebels they laid down their arms. A fatal mistake! The vengeful Hetman subjected Popovych to long tortures and then ordered him and his comrades-in-arms executed.

Now was the time to prove his faithfulness to the Polish king. In the second half of 1663 Jan Kazimierz set out with his army for Left Bank Ukraine to bring it back under Polish control. Needless to say, Teteria was among the entourage, along with Colonels Hohol (great grandfather of the writer Nikolai Gogol), Khanenko, Bohun, and many others. The king avoided the larger cities, nor did he besiege Kyiv, Nizhyn, or Baturyn. Rather quickly the Polish army reached the Russian border, but pressed by Poland's enemies, koshovy otaman Cossack leader Sirko, and Left Bank Hetman Briukhovetsky, returned home. It was then that Colonel Bohun, Khmelnytsky's celebrated associate, was placed in front of a Polish firing squad, reported by the treacherous Teteria (or so all historians believe). His next victim was his former mentor, Ivan Vyhovsky. Teteria conspired with Polish Colonel Machowski and had him stand trial on ridiculous charges of high treason. Vyhovsky was shot March 26, 1664.

The year 1664 witnessed a number of other devilish schemes accomplished by Teteria and his Polish accomplices in the Poltava province. He reported Colonel Hulanytsky and Metropolitan Yosyp Tukalsky to the Polish authorities. Both were arrested and sent to the fortress of Marienburg. There were constant revolts to topple Teteria and he was running out of manpower and resources to suppress them, but then Polish military leader Stefan Czarniecki came to his rescue. He quickly proved even more vicious than the Ukrainian Hetman. After seizing the rebellious town of Stavyshche in Kyiv province, Czerniecki massacred the residents, children and babies included. It was also then that he ordered Hetman Khmelnytsky's remains retrieved from the grave and burned (it was in Subotov). Fortunately for Ukraine, Czerniecki died shortly before his order was carried out.

Naturally, the people's hatred of Teteria grew in Right Bank Ukraine and his vicious purges and retributions did not help. In the spring of 1665, Drozdenko, leader of yet another revolt, beat his forces at Breslau (Wroclaw) and made him abdicate whereupon Teteria fled to Poland.

In Poland, he converted to Catholicism, but then got involved in a series of lawsuits fighting for estates with local Polish aristocrats. In Warsaw, he was robbed by the Jesuits, and the government ignored his petitions for help. It was then that the former Hetman, accursed in Ukraine, went to serve the Turks. He arrived in the Moldavian city of Jassy and proceeded to recruit men to fight Poland, but then he died under mysterious circumstances in late 1670.

Pavlo Teteria stood out among others with his cruel egotism and fanatical careerism, including such odious figures of the Ruin as Briukhovetsky to whom Velychko's Chronicle applies equally well: "Each of them would go further than allowing gouging out one eye in return for pieces of gold and silver; each would sacrifice his brother, even father. So how could they possibly feel any concern about their dying Mother Ukraine?" Teteria must have believed that he would long stay in power, but things turned our differently. Although he died not at the executioner's or assassin's hands, his time in office was exactly two years. One must remember his dark deeds, and perhaps this will reduce the risk of new, latter-day Teterias that now and then lurk on the late twentieth century horizon.