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Ivan Bohun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivan Bohun or Ivan Bogun (Ukrainian: Іван Богун) (died in 1664), was a Ukrainian Cossack military leader. Close associate and friend of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, he opposed both the pacts with Poland (Treaty of Hadziacz of 1658) and with Muscovy (Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654).
During the Khmelnytsky Uprising against the Polish rule in Ukraine, in June of 1651 he was elected the colonel of troops of Bratslav and took part in the battle of Beresteczko against the Polish forces led by King Jan II Casimir. Surviving the defeat he regathered his forces and in June of 1652 part in a victorious battle of Batih, in which the Polish commander Marcin Kalinowski was killed and Stefan Czarniecki barely escaped with his life. The Polish defeat was complete and allowed for the Cossack forces to start a successful offensive and effectively gain control over large parts of Ukraine. Until 1657 he also led his forces in minor skirmishes against the Polish forces, notably at Bratslav and Uman. He also fought against the Crimean Tatars who had switched sides in the effect of the Treaty of Zborów of 1649.
Initially opposing the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654 after the death of Khmelnytsky, Ivan Bohun led an armed pro-Muscovite uprising against the power of hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and defeated his army in the autumn of 1659.
In 1663 he started yet another military campaign, this time against Muscovy. However, he gained little and on February 17, 1664, he was captured and turned over to the Poles. Found guilty of high treason, he was executed by a firing squad.
Ivan Bohun became a popular Ukrainian folk hero, immortalized by Henryk Sienkiewicz in a novel With Fire and Sword and Jerzy Hoffman's movie with the same name where character Jurko Bohun was loosely based on him. Ivan Bohun is also well described in Bohun, a modern, historical novel about polish-cossacks wars, written by Jacek Komuda.
- About Ivan Bohun (in Ukrainian)
- "Ukraine have not forgotten: 350th Anniversary of Battle of Batih Took Place without Tatars and Poles", Zerkalo nedeli (Mirror Weekly), June 1-7, 2002, available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
- Bohun, Ivan, in online Russian Biographical Dictionary (in Russian)
- Ivan Bohun at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
