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Ivan BogunVinnitsa and Bratslav colonel, closest associate of B. Khmelnitsky
Country:
 Ukraine |
Content:
- Biography of Ivan Bogun
- Successful Defense of Vinnitsa
- Leadership in Battle of Berestechko
- Victory against Polish Forces in Monastyryshche
- Political Maneuvers
- Death and Legacy
Biography of Ivan Bogun
Ivan Bogun was a colonel from Vinnitsa and Bratslav and the closest companion of Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648-1654).
Successful Defense of Vinnitsa
In late February 1651, Bogun's regiment successfully defended the city of Vinnitsa and defeated the cavalry of the Crown Hetman Kalinowski. Bogun employed military cunning by ordering multiple openings to be made on the Southern Bug River and covered them with straw. When the Poles attacked the Cossacks, they fell through the ice into the river.
Leadership in Battle of Berestechko
In the summer of the same year, near the village of Berestechko in Volhynia, Bogun was elected as the punitive hetman after the Crimean Khan Islam-Girey, a ally of Khmelnytsky, abandoned his army during the battle and took the hetman captive. Surrounded by the Poles in their camp, Bogun led the defense for 10 days. The Cossacks repelled the attacks by the Polish nobility before Bogun decided to break out of the encirclement, abandoning the baggage train. He ordered the formation of a passage through the marshes using the belongings from the baggage train. Some Cossacks managed to break through, but suffered significant losses. The Cossacks who remained in the camp fought courageously and chose death in battle over capture.
Victory against Polish Forces in Monastyryshche
In 1653, Bogun defeated the Polish forces led by Colonel S. Charnetski in the village of Monastyryshche. During that time, Charnetski had launched an attack on the Bratslav region along the banks of the Southern Bug, indiscriminately killing Ukrainian villages and towns. According to their compatriot, they spared no one, including beautiful women, pregnant women, and infants. Bogun managed to stop this bloody raid. Although he had only 400 Cossacks against the Polish forces four times his size, Bogun disguised half of his men in Tatar clothing. They launched a surprise attack on the Poles with Tatar battle cries and howls. Meanwhile, Bogun and the other half of the Cossacks struck the Polish rear. The Poles, thinking that the Tatars had come to help the Cossacks, fled in panic, abandoning their baggage and equipment.
Political Maneuvers
In 1653, when the mass migration of Polish peasants from the Right Bank to the Left Bank began, Bogun expressed his opposition to this and to the desire of the more cautious Khmelnytsky to pledge allegiance to the Russian Tsar. From 1654 to 1657, Bogun successfully fought against the Poles in Bratslav, Uman, and other places during the uprising of the Ukrainian people against Polish oppression. He also fought against the Tatars who were plundering Ukraine. Alongside Khmelnytsky and other Zaporozhian leaders, Bogun pursued a two-faced policy towards Moscow. Although he swore allegiance to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich at the Pereyaslav Council in 1654, neither Khmelnytsky, who was secretly a vassal of the Ottoman Sultan, nor Bogun, nor Ivan Sirko, and others intended to remain loyal to this oath. In particular, Bogun soon went to Pobuzhia and began fomenting opposition against Moscow, which was eagerly watched by Ukrainian merchants and peasants.
Death and Legacy
After Khmelnytsky's death in 1657, Bogun supported his successor, Hetman I. Vygovsky, and participated in the fight against Vygovsky's opponents - Colonel M. Pushkar and Chieftain Y. Barabash. However, he was defeated by them near Velikiye Budishchi in January 1658. In April-May of the same year, Bogun traveled as part of an embassy from the Hetman to Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich. In 1659, he led a rebellion against Vygovsky, who had betrayed the Tsar, and defeated him in the same autumn. On February 17, 1664, Bogun was arrested by the Polish authorities and soon executed.
