S.A.K.A

The memorial to Ivan Pidkova (date of birth unknown, he died in 1578) - Cossack leader and later Hetman (highest military commander after the monarch) of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the administrative and military centre for Cossacks. He was born in Bratslav in the Vinnytsia oblast, but by origin he was Moldavian. After Tatars burnt his village and took away his parents and bride-to-be in captivity, he joined Cossack groups. He led the Cossacks to victory over the Tatars near Ochakov, Kafa and Kozlov. In 1577 his Cossacks liberated Yassy - at that time the capital of Moldavia - and was proclaimed by Moldavian population as the governor. But subsequently he was forced to retreat to the Bratslav area, where by the order of Polish King Batory he was seized and executed in Lviv. The Cossacks brought his body to the Cherkassy region and buried him in a monastery, no longer in existence, on Chernecha Hill.

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