IVAN PIDKOVA


IVAN PIDKOVA
(1533 - 16.06.1578)

Living among the Cossacks, Ivan Pidkova pretended to be the brother of the Moldavian master Ioan III Vode the Brave, who led the national liberation movement and was killed by the Turks. The Moldavians, dissatisfied with their voivode Peter VI Kulgav, sent an embassy to Ivan Pidkova in 1577 and asked him to take the throne.

With the help of Cossack hetman Yakov Shah's detachment of 600 Cossacks, and his detachment, which included Moldavians, Pidkova invaded Moldavia and deposed Peter the Lame. Ivan Pidkova was supported by the masses. At the end of November 1577, he occupied the capital of Moldavia, Iasi, and declared himself master.

However, they did not visit Pidkov to stay in Moldova for more than two months. Voivode Peter, having gathered a fresh army, moved to Yas to regain the lost throne, but was the second in the broken Horseshoe. Then Stephen Bathory, the Polish king, wrote to his brother, the Transylvanian voivode Christopher, to help Peter the Chrome.


At the beginning of 1578, Ivan Pidkova, seeing that he could not hold on to the throne, decided to leave Moldavia and wanted to make his way to the Zaporozhian Cossacks; but to the Bratslav voivode to fulfill the terms of sending Pidkova to Warsaw to justify before Batory. The king, however, in favor of the Turks, placed Pidkova under arrest and ordered his execution in Lviv on Bazarnaya Square in June 1578.

On June 16, 1578, he was brought to Bazar Square in Lviv. After the verdict was announced, the Cossack was given the last word. "... I was brought to death, although I had done nothing in my life to deserve such an end. I know one thing: I always fought bravely and as an honest face against the enemies of Orthodoxy and always acted for the good and benefit of my homeland, and I had only one desire - to be with it a support and protection against the infidels...", Pidkova addresses the audience. . At the same time, he asked the officials not to execute his companions. After drinking a glass of wine handed over by his faithful brothers, Pidkova asked them to bring a rug. Kneeling down, Ivan read a prayer and crossed himself. And only after that, the head of the famous Cossack was blown off.

Ivan was buried in the Orthodox Dormition Church. However, the Cossacks stole his body, transported it to Kaniv and buried it in one of the Kaniv Orthodox monasteries.

The execution of Ivan Pidkova turned him into a national hero. Numerous stories, poems and songs were written about him. He became the hero of Taras Shevchenko's romantic poem "Ivan Pidkov" (1839)

Once upon a time - in Ukraine
Revili Harmatiy;
Once upon a time - Zaporizhzhia
Able to rule...
All that remains to be added to these lines of the poet is that the Cossacks at one time "ruled" not only in Ukraine, but, although not very successfully, and beyond it.

In the book "Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit", Bohdan Petrecheiku Hashdeu writes that Ivan Pidkova got his nickname because he could break a horseshoe with his fingers ("fiindcă frângea entre degete potcoava de cal").

Under his only portrait, included in one of the Polish editions of the beginning of the 17th century, an unknown artist left the following signature:

"He was so strong that he not only broke horseshoes, but also thalers, and when he stuck a thaler into a wooden wall, it had to be cut down. Taking hold of the rear wheel, he stopped the carriage drawn by six horses. The drawbar broke against the knee. Taking a barrel of honey with his teeth, he threw it over his head. Taking an ox horn in his hands, he broke through the gate with it.