Hetman of Ukraine Yurii Khmelnytsky was born in 1641 in
Subotiv near
Chyhyryn in central Ukraine. In 1659, the
Cossack Rada elected the 17-year-old Yurii as their
hetman in
Bila Tserkva, replacing the deposed
Ivan Vyhovsky. The young hetman faced problems: the uneasy alliance with the
Tsardom of Russia and the ongoing wars against
Poland–Lithuania and against the
Crimean Khanate. During the conflict against Poland–Lithuania, Yurii Khmelntsky's Cossacks were defeated near the town of
Korsun, he was captured by the Poles and later pledged loyalty to king
Jan II Kazimierz of Poland–Lithuania (reigned 1648–1668). In 1659, the parliament (
sejm walny) of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth granted him the status of nobility.
Georgiy Konyssky, an 18th-century
Ukrainian author and religious figure, wrote on Yurii being taken to Istanbul, before eventual exile to a monastery somewhere in the Mediterranean. One of the possible locations is Malta, where a "Cossack general's" grave is being shown as a tourist attraction. ==See also==