Velychko, Samiilo

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Velychko, Samiilo

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Velychko, Samiilo [Величко, Самійло;

Velyčko, Samijlo], b 1670 in the Poltava
region, d after 1728 in Zhuky, Poltava region.
Cossack chronicler and political activist. He
studied at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy and

mastered the Latin, German, and Polish

languages. He served as general secretary to
Vasyl Kochubei in Dykanka, and in 1705 he
transferred to the General Military
Chancellery. He was relieved of his post after
the execution of Kochubei in 1708; thereafter
he lived in Zhuky, where he devoted himself
to writing and teaching. He translated into
Ukrainian the German anthology
Cosmography, which he published with an introduction in
1728. Velychko's principal work was a chronicle (4 vols,
1720) describing the events of 1620–1700; it has not been
preserved in full.

The first volume examines the events of 1648–59; the second

volume, those of 1660–86; and the third, of 1687–1700. The fourth volume, the largest (2,041
pages), contains various documents from the 17th century. This first systematic history of the
Cossack Hetman state refers to contemporary sources, Ukrainian (Samiilo Zorka's Diiariiush,
Innokentii Gizel's Sinopsis, the works of Ioanikii Galiatovsky), Polish (Szymon Okolski,
Samuel Twardowski), and German (Samuel von Puffendorf), and quotes from many
documents. The first volume contains a number of distortions as well as plagiarisms from
other histories. The second and third volumes are based on Velychko's personal observations
and partly on documents of the General Military Chancellery.

Velychko's chronicle was written in the Ukrainian bookish language of the 18th century, with
clearly discernible elements of dialect. Stylistically it is highly rhetorical and patriotic. In one

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Velychko, Samiilo

place the author describes himself as ‘a true son and servant of Little Russia.’ Velychko
paints a moving picture of the era of the Ruin, and he portrays the Cossacks as righteous
defenders of Ukraine and Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky as a second Moses. The chronicle
contains many anecdotes and stories that enhance its literary value. The manuscript was
illustrated by 10 portraits of hetmans, from B. Khmelnytsky to Ivan Mazepa. Some historians,
such as Mykola Kostomarov, Sergei Solovev, Mykhailo Maksymovych, Volodymyr
Antonovych, Dmytro Bahalii, Orest Levytsky, and Pavlo Klepatsky, have considered
Velychko's chronicle a reliable historiographical source; others, including Gennadii Karpov,
Vladimir Ikonnikov, Mykola Petrovsky, Ivan Krypiakevych, and Oleksander Ohloblyn,
have viewed with skepticism its stated sources, particularly the accounts of Samiilo Zorka.

The chronicle was published by the Kyiv Archeographic Commission as Letopis’ sobytii v
Iugo-Zapadnoi Rossii v XVII v. (Chronicle of Events in Southwestern Russia in the 17th
Century, 4 vols, 1848–64). The first volume was reprinted by the Archeographic Commission
of the VUAN as Skazanie o voine kozatskoi s poliakami (Account of the Cossack War with the
Poles, 1926). It was translated into contemporary Ukrainian by Valerii Shevchuk and
published in the journal Kyïv (1986, nos 10–11 and 1987, nos 1–5, 7, 10, 12; with an
introduction by Volodymyr Krekoten) and separately (vol 1, 1991).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ikonnikov, Vladimir. Opyt russkoi istoriografii, vol 2 (Kyiv 1908)
Doroshenko, Dmytro. Ohliad ukraïns’koï istoriohrafiï (Prague 1923)
Petrovs’kyi, Mykola. ‘Psevdo-diiariiush Samiila Zorky,’ ZIFV, 17 (1928)
Marchenko, M. Ukraïns’ka istoriohrafiia: Z davnikh chasiv do seredyny XIX st. (Kyiv 1959)
Dzyra, Iaroslav. ‘Tvorchist’ Shevchenka i litopys Velychka,’ Vitchyzna, 1962, no. 5
———., ’Samiilo Velychko ta ioho litopys,’ in Istoriohrafichni doslidzhennia v Ukraïns’kii RSR, 4
(Kyiv 1971)

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]

List of related links from Encyclopedia of Ukraine pointing to Velychko, Samiilo entry:

1 Baturyn
2 Chronicles
3 Epigram
4 Historiography
5 Kyïv

6 Kyiv Archeographic Commission

7 Lazarevska, Kateryna
8 Literature
9 Literature studies

10 Prose
11 Shevchuk, Valerii
12 Sirko, Ivan

A referral to this page is found in 12 entries.

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Velychko, Samiilo

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