Anton Zhdanovich

Anton Zhdanovych - Ukrainian military and statesman of Hetman's Ukraine, colonel of Kyiv (1650-1653, 1655-1656), orderly hetman, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1650, 1651), Commonwealth (1653), Moscow Kingdom (1654) , general judge (1656).

He was born into a noble family in the Kyiv region. The Zhdanovych family of the Jastshembets coat of arms came from the family of the Dovsprung princes from Zhmuda.

In 1648, Zhdanovych was a centurion of the registered Chigyry regiment, and in 1649 or 1650 he was appointed a colonel of Kyiv. In the summer of 1651, Zhdanovich's regiment stood in Kyiv itself. After the defeat of the Chernihiv colonel Martyn Nebaba by the troops of the Lithuanian hetman Janusz Radziwill, Zhdanovich allowed the Lithuanians to take Kyiv without a fight, expecting to surround them in the city itself and defeat them, relying on the support of the local population. The attempt to storm the city was unsuccessful.

Participated in the battle of Berestechko. On May 19, 1656, he arrived in Chausy on the instructions of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi to study the situation. In 1656, Zhdanovich received an estate from the tsar. In 1657, Khmelnytskyi appointed Zhdanovych as the commanding hetman over the 20,000-strong Cossack corps of the Ukrainian army, which was sent to help Charles X Gustav and Yuri II Rakotsa. Together with their allies, the Swedes and the people of Seminyak, Ukrainian soldiers conquered Warsaw.

After the unsuccessful battle near Magerovo, Zhdanovich's corps voluntarily left Rakotsi and returned to Ukraine. Zhdanovych and Bohun supported the candidate for the hetmanship of Ivan Vyhovskyi at the Chygyrinsk Council and continued to be supporters of his political course. He carried out diplomatic missions to Warsaw and Istanbul, took part in the Battle of Konotop in 1659. After the transfer of the hetman's mace to Yuriy Khmelnytskyi, Zhdanovych, like Ivan Vyhovskyi, left for Poland. A new treaty concluded in October 1659 between Muscovy and the Hetmanship canceled Antin Zhdanovich's political activity in Ukraine. In February 1660, during the siege of Mogilev, he was captured by Moscow. Further fate is unknown.