Knowledge of foreign languages has always been considered a status symbol and demonstrated the mental capacities of a person. The same was true of the Zaporizhian Host back in the 16th—18th century. The Cossack elite was renowned for its erudition. Excellence in Latin was almost mandatory at that time, but oftentimes Ukrainian hetmans would know not just one, but even several foreign languages. Id est, many of them were polyglots.

Ukrainian Cossacks Day is celebrated on October 14, and JIT.Academy will acquaint you with some of the most educated Ukrainian commanders.

Bohdan Zynoviy Khmelnytsky (1595—1657) — a politician, commander, and diplomat, founder of the Ukrainian Cossack state and its first hetman.

It has been established that Bohdan got his primary education at home and then studied at a parochial school. The researchers have analyzed his handwriting in one of his letters and have identified the distinctive features of the Kyiv school in it. Hence, Khmelnytsky could have studied at one of the Kyiv monastic schools. 

It is assumed that later his father sent him to the Lviv Jesuit College, where the hetman-to-be gained a good knowledge of world history and the Latin language. He had a perfect command of Polish, and subsequently also mastered Turkish, Crimean Tatar, and French

Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny (1582— 1622) — a Ukrainian political leader, diplomat, hetman of the Registered Cossack Army, otaman (cossacks leader) of the Zaporizhian Host, diplomat, and advocate of Ukrainian culture and spirituality.

Sahaidachny got his primary education in Sambir and then studied at the famous Ostroh Academy in Volhynia founded by Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky — the first institution of higher education in Eastern Europe and the oldest Ukrainian academic institution.

He studied there the traditional Renaissance Seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music. 

Sahaidachny spoke his mother tongue — Ukrainian, but he was also proficient in other Slavic languages, as evidenced by his letters.

October 14: Before embarking on his military career, he was engaged in journalism and worked as a tutor of that time. It is also known that he was lecturing in Kyiv and, possibly, in Lviv.

Ivan Vyhovsky (1608—1664) — hetman of the Zaporizhian Host, head of the Ukrainian Cossack state in the Dnieper Ukraine. Vyhovsky worked in the Kyiv and Lutsk civic courts, was secretary to the Lutsk starosta (town supervisor), and also formed and headed the Cossack government under the hetman — the General Military Chancellery.

Vyhovsky was well-educated, most likely he studied at the Kyiv Brotherhood Collegium or the Kyivan Mohyla College. In addition to his mother tongue — Ukrainian, he excelled in Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin, and was quite good in Russian, and was a skilled calligrapher. The reports say that the hetman was “taught the liberal arts, was a man of exceptional wit and artful calligraphy”. 

Ivan Mazepa (1639—1709) — a Ukrainian military and political leader, statesman, hetman of the Zaporizhian Host, head of the Ukrainian Cossack state in the Left-Bank- and the whole Dnieper Ukraine, and representative of the nobility.

From an early age, Mazepa learned the basics of military art, riding on a horse, and fencing. The hetman successfully graduated from the Kyiv Brotherhood Collegium, and then graduated with honors from the Kyivan Mohyla College. 

In Warsaw, he studied at the Jesuit College, and also studied in Holland, Italy, Germany, and France, where he gained experience in the political and cultural affairs of developed countries.

Mazepa was fluent in Latin, Russian, Italian, Tatar, Polish, French, and German. He became the first Ukrainian statesman to be personally engaged in the publication of Ukrainian works of literature. Among them were works by Athanasius Zarudny, Dymytrii Tuptalo, and Gregory Dialogus.

Pylyp Orlyk (1672—1742) — a Ukrainian political and military leader, statesman, General Chancellor, Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host in exile, poet, publicist, and representative of the nobility.

Orlyk studied at the Jesuit college in Vilnius and at the Kyivan Mohyla College. He had an incredible gift for philosophy and theology, history, poetics, rhetoric, and logic. He excelled in Polish, Latin, German, Swedish, Church Slavonic, and other languages.

The hetman is the author of the iconic Pylyp Orlyk’s Constitution of 1710, the original title of which is “The Treaties and Resolutions of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host”, set out in the city of Bendery by the newly elected hetman, the Cossack starshyna (officers), and the Cossacks.

The modern title “Constitution” comes from the literal translation of the Latin title of the document: “Pacta et Constitutiones Legum Libertatumque Exercitus Zaporoviensis” — “Pacts and Constitutions of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host”. The Latin word “pactum” is translated as a “treaty” or “covenant”, and “constitutiones” stands for “laws” or “regulations”. In addition, “constitutions” were the resolutions by the highest legislative body in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth — the Sejm.