ODFFU · Heritage
Pylyp Orlyk
Cossack statesman elected hetman in exile in 1710. He is associated with the constitutional agreement of that year, which set out limits on the hetman's authority and the rights of the Cossack polity.
Modern artistic depiction by Natalia Pavlusenko.
Natalia Pavlusenko · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Image source
Biography
Pylyp Orlyk was born in 1672 in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and educated at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. He became general chancellor under Ivan Mazepa, handling the Hetmanate's senior administrative and diplomatic work. After the defeat at Poltava in 1709, he followed Mazepa into exile and was elected hetman at Bendery in 1710.
His election accompanied the agreement known as the Pacta et Constitutiones. It limited the hetman's powers, provided for a general council, separated public finances from the ruler's household, and set out protections for Cossacks and other groups. It was a political compact of its period rather than a constitution operating as a modern democratic state's law.
An unsuccessful campaign in 1711 was followed by decades of diplomacy in exile. Orlyk sought support in Sweden, the Ottoman Empire, and other European courts for restoring the Hetmanate. He died in Iaşi in 1742. His correspondence, diary, and constitutional agreement remain important records of Cossack political thought.
- ODFFU Archive: People Biographies
Biographical text adapted and translated from the supplied manuscript.
Consulted 2026-09-14
Biographical sources
- Pylyp Orlyk — biographical overview ↗Consulted 2026-09-11