Severyn Nalyvaiko

Severyn (Semerii) Nalyvaiko (, , in older historiography also Semen Nalewajko, died 21 April 1597) was a leader of an independent Ukrainian Cossack force who became a hero of Ukrainian folklore. He led the failed Nalyvaiko Uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for which he was tortured and executed in Warsaw. The Decembrist poet Kondraty Ryleyev wrote a poem about him.

Biography Nalyvaiko was born in the town of Husiatyn not far from Ternopil into a furrier's family. After the killing of his father by the servants of the magnate Kalinowski he moved with his mother to Ostroh where his elder brother was a seminary student. He later served with the registered Cossacks under Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky in the army of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1593 he fought against the rebellious Zaporozhian Cossacks led by Krzysztof Kosiński during the Kosiński Uprising. He left the service in 1594, and organized a paramilitary unit of unregistered cossacks in the vicinity of Bratslav, and raided several Moldavian and Hungarian towns. The following year, Nalivaiko's Cossacks were joined by many run-away Ukrainian peasants and captured the town of Lutsk where his men massacred Polish nobility, Catholic clergy and local Greek-Catholics. From Volhynia Nalivaiko's Cossacks moved into Belarus, where they pillaged Mogilev.