Kolomak

Kolomak is associated with a decisive Cossack council held beside the Kolomak River in 1687. At the time, the river marked the boundary of the Hetman state. Muscovite troops under Prince Vasilii Golitsyn surrounded the gathering, which deposed and arrested Ivan Samoilovych and elected Ivan Mazepa as hetman. The council then accepted the agreement known as the Kolomak Articles.

Its twenty-two articles preserved a registered Cossack force of thirty thousand and reaffirmed existing rights, but imposed substantial restrictions. Changes to high offices required the tsar’s approval; the hetman could not maintain independent foreign relations; and Muscovite troops were to be stationed at Baturyn. The riverside gathering thus joined an election of leadership to a settlement that narrowed the Hetmanate’s political and military freedom.