He was a registered Cossack, belonging to the Chyhyryn Regiment. Early in his career, he served as Bohdan Khmelnytsky's courier and diplomatic emissary. He was elected Kish otaman (1661–63) of the Zaporizhian Sich. At the Chorna rada of 1663 he was elected Hetman of the Left Bank with the support of Moscow as an alternative to already elected Hetman Pavlo Teteria. Briukhovetsky's election was at the roots of the division of the Cossack State and is known in history as The Ruin.
However, Briukhovetsky's reign and cruelty worked against him. Early on he arrested and executed his opponents, namely polkovniks Somko and Vasili Zolotarenko. To gain support he signed the Moscow Articles of 1665, which placed Left-bank Ukraine under direct control of the Tsar. In return, Briukhovetsky secured for himself the title of boyar, properties, and marriage to Prince Dolgoruky's daughter. This treaty went on to be called the "Briukhovetsky treaty" and caused massive rebellion in Ukraine. His popularity among the clergy fell when he suggested that Moscow appoint and send a metropolitan to the Kievan Metropolia.
As his domestic policies failed, Briukhovetsky put the blame on the Russian authorities and sided with the Cossacks' rebellion in an attempt to save his reputation, but it was too late. In 1668 in the town of Budyshchi, a Cossack mob, which led by Petro Doroshenko,[2] killed him by chaining him to a cannon and beating him to death.[3]
After the murder of Briukhovetsky, Viisko Zaporozke Nyzove [uk] in revenge tried to kill Doroshenko[4] and Sirko initiated the right-bank rebellions.
In Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000–1900: A Sourcebook by Christine D. Worobec and Valerie A. Kivelson, the story is told of Hetman Briukhovetsky who burned a number of women at the stake as witches because his pregnant wife became ill which resulted in her miscarriage.[5]
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