Pylyp Orlyk's March on the Right-bank Ukraine — hetman Pylyp Orlyk's military campaign on the Right-bank Ukraine in January–March 1711 in order to liberate its territory from Moscow's troops and to restore hetman's power.
Due to improper training, bad timing and betrayal of Tatar allies, the campaign ended in the defeat of Orlyk's troops and led to the loss of support for the hetman among the Ukrainian population.
Preconditions
The defeat of Swedish and Cossack troops near Poltava, the punitive expedition of Moscow troops to Ukraine and the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, which took place in 1709, radically changed the balance of forces in Ukraine. After the military defeat, hetman Ivan Mazepa together with Cossack starshyna (senior Cossack officers) were forced to emigrate to Tighina (Bender), the Ottoman Empire territory, where he died in September 1709.
Six months after Mazepa's death, on April 5, 1710, in Tighina, Pylyp Orlyk was elected as the new hetman in exile. The election took place in the presence of Zaporozhian Cossacks and general starshyna, as well as the Turkish sultan and the Swedish king.
Charles XII, even after his defeat near Poltava, did not intend to abandon his efforts in Eastern Europe, and planned a new operation aimed at consolidating Ukraine under Pylyp Orlyk, and Poland under Stanislaw Leszczynski. Right-bank Ukraine, and in part Left-bank and Slobozhanshchyna, were to become the field of the action that, if successful, would have to be extended to Poland.
The Ottoman authorities, concerned about Russia's approach to their borders, also fully supported this operation. With the support of Charles XII, Pylyp Orlyk entered into an alliance with the Crimean Tatars and the Ottoman Empire, and on November 8, 1710, the latter, supporting hetman Orlyk, declared war on Russia.
The Turkish army started the march led by Grand Vizier Numan Pasha. However, the troops moved very slowly, and reached the Danube river only in mid-June 1711.
The created union included Zaporozhian Cossacks, Swedes and Tatars. Prior to the campaign, the Cairo Treaty of defensive-offensive military alliance was signed between the exile government of Pylyp Orlyk and the Crimean Khanate. Orlyk's significant diplomatic merit was that he managed to oblige the Tatars not to take yasir - prisoners, not to rob churches and not to commit violence when entering Ukrainian territory.
Raid of Tatars on Slobozhanshchyna
As part of the general plan, in January 1711 the Tatar khan Devlet Giray went to Slobozhanshchyna with his main forces (approximately 50,000 members of the Crimean horde) and several hundreds of Cossacks.
The Crimean army in Slobozhanshchyna felt almost no resistance. Small garrisons in the fortified towns and cities of the Kharkiv Regiment could not hold out. General Shidlovsky, who was tasked with defending Slobozhanshchyna from the Tatars, had not even arrived in Kharkiv yet. The locals and the Cossacks were partly intimidated, partly just not hostile to the Tatars, especially when seeing Zaporozhian Cossacks among the Tatar ranks.
For example, the town of Vodolahy of the Kharkiv Regiment did not resist — on the contrary, people brought bread and salt to the Tatars; others, like Merefa and Taranivka, tried to defend themselves but were seized.
Before reaching Kharkiv, the khan suddenly turned back to the Samara River, where he laid siege to two fortified fortresses: Novosergiivska and Novobogorodytska. The Novosergiiv Cossacks and their officers surrendered to the Tatars voluntarily, handing over the Moscow garrison of the city: one captain and 80 soldiers. The garrison of the Novobogorodytska fortress stubbornly defended itself, so that the khan had to lift the siege.
Initially gaining a foothold near Samara, the khan moved back: according to the correspondence from Tighina, on March 13 (24) he was already in Crimea. On his way back, Devlet Giray left about 1,000 Cossack-Tatar guards near Samara and a small garrison in the Novosergiivska Fortress, promising to return to Ukraine in spring.
Immediately after the retreat of the Tatars, hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine Ivan Skoropadsky occupied this important outpost in the South East, and the Cossacks who voluntarily joined the Crimean khan were executed.
The Tatar raid had a detrimental effect on Orlyk's reputation - after the Tatar invasion, the hetman could not count on any support from the residents of the Left-bank Ukraine and Slobozhanshchyna.