As a head of state, the position was established by Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Cossack Hetmanate in the mid 17th century. During that period the office was electoral. All elections, except for the first one, were adapted by the Senior Council in Chyhyryn which, until 1669, served as the capital of Hetmanate. After the council in Pereyaslav of 1654, several senior cossacks sided with the Tsardom of Russia and, in 1663, they staged the "Black Council" in Nizhyn which elected Ivan Briukhovetsky as an alternative hetman. Since the defeat of Petro Doroshenko in 1669, the Hetman title was adapted by pro-Russian elected hetmans who resided in Baturyn. In the course of the Great Northern Warone of them, Ivan Mazepa, decided to revolt against Russian rule in 1708, which later drew terrible consequences for the Cossack Hetmanate as well as the Zaporizhian Host. The administration was moved to Hlukhiv where the Mazepa's doll was publicly executed and anathema was laid against him by the Russian Orthodox Church. Later in the late 18th century, it was successfully disbanded by the Russian government during the expansion of the Russian territory towards the Black Sea coast. In 1764, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great issued a secret instruction to Prince Vyazemsky who was Procurator General of the Governing Senate.
The list includes only Hetmans who belonged to the Cossack Hetmanate. For a full list of all Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks, see Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks. ;Notes Some historians, including Mykola Arkas, question the legitimacy of the Teteria's elections, accusing the later in corruption. Some sources claim that the election of Teteria took place in January 1663. The election of Teteria led to the Povoloch Regiment Uprising in 1663, followed by greater unrest in the modern region of Kirovohrad Oblast, as well as Polesie. Moreover, the political crisis that followed the Pushkar–Barabash Uprising divided the Cossack Hetmanate completely on both banks of the Dnieper River. Coincidentally, on 10 January 1663 the Tsardom of Muscovy created the new Little Russian Office within its Ambassadorial Office. Vouched for by Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel, Yuriy Khmelnytsky was freed from Ottoman captivity and, along with Pasha Ibragim, was sent to Ukraine to fight the Moscow forces of Samoilovych and Romadanovsky. In 1681, Mehmed IV appointed George Ducas the Hetman of Ukraine, replacing Khmelnytsky. Following the anathema on Mazepa and the election of Ivan Skoropadsky, the Cossack Hetmanate was included in the Russian Government of Kiev in December 1708. Upon the death of Skoropadsky, the Hetman elections were disrupted and were awarded as a gift and a type of princely title, first to Moldavian noblemen and, later, to the Russian Empress' favorites. On 5 April 1710, the council of cossacks, veterans of the battle at Poltava, elected Pylyp Orlyk as the Hetman of Ukraine in exile. Orlyk waged a guerrilla war at the southern borders of the Russian Empire with support from the Ottoman and Swedish empires.
