Hetman of Zaporizhian Cossacks is a historical term that has multiple meanings. Officially the post was known as Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host. Hetman of Zaporizhian Cossacks as a title was not officially recognized internationally until the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate. With the creation of Registered Cossacks units their leaders were officially referred to as Senior of His Royal Grace Zaporozhian Host. Before 1648 and the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate there were numerous regional hetmans across the Dnieper-banks, who usually were starostas or voivodes. The first widely recognized hetman of Zaporizhia was Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, however later several Polish starostas were added to the Hetman registry such as Lyantskoronsky and Dashkevych who also led their own cossack formations. According to Mykola Hrushevsky they were not really considered as hetman, at least by their contemporaries. Among other such starostas were Karpo Maslo from Cherkasy, Yatsko Bilous, Andrushko, and many others. Even Princes Konstanty Ostrogski and :uk:Глинський Богдан Федорович|Bohdan Hlinski were conducting Cossack raids on Tatar uluses. The commanders of Zaporozhian Host often considered as hetmans in fact carried a title of Kosh Otaman. As from 1572, hetman was the unofficial title of commanders of the Registered CossackArmy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. From the 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky uprising, Hetman was the title of the head of the Cossack state, the Cossack Hetmanate. Cossack hetmans had very broad powers and acted as supreme military commanders and executive leader. After the split of Ukrainian territory along the Dnieper River by the Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo 1667, there was an introduction of dual leadership for each bank, or for each Ukraine of Dnieper. After the Treaty of Andrusovo there existed two different Cossack Hetmanates with two Hetmans the one in Poland being called Nakazny Hetman of His Royal Mercy of Zaporizhian Host and the Russian one titled Hetman of His Tsar's Mercy of Zaporizhian Host. Eventually the official state powers of Cossack Hetmans were gradually diminished in the 18th century, and finally abolished by Catherine II of Russia in 1764.
Ostap Dashkevych, not an actual hetman, he was a starosta in charge of a defense force approved by the Sejm near Cherkasy. Dashkevych offered to create a defense force on the banks of the Lower Dnieper
Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, first who created a Cossack garrison at the Nyz Dnieprovski on the island of Small Khortytsia in 1552
Samiylo Kishka, Hetman of Zaporizhia, managed to reinstate the rights of cossacks in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny led successful campaigns against the Tatars and the Turks, aided the Polish army at Moscow in 1618 and at the Battle of Khotyn in 1621. He also saw Cossack interests in the independence of Ukraine from Poland.
Historians such as Mykola Arkas question legitimacy of the Teteria's elections accusing the later in corruption. Also some sources claim election of Teteria being taken place in January 1663. The election of Teteria led to the Povoloch Regiment Uprising in 1663, followed by bigger number of 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 bank of Dnieper River. Coincidentally, on January 10, 1663 the Tsardom of Muscovy created the new Little Russian Office within its Ambassadorial Office. Vouched by Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel, Yuriy Khmelnytsky was freed from the Ottoman captivity, appointed and along with Pasha Ibragim was sent to Ukraine 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, Cossack Hetmanate was included into 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 titles, first to Moldavian nobleman and later to the Russian Empress favorite. 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 warfare at the southern borders of the Russian Empire with the support from Ottoman and Swedish empires.
