Pylyp Orlyk was born in the village of Kosuta, Ashmyany county, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in a family of Czech-Belarusian origin. Orlyk first studied at the Jesuit college in Vilnius and until 1694 at Kyiv Mohyla Academy. In 1698 he was appointed secretary of the consistory of Kiev metropolia. In 1699 he became a senior member of Hetman Ivan Mazepa's General Military Chancellery and 1706 was appointed general chancellor and at that position he was Mazepa's closest aide, facilitated Mazepa's secret correspondence with the Poles and Swedes, and assisted Mazepa in his efforts to form an anti-Russian coalition.
Hetman in exile
After the Battle of Poltava in 1709, he escaped together with Hetman Ivan Mazepa and king Charles XII of Sweden to Bender in the Principality of Moldavia, where Mazepa soon died. Pylyp Orlyk was then chosen as a Hetman in exile by the cossacks and the Swedish kingCharles XII. While in Bender Orlyk wrote one of the first state constitutions in Europe. This Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk was confirmed by Charles XII and it also names him as the protector of Ukraine. Between 1711 and 1714, together with Crimean Tatars and small groups of Cossacks, Orlyk carried out unsuccessful raids into Right-bank Ukraine. Afterwards, Pylyp Orlyk now together with several other cossacks followed the Swedish king Charles XII to Sweden via Vienna and Stralsund. Orlyk with his family and about 40 other Cossacks arrived in Ystad, Sweden in late November 1715. After some months in Ystad they lived in the city ofKristianstad for some years. Orlyk and his family left Stockholm in 1720 but as late as 1747 his widow and children received financial support from the Parliament of Sweden. From Sweden Orlyk first went to Hamburg, Hannover, Prague, Wrocław and Kraków, where he left his family to stay in a monastery. Orlyk went on to France and in 1722 he arrived in Iaşi in Ottoman Moldavia in order to organize an alliance against Russian Empire. From there he went on to Thessaloniki and from the mid-1730s he is known to have lived in Budjak. He died 1742 in Jassy, Principality of Moldavia. Orlyk wrote numerous proclamations and essays about Ukraine including the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk. In his history of SalonicaMark Mazower says
Memory
In 2011 a monument dedicated to Pylyp Orlyk was erected in Kristianstad, Sweden on a building Ukrainian hetman lived in 1716–1719 years to celebrate tercentenary of Pylyp Orlyk's constitution. The authors of the monument are Boris Krylov and Oles Sydoruk.
Anastasiya Orlyk – born in Poltava - married the Swedish nobleman and officer Johan Stenflycht in 1723. They had two sons:
* Carl Gustaf – colonel in the French regiment Royal Pologne.
* Filip – died in Hamburg.
Grégoire Orlyk - born in Baturyn, Ukraine. His godfather was Hetman Ivan Mazepa. He studied at Lund University. After leaving Sweden in 1720 he first lived with his mother in Kraków, Poland. He later became a Lieutenant General in France where he called himself Comte d'Orlik. Although he kept the contact with Sweden and in 1742 he also visited Stockholm. In 1747 he married a French noblewoman, but they didn't have any children. He was killed in 1759 at the Battle of Minden in Germany where he also is buried.
Mykhailo Orlyk – born in Baturyn, Ukraine. His godfather was Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
Varvara Orlyk – born in Baturyn, Ukraine. Her godfather was Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
