Zakhary (Kharyton or Kharko) Oleksiyovych Chepiha (), sometimes transliterated Chepiga, alternative surname: Kulish () (1725 – 14 January 1797) was, after

Sydir Bily Sidor Bely or Sydir Bily (1716 — 20 July 1788) was Kosh ataman of the Black Sea Cossack Host. Biography Bily was born in 1716 to a Cossack family near Kherson. He studied in the Kiev-Mohyla Academy after which he joined the Sich as a young ma ...

, the second Kosh ataman of the

Black Sea Cossack Host Black Sea Cossack Host (), also known as Chernomoriya (), was a Cossack host of the Russian Empire created in 1787 in southern Ukraine from former Zaporozhian Cossacks.Azarenkova et al., pp. 9ff. In the 1790s, the host was re-settled to the ...

. Chepiha was born in

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast (), also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. There are 1,511 sett ...

. He arrived at the

Zaporozhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich (, , ; also ) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Zaporozhian Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries, for the latter part of that period as an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossa ...

in 1740 and at its demise in 1775 was a Cossack

polkovnyk (; ) is a military rank used mostly in Slavic-speaking countries which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states, ''coronel'' in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking states and '' oberst'' in several German-speaking and Scandinavian count ...

. He retired with the title of Captain. In 1783 he made an unsuccessful attempt at organizing a cohort of volunteer cossacks from the Zaporozhia. After meeting up with

Catherine II Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

in 1787, he was one of the cossacks to convince the Empress in allowing the formation of the Host of the Loyal Zaporozhians, later known as the

. Soon afterwards the

Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) The Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 involved an unsuccessful attempt by the Ottoman Empire to regain lands lost to the Russian Empire in the course of the previous Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). It took place concomitantly with the Austro-T ...

broke out, and the new cossack host received its battle christening on the

Southern Bug The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh (; ; ; or just ), and sometimes Boh River (; ),

river during the

Battle of Ochakov The siege of Ochakov or the siege of Özi (now Ochakiv, Ukraine) was one of the major events of the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). It was known as "Özi Kuşatması" in Turkish. In 1788, Russian forces led by Prince Grigory Potemkin and G ...

. During a campaign in 1788, Chepiha was wounded by a bullet to the shoulder. After Sydor Bily's death, he was proclaimed the Host's

ataman Ataman (variants: ''otaman'', ''wataman'', ''vataman''; ; ) was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukra ...

. He took part in the storming of Izmail in 1790 and the battle of Babodah in 1791. For his efforts, Chepiha received the rank of the

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

. In 1792 he took part in the resettlement of the Black Sea Cossacks to the

Kuban Kuban ( Russian and Ukrainian: Кубань; ) is a historical and geographical region in the North Caucasus region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and separated fr ...

. He died in 1797 and was buried in

Yekaterinodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

References

Further reading