Anton Żdanowicz płk kozacki w świetle diariusza i korespondencji hetmana litewskiego Janusza Radziwiłła

In the article, the author would like to show the achievements by the Cossack colonel Anton Zhdanovych. He belonged to the Cossack Starshyna (military and administrative governing authority) of the period of Bohdan Khmelnytky’s rise to power and was his trusted commander as well as a diplomat, sent in envoys, among others to Turkey and Moscow. Before that, Zhdanovych had served in the Chyhyryn regiment, so he was well known to Khmelnytsky, who trusted him a lot. The source of the research is the diary and correspondence of the Lithuanian Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł. After Bohdan Khmelnytky’s death, Zhdanovych supported the new hetman Ivan Vyhovski in his anti-Moscow activities, participating in the Battle of Konotop against the forces of Aleksey Trubetskoy. With the fall of the founder of the Treaty of Hadiach, Anton Zhdanovych and other supporters of Ivan Vyhovski were removed from power, forbidden to sit on the council and deprived of the right to receive the office. Hence, he disappears from the group of the Cossack Starshyna in a period of the Ruin.