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Dovbush (Довбуш) Oleksa Vasilievich
(1700—1745)

A Ukrainian Robin Hood, chief of Carpathian opryshoks. He became an outlaw with his brother Ivan and led a band of 30–50 men. Local peasants admired him. What Dovbush took from the landlords, rentiers, usurers, merchants, nobles, and rich Jews, he gave to the poor. His band was active mostly in the Hutsul region and in Pokutia, but sometimes raided Podilia. Stih peak in the Chornohora range was his home base. For several years Polish military expeditions of up to 2,000 men led by the crown hetman J. Potocki sought to capture Dovbush, who was finally betrayed by a fellow opryshok.

Oleksa Dovbush was born in early 1700's, in the hutzul village of Pechenizhyn, in the spectacular Carpathian Mountains, home of the colorful Hutzul people. Of all the people in Ukraine, the hutzuls managed best to retain the ancient, often pre-Christian, customs, traditions, arts and crafts. To this day, they are world-famous for their wooden architecture (particularly churches and bell-towers), wooded and metal sculptures (particularly wood-inlays), embroideries, textiles, kilims (carpets), embossed leather, folk-costumes, Easter eggs, ceramics, paintings on glass, etc. They are also well known for their lively music, dances (particularly the arkan and the kolomyika ), songs, legends, folk-tales and some very ancient, pre-Christian mythology, which is still interwoven into the daily lives of these hardy mountaineers. Above all, the hutzuls are known for their independent spirits, their undaunted individualism, their drive to freedom. To this day, one can still see the colorfully dressed hutzul shepherds, tending their flocks of sheep on high mountain meadows (polonyna), armed against wild bears and wolves with their beautifully decorated pistols and topirtsi (war hatchets - long alpine axes), communicating among themselves by the means of long trembitas (mountain horns - alpine horns).

Oleksa Dovbush was born into this freedom loving community, just at the time, when Ukraine as a whole was undergoing the convulsions of a country-wide rebellion: after the defeat of Ivan Mazepa at the hands of Peter the 1st of Russia, the last vestiges of the Kozak freedoms were being dismantled in the East by the Russians, in the West by the Poles, both of which were tightening their grip on the Ukrainian lands and making over the formerly free villagers into serfs, in effect complete slaves of the foreign overlords. A major rebellion erupted in the Eastern Ukraine (known as Koliivschyna, or hajdamaky), while in the Western Ukraine there appeared a movement known as opryshki.

Opryshki originally meant highway robbers, because that is how the foreign landowners characterized the rebellious bands. But to the common villagers, the opryshki were champions of their freedom and independence, their heroes, their leaders in the largely hopeless struggle for existence. The opryshki movement spread in the Carpathians (the regions of Hutzulshchyna, Boikivshchyna, Pokuttia), but also in the lowlands - Podillia, where a famous opryshko by the name Maksym Karmeliuk became very well-known. But nowhere were the opryshko bands as widespread, as in the freedom loving Hutzulshchyna.

Oleksa Dovbush joined the opryshki in 1738, together with his brother, Ivan. Soon he was the leader of his own band of 30-50 leheni (young men), making daring raids on the palaces and castles of the rich foreign landowners ((Stephan's note...Primarily Polish but occasionally Hungarian; Dovbush was also known to have once operated in Dovzhytsya and Vetlyna close to the border of the Boyko and Lemko lands)), robbing and killing them and their servants, and then spreading the acquired wealth to the poor people of the land. In particular, he was known for punishing those landowners and their lackeys, who were notorious for their cruelty towards the villagers. At the complaint of a victim, Dovbush would capture the miscreant and hold a regular trial over the accused. Usually, such trial ended in the execution of the foreign magnate. Any confiscated treasures would go to the victims. Soon Dovbush became the greatest hero to the local population, and a threat to the foreign aristocracy, who labeled him a terrorist, a robber, a brigand. But to the common people, he was the savior, the avenger, the knight in shining armor. Numerous legends appeared about him, songs were composed, fables were written. Portraits of Dovbush were sold at the marketplaces. He was idolized and revered. Notice, that there were two elements to his fame and notoriety. On the one hand, there was the social aspect: Dovbush was the hero of the downtrodden masses of common folk, who defended them from the evil landowners and their minions. On the other hand, he was a national hero of the Ukrainians (or Ruthenians, as they called themselves at that time). He was fighting for the independence of the country and the nation against the foreign occupiers. Undoubtedly, he was also a robber, a highwayman, par excellence (as was Robin Hood). The range of activities of the small Dovbush band gradually spread, not only throughout the Hutzul lands, but also into the Pokuttia and Podillia regions. The occupying government, at the requests of the foreign landlords, organized large military expeditions against Dovbush. Some such expeditions consisted of over 2,000 well armed troops and were led by the Polish crown prince J. Potocki. But still, Dovbush managed to escape every trap, evade every encirclement, and continue to bring terror and fear to the noblemen.. This was mostly due to the help received from the common people, but also to undoubted military capabilities of Oleksa Dovbush himself.

According to the prevalent legend, Dovbush met his end in 1745, in Kosmach, due to a vengeful girlfriend, by the name of Dzvinka, who, in a fit of jealousy, betrayed him to his enemies. It is not clear, if there is any truth to this legend, or if it is simply the product of the Romantic-era imagination. But the story is repeated, with many variations, in numerous folk songs, tales, ballads, legends ,and other folk art. The story of Oleksa Dovbush is also the subject of numerous novels, poems, dramas, operas, and other works of literature, theater and music. Such famous Ukrainian writers as I. Franko, Yu. Fedkovych and many others wrote about him. He is also the subject of sculptures, graphics, paintings, movies, ballets, and various other works of art. Oleksa Dovbush left his imprint also on the Ukrainian geography: there exist Dovbush Caverns (where people still look for buried treasure), and the famous Dovbush Rock (Kamin Dovbusha, near to the resort town of Yaremche) a huge boulder, which Dovbush, supposedly, threw at his enemies in a fit of rage. There are also many Dovbush streets and squares throughout Western Ukraine and many other remainders of this folk hero. The Dovbush lands are now a famous resort area.

Ukraine, 2000, Oleksa Dovbush

USSR, 1974, Dovbush cavern near Yaremcha