HETMAN

military title used in the Polish-Lithuanian state (16th-18th century); the hetman wielki ("great hetman") was the chief of the armed forces and the commander in the field when the king was not present. In Ukraine a variation of the term, ataman, was used to designate the military leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (16th century) and the prince of the area east of the Dnieper River (17th-18th century). Ataman was also the name of the elected commander of the various great Cossack hosts in Russia; after 1723, however, only atamans of the villages were elected.