Ivan Gonta (died 1768) was one of the leaders of the Koliyivschyna

Koliyivschyna

Koliyivshchyna 1768-1769 was a Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland, which was responsible for the murder of noblemen , Jews, Uniates, and Catholic priests across the part of the country west of the Dnieper river...

, an armed rebellion of Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

.

Born in Rożyszki (modern Rozhyshki) near Uman' in Bracław Voivodship, Gonta served as a captain of Cossack household militia of Franciszek Salezy Potocki

Franciszek Salezy Potocki

Franciszek Salezy Potocki was a Polish-Lithuanian noble . Knight of the Order of the White Eagle, awarded on August 3, 1750 in Warsaw....

, the Voivode of Kiev and commanded a small garrison of Uman since 1757. During the Koliivshchyna he was ordered to fight the approaching haidamaka

Haidamaka

The haidamakas, also haidamaky or haidamaks , were paramilitary bands in 18th-century Ukraine. The haidamak movement was formed mostly of local Cossacks and peasantry , against the Polish nobility in right-bank Ukraine...

 forces of Maksym Zalizniak

Maksym Zalizniak

Maksym Zaliznyak - Zaporizhian Cossack, leader of the Koliivshchyna rebellion.-History:Zaliznyak was born in a poor peasant family...

. Instead, he and his militia joined the rebels, and the joint forces captured and ravaged the town of Uman on June 21, 1768. In what became known as the Massacre of Uman

Massacre of Uman

The Massacre of Uman was the 1768 massacre of the Jews, Poles and Ukrainian Uniates at Uman in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Ukrainian rebel Haidamak army....

, thousands of local Polish szlachta

Szlachta

The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

, Jews and Uniates were slaughtered. After that, Gonta was proclaimed colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 and commanded the garrison of Uman.

Fearing that the rebellion would spread into her domain, Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, dispatched a regiment of Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....

 to help Poland suppress the rebellion. The commander of the Russian unit, a certain Guriev, made the Cossacks believe he was siding with them and managed to capture approximately 900 of them without a single shot. After that, Ivan Gonta was handed over to the Poles and was tried for high treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

. Sentenced to death by grand Crown Hetman

Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....

 Jan Klemens Branicki

Jan Klemens Branicki

Count Jan Klemens Branicki was a Polish nobleman, magnate and Hetman, Field Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1735 and 1752, and Great Crown Hetman between 1752 and 1771....

, he was then executed in the village of Serby (modern Gontivka) in the Podolian Voivodship. As an added measure, his body was partitioned and nailed to gallows in 14 towns of Podolia.

Although largely non-notable during his life, after his death he became a hero

Folk hero

A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...

 of countless folk songs and legends that portrayed him as a hero and a martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

. He was immortalized in Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...

's controversial epic poem Haidamaky.