Seven Years on Record, and a Legend Told for Generations: Dovbush, Leader of the Opryshky

Oleksa Dovbush (Олекса Довбуш) led a band of opryshky (опришки) that operated in the Carpathian highlands in the first half of the 18th century. The University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU) calls him “the Ukrainian Robin Hood,” writing that he distributed what he took from landlords and merchants to the poor.

Those who collected Dovbush’s story, however, were cautious from the start. Folklorist Volodymyr Hnatiuk (Володимир Гнатюк), who published a collection of the legends in 1910, quoted in his preface the words of historian Yulian Tselevych (Юліян Целевич), who had earlier studied the records: legends must be weighed with care, since many grew up on the memory of other leaders, and Dovbush’s figure grew larger over time, absorbing many real people and invented events. This article separates what the encyclopedias write on the basis of records from what songs and legends tell.

What Were the Opryshky?

The entry “Opryshky” (2010, revised 2021) in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Institute of History’s Енциклопедія історії України (Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine, “EIU” below) describes the opryshky as bands of brigands active in the 16th-19th centuries in Halychyna (Galicia), Bukovina, and Zakarpattia. The first record dates to 1529, and the name probably comes from the Latin “opressor” (one who breaks or destroys). Peasants and townspeople fleeing landlords’ exactions moved into the sparsely populated mountains and formed small bands to raid; besides guns and spears they carried hatchets (топірець), on which members swore an oath when joining a band.

IEU’s entry “Opryshoks” (1993) states that records of similar activity go back to the mid-15th century, that the name came into use in the early 16th century, and that the mountainous borderland of three countries — Poland, Hungary, and Moldavia — worked in their favor.

Whose View Is “Noble Bandit”?

Sources differ on whether to see the opryshky as friends of the poor.

• IEU’s entry “Dovbush, Oleksa” (first published 1984) calls him “the Ukrainian Robin Hood,” loved by the local peasants.
• IEU’s entry “Opryshoks” says they resembled “noble highwaymen” in other countries and were idealized in folklore and Romantic literature; it adds that they mostly kept what they took for themselves, with only some of them distributing a portion to poor peasants.
• EIU’s entry “Opryshky” lays out two views side by side: Soviet historiography treated the opryshky as bearers of a social and national liberation movement, a view some researchers still hold, while other researchers (such as historian Zenon Kohut) see no ethnic or religious motive at all, viewing them, at best, as part of a social conflict and, at worst, as simple crime.
• EIU’s entry “Dovbush” (2004) states that he distributed much of what he took to the poor, while also writing that he sometimes killed those he raided, sometimes burned their manors, and took their property.

Seven Years on Record (1738-1745)

According to EIU’s entry “Dovbush” (written by Oleksandr Hurzhii), Dovbush was born in 1700 into a landless peasant family in the village of Pechenizhyn (now in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), and as a child he tended the village’s livestock. IEU likewise gives 1700 and Pechenizhyn as his birth year and birthplace. Arranging the events the encyclopedias record by year gives the following.

EIU’s entry lists as references Tselevych’s Opryshky (1897), historian Volodymyr Hrabovetsky’s Oleksa Dovbush (1700-1745) (1994), and the legend collection The People Speak of Dovbush (Народ про Довбуша, Kyiv, 1965).

How Many Men in the Band, How Many Troops Sent After Them?

IEU gives Dovbush’s band as 30-50 men and the troops Potocki sent to suppress them as “as many as 2,000.” EIU’s entry “Opryshky” states that at the movement’s peak, in the early 1740s, 2,500 royal troops were sent into Prykarpattia. The numbers of troops differ between encyclopedias.

Dovbush in Song and Legend

Dovbush’s story survived in mountain villages as songs and legends. IEU’s entry “Hutsuls” states that many Hutsul folk songs praise the opryshky, and especially Dovbush’s deeds; its entry “Historical songs” numbers Dovbush’s songs among a body of historical songs dealing with social issues. The Hutsuls and their region are covered in our article on the Hutsuls, Boikos, and Lemkos.

The legends were gathered into a book as volume 26 of the Shevchenko Scientific Society’s Ethnographic Collection, People’s Tales About the Opryshky (edited by Hnatiuk, Lviv, 1910). According to Hnatiuk’s preface, printed records before this had been few: four Dovbush tales that Ivan Franko published in 1895, and eight in Volodymyr Shukhevych’s Hutsulshchyna, part 5 (1908), among others. Hnatiuk sent out an appeal for records to more than 100 addressees in mountain villages, and of the 258 numbered items in the book, 104 came from Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv of the village of Holovy, Kosiv district, and 69 from teacher Antin Onyshchuk (Антін Онищук) of the village of Zelenytsia, Nadvirna district.

“Dovbushchuk,” “Bortsi”: Older Names

• Dovbushchuk (Довбущук): IEU states that Dovbush was also known by this name, and Tselevych’s 1888 paper also used this name in its title.
• Bortsi (борці): according to a letter from a village teacher in Bukovina included in Hnatiuk’s collection, the word “opryshky” was not much used in that village; “haidamaky” was heard more often, and a strong lone figure of the kind found in folktale heroes was called a “bortsi.”

Today’s encyclopedia headwords are consistent on Dovbush (Довбуш) and opryshky (опришки).

Rocks and Caves That Bear His Name

EIU states that caves and rocks in the Carpathians, and other places besides, bear Dovbush’s name, and IEU likewise states that many mountains, lowlands, and rivers in the Carpathians carry the names of noted opryshky, Dovbush above all. IEU’s entry “Yaremche” states that Dovbush’s band operated around Yaremche in 1738-1745, and its entry “Pechenizhyn” states that the local history museum in his birthplace town is dedicated to Dovbush.

As a Subject in Literature, Art, Theater, and Film

• Literature: IEU lists Ivan Vahylevych, Yurii Fedkovych, Mykhailo Pavlyk, Ivan Franko, Bohdan Ihor Antonych, Volodymyr Zhytsky, and Leonid Pervomaisky. EIU lists Zhytsky’s novel Opryshky and Ivan Yerofeiev’s novella Oleksa Dovbush, among others.
• Art: according to IEU, painter Oleksa Novakivsky painted a portrait of Dovbush (1931), and Olena Kulchytska also painted him.
• Theater: IEU lists Anatolii Kos-Anatolsky’s ballet Dovbush’s Kerchief.
• Film: the Dovzhenko National Film Studio’s catalogue of works lists director Viktor Ivanov’s Oleksa Dovbush (1959). In 2023, director Oles Sanin’s Dovbush, made with the support of the State Film Agency, was released in Ukraine and Germany on August 24. The State Film Agency describes the film’s story as based on legend and folk tales.

Crafts and instruments of the same Hutsul region can be read about in our article on Kosiv painted ceramics and our article on the trembita, the wooden alpine horn. Mountain spirits are covered in our article on Ukrainian folk spirits.

August 1745, in the Village of Kosmach

According to EIU, Dovbush was mortally wounded on August 23, 1745, in the village of Kosmach (now in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast) by a wealthy peasant named Zvynchuk (also given as Zvynka); both IEU and EIU give August 24 as his date of death. IEU states that he was betrayed by a fellow opryshky.