Kalnyshevsky Petro was the last Koshovyi Otaman

Koshovyi Otaman

Kosh Otaman was the highest military rank of the Zaporizhian Cossacks in the 16-18th centuries.-Overview:The otaman was elected by elders of the Zaporozhian Host. The position contained the highest military, administrative, and judicial powers. Until the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate the...

 of the Zaporozhian Host

Zaporozhian Host

The Zaporozhian Cossacks or simply Zaporozhians were Ukrainian Cossacks who lived beyond the rapids of the Dnieper river, the land also known as the Great Meadow in Central Ukraine...

, serving in 1762 and from 1765 to 1775. Kalnyshevsky was the Hero in the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-1774 and was honoured with a gold medal with brilliants for courage.

Being the leader of the Zaporozhian Host

Zaporozhian Host

The Zaporozhian Cossacks or simply Zaporozhians were Ukrainian Cossacks who lived beyond the rapids of the Dnieper river, the land also known as the Great Meadow in Central Ukraine...

, Kalnyshevsky defended the rights of cossacks and their independence from increasing Imperial Russian influence, and encouraged agriculture development and trade in the Zaporizhian steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

.

After the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich

Zaporizhian Sich

Zaporizhian Sich was socio-political, grassroot, military organization of Ukrainian cossacks placed beyond Dnieper rapids. Sich existed between the 16th and 18th centuries in the region around the today's Kakhovka Reservoir...

, Kalnyshevsky was arrested, tried and exiled to Solovetsky Monastery

Solovetsky Monastery

Solovetsky Monastery was the greatest citadel of Christianity in the Russian North before being turned into a special Soviet prison and labor camp , which served as a prototype for the GULag system. Situated on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, the monastery braved many changes of fortune...

, without a right of correspondence or socialization with anyone. He was paid one rouble a day for his room and board, 40 times an average inmate. He used the money save to purchase a decorated Bible eventually inherited by the monastery. In 1792 he was transferred to solitary confinement at the Povarnya jail, where he remained until 1802.

Being pardoned by Emperor Alexander

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

at the age of 110 years, Kalnyshevsky (already blind at that time) decided to remain in the monastery, where he died 2 years later in 1803.

Canonization

Kalnyshevsky was canonized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Partiarchate) in 2008.