Filon Kmita
Filon Kmita (1530 Kyiv Voivodeship – 1587), also known as Kmita the Chernobylan, was a noble in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Filon Kmita was notable for conducting counter-intelligence in the Muscovite wars and establishing a spy network in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, as well as successfully leading ambush attacks with considerably fewer soldiers than the enemy. Biography Early years and first position Filon Kmita was born in 1530 in the Kyiv Voivodeship to the Kmitów noble family as a son of Semion Kmita and Tatiana Kroszyńska. His father participated in battles between the Ukrainian Cossacks and Tatars, and as a result, Filon from a young age would be involved in various wars alongside his father. Filon Kmita first began his service in 1552 as the leader of a small border fortress on the Ostyor river. Here in 1562, he was noted for repelling a Muscovite regiment of 2,000 soldiers with just 300 horsemen. In the same year, he would gather a regiment of 1,400 soldiers and occupy Chernihiv, a Muscovite fortress that up until then had not been taken. Skirmishes with the Muscovites For his success in Chernihiv, Filon Kmita would receive to govern the