See Aftermath
139-860: The Khmelnytsky Uprising , also known as the Cossack–Polish War , or the Khmelnytsky insurrection , was a Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , which led to the creation of a Cossack Hetmanate in Ukraine. Under the command of hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky , the Zaporozhian Cossacks , allied with the Crimean Tatars and local Ukrainian peasantry , fought against Polish domination and
278-589: A Cossack near Kiliya . In the 16th century, these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organizations, as well as other smaller, still-detached groups: There are also references to the less well-known Tatar Cossacks, including the Nağaybäklär and Meshchera -speaking Volga Finns , of whom Sary Azman was the first Don ataman . These groups were assimilated by the Don Cossacks, but had their own irregular Bashkir and Meshchera Host up to
417-505: A combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with Stanisław Żółkiewski . The final attempt by King Sigismund and Wladyslav to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was Jan Karol Chodkiewicz who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of Dorogobuzh and Vyazma had surrendered. But
556-726: A defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and Mozhaysk , prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including Livny and Yelets . In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace
695-835: A group of supporters he headed for the Zaporozhian Sich . The Cossacks were already on the brink of a new rebellion as plans for the new war with the Ottoman Empire advanced by the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa were cancelled by the Sejm . Cossacks were gearing up to resume their traditional and lucrative attacks on the Ottoman Empire (in the first quarter of the 17th century they raided the Black Sea shores almost annually), as they greatly resented being prevented from
834-676: A lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with those of the Knights Hospitaller . The Cossack structure arose, in part, in response to the struggle against Tatar raids. Socio-economic developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were another important factor in the growth of the Ukrainian Cossacks. During the 16th century, serfdom was imposed because of the favorable conditions for grain sales in Western Europe. This subsequently decreased
973-551: A limited control over the Cossacks. The Cossacks provided refuge for runaway serfs and bandits, and often mounted unauthorized raids and pirate expeditions against the Ottoman Empire . While the Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire served as buffer zones on its borders, the expansionist ambitions of the empire relied on ensuring control over the Cossacks, which caused tension with their traditional independent lifestyle. As
1112-635: A prisoner of the Solovetsky Islands . Some Cossacks moved to the Danube Delta region, where they established a new sich under Ottoman rule. To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowed them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later to reorganize into other hosts, of which
1251-600: A reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals , although they also sometimes plundered other neighbors. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the period of the Commonwealth (1569–1795). Prior to the formation of the Zaporozhian Sich , Cossacks had usually been organized by Ruthenian boyars , or princes of
1390-756: A secular decline of Polish power during the period known in Polish history as "the Deluge ". In Jewish history , the Uprising is known for the atrocities against the Jews who, in their capacity as leaseholders ( arendators ), were seen by the peasants as their immediate oppressors and became the subject of antisemitic violence. In 1569 the Union of Lublin granted the southern Lithuanian-controlled Ruthenian voivodeships of Volhynia , Podolia , Bracław and Kiev —to
1529-582: A series of military conflicts between the Cossacks and the states claiming dominion over the territories they lived in, namely the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The conflict resulted from both states' attempts to exert control over the independent-minded Cossacks. While the early uprisings were against the Commonwealth, as the Russian Empire gained increasing and then total control over
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#17327840234021668-599: A symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine 's relationship with Poland and Russia . It ended the Polish Catholic szlachta ′s domination over the Ukrainian Orthodox population; at the same time, it led to the eventual incorporation of eastern Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia initiated by the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement , whereby the Cossacks would swear allegiance to the tsar while retaining
1807-406: A vassal of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the increasing social and religious pressure from the Commonwealth sparked a series of uprisings, and the proclamation of an independent Cossack Hetmanate , culminating in a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the mid-17th century. While the Cossacks were useful to the Polish-Lithuanian states in the war periods, they proved to be more problematic in
1946-707: A wide degree of autonomy. The event triggered a period of political turbulence and infighting in the Hetmanate known as the Ruin . The success of the anti-Polish rebellion, along with internal conflicts in Poland, as well as concurrent wars waged by Poland with Russia and Sweden (the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and Second Northern War (1655–1660) respectively), ended the Polish Golden Age and caused
2085-643: Is King Jan II Casimir Vasa, in Rus it is Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky". Following the Battles of Zbarazh and Zboriv , Khmelnytsky gained numerous privileges for the Cossacks under the Treaty of Zboriv . When hostilities resumed, however, his forces suffered a massive defeat in 1651 at the Battle of Berestechko , considered to be one of the largest land battles of the 17th century, and they were abandoned by their former allies,
2224-540: The Battle of Jezierna or Jeziorna (November 1655). There is some overlap between the last phase of the uprising and the beginning of the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) , as Cossack and Russian forces became allied. Estimates of the death tolls of the Khmelnytsky uprising vary, as do many others from the eras analyzed by historical demography . As better sources and methodology are becoming available, such estimates are subject to continuing revision. Population losses of
2363-697: The Black Sea Cossack Host together with Loyal Zaporozhians. Most of the remaining Cossacks who had stayed in the Danube Delta returned to Russia in 1828. They settled in the area north of the Azov Sea , becoming known as the Azov Cossacks . The majority of Zaporizhian Cossacks who had remained loyal to Russia despite the destruction of Sich became known as Black Sea Cossacks . Both Azov and Black Sea Cossacks were resettled to colonize
2502-686: The Black Sea Host was most important. Because of land scarcity resulting from the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among landlords, they eventually moved on to the Kuban region . The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Groups were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period, and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in
2641-669: The Commonwealth's forces . The insurgency was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacks against prisoners of war and the civilian population, especially against the Roman Catholic and Ruthenian Uniate clergy and especially the Jews , as well as savage reprisals by loyalist Jeremi Wiśniowiecki , the voivode of Ukrainian descent (military governor) of the Ruthenian Voivodeship . The uprising has
2780-663: The Cossack szlachta . The uprising was one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth, known as The Deluge , which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later. Influential relatives of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian szlachta in Moscow helped to create the Russian–Polish alliance against Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, portrayed as rebels against order and against
2919-460: The Crimean Tatars . They were forced at Bila Tserkva to accept the Treaty of Bila Tserkva . A year later, in 1652, the Cossacks had their revenge at the Battle of Batih , where Khmelnytsky ordered Cossacks to kill all Polish prisoners and paid Tatars for possession of the prisoners, an event known as the Batih massacre . However, the enormous casualties suffered by the Cossacks at Berestechko made
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#17327840234023058-585: The Crown of Poland under the agreement forming the new Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Rzeczpospolita ). The Kingdom of Poland already controlled several Ruthenian lands which formed the voivodeships of Lviv and Belz . The combined lands would be formed into the Lesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland . Although the local nobility were formally granted full rights within
3197-705: The Danubian Sich . While Ukrainian folklore remembers the Danubian Sich, other new siches of Loyal Zaporozhians on the Bug and Dniester rivers did not achieve such fame. Other Cossacks settled on the Tisa river in the Austrian Empire , also forming a new Sich. During the Cossack sojourn under Turkish rule, a new host was founded that numbered around 12,000 people by the end of 1778. Cossack settlement on
3336-592: The Dnieper Rapids (Ukrainian: za porohamy ), also known as the Wild Fields . The group became well known, and its numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics , participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Russia , and the Ottoman Empire . The Zaporozhians gained
3475-708: The Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant, as is the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period. As early as the 15th century, a few individuals ventured into the Wild Fields , the southern frontier regions of Ukraine separating Poland-Lithuania from the Crimean Khanate. These were short-term expeditions, to acquire
3614-894: The Don and the Dnieper after the demise of the Khazars . Their arrival was probably not before the 13th century, when the Mongols broke the power of the Cumans , who had assimilated the previous population on that territory. It is known that new settlers inherited a lifestyle that long pre-dated their presence, including that of the Turkic Cumans and the Circassian Kassaks. In contrast, Slavic settlements in southern Ukraine started to appear relatively early during Cuman rule, with
3753-806: The Don Republic and the Kuban People's Republic , and the revived Hetmanate emerged in Ukraine. Cossack troops formed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army , and Cossack republics became centers for the anti-Bolshevik White movement . With the victory of the Red Army , Cossack lands were subjected to decossackization and the Holodomor famine. As a result, during the Second World War, their loyalties were divided and both sides had Cossacks fighting in their ranks. Following
3892-617: The Khmelnytsky Uprising . Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654) brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule. The Sich, with its lands, became an autonomous region under the Russian protectorate. The Don Cossack Army, an autonomous military state formation of the Don Cossacks under the citizenship of the Moscow State in the Don region in 1671–1786, began a systematic conquest and colonization of lands to secure
4031-607: The Kuban steppe , a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the Caucasus . In 1860, more Cossacks were resettled to the North Caucasus , and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host . The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe, and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula , then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to
4170-432: The Ottoman Empire in the Moldavian Magnate Wars . After being held captive in Constantinople , he returned home as a Registered Cossack , settling in his khutor Subotiv with a wife and several children. He participated in campaigns for Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski , led delegations to King Władysław IV Vasa in Warsaw and generally was well respected within the Cossack ranks. The course of his life
4309-401: The Polish–Ottoman War of 1633–1634. Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by peasants escaping serfdom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the formerly strong Cossack loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambitions for recognition as equal to
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4448-400: The Pontic–Caspian steppe , north of the Black Sea near the Dnieper River . By the end of the 15th century, the term was also applied to peasants who had fled to the devastated regions along the Dnieper and Don Rivers , where they established their self-governing communities. Until at least the 1630s, these Cossack groups remained ethnically and religiously open to virtually anybody, although
4587-507: The Roman Catholic -dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the Union of Brest . The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish. After the Ottoman-Polish and Polish-Muscovite warfare ceased, the official Cossack register was again reduced. The registered Cossacks ( reiestrovi kozaky ) were isolated from those who were excluded from
4726-400: The Ruthenian ( Ukrainian ) lands where the Cossacks lived, the target of Cossacks uprisings changed as well. The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed. Traditional historiography dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14th to 15th centuries. Towards the end of the 15th century, the Ukrainian Cossacks formed the Zaporozhian Sich centered on the fortified Dnipro islands. Initially
4865-424: The Soviet Union , while others remained and assimilated into the Communist state. Cohesive Cossack-based units were organized and many fought for both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II . After World War II, the Soviet Union disbanded the Cossack units within the Soviet Army, leading to the suppression of many Cossack traditions during the rule of Joseph Stalin and his successors. However, during
5004-423: The Tatars to join him in a potential assault against their shared enemy, the Commonwealth. By April 1648 word of an uprising had spread throughout the Commonwealth. Either because they underestimated the size of the uprising, or because they wanted to act quickly to prevent it from spreading, the Commonwealth's Grand Crown Hetman Mikołaj Potocki and Field Crown Hetman Marcin Kalinowski sent 3,000 soldiers under
5143-412: The Uniate Church . While all of the people did not unite under one church , the concepts of autonomy were implanted into consciousness of the area and came out in force during the military campaign of Bohdan Khmelnytsky . Born to a noble family, Bohdan Khmelnytsky attended a Jesuit school, probably in Lviv . At the age of 22, he joined his father in the service of the Commonwealth, battling against
5282-484: The Zaporizhian Sich and quickly killed the guards assigned by the Commonwealth to protect the entrance. Once at the Sich, his oratory and diplomatic skills struck a nerve with oppressed Ruthenians. As his men repelled an attempt by Commonwealth forces to retake the Sich, more recruits joined his cause. The Cossack Rada elected him Hetman by the end of the month. Khmelnytsky threw most of his resources into recruiting more fighters. He sent emissaries to Crimea , enjoining
5421-407: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took an active part in post-Soviet conflicts . In the 2002 Russian Census , 140,028 people reported their ethnicity as Cossack. There are Cossack organizations in Russia, Kazakhstan , Ukraine , Belarus , and the United States . The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe below
5560-448: The fall of Constantinople it began this process by insisting that the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus′ was now the primate of the Russian Church . The pressure of Catholic expansionism culminated with the Union of Brest in 1596, which attempted to retain the autonomy of the Eastern Orthodox churches in present-day Ukraine , Poland and Belarus by aligning themselves with the Bishop of Rome . Many Cossacks were also against
5699-406: The suzerainty of the Russian Tsar from 1667 but was ruled by local hetmans for a century. The principal political problem of the hetmans who followed the Pereyeslav Agreement was defending the autonomy of the Hetmanate from Russian/Muscovite centralism. The hetmans Ivan Vyhovsky , Petro Doroshenko and Ivan Mazepa attempted to resolve this by separating Ukraine from Russia. Relations between
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5838-431: The szlachta . Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian szlachta of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the szlachta . The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church also put them at odds with officials of
5977-417: The 1637 rebellion, he realized that Cossacks, while having an excellent infantry, could not hope to match the Polish cavalry, which was possibly the best in Europe at the time. However, combining Cossack infantry with Crimean Tatar cavalry could provide a balanced military force and give the Cossacks a chance to beat the Polish army. On January 25, 1648, Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 400–500 Cossacks to
6116-488: The 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects. Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King Stephen Báthory granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of
6255-504: The 1980s historians still considered 100,000 a reasonable estimate of the Jews killed and, according to Edward Flannery , many considered it "a minimum". Max Dimont in Jews, God, and History , first published in 1962, writes "Perhaps as many as 100,000 Jews perished in the decade of this revolution." Edward Flannery , writing in The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism , first published in 1965, also gives figures of 100,000 to 500,000, stating "Many historians consider
6394-399: The Commonwealth becoming increasingly weak, Cossacks became more and more integrated into the Russian Empire , with their autonomy and privileges eroded. The remnants of these privileges were gradually abolished in the aftermath of the Great Northern War (1700–1721), in which hetman Ivan Mazepa sided with Sweden. By the time that the last of the partitions of Poland ended the existence of
6533-415: The Commonwealth in 1795, many Cossacks had already left Ukraine to colonise the Kuban and, in process, were russified . Sources vary as to when the uprising ended. Russian and some Polish sources give the end-date of the uprising as 1654, pointing to the Treaty of Pereyaslav as ending the war; Ukrainian sources give the date as Khmelnytsky's death in 1657; and few Polish sources give the date as 1655 and
6672-409: The Cossack starshyna (nobility), their property, and their autonomy under his rule; and freed the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence and the land claims of the Ruthenian szlachta . Only some of the Ruthenian szlachta of the Chernigov region, who had their origins in the Moscow state, saved their lands from division among Cossacks and became part of the Cossack szlachta . After this,
6811-400: The Cossack cultural identity across the world even though the majority, especially in the Russian Federation, have little to no connection to the original Cossack people because cultural ideals and legacy changed greatly with time. Cossack organizations operate in Russia , Ukraine , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Canada , and the United States . Max Vasmer 's etymological dictionary traces
6950-413: The Cossack starshyna , including hetman Ivan Vyhovsky . The treaty failed, however, because the starshyna were divided on the issue, and it had even less support among rank-and-file Cossacks. As a result of the mid–17th century Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Zaporozhian Cossacks briefly established an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764). It was placed under
7089-416: The Cossack Hetmanate under Russian control. The Zaporozhian Cossacks were not the only notable group of Cossacks; others included the Don Cossack Host , Dlobodsk Cossacks, Terek Cossacks and Yaik Cossacks . As the Tsardom of Muscovy took over the disputed Cossacks lands from the Poland–Lithuania, eventually all Cossacks came under the Russian rule, but the Tsarist and later Imperial government had only
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#17327840234027228-417: The Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Russian Tsardom: the Cossack Hetmanate , and the more independent Zaporizhia . These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by Catherine II in the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia , and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia . With the destruction of
7367-457: The Cossack people themselves, have been portrayed variously in the Polish, Russian and Ukrainian historiographers . Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia . Historically, they were a semi- nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at
7506-407: The Cossack-Polish War", Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1 (1977): 153–77. While many of them were killed, Jewish losses did not reach the hair-raising figures that are often associated with the uprising. In the words of Weinryb ( The Jews of Poland , 193–4), "The fragmentary information of the period—and to a great extent information from subsequent years, including reports of recovery—clearly indicate that
7645-419: The Cossacks (note the Treaty of Hadiach of 1658), the new Cossack subjects became even more dominated by Russia. The Hetmanate entered a new political situation which was far different than in the Commonwealth, and the church was much more subordinate to the tsar there. Russia had a traditional practice of imprisoning as well as executing Orthodox officials, which was foreign to people from the Commonwealth. With
7784-402: The Cossacks to ally with the Russian tsar in the Treaty of Pereyaslav , which led to the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) . When Poland–Lithuania and Russia signed the Truce of Vilna and agreed on an anti-Swedish alliance in 1657, Khmelnytsky's Cossacks supported the invasion of the Commonwealth by Sweden's Transylvanian allies instead. Although the Commonwealth tried to regain its influence over
7923-422: The Empire in order to abolish slavery and harsh bureaucracy, and to maintain independence. The Empire responded with executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–1708, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708, and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host after Pugachev's Rebellion in 1775. After
8062-448: The Hetmanate and their new sovereign began to deteriorate after the autumn of 1656, when the Muscovites, going against the wishes of their Cossack partners, signed an armistice with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Vilnius . The Cossacks considered the Vilnius agreement a breach of the contract they had entered into at Pereiaslav. For the Muscovite tsar, the Pereiaslav Agreement signified the unconditional submission of his new subjects;
8201-454: The Jews of Poland during the fatal decade 1648–1658 were appalling. In the reports of the chroniclers, the number of Jewish victims varies between one hundred thousand and five hundred thousand. But even if we accept the lower figure, the number of victims still remains colossal, even exceeding the catastrophes of the Crusades and the Black Death in Western Europe. Some seven hundred Jewish communities in Poland had suffered massacre and pillage. In
8340-426: The Kuban region are bilingual, speaking both Russian and Balachka , the local Kuban dialect of central Ukrainian . Their folklore is largely Ukrainian. The predominant view of ethnologists and historians is that its origins lie in the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks. The waning loyalty of the Cossacks, and the szlachta 's arrogance towards them, resulted in several Cossack uprisings against
8479-496: The Messiah, and contributed in later years to growing interest in Hasidism . The accounts of contemporary Jewish chroniclers of the events tended to emphasize large casualty figures, but since the end of the 20th century they have been re-evaluated downwards. Early 20th-century estimates of Jewish deaths were based on the accounts of the Jewish chroniclers of the time, and tended to be high, ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 or more; in 1916 Simon Dubnow stated: The losses inflicted on
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#17327840234028618-445: The Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars (1593–1617) to the Battle of Cecora (1620) , and campaigns in
8757-464: The Perestroika era in the late 1980s, descendants of Cossacks began to revive their national traditions. In 1988, the Soviet Union enacted a law permitting the re-establishment of former Cossack hosts and the formation of new ones. Throughout the 1990s, numerous regional authorities consented to delegate certain local administrative and policing responsibilities to these reconstituted Cossack hosts. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate themselves with
8896-465: The Poles found a lot of support not only in his regiment but also throughout the Sich . All through the autumn of 1647, Khmelnytsky travelled from one regiment to another and had numerous consultations with different Cossack leaders throughout Ukraine. His activity raised the suspicions of Polish authorities already used to Cossack revolts, and he was promptly arrested. Polkovnyk ( colonel ) Mykhailo Krychevsky assisted Khmelnytsky in his escape, and with
9035-435: The Polish government. Cossack rebellions eventually culminated in the Khmelnytsky Uprising , led by the hetman of the Zaporizhian Sich, Bohdan Khmelnytsky . The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own "Lower" Zaporozhian Host , and its own land. In 1775, the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host was destroyed. Later, its high-ranking Cossack leaders were exiled to Siberia, its last chief, Petro Kalnyshevsky , becoming
9174-421: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to create a third constituent, comparable in status to that of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Union of Hadiach provoked a war between the Cossacks and the Muscovites/Russians that began in the fall of 1658. In June 1659, the two armies met near the town of Konotop . One army comprised Cossacks, Tatars, and Poles, and the other was led by a top Muscovite military commander of
9313-537: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Lower Dnieper (Nyzovyi in Ukrainian) Cossack Host under the joint protectorate of Russia and the Commonwealth. By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate ( sosloviye ), "a military class". The Malorussian Cossacks (the former Registered Cossacks also known as "Town Zaporozhian Host") were excluded from this transformation, but were promoted to membership of various civil estates or classes (often Russian nobility), including
9452-402: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to accede to the demand to expand the Cossack Registry prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky Uprising , that began in 1648. Some Cossacks, including the Polish szlachta in Ukraine, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, divided the lands of the Ruthenian szlachta , and became
9591-582: The Pugachev rebellion, the Empire renamed the Yaik Host, its capital, the Yaik Cossacks, and the Cossack town of Zimoveyskaya in the Don region to try to encourage the Cossacks to forget the men and their uprisings. It also formally dissolved the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Cossack Host, and destroyed their fortress on the Dnieper (the Sich itself). This may in part have been due to the participation of some Zaporozhian and other Ukrainian exiles in Pugachev's rebellion. During his campaign, Pugachev issued manifestos calling for restoration of all borders and freedoms of both
9730-478: The Russian border was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the sultan . Yet internal conflict, and the political manoeuvring of the Russian Empire led to splits among the Cossacks. Some of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia, where the Russian army used them to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greeks, Albanians and Crimean Tatars. After the Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792 , most of these Cossacks were absorbed into
9869-434: The Russian navy had no Cossack ships and units. Cossack service was considered rigorous. Cossack forces played an important role in Russia's wars of the 18th–20th centuries, including the Great Northern War , the Seven Years' War , the Crimean War , the Napoleonic Wars , the Caucasus War , many Russo-Persian Wars , many Russo-Turkish Wars , and the First World War . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
10008-456: The Ruthenian szlachta refrained from plans to have a Moscow Tsar as king of the Commonwealth, its own Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki later becoming king. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish–Cossack alliance and create a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach . The treaty was approved by the Polish king and the Sejm , and by some of
10147-509: The Rzeczpospolita by a 1572 royal decree, this was often ignored by city councils, and both the nobility and city burgers were under enormous pressure to convert to Roman Catholicism and use of the Polish language . This assimilation of Polish culture on the part of the Ruthenian nobility alienated them from the lower classes, and most especially to the Cossacks , who proved stubbornly resistant to Catholicism and Polonization . It
10286-718: The Slavic element predominated . There were several major Cossack hosts in the 16th century: near the Dnieper, Don, Volga and Ural Rivers ; the Greben Cossacks in Caucasia ; and the Zaporozhian Cossacks , mainly west of the Dnieper. It is unclear when people other than the Brodnici and Berladnici (which had a Romanian origin with large Slavic influences) began to settle in the lower reaches of major rivers such as
10425-462: The Tatars and Turks. Tsar Boris Godunov had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him. In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for
10564-526: The Tsar ( Dmitri I ), against the Muscovite army. By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks. On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the Battle of Klushino , on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat
10703-659: The Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service. Cossacks also served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders, as had been the case in the Caucasus War. During the Russian Civil War , Don and Kuban Cossacks were the first people to declare open war against the Bolsheviks . In 1918, Russian Cossacks declared their complete independence, creating two independent states,
10842-458: The Ukrainian cities situated on the left banks of the Dnieper, the region populated by Cossacks ... the Jewish communities had disappeared almost completely. In the localities on the right shore of the Dnieper or in the Polish part of Ukraine as well as those of Volhynia and Podolia, wherever Cossacks had made their appearance, only about one tenth of the Jewish population survived. From the 1960s to
10981-409: The Ukrainian hetman considered it a conditional contract from which one party could withdraw if the other was not upholding its end of the bargain. The Ukrainian hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who succeeded Khmelnytsky in 1657, believed the Tsar was not living up to his responsibility. Accordingly, he concluded a treaty with representatives of the Polish king, who agreed to re-admit Cossack Ukraine by reforming
11120-547: The Zaporizhian Sich, a number of Ukrainian-speaking Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks fled to the territory under control of the Ottoman Empire . Together with Cossacks of Greater Russian origin , as well as the vast majority of Old Believers and other people from "Greater Russia" ( Muscovy ), they settled in the area of the Danube river, and founded a new Sich. Many Ukrainian peasants and adventurers later joined
11259-763: The borders on the Volga , the whole of Siberia (see Yermak Timofeyevich ), and the Yaik (Ural) and Terek Rivers . Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring Cossack loyalty, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democracy, self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as Stenka Razin , Kondraty Bulavin , Ivan Mazepa and Yemelyan Pugachev led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in
11398-413: The catastrophe may have not been as great as has been assumed." A 2003 study by Israeli demographer Shaul Stampfer of Hebrew University dedicated solely to the issue of Jewish casualties in the uprising concludes that 18,000–20,000 Jews were killed of a total population of 40,000. Paul Robert Magocsi states that Jewish chroniclers of the 17th century "provide invariably inflated figures with respect to
11537-399: The command of Potocki's son, Stefan , towards Khmelnytsky, without waiting to gather additional forces from Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki . Khmelnytsky marshalled his forces and met his enemy at the Battle of Zhovti Vody , which saw a considerable number of defections on the field of battle by Registered Cossacks , who changed their allegiance from the Commonwealth to Khmelnytsky. The victory
11676-484: The conditions of the Union of Hadiach. In 1660, however, the hetman asked the Polish king for protection, leading to the period of Ukrainian history known as The Ruin . Historian Gary Dean Peterson writes: "With all this unrest, Ivan Mazepa of the Ukrainian Cossacks was looking for an opportunity to secure independence from Russia and Poland". In response to Mazepa's alliance with Charles XII of Sweden , Peter I ordered
11815-462: The development of the Cossacks. In the 15th century, Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, which often formed local armies and were entirely independent from neighboring states such as Poland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Crimean Khanate. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky , the first mention of Cossacks dates back to the 14th century, although
11954-482: The earliest, such as Oleshky , dating back to the 11th century. Early "Proto-Cossack" groups are generally reported to have come into existence within what is now Ukraine in the 13th century as the influence of Cumans grew weaker, although some have ascribed their origins to as early as the mid-8th century. Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origin, descending from East Slavs , Turks , Tatars , and others who settled or passed through
12093-407: The empire attempted to limit Cossacks autonomy in the 17th and 18th centuries, this resulted in rebellions led by Stenka Razin , Kondraty Bulavin and Yemelyan Pugachev . In extreme cases, whole Hosts could be dissolved, as was the fate of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. In this last phase of their history, the Cossacks lost most of their autonomy to the Russian state. Cossack uprisings, like
12232-516: The end of the 19th century. The Kalmyk and Buryat Cossacks also deserve mention . The Zaporizhian Sich became a vassal polity of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate . The Hetmanate was initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky against Polish and Catholic domination, known as
12371-545: The entire Commonwealth population in the years 1648–1667 (a period which includes the Uprising, but also the Polish-Russian War and the Swedish invasion ) are estimated at 4 million (roughly a decrease from 11 to 12 million to 7–8 million). Before the Khmelnytsky uprising, magnates had sold and leased certain privileges to arendators , many of whom were Jewish, who earned money from the collections they made for
12510-552: The era, Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy . After terrible losses, Trubetskoy was forced to withdraw to the town of Putyvl on the other side of the border. The battle is regarded as one of the Zaporizhian Cossacks' most impressive victories. In 1659, Yurii Khmelnytsky was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian Host/Hetmanate, with the endorsement of Moscow and supported by common Cossacks unhappy with
12649-408: The fields and one grave alone contained over 270 bodies... All the infants were less than a year old since the older ones were driven off into captivity. The surviving peasants wander about in groups, bewailing their misfortune. From Autumn of 1654 to Spring of 1655 during the "Bracław Campaign" Stefan Czarniecki's army with the support of Crimean Tatars murdered 100,000 Ukrainians some sources even put
12788-494: The government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with Emperor Rudolf II in the 1590s. Registered Cossacks formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699. Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during
12927-481: The historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and parts of Russia. The Cossack way of life persisted via both direct descendants and acquired ideals in other nations into the twentieth century, though the sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society as much as any other part of Russia; many Cossacks migrated to other parts of Europe following the establishment of
13066-592: The idea of creating an independent state impossible to implement. Khmelnytsky had to decide whether to stay under Polish–Lithuanian influence or ally with the Muscovites. The Tatars of the Crimean Khanate , then a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire , participated in the insurrection, seeing it as a source of captives to be sold. Slave raiding sent a large influx of captives to slave markets in Crimea at
13205-417: The initial stages of the uprising, armies of the magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki , on their retreat westward inflicted terrible retribution on the civilian population, leaving behind them a trail of burned towns and villages. In addition, Khmelnytsky's Tatar allies often continued their raids against the civilian population, in spite of protests from the Cossacks. After the Cossacks' alliance with Tsardom of Russia
13344-467: The irregular troops: Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons, while Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers. The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts . Each host had a territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsas . They inhabited sparsely populated areas in the Dnieper , Don , Terek , and Ural river basins, and played an important role in
13483-754: The lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history. In the two decades following the uprising the Commonwealth suffered two more major wars ( The Deluge and Russo-Polish War (1654–67) ; during that period total Jewish casualties are estimated at another 20,000 to 30,000. In Jewish circles, this massacre became known as Gzeyres Takh Vetat, sometimes shortened to Takh Vetat (spelled in multiple ways in English. In Hebrew : גזירת ת"ח ות"ט ). This translates to "the (evil) decrees of (years) 408 and 409" referring to
13622-615: The locals in war, by raising the Cossack registry in times of hostility, and then radically decreasing it and forcing the Cossacks back into serfdom in times of peace. This institutionalized method of control bred discontent among the Cossacks. By the end of the 16th century, they began to revolt, in the uprisings of Kryshtof Kosynsky (1591–1593), Severyn Nalyvaiko (1594–1596), Hryhorii Loboda (1596), Marko Zhmailo (1625), Taras Fedorovych (1630), Ivan Sulyma (1635), Pavlo Pavliuk and Dmytro Hunia (1637), and Yakiv Ostrianyn and Karpo Skydan (1638). All were brutally suppressed and ended by
13761-412: The locals' land allotments and freedom of movement. In addition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government attempted to impose Catholicism, and to Polonize the local Ukrainian population. The basic form of resistance and opposition by the locals and burghers was flight and settlement in the sparsely populated steppe. The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In
13900-561: The loss of life among the Jewish population of Ukraine. The numbers range from 60,000–80,000 (Nathan Hannover) to 100,000 (Sabbatai Cohen), but that "[t]he Israeli scholars Shmuel Ettinger and Bernard D. Weinryb speak instead of the 'annihilation of tens of thousands of Jewish lives', and the Ukrainian-American historian Jaroslaw Pelenski narrows the number of Jewish deaths to between 6,000 and 14,000". Orest Subtelny concludes: Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given
14039-458: The lower-class Ruthenians, with the introduction of Counter-Reformation missionary practices and the use of Jewish arendators to manage their estates. Local Orthodox traditions were also affected from the assumption of ecclesiastical power by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1448. The growing Russian state in the north sought to acquire the southern lands of Kievan Rus' , and with
14178-546: The magnates by receiving a percentage of an estate's revenue. By not supervising their estates directly, the magnates left it to the leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants. Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews." With this as their battle cry, Cossacks and the peasantry massacred numerous Jewish and Polish–Lithuanian townsfolk, as well as szlachta during
14317-545: The most numerous and accessible representatives of the szlachta regime. The uprising began a period in Polish history known as The Deluge (which included the Swedish invasion of the Commonwealth during the Second Northern War of 1655–1660), that temporarily freed the Ukrainians from Polish domination but in a short time subjected them to Russian domination. Weakened by wars, in 1654 Khmelnytsky persuaded
14456-681: The mouth of the Dnieper river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of Constantinople , forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the Don Cossacks , captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of Azov , which guarded the Don. The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny , who launched successful campaigns against
14595-591: The name to the Turkic word kazak , kozak , in which cosac meant 'free man' but also 'conqueror'. The ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root. In written sources, the name is first attested in the Codex Cumanicus from the 13th century. In English , Cossack is first attested in 1590. The origins of the Cossacks are disputed. Originally, the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups ( qazaq or "free men") who inhabited
14734-439: The newly created civil estate of Cossacks. Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times, or to the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks had to obtain their cavalry horses , arms, and supplies for their military service at their own expense, the government providing only firearms and supplies. Lacking horses, the poor served in the Cossack infantry and artillery. In the navy alone, Cossacks served with other peoples as
14873-494: The nobility, especially various Lithuanian starostas . Merchants, peasants, and runaways from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovy , and Moldavia also joined the Cossacks. The first recorded sich prototype was formed by the starosta of Cherkasy and Kaniv , Dmytro Vyshnevetsky , who built a fortress on the island of Little Khortytsia on the banks of the Lower Dnieper in 1552. The Zaporozhian Host adopted
15012-689: The number as high as 300,000. The rebellion had a major effect on Poland and Ukraine . With Fire and Sword is a historical fiction novel, set in the 17th century in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. With Fire and Sword is also a Polish historical drama film directed by Jerzy Hoffman . The film is based on the novel With Fire and Sword , the first part in Henryk Sienkiewicz 's The Trilogy . Cossack uprisings The Cossack uprisings (also kozak rebellions , revolts ) were
15151-961: The number of Jews that died during the national uprising of Ukrainians to 18,000–20,000 people between the years 1648–1649; of these, 3,000–6,000 Jews were killed by Cossacks in Nemirov in May 1648 and 1,500 in Tulczyn in July 1648. Due to the widespread murders, Jewish elders at the Council of Vilna banned merrymaking by a decree on July 3, 1661: they set limitations on wedding celebrations, public drinking, fire dances, masquerades, and Jewish comic entertainers. Stories about massacre victims who had been buried alive, cut to pieces, or forced to kill one another spread throughout Europe and beyond. These stories filled many with despair, led others to identify Sabbatai Zevi as
15290-420: The peacetime, due to their raids on the Commonwealth neighbours (primarily, the Ottoman Empire and its allies). Further, the Polish nobility tried to assert control over the Cossack territories, turn them into feudal latifundia , limit the growth of the militant Cossacks, and even reverse it, by turning the Cossacks into serfs . Afterward the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought most of
15429-399: The peasant uprisings now troubled a nobleman such as Khmelnytsky; however, after discussing information gathered across the country with his advisers, the Cossack leadership soon realized the potential for autonomy was there for the taking. Although Khmelnytsky's personal resentment of the szlachta and the magnates influenced his transformation into a revolutionary, it was his ambition to become
15568-439: The pirate activities by the peace treaties between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Rumors about the emerging hostilities with "the infidels" were greeted with joy, and the news that there was to be no raiding after all was explosive in itself. However, the Cossack rebellion might have fizzled in the same manner as the great rebellions of 1637–1638 but for the strategies of Khmelnytsky. Having taken part in
15707-645: The private property of the Ruthenian Orthodox szlachta . Don Cossacks' raids on Crimea left Khmelnitsky without the aid of his usual Tatar allies. From the Russian perspective, the rebellion ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav , in which, in order to overcome the Russian–Polish alliance against them, the Khmelnitsky Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the Russian Tsar . In return, the Tsar guaranteed them his protection; recognized
15846-474: The realm of historical demography , became more widely adopted and tended to result in lower fatality numbers. Newer studies of the Jewish population of the affected areas of Ukraine in that period estimate it to be 50,000. According to Orest Subtelny : Weinryb cites the calculations of S. Ettinger [ he ] indicating that about 50,000 Jews lived in the area where the uprising occurred. See B. Weinryb, "The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmelnytsky and
15985-670: The rebellious Hetmanate were devastated by the uprising and ensuing massacres, though occasionally a Jewish population was spared, notably after the capture of the town of Brody (the population of which was 70% Jewish). According to the book known as History of the Rus , Khmelnytsky's rationale was largely mercantile and the Jews of Brody, which was a major trading centre, were judged to be useful "for turnovers and profits" and thus they were only required to pay "moderate indemnities" in kind. One estimate (1996) reports that 15,000–30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were completely destroyed. A 2014 estimate puts
16124-511: The reference was to people who were either Turkic or of undefined origin. Hrushevsky states that the Cossacks may have descended from the long-forgotten Antes , or from groups from the Berlad territory of the Brodnici in present-day Romania , then a part of the Grand Duchy of Halych. There, the Cossacks may have served as self-defence formations, organized to defend against raids conducted by neighbors. The first international mention of Cossacks
16263-525: The register, and from the Zaporizhian Host. This, together with intensified socioeconomic and national-religious oppression of the other classes in Ukrainian society, led to many Cossack uprisings in the 1630s. The nobility, which had obtained legal ownership of vast expanses of land on the Dnipro from the Polish kings, attempted to impose feudal dependency on the local population. Landowners utilized
16402-502: The resources of what was a naturally rich and fertile region teeming with cattle, wild animals, and fish. This lifestyle, based on subsistence agriculture , hunting, and either returning home in the winter or settling permanently, came to be known as the Cossack way of life. Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe caused considerable devastation and depopulation in this area. The Tatar raids also played an important role in
16541-567: The royal delegation. Khmelnytsky answered that he would comply with his monarch's request and then turned back. He made a triumphant entry into Kiev on Christmas Day in 1648, and he was hailed as "the Moses, savior, redeemer, and liberator of the people from Polish captivity... the illustrious ruler of Rus". In February 1649, during negotiations with a Polish delegation headed by nobleman Adam Kysil in Pereiaslav , Khmelnytsky declared that he
16680-441: The ruler of a Ruthenian nation that expanded the uprising from a simple rebellion into a national movement. Khmelnytsky had his forces join a peasant revolt at the Battle of Pyliavtsi , striking another terrible blow to weakened and depleted Polish forces. Khmelnytsky was persuaded not to lay siege to Lviv, in exchange for 200,000 red guldens, according to some sources, but Hrushevsky stated that Khmelnytsky did indeed lay siege to
16819-525: The sacking of the then capital of the Hetmanate, Baturyn . The city was burnt and looted, and 11,000 to 14,000 of its inhabitants were killed. The destruction of the Hetmanate's capital was a signal to Mazepa and the Hetmanate's inhabitants of severe punishment for disloyalty to the Tsar's authority. The Zaporizhian Sich at Chortomlyk , which had existed since 1652, was also destroyed by Peter I's forces in 1709, in retribution for decision of its otaman Kost Hordiyenko , to ally with Mazepa. Under Russian rule,
16958-610: The second figure exaggerated and the first a minimum." Martin Gilbert in his Jewish History Atlas published in 1976 states, "Over 100,000 Jews were killed; many more were tortured or ill-treated, others fled ...." Many other sources of the time give similar figures. Although many modern sources still give estimates of Jews killed in the uprising at 100,000 or more, others put the numbers killed at between 40,000 and 100,000, and recent academic studies have argued fatalities were even lower. Modern historiographic methods, particularly from
17097-420: The second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, Tatars living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from
17236-412: The sixteenth century the Cossack were increasingly joined by Slavs such as Russians and Poles, Balto-slavic Lithuanians and people from today's Ukraine, thus becoming a Slav-Tatar ethnic hybrid. As the grand duchies of Moscow and Lithuania grew in power, new political entities appeared in the region. These included Moldavia and the Crimean Khanate . In 1261, Slavic people living in the area between
17375-401: The time of the Uprising. Ottoman Jews collected funds to mount a concerted ransom effort to gain the freedom of their people. Within a few months almost all Polish nobles, officials and priests had been wiped out or driven from the lands of present-day Ukraine. The Commonwealth population losses in the uprising exceeded one million. In addition, Jews suffered substantial losses because they were
17514-423: The time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic -speaking Orthodox Christians . The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in
17653-528: The town, for about two weeks. After obtaining the ransom, he moved to besiege Zamość , when he finally heard about the election of the new Polish King, John Casimir II , whom Khmelnytsky favored. According to Hrushevsky John Casimir II sent him a letter in which he informed the Cossack leader about his election and assured him that he would grant Cossacks and all of the Orthodox faith various privileges. He requested for Khmelnytsky to stop his campaign and await
17792-490: The vast Steppe. Some Turkologists , however, argue that Cossacks are descendants of the native Cumans of Ukraine , who had lived there long before the Mongol invasion. some other just state that first Cossacks were Turkic origin according to Serhii Plokhy first Cossacks were of Turkic rather than Slavic stock. Christoph Baumer state that predesecessor from the thirteenth century on were mainly of Turkic stock, but from
17931-493: The years 1648–1649. Yeven Mezulah , the contemporary 17th-century chronicle by Nathan ben Moses Hannover , an eyewitness, states: Wherever they found the szlachta , royal officials or Jews, they [Cossacks] killed them all, sparing neither women nor children. They pillaged the estates of the Jews and nobles, burned churches and killed their priests, leaving nothing whole. It was a rare individual in those days who had not soaked his hands in blood ... Most Jewish communities in
18070-429: The years 5408 and 5409 on the Jewish calendar, which corresponds to the years 1648 and 1649 on the non-Jewish calendar. While the Cossacks and peasants (known as pospolity ) were in many cases the perpetrators of massacres of Polish szlachta members and their collaborators, they also suffered the horrendous loss of life resulting from Polish reprisals, Tatar raids, famine, plague and general destruction due to war. At
18209-498: Was "the sole autocrat of Rus" and that he had "enough power in Ukraine, Podolia , and Volhynia ... in his land and principality stretching as far as Lviv, Chełm , and Halych ". It became clear to the Polish envoys that Khmelnytsky had positioned himself no longer as simply a leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks but as that of an independent state and stated his claims to the heritage of the Rus'. A Vilnius panegyric in Khmelnytsky's honour (1650–1651) explained it: "While in Poland it
18348-442: Was altered, however, when Aleksander Koniecpolski , heir to hetman Koniecpolski's magnate estate, attempted to seize Khmelnytsky's land. In 1647 Chyhyryn deputy of starosta (head of the local royal administration) Daniel Czapliński openly started to harass Khmelnytsky on behalf of the younger Koniecpolski in an attempt to force him off the land. On two occasions raids were made to Subotiv, during which considerable property damage
18487-480: Was done and his son Yurii was badly beaten, until Khmelnytsky moved his family to a relative's house in Chyhyryn . He twice sought assistance from the king by traveling to Warsaw, only to find him either unwilling or powerless to confront the will of a magnate. Having received no support from Polish officials, Khmelnytsky turned to his Cossack friends and subordinates. The case of a Cossack being unfairly treated by
18626-467: Was enacted, the Tatar raids became unrestrained; coupled with the onset of famine, they led to a virtual depopulation of whole areas of the country. The extent of the tragedy can be exemplified by a report of a Polish officer of the time, describing the devastation: I estimate that the number of infants alone who were found dead along the roads and in the castles reached 10,000. I ordered them to be buried in
18765-414: Was especially important in regard to powerful and traditionally influential great princely families of Ruthenian origins, among them Wiśniowiecki , Czartoryski , Ostrogski , Sanguszko , Zbaraski , Korecki and Zasławski , which acquired even more power and were able to gather more lands, creating huge latifundia . This szlachta , along with the actions of the upper-class Polish magnates , oppressed
18904-430: Was in 1492, when Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray complained to Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon that his Cossack subjects from Kiev and Cherkasy had pillaged a Crimean Tatar ship: the duke ordered his "Ukrainian" (meaning borderland) officials to investigate, execute the guilty, and give their belongings to the khan. Sometime in the 16th century, there appeared the old Ukrainian Ballad of Cossack Holota , about
19043-474: Was on the run from its peasants, their palaces and estates in flames. All the while, Khmelnytsky's army marched westward. Khmelnytsky stopped his forces at Bila Tserkva and issued a list of demands to the Polish Crown, including raising the number of Registered Cossacks, returning churches taken from the Orthodox faithful and paying the Cossacks for wages, which had been withheld for five years. News of
19182-457: Was quickly followed by rout of the Commonwealth's armies at the Battle of Korsuń , which saw both the elder Potocki and Kalinowski captured and imprisoned by the Tatars. In addition to the loss of significant forces and military leadership, the Polish state also lost King Władysław IV Vasa, who died in 1648, leaving the Crown of Poland leaderless and in disarray at a time of rebellion. The szlachta
19321-480: Was secured. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the Habsburg monarchy sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against
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