The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack–Polish War, Khmelnytsky insurrection, Cossack Revolution, or, in Ukraine, as the National Liberation War, was a successful Cossack rebellion with elements of a religious war that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Originating in Dnieper Ukraine, the uprising resulted in a Cossack victory and led to the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate. Under the command of Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, supported by the rebelling Ruthenian peasantry and initially allied with the Crimean Khanate, fought against the Commonwealth's forces. The war was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacks against prisoners of war and the civilian population, especially Poles, Jews, Roman Catholic and Ruthenian Uniate clergy, as well as reprisals by the Polish szlachta and army, especially Jeremi Wiśniowiecki's troops.
The uprising has a symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine's relationship with Poland and Russia. The uprising led to the eventual incorporation of eastern Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia, initiated by the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement. 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 and concurrent invasions waged by Russia and Sweden, ended the Polish Golden Age and caused a secular decline of Polish power during the period known 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. Many Jews consider this event "the biggest national catastrophe since the destruction of Solomon's Temple." The Cossack violence during the uprising inflicted damage on the Commonwealth's Jewish communities.
Background
In 1569 the Union of Lublin granted the southern Lithuanian-controlled Ruthenian voivodeships of Volhynia, Podolia, Bracław and Kiev—to 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 the Rzeczpospolita by a 1572 royal decree, this was often ignored by city councils, and both the nobility and city burghers were under enormous pressure to convert to Roman Catholicism and use 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 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 upper-class Polish magnates, oppressed 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 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 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.
Khmelnytsky's role
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 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 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 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 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 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 proposed by the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa were rejected 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 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 possibly taken part in 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.
Chronology
While the starting point of the conflict is clear, sources vary as to when the uprising ended. Russian and some Polish sources give the end-date of the revolt as 1654, pointing to the Treaty of Pereyaslav as its ending point; Ukrainian sources give the date as Khmelnytsky's death in 1657; and a few Polish sources give the date as 1655 and 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.
Course of the uprising
Beginning (January–April 1648)
On January 25, 1648, Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 400–500 Cossacks to the island of Tomakivka, 60 kilometres to the south of Khortytsia, and attacked the Sich on Mykytyn Rih, which had been guarded by Crown Army troops and Registered Cossacks. Following the defeat of the royal garrison, Registered Cossacks joined the rebels, and their commander fled. Once at the Sich, his oratory and diplomatic skills struck a nerve with oppressed Cossacks. As his men repelled an attempt by Commonwealth forces to retake the Sich, more recruits joined his cause. The Cossack Rada elected Khemlnytsky Hetman by the end of the month. Khmelnytsky threw most of his resources into recruiting more fighters. He sent emissaries to Crimea, enjoining 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, as Khmelnytskyi's universals calling for the defence of "ancient Greek faith" against "Polish enemies" were distributed around Ukraine. The hetman also used his connections to acquire gunpowder and other military goods in Volhynia, Galicia and even in Poland itself. After diplomatic negotiations with Crimean khan Islam III Giray, a military alliance was created between him and the Cossacks. Simultaneously, Khmelnytsky engaged in written correspondence with Crown hetman Mikołaj Potocki, urging him to abolish the Ordination of 1638, remove crown troops from Ukraine and allow the Cossacks to engage in naval campaigns. These demands were likely part of a tactic aimed to prolong the time for military preparations, and were discarded by authorities.
Initial Cossack victories (April–May 1648)
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 the command of Potocki's son, Stefan, towards Khmelnytsky, without waiting to gather additional forces from Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. Four regiments of Registered Cossacks were sent on boats down by the Dnieper, meanwhile two others joined a mercenary squad marching from Kryliv. After leaving the Sich in late April, the Cossack army, numbering around 8,000 men, joined forces with a 3,000–4,000 squad of Perekop bey Tugay.
Khmelnytsky marshalled his forces and met his enemy at the Battle of Zhovti Vody on 29 April 1648. The Polish troops took a defensive position, meanwhile the main body of Khmelnytskyi's Zaporozhians marched to the Dnieper, where they met the Registered Cossacks and persuaded them to join the rebellion. Later on, two Cossack regiments supporting the besieged Polish army also deserted, forcing the Poles to start negotiations. However, the talks failed, and on 14 May Khmelnytsky ordered his troops to storm the camp. After a breakout attempt, on the night of 15–16 May Polish troops were encircled and routed.
After the victory at Zhovti Vody, Khmelnytsky's vistorious Cossacks swiftly marched northwards, approaching the camp of both crown hetmans on the bank of Ros river near Korsun. On 25 May the troops of colonel Maksym Kryvonis, aided by Tatars of Tugay Bey, cut the ways of retreat for Polish forces. During an breakout attempt, the troops of the elder Potocki and Kalinowski were ambushed in a deep ravine on the road leading from Korsun to Bohuslav. Despite fighting bravely, both commanders were captured and imprisoned by the Tatars, and most of their soldiers perished.
In addition to the loss of significant forces and military leadership, the Polish state also lost King Władysław IV Vasa, who died in 1648, a few days before the Battle of Korsun, leaving the Crown of Poland leaderless and in disarray at a time of rebellion. The szlachta was on the run from its peasants, their palaces and estates in flames. All the while, Khmelnytsky's army marched westward.
First attempts at diplomacy (Summer 1648)
Following the king's death, the real power over the Commonwealth became concentrated in the hands of chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński. At his initiative, in June a government delegation was sent to the rebels, headed by Orthodox nobleman Adam Kysil. 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 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 the ruler of a Ruthenian nation that expanded the uprising from a simple rebellion into a national movement.