Ivasyuk N. I. “Bogdan Khmelnitsky's Entry to Kiev”
The uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky was one of the largest anti-government speeches in the history of the Commonwealth. Starting in the 1648 year, it quickly took the form of a full-fledged war: with thousands of armies opposing each other and bloody battles. At first, military happiness was indifferent to the forces of the crown, and already in 1649, the warring parties concluded the Zboriv truce, which formally stopped the conflict, but in fact turned out to be nothing more than a breather.
The fighting resumed soon, and the next comma in the Hetman’s war against the Commonwealth became the Belotserkovsky Treaty much more profitable for the latter. However, the Polish crown and the surrounding gentry thought about the existence in the territory of the Commonwealth of any autonomous entity caused acute attacks of rejection. So, decisive actions to restore order in the territory controlled by Hetman Khmelnitsky were only a matter of a very short time. Well aware of the limited resources of their own, the leader of the rebels began to seek support from the Russian tsar. However, with the practicality inherent to Bogdan, he sought support in all directions at once.
Second Class Subjects
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, despite its marginal position in Europe, was less like a quiet province. Inside her, the wicks burned with an inextinguishable flame at once at several domestic political barrels with gunpowder, the explosion of each of which could have led to the collapse of an imposing part of the state structure. Despite the privileged position of the Catholic Church, most of the population in the eastern regions still professed Orthodoxy. Both the king and the Diet neglected such an annoying fact, and if they paid attention to it, it was only in the form of new restrictions on the rights of those who profess Eastern Christianity.
Another non-exhaustive source of problems was the Cossacks. By the middle of the XVII century, it was divided into Zaporozhye freemen and the registered Cossacks. The appearance of the latter was an attempt by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to create a new type of armed forces from the long-haired boys. In a special decree issued in June by 1572 by Mr. Sigismund II Augustus, the steppe freemen was asked to do something useful from the point of view of authority, namely, to enter her service. Initially, it was about no more than three hundred Cossacks.
Registered Cossacks
In 1578, King Stephen Batory ordered six hundred people to be selected. The Cossacks, in turn, were to obey the officers appointed by the royal power and, of course, not to make unauthorized raids on the territory of the Crimean Khanate. Cossacks, who entered the royal service, were put on a special list - the “roster” and were now considered not to be a gang, but to be in the service. They took the oath of allegiance to the king, were exempted from taxes and duties.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not lead a peaceful foreign policy and needed good soldiers. The registry gradually increased: by 1589, it already counted over 3 thousands of people. Gradually, the registered Cossacks began to play a prominent role in the Polish wars and campaigns. It was widely used during the years of intervention in the Russian state, during the wars with the Ottoman Empire. A great contribution to the victory over Osman II was made by the registered Cossacks in the famous Battle of Khotyn in the 1621 year.
Serving while in the registry was beneficial - getting there was considered a great success. The Polish authorities were well aware that by raising a watchdog for themselves, they were at the risk of actually feeding the monster. Therefore, the number of the coveted registry at the slightest danger of unrest was limited. After the Battle of Khotyn mentioned, the attempt of the Poles once again to reduce the ranks of their combat-ready, but violent "foreign legion" caused a major uprising, which was not easily suppressed in 1625 year.
The registry limited 6 to thousands of Cossacks, who now comprised 6 regiments stationed in the territory of the Ukraine. Their main task was to prevent the unrelenting Tatar raids and, of course, to maintain order. In 1632, King Sigismund III died, and Rzeczpospolita faced the need for an election campaign - the monarchy in this state, to the dismay of some neighbors, the irony of others and the bewilderment of others, was elective.
Full of the most pure and sublime thoughts, the electoral sejm, preoccupied with the difficult task of electing a new monarch, came from non-Cossacks. They expressed a wish, issued as a requirement. Since the Cossacks are also subjects of Rzecz Pospolita, they have the right to vote and must also take part in the elections. Well, the rights of the Orthodox too would be very nice to consider and expand - not pagans, after all. Angry with such arrogance, the gentlemen from the Sejm reproachfully and instructively replied that the Cossacks were undoubtedly part of the Polish state. However, this part is most similar, if we draw an analogy with the human body, on nails and hair: when they become long, they are sheared. And in general, the Cossacks are useful only in small quantities. And with such an insignificant question, how the observance of the rights of the Orthodox will be dealt with by the new king. So unequivocally, the inhabitants of Little Russia were shown their place in the social hierarchy of the Commonwealth. The already short wicks of the powder barrels laid under the building of the Polish state, have become even shorter, and the smoldering fire flashed brighter and more evil.
Bogdan makes porridge
On the motives that prompted Bogdan Khmelnitsky to expose his sword against the Polish crown, you can write a whole novel. There were personal motives there as well: Chigirinsky gentry Chaplinsky destroyed in the 1645 year the farm Subotov, which belonged to the centurion Khmelnitsky. Self-will, complete impunity and the continuing excesses of local magnates crossed all bounds. Having their own pocket "territorial battalions" of the sample of the XVII century, they turned the already flimsy and very conditional royal right in the direction they needed, regularly arranging parochial civil wars among themselves. It was ungrateful and practically useless to seek intercession at the court of the king - often the monarch simply had no leverage to influence his raging lords.
There remained an unresolved religious issue. Catholicism continued to bend its line, which was devoid of compromise and tolerance. It is also impossible in any case to forget that the Sich foreman dreamed of getting into the “club of the elect”, that is, being equal in rights to the Polish gentry. The problem of the number of the registered Cossacks was very painful - everyone who at least considered himself a Cossack wanted to get into the register. The situation in the Little Russia lands of the Commonwealth was heated to the highest levels - the uprising followed the uprising. They were suppressed with increasing cruelty, and there was no place for compromise and mercy, and the attempt to negotiate would be regarded by the lords as a dangerous form of obsession. Therefore, when in April 1648, in the Zaporizhzhya Sich, Khmelnitsky appeared on the run from the authorities and announced that he was starting a war against the Polish king, wishing to stand under his banners was more than enough.
The presence of representatives of the Crimean Khan Islam-Girey II turned out to be a minor nuance against the background of the rising general enthusiasm to show the entire curvature of the family tree from the side of mother Vladislav. With all their desire, the Crimean Khanate was difficult to attribute to the number of guardians about the rights of registered or non-register Cossacks and the fate of the Orthodox population. Bogdan Khmelnitsky decided to hedge and concluded with the eternal enemy not only the Cossacks, but also the Commonwealth of Bakhchisarai agreement. In exchange for military aid from the Tatars and a promise not to attack the Little Russian lands, the Khan was promised a supply of provisions and fodder and a substantial share in military spoils. Both contracting parties knew that the most valuable booty were prisoners, who then turned into gold easily in the Kafa markets. And no one will carefully understand who will leave tied with a strong rope for Perekop: Polish nobleman or Little Russian peasant.
In late April, 1648, the city of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, left Sich. Neither the local pansy of various calibers, nor the king at first did not perceive this event as something serious - another Cossack revolt that happened in these troubled lands with enviable regularity. However, it soon became clear that all is not so simple.
Purposeful Multi-Vector
The first clashes with the Polish troops under the Yellow Waters and Korsun bring victories to the insurgents, and the high-ranking friars rising migraines. After the second battle, the main army of the Crimean Tatars, led by the Khan Islam-Giray himself, fits the army of Khmelnitsky - before that, only an expeditionary force under the command of Tugay-Bey acted together with the rebels. The trophies taken were simply huge, the captive hetmans Martin Kalinovsky and Nikolai Pototsky were in captivity at the Cossacks. The allied army occupied the White Church.
Inspired by the success Khmelnitsky nevertheless did not lose his head, but began to take, at first glance, strange, contradictory - multi-vector - steps. Having sent back to the Crimea with rich booty of satisfied Islam-Giray (an unprecedented revival awaited the slave markets), the hetman began to write letters and publish generalists. First, he declared his never-ending loyalty to His Majesty King Wladyslaw. Secondly, Bogdan announced the local magnates guilty of everything that was happening: they say they do what they want, without listening to His Royal Majesty or even looking in his direction.
At the same time, Khmelnitsky at every corner loudly declared his fierce stubbornness in the struggle for Cossack liberties, and so that the Poles did not build unnecessary illusions, unambiguously hinted at all kinds of troubles with a sad ending: do not give us, Cossacks, privileges and liberties - we will burn everything to the ground. It should be emphasized that the hetman did not say a word about any “Ukrainian Cossack Power,” which is necessarily independent. As a whole, it was a question of expanding paid jobs for the steppe freemen within the framework of the so desirable registry to a size slightly inferior to the number of the Attila or Temujin troops.
The sly hetman with all his belligerent rhetoric did not want to quarrel with the king, who, after his predecessors, was distinguished by a rather patient attitude to the Cossacks. We did not have time to dry the ink in Khmelnitsky's letters, as in May 1648, at the age of 52, Vladislav IV died. A great time has come for pancy: they have buried one monarch and have not chosen another yet. However, the order in the Commonwealth and the king did not happen. After all, the more magnificent the mustache and the longer the pedigree, the easier the saber would be pulled from the sheath.
The uprising, which smoothly flowed into a full-scale war, now had every chance to continue, and even with an unpredictable end — the gentry, after receiving painful blows, quickly came to their senses and saddled their horses. Fortunately for the Poles, the Thirty Years War, which had tormented Europe for a long time, went to an end and ended in October of the same, 1648, with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia. Among the numerous mercenaries of the opposing camps, unemployment soared, and they could easily find employment under the banner of the Polish crown.
Thinking a little, Khmelnitsky wrote another letter - to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Realizing that the Tatars are very conditionally fit under the category of "reliable ally", and alone you can taste the rage of the Polish cavalry attacking at full speed and feel fierce pan anger in their own skin in the literal sense of the word. In a letter to the Russian Tsar, the hetman assured him of his best intentions, friendship, and clearly hinted at the desire to go under his protection.
Moscow responded with concentrated silence. The Russian government was well aware of the situation in the eastern regions of the Commonwealth, where popular uprisings flared up and were brutally suppressed. Neither Mikhail Fedorovich nor Aleksei Mikhailovich interfered in the internal affairs of a neighbor, preferring to maintain neutrality. There were several good reasons for this. Poland, despite internal instability, remained a rather serious adversary. The Russian kingdom for a long time experienced the consequences of the Troubles. An attempt to recapture Smolensk and other lands lost at the beginning of the 17th century led to the unsuccessful war of the 1632 – 1634 years.
With the coming to power of the second tsar from the Romanov dynasty, some reforms began in the state, including the military one, and the Russian army met the beginning of a new reign at the reformatting stage. However, all this time on the territory of the Moscow State thousands of people found themselves shelter, who fled here both from the arbitrariness of the gentry and from the regular Tatar raids. Attempts by ambassadors of the Commonwealth to demand the extradition of the fugitives were met with a polite, but firm refusal. When the border governors in the spring of 1648 reported to Moscow that something was happening again in Rzeczpospolita, they received orders not to interfere.
What could end the silence of Moscow
The Poles gathered with their forces concentrated in the fall of 1648 in their army at Lvov. According to various estimates, there were about 30 – 32 thousands of actual crown troops, reinforced by 8 by thousands of experienced German mercenaries. The mood of those present was militant and upbeat - confidence in their abilities was reinforced not only by numerous artillery, but also by a no less solid wagon train with considerable stocks of alcohol-containing beverages. At the head of the brave army were three leaders - they were notable magnates Konetspolsky, Ostorog and Zaslavsky, whose total commander genius was approaching a round, like a buckler, zero.
Among the Polish nobility, there were enough educated characters who could not be unaware that there would be enough two generals for the complete destruction of the army, as it happened in ancient times at Cannes. The result was not slow to manifest itself in all its great tragic for the Poles. At the village of Pilyavtsy, on September 21, the Polish army, drawn by a three-headed command, met with the Cossack-Tatar army of Khmelnitsky. The three-day standoff ended in an unprecedented defeat and stampede flight of the crown army. The winners got trophies in such volumes and quantities that the mining taken after the Korsun battle now seemed like a pile of unpretentious belongings. About a hundred guns were taken, the whole wagon train, along with drinks and girls, large stocks of gunpowder, weapons and other military equipment. The total value of the property acquired by the allies was estimated at 10 million crowns - a colossal amount for those difficult times.
Jan Mateiko "Bogdan Khmelnitsky with Tugay Bey near Lvov"
To celebrate, Bohdan Khmelnitsky and Islam-Girei approached Lviv. After the first battles with the frightened garrison, concerned about their own fate and the preservation of property, the residents preferred to pay off. Having received from Lviv 220 thousands of zlotys, Khmelnitsky again turned to pen and paper. To begin with, he wrote a letter to the Polish Sejm, pointing out that in all the troubles that befell Rzeczpospolita, only the magnates who think themselves of micromonarchs are to blame, and Khmelnitsky himself is loyal to the Polish crown.
The response letter arrived to the hetman when his army was besieging (however, without undue enthusiasm) the fortress of Zamost. Accumulated mining and rainy autumn contributed to the development of the melancholic state of tired Cossacks. Their Tatar ally Islam-Giray, taking the share due to him, migrated to the Crimea for the winter. In Khmelnitsky’s message, the new king Jan Casimir, who orders the hetman (if he is surely a true, as he claims, servant of His Majesty) is now retreating from Zamost, was now in the Commonwealth. The letter diplomatically recognized that all the troubles were not from the troops of Zaporizhzhya and the registered Cossacks who joined him, but from the magnates who had lost all semblance of conscience.
Now everything will be new, asserted in the message. The army of Zaporozhye will report directly to the king. It is only necessary to completely get rid of the Tatars (10 thousand soldiers of Tugay Bey continued to accompany the Khmelnitsky army) and to influence the numerous peasant detachments that operated independently so that they would go home. The fact is that the dislike of the Polish sisters was truly popular, and when the uprising began, the hated gentry began to cut everyone who was mercilessly ruining their estates. Now these hordes of rebels became a very uncomfortable factor in the negotiations between the king and the hetman.
Khmelnitsky quite himself triumphantly entered Kiev, where he was solemnly greeted by crowds of people. They saw in him not just another farmhouse, but a significant political figure. Delegations came to Kiev from the Moldavian ruler, the Crimean Khan, and even the Turkish Sultan. Only Alexey Mikhailovich still pretended that he was not interested in what was happening, but at the same time he was closely watching the situation. Observant people noted the appearance of Don Cossack detachments in the Khmelnitsky army, who arrived here, of course, solely out of a sense of solidarity. And in general, the Moscow boyars angrily rejected all hints of intervention in the war on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Emboldened by their own success and international support, Khmelnytsky practically in the ultimatum form demanded an agreement from the Poles: cancellation of the union, preservation and expansion of Cossack liberties, subordination of the hetman to the king and so on. When the stunned representative of the Commonwealth, Adam Kissel, finally managed to squeeze out something articulate about the size of the registry, he received a short answer: "How many will write, so much will be." Not surprisingly, the spring-summer campaign of 1649 and the battle of Zborov was required to end this not entirely “constructive” dialogue.
The Bogdan Khmelnitsky Bogorod
Being in a critical situation, King Jan Casimir, who was in the army, did not lose his head, but turned through the right people to Khmelnytsky’s ally Islam-Giray. Khan was promised a solid premium if he slightly corrects his foreign policy and reduces his role in the war led by the rebellious hetman. Having calculated all the benefits, the Crimean ruler began to persuade Khmelnytsky to calm down the ardor and make peace with the Poles, of course, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. The Tatar contingent was a solid part of the army, and his refusal to continue fighting confused the hetman with all the cards.
Having declined in every way an insidious ally (not loud, of course, it was undesirable to quarrel with Islam-Giray), Khmelnitsky August 8 signed a truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A new territorial autonomous unit, the Hetmanate, now appeared inside this state, whose head, the hetman, was personally subordinate to the king. The roster list was now presented in the form of a compromise 40 thousand people. Khmelnitsky tried, whenever possible, to fulfill the terms of the agreement: the Cossacks who were not on the register were dismissed, much to their displeasure, to their homes; peasants from numerous rebel detachments were practically forced to return to the landowners.
The Polish side, unlike its recent opponents, was not so scrupulous. The magnates and their troops still violated the formal borders of the Hetman, and the king’s attempt to persuade the Sejm to legalize the treaty did not lead to success. The gentry demanded revenge - the resumption of the conflict was only a matter of time.
Alexey Mikhailovich was expressively silent, continuing to energetically reform and modernize his considerable army. In addition to the existing ones, new regiments were created - soldiers and reytar, equipped with modern weapons, for which they did not spare the treasury. The end of the Thirty Years' War made it possible to recruit experienced military professionals who were out of work. The Russian army improved quantitatively and qualitatively, but of course, all interested persons understood that these military preparations had absolutely nothing to do with the events in Little Russia. At the Zemsky Sobor, which was held in the spring of 1651, in Moscow, they did not reach agreement on the issue of accepting the Zaporozhian Army as an allegiance, although the clergy, for example, strongly supported the adoption. However, an embassy was sent to Rzeczpospolita under the leadership of the boyar Repnin-Obolensky, who tried to persuade the Poles to come to an agreement with the Cossacks on the basis of the Zborovsky agreements. This mission was not crowned with success - the nobility wanted war.
Alexey Mikhailovich comes into play
The fighting between the Polish crown and the Khmelnitsky forces was resumed at the beginning of 1651. Again, to combat the Commonwealth had to attract not differing reliability of the Tatars. Two huge by that standards armies agreed, after all, near the town of Berestechko in Volyn in June 1651. The bloody and multi-day battle, aggravated for the Cossacks by the circumstance of Islam-Girey's flight, led to their defeat.
With great difficulty, much later Khmelnitsky was able to gather into a weak fist what had recently been an army that terrified Rzeczpospolita. His diplomatic efforts are impressive. Getman tirelessly scribbling messages at once to several addressees: the Swedish king, the Turkish sultan, and, of course, Alexei Mikhailovich, since the situation in which Khmelnitsky found itself contributed to inspiration. The former ally of Islam-Giray went to the Crimea and did not show more enthusiasm in the war against the Poles. Russia responded to the increasingly insistent requests for a protectorate streamlined and evasive. The Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV showed greater interest and expressed a desire to take the Hetmanate as a vassal, as the Crimean Khanate.
The moment was successful. In September, 1651 between the warring parties was concluded Belotserkovsky peace on conditions worse than Zborovsky. One of the points of the agreement, among other things, was to ban Khmelnitsky from pursuing his own foreign policy. Gradually in Moscow, the party defending the expansion of the state took over. First, the contradictions with the Poles were growing - with the unrelenting desire to return the territories lost during the Time of Troubles. Secondly, Khmelnitsky, who had entered into negotiations with the Sultan, perhaps not without intent, caused the Russian government to be threatened by the appearance of another Turkish vassal on the southern borders, which could easily become as hostile as the Crimea. Thirdly, the clergy have long advocated reunification with the people professing Orthodoxy.
Meanwhile, fighting on the outskirts resumed. The campaign 1652 was not easy for the Cossacks. The next year, the 1653, the Poles agreed to a separate agreement with the Tatar Khan, who broke his fragile alliance with Khmelnytsky and began devastating Ukrainian lands without any restrictions. Requests for citizenship to Alexei Mikhailovich have become even more persevering. 1 October 1653 g. Zemsky Sobor, finally decided to satisfy the request for the accession of the Zaporizhia Army. In January, 1654 at the Rada Khmelnytsky and Cossack officers held in Pereyaslav took the oath of allegiance to Alexei Mikhailovich. Disputes around these circumstances and their legal interpretation have not abated so far - this applies primarily to Ukrainian historians of "Canadian dressing."
Admission to the citizenship of Zaporizhzhya Sich automatically meant war with the Commonwealth, to which Russia had been preparing for several years. In the fall of 1653, before all resolutions and historical decisions, a special embassy was sent to Holland to buy weapons and military supplies. About 20 thousands of muskets were purchased from Sweden. All these preparations indicated that a strategic decision on the Little Russian issue was made in advance. In February, 1654, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, headed the troops from Moscow. Thus began the long, with a break for a truce, the war of the Russian state with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The 1654 campaign of the year was successful. A number of cities and fortresses were occupied by Russian troops, and the culmination was the long-awaited surrender of Smolensk in September. The next year, the Poles made an insistent attempt to take the offensive, for which they began to concentrate their forces under the command of Hetman Stanislav Pototsky, who soon, however, exhausted. According to the campaign plan, the northern army under the command of the governor Sheremetev and the central army, headed by the voivode Trubetskoy, were to attack the territory of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth. Directly in the Ukraine, the “expeditionary corps” of Boyar Andrei Vasilievich Buturlin and Prince Grigory Romodanovsky, who was under his command, were to be operated. Their task was to unite with the army of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and then advance on Galicia.
In May, Buturlin spoke in the direction of the White Church to connect with the hetman. The active phase of the operation began in July 1655 - Polish fortresses and small towns surrendered without much resistance. In early September, Lviv was within reach of horse rides. Stanislav Pototsky did not dare to give battle on the outskirts of the city and retreated. It was a common technique of the time: to leave the fortress, under the threat of a siege, garrison and move away, threatening the enemy with the main forces.
On September 18, the main forces of the Russian troops were under the walls of Lviv, but Pototsky, who was hanging out nearby, did not give rest to Khmelnitsky and Buturlin. A significant detachment under the command of Prince Romodanovsky and Mirgorod colonel Grigory Lesnitsky was separated from the main army. Potocki was very close - his camp was in 5 miles from Lviv, near a town called Gorodok. The direct path to the Polish positions was blocked by a deep lake, the flanks were covered with forests and marshland.
I had to improvise on the spot. On the moonlit night of September 20, the Cossacks and warriors disassembled nearby buildings for logs and made dams on the streams from this material. Through them, at first, the hunters secretly moved, carved out the Polish guards, and then the main forces of the Russian troops. Pototsky, to his misfortune, took what was happening for the petty diversion of the enemy and sent a small detachment of cavalry to the scene, which was destroyed. When the Poles understood the whole tragedy of what had happened, it was already too late.
Zholnery Potocki, guarding the coastal fortifications, threw everything, ran to the city, because they were afraid of being cut off from Gorodok, where the main forces of the Polish army were located. Romodanovsky threw cavalry in pursuit, which broke into the city on the shoulders of those running. Soon fires began in it, and the crown hetman was forced to hastily withdraw his army to an open area for a field battle. Both armies converged in the field.
The battle continued with varying success for almost three hours. Russian troops withstood a series of massed attacks by the enemy, on horseback and on foot. Concentrating his cavalry on the flanks, Romodanovsky began to threaten the flanks of the enemy. The Poles, putting up strong resistance, slowly began to retreat. At the height of the battle, a rumor was spread among them about a new army approaching the battlefield. Fully confident that these were the main forces under the command of Khmelnitsky and Buturlin, the Poles panicked and ran.
The Russians got huge trophies, artillery, a wagon train and a horse henchman of the crown. The irony is that the army that had frightened the Poles was a reinforcement that Pototsky had been waiting for, in the form of a "pospolitogo crush" from Peremyshl. Khmelnitsky did not take advantage of the fruits of this victory - he entered into negotiations with the Lviv citizens in his old memory, demanding surrender and indemnity. In the midst of trading came the news that the Crimean Khan invaded the territory of Little Russia. The siege was hastily lifted, and the army left Galicia. The war of Russia against the Commonwealth lasted for many years, and the battle of Gorodok became its significant, but little-known episode.