How Bogdan Khmelnitsky Russian citizenship took
It was not anyone who signed these words, but the hetman of the Zaporizhzhya troops, Bogdan Khmelnitsky and his loyal Cossacks. However, the entry of the Ukraine into the Russian state dragged on for several years. Only 8 in January, 1654, the Pereyaslav Rada nevertheless supported Khmelnitsky, who finally called for a sovereign. The choice, in fact, was quite clear - between the Crimean Khan, the Ottoman Sultan, the king of the Commonwealth and the sovereign of Moscow. The Orthodox Cossacks then made a choice in favor of a co-religionist - the Tsar of Moscow.
For three and a half centuries long, Bogdan Khmelnitsky entered the Russian history as the person who united Ukraine with Russia. Even in the Soviet period, the attitude towards Khmelnitsky remained very positive - there were many streets of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, including in cities in other regions of the country, in honor of the hetman they called entire settlements and educational institutions. Of course, the hetman was a controversial figure and in some ways not even the best in national history. But the fact that he made the decision to become citizenship of the Russian state became the main and main achievement of Khmelnitsky.
To the entry into Russian citizenship Little Russians were long. Strictly speaking, it was one of the most common slogans during numerous anti-Polish uprisings, which periodically flared up on the territory of modern Ukraine. When it was necessary to oppose the Commonwealth, Little Russians and Cossacks raised pro-Russian slogans, counting on the help of the Moscow tsar. But then the Russian state did not really want to quarrel with the Commonwealth. After all, not so long ago, the Poles seized Moscow, not to mention the more western Russian cities, then, in 1634, they took Smolensk and again reached Moscow. The king and his boyars did not doubt that the war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth would be severe and bloody, and did not want to go into open conflict because of the Little Russians. At least until a more significant strengthening of the country's forces.
In the meantime, anti-Polish uprisings flared up more and more in the Ukraine. In 1625, the Polish-Lithuanian government, irritated by the increasing incidence of peasants ’flight to the Cossacks, sent numerous troops under the command of hetman Stanislav Konetspolsky to Kyiv region. When the Polish army approached Kanev, the local Cossacks retreated to Cherkasy. Quite numerous Cossack detachments gathered in the area of the Tsibulnik River, which were soon led by hetman Marko Zhmailo.
October 15 Cossacks in a major battle caused quite serious damage to the Polish troops, but still had to retreat - forces were too unequal. However, on November 5, conspirators who were among the Cossack officers, overthrew Marko Zhmailo from the post of hetman. The fate of the leader of the uprising remained unexplained.
The consequences of the subsequent anti-Polish uprisings were no less dramatic for the Cossacks. When in the 1635 year, the Sejm issued a decree that reduced the number of the registered Cossacks and allowed the construction of the Kodak fortress in a strategically important place to control the communication between Zaporozhye and the South Russian lands belonging to Rzeczpospolita, another anti-Polish uprising began. On the night of 3 on 4 on August 1635, non-clandestine Cossacks led by hetman Ivan Sulima attacked the Polish garrison in the unfinished Kodak fortress and exterminated the Poles led by the commandant of the fortress Jean Marion. Kodak was destroyed. Then Rzeczpospolita again sent against the rebels the troops of Stanislav Kanetspolsky, consisting of Polish gentry and registered Cossacks. Like Marco Zhmailo, the Cossack elite betrayed Ivan Sulimu - they grabbed him and gave the Poles sergeant. The captive leader of the uprising was brought to Warsaw, where they brutally executed them - according to some information, he was impaled, and according to others - they were quartered.
But this brutal massacre could not intimidate the Cossacks - already two years later, in 1637, an even more numerous and organized uprising of Pavlyuk broke out. Pavlyuk, elected by the hetman, did not hide his intentions to pass into Russian citizenship. Numerous regiments of the registered Cossacks came to the side of Pavlyuk, which contributed to the success of the rebels, who began to occupy the city outside the city. The Polish army under the command of Nikolai Pototsky, a former Bratslav governor appointed by the crown hetman, was directed against the rebels. And in this case, as before, the Cossack petty officer again played a traitorous role - she persuaded Pavlyuk to decide to negotiate with Potocki, who guaranteed his immunity. Of course, Pavlyuk was deceived, brought to Warsaw and executed in a brutal way.
In the process of suppressing the uprising, Nikolai Pototsky dealt with the rebels in the most severe way. Cossacks and Little Russian peasants were planted on stakes. Those lucky enough to survive, fled to the place where the Poles could not get them - for example, to the Don. However, already in 1638, the uprising against the Poles raised the new hetman of the unregistered Cossacks Jacob Ostryanin. And his life ended just as the life of his predecessors — the Poles concluded “perpetual peace” with Ostryanin, and then treacherously seized him, brought him to Warsaw, and there they wheeled.
Naturally, the question arises - why did Moscow get rid of the brutal suppression of Cossack uprisings from Warsaw at that time? After all, the Cossacks and Little Russian peasants were Orthodox, and they repeatedly asked the Tsar of Moscow to transfer to his citizenship. But the events, firstly, were unfolding very rapidly, and secondly, Moscow also had its opponents of aggravating the already complicated relationship with the Commonwealth. Moreover, to conceal, the Cossack hetmans did not differ much in constancy. Today, they could ask for the citizenship of Moscow, and tomorrow to make peace with Warsaw or go to the Crimean Khan. Therefore, Bogdan Khmelnitsky did not cause any special sympathy in Moscow.
Despite the scale of the individual, it is not so much known about the early years of Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s life. He was a nobleman. His father, Mikhail Khmelnitsky, served as Chigirinsky podstarostoy the hetman of the crown Stanislav Zolkevsky. In 1620, the father of Bohdan Khmelnytsky died in a battle with the Crimean Tatars, being part of the Polish army, who went on a campaign in Moldova.
Bogdan Khmelnitsky himself, who by then had experience of studying in a Jesuit college, was captured in the same battle and was sold into slavery to the Turks. Only two years later, his relatives bought him back and he returned to the life of the Cossack. It is interesting that in the most turbulent years of the anti-Polish uprisings about any participation or non-participation of Khmelnitsky they did not preserve any information. Only the surrender of the insurgent troops Pavlyuk was written by his hand - he was the Cossack general clerk. According to some information, in 1634, Khmelnitsky participated in the siege by the Polish army of Smolensk, for which King Vladislav IV awarded him a golden saber for his bravery.
Such facts from the biography of Bohdan Khmelnitsky could not speak in his favor. In Moscow, they could have justly distrusted the hetman, considering him an adventurer constantly vacillating between the Commonwealth and Russia. But Khmelnitsky had his own reasons for the anti-Polish rotation: the Polish sub-elder Chaplinsky attacked Bohdan’s farm and took his woman to Gelena, and also, according to some reports, beat one of his sons to death. Khmelnitsky turned for help to King Vladislav, who personally awarded him a golden saber, and not for anything, but for his own salvation from Moscow captivity. But the king couldn’t do anything in defense of Khmelnitsky, and then the latter arrived in Zaporizhia, where he was elected hetman and at the beginning of 1648, he organized another anti-Polish uprising. Only it was fundamentally different from all previous uprisings - Khmelnitsky managed to enlist the support of the Crimean Khan, and the latter sent the army of Perekop Murza Tugay-Bey to help the Cossacks.
Polish troops suffered one defeat after another, while in the Korsun battle they did not suffer such a crushing fiasco that both Polish hetmans were captured - the coronate Nikolai Pototsky and the full-fledged Martin Kalinowski. In the Korsun battle, the entire 20-thousandth crown (regular) army of Poland was destroyed. However, the Commonwealth was able to gather new forces. The next three years were a constant war between the Poles and Khmelnytsky and the Tatars. All Little Russia was covered with blood - the Cossacks cracked down on the Poles and Jews, the Poles - on the Cossacks, and those and others - mercilessly robbed the peaceful peasant population.
What did Moscow do in this situation? First of all, it is worth noting that in 1649, the special envoy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Duma Dean Gregory Unkovsky arrived in Khmelnitsky. He directly stated to the hetman that the tsar did not object to the acceptance of the Cossacks into Moscow citizenship, but now Moscow has no opportunity to directly confront the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Accordingly, the troops in support of the hetman Alexei Mikhailovich can not, but he allows duty-free import of grain, salt and other products and supplies from Russia to Zaporozhye. In modern language, this would mean the provision of humanitarian assistance.
In addition, the tsar's envoy noted that Don Cossacks had come to the aid of Khmelnitsky. Thus, military support was also provided to the hetman in a veiled form. Incidentally, this was soon realized in Warsaw — Polish officials complained that the Moscow kingdom, in violation of all the peace agreements, supplied food, gunpowder and weapon "Rebel" Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich could not decide whether to accept Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks into Russian citizenship or not. Ultimately, with the diplomatic mission of Boyar Boris Alexandrovich Repnin, who had the characteristic nickname "Echidna", went to Rzeczpospolita. They were awarded Repnin numerous envious, angered by his rapid elevation at the court of Alexei Mikhailovich. Repnin asked Rzeczpospolita to reconcile with Bogdan Khmelnitsky, but his mission was not completed with success. In 1653, a new Polish squad invaded Podolia, which began to suffer defeat from the Khmelnytsky Cossacks and the Tatars. In the end, the Poles went to the trick and made a separate peace with the Tatars, after which they allowed the last devastation of Little Russia.
In Khmelnitsky in the changed situation, there was no other way out but to apply to Moscow with a regular request to accept the Cossacks as a king. Ultimately, the 1 (11) of October 1653 was convened by the Zemsky Sobor, which supported the Khmelnitsky request. 8 (18) January 1654 was collected by the Pereyaslavskaya rada, at which the hetman’s proposal to transfer to Moscow citizenship was accepted unconditionally. Then the Tsar's envoy Vasily Vasilyevich Buturlin, the boyar and the governor of Tver, who was present at the meeting, was happy to present the Tsarist flag, mace and luxurious clothes to Khmelnitsky. Buturlin gave a special speech in which he emphasized the origin of the power of the sovereign of Moscow from St. Vladimir, said that Moscow is the successor of Kiev. The formal procedure for entry into Russian citizenship was completed.
Thus, already in the middle of the 17th century, the Russian authorities successfully used the methods of indirect support for potential allies, providing them with economic and military assistance and sending Don Cossacks who were not formally part of the Russian regular army. As a result of these actions, the Zaporizhian Sich was accepted into Russian citizenship, and Russia followed the war with the Commonwealth. It is clear that without a union with Moscow, the Hetmanate alone would not withstand the confrontation with such a powerful and insidious adversary, who at that time was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - one of the largest states in Eastern Europe.
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