370 years ago, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich signed a letter of grant to Hetman Bogdan Khmelnytsky
“Serve the sovereign and our heirs”
In March 1654, the “Articles of Bohdan Khmelnitsky” (the so-called Articles of the Zaporozhian Army, “Pereyaslav Articles” or “March Articles”) legally formalized the position of the Zaporozhian Army within the Russian state after the Pereyaslav Rada (Pereyaslav articles).
The Russian sovereign confirmed the rights and liberties of the Zaporozhian Army, the Orthodox gentry, townspeople and clergy; a register of 60 thousand Cossacks; the right to choose a hetman; salary of the Cossack administration, etc. At the end of March, the hetman's ambassadors returned from Moscow with royal letters from Bogdanovich-Zarudny and Teterya.
With a special letter of grant from the tsar dated March 27 (April 6), 1654, sent to Bogdan Khmelnitsky, all rights and liberties were confirmed. The letter said:
“And we, the great sovereign, our royal majesty, our subject Bogdan Khmelnitsky, hetman of the Zaporozhian Army, and all of our royal majesty the Zaporozhye Army; They ordered them to be under our royal majesty’s high hand according to their former rights and privileges, which were given to them by the kings of Poland and the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, and they were not ordered to violate those rights and liberties, and they were ordered to sue from their elders according to their former rights ( and our royal majesty boyars and governors will not intervene in those military courts).
And the number of the Zaporozhian Army was indicated by the Esmas, according to their petition to make a list of 60, always full. And by the judgment of God, the hetman’s death will happen, and we, the great sovereign, allowed the Zaporozhye Army to rob the hetman from among themselves according to their previous customs. And whoever the hetman is deprived of, and write to us, the great sovereign, and to the same newly elected hetman for citizenship and allegiance to us, the great sovereign, institute, with whom we, the great sovereign, will indicate (and with the hetman’s mace, headman Chigirinsky with all his the accessories that were previously with him indicated that they were still there).
Also, the Cossacks’ estates and the lands that they have for their belongings were not ordered to be taken away from them, and widows after the Cossacks who were backward, were not ordered to be taken away from their children, but they were still to remain with them.”
And the number of the Zaporozhian Army was indicated by the Esmas, according to their petition to make a list of 60, always full. And by the judgment of God, the hetman’s death will happen, and we, the great sovereign, allowed the Zaporozhye Army to rob the hetman from among themselves according to their previous customs. And whoever the hetman is deprived of, and write to us, the great sovereign, and to the same newly elected hetman for citizenship and allegiance to us, the great sovereign, institute, with whom we, the great sovereign, will indicate (and with the hetman’s mace, headman Chigirinsky with all his the accessories that were previously with him indicated that they were still there).
Also, the Cossacks’ estates and the lands that they have for their belongings were not ordered to be taken away from them, and widows after the Cossacks who were backward, were not ordered to be taken away from their children, but they were still to remain with them.”
The Zaporozhye Army was obliged to “serve the sovereign... and our heirs... and all the good we want, and our sovereign enemies, where our sovereign command will be, to go and fight with them, and in everything to be in our sovereign will and obedience forever.”
Another royal charter approved the Chigirin eldership under the hetman's mace. The tsarist government received the right to keep its own governors with troops in Kyiv and Chernigov, control the collection of taxes in the Hetmanate and the hetman's foreign relations with other powers.
Thus, Little Rus', which was a de facto colony as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, received broad autonomy as part of the Russian state.
Khmelnitsky immediately told this to the people. Copies of the letters, together with a letter from the hetman himself, were sent to the Koshevo ataman in the Zaporozhye Sich. Hetman wrote that “with the knowledge and advice” of the Cossacks he entered into an “alliance” with the Russian state. And the tsar made his confirmations on the documents concluded in Pereyaslavl, Khmel signed with a new title - “Zinovy-Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Hetman of the glorious Zaporozhian Army of His Tsar's Majesty and all of Little Russian Ukraine.”
In May 1654, a response came from the Sich expressing joy at what had been done and gratitude to Khmelnitsky for his “diligence and labor.”
As part of the royal army
In a letter dated March 3, 1654, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich wrote to Khmelnitsky that if the Polish-Lithuanian troops launched an attack on the “Cherkasy cities” (Cherkasy or Circassians - one of historical names of Little Russian, Zaporozhye, Dnieper Cossacks), Hetman Khmelnytsky must hold back the enemy as long as he can, and the tsar will send reinforcements led by governor Vasily Sheremetyev.
Meanwhile, Russian regiments entered Kyiv and other Little Russian cities, reinforcing the hetman’s army.
Reinforcements arrived on time. The Polish authorities were preparing to launch a new big campaign. Already in February - April 1654, Polish troops and detachments of magnates launched a number of large raids across the Russian Ukraine. So, in February the Poles tried to advance in the area of Shargorod and Starodub. Another large Polish detachment occupied Lyubar, Chudnov, Kostelnya and aimed at Bila Tserkva.
A southern front was also brewing. Islam-Girey, angry at the “disobedience of the hetman, who entered into an alliance with Moscow, threatened to join the Polish king Jan Casimir. True, the khan managed to calm down for a while. The Turkish Sultan, who did not want to spoil relations with the hetman and the Russian Tsar, ordered the Khan to maintain peace with the Zaporozhian Army.
And even in the Hetmanate itself, a quarrel was brewing. Many elders who wanted to achieve broad autonomy under the rule of the Polish king sought connections with the Polish lords and were ready to betray.
In April 1654, Khmelnitsky received an order from Emperor Alesei Mikhailovich to send several regiments to the tsarist army. The choice fell on the Chernigov, Nezhin and Starodub regiments, which numbered up to 20 thousand Cossacks. Khmelnytsky entrusted general command over them as a punishable hetman to Ivan Zolotarenko.
On May 15, 1654, the main forces of the tsarist army began moving from Moscow to the Polish-Lithuanian border. The royal regiments marched along the Smolensk road. On May 18, the Tsar himself left Moscow with a significant part of the court and the Boyar Duma.
They were supposed to arrive in Smolensk under the command of Ivan Zolotarenko and his brother Nezhinsky Colonel Vasily Zolotarenko. Sending the Cossack regiments to Smolensk, the hetman handed over a letter to the tsar, in which he asked not to be angry that the Pereyaslavsky regiment did not go to Smolensk, since it had to be sent against the Poles (Poles is the historical name of the western branch of the Poles). Cossack regiments under the command of the Zolotarenko brothers were supposed to operate upstream the Dnieper and Sozh, striking the flanks of the Polish-Lithuanian army.
The hetman also asked to send Sheremetyev’s auxiliary army to Kyiv. Sheremetyev’s 7-strong corps at that time was on the southern borders of the Russian kingdom along the Belgorod defensive line and, in the event of an attack by the royal army on the Hetmanate, was supposed to strengthen the Zaporozhye Army.
Even earlier, on April 22, 1654, governor Sheremetyev and Buturlin received a royal order to go to Kyiv and provide assistance to the Cossack regiments of Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
Thus began another Russian-Polish war.
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