The speech of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Pereyaslav, 8 January 1654
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
What did the Ukrainian nazis forget about?
*) Historical reference
Pereiaslav Council, a meeting of representatives of the Ukrainian people, which decided to reunite Ukraine with Russia, was convened by hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky 8 (18) in January 1654 in the city of Pereyaslav (now Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky). The movement for reunification with Russia, which intensified during the liberation war of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples of 1648-1654, was completed. The decision to reunite was promoted by the closeness of the language and culture of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, the common religion and the existence of economic, political and cultural ties between them. In Russia, there were Cossack regions that did not know serfdom and enjoyed a certain political autonomy. The Russian government provided asylum to the Ukrainian Cossacks and peasants and settled them on the rights of free people. The peasantry of Ukraine hoped to secure the position of the free population under Russian rule and get rid of national oppression and religious persecution.
On the eve of the meeting, B. Khmelnitsky met with the head of the tsarist embassy, boyar V. Buturlin, in the morning he gathered the officers' council, unanimously speaking in favor of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. In the middle of the day, an open council was convened, at which Pereyaslav citizens and peasants of the surrounding villages were present. Speaking of B. Khmelnitsky reminded of the victims suffered by the Ukrainian people in the liberation struggle, and stressed that the only way to consolidate the gains of the people is the recognition of the power of Russia. The proposal was met with unanimous approval. After that, an oath of allegiance to the king of elders, Cossacks and burghers took place.
Text of the Speech of Bogdan Khmelnitsky:
- Pans colonels, captains, all the Zaporozhye Army and all Orthodox Christians!
Guided to all of you, as God freed us from the hands of enemies who persecute the church of God and angering all the Christianity of our Eastern Orthodoxy.
For years now, 6 has been living without a sovereign, in incessant armor and bloodshed with our persecutors and enemies, who want to eradicate the Church of God, so that the Russian name will not be remembered in our land, which is already very boring for all of us, and see that we cannot live without a king . To do this, we gathered Rada, who was obvious to all the people, so that you choose with us a sovereign out of four who you want: the first king, the Turkish, who many times through his ambassadors called us under his power; the second is the Crimean Khan; the third is the king of Poland, who, if we wish, and now he can accept us as a former affection; the fourth is the sovereign Tsar, Grand Duke Aleksei Mikhailovich, Orthodox of Great Russia, the Eastern Russia autocrat of all Russia, whom we have already 6 years of incessant prayers ask ourselves. Here you want to choose! The Turkish king is a basurman: you all know how our brothers, Orthodox Christians, the Greeks, endure misfortune and how they live from godless oppression; The Crimean Khan is also a basurman, whom we, in need of friendship, accepted, what unbearable evils we experienced! There is nothing to say about the oppression from the Polish lords: you yourself know that a Jew and a dog are better than a Christian, our brother, revered. And the Orthodox Christian is a great sovereign - of the Eastern common to us piety, Greek law, single confession, we are one Church body with Orthodoxy of Great Russia, head of having Jesus Christ. This is a great sovereign, a Christian king, having taken pity on the unbearable bitterness of the Orthodox Church in our Little Russia, having not disdained our six-year-old prayers, now bending the merciful royal heart to us with our royal grace deigning us our great neighbors. If we love him with diligence, then, apart from his great royal hand, we will not find a most gracious refuge. If anyone disagrees with us, then wherever he wants is the free road.
Here all the people screamed:
- Will under the king of the Eastern Orthodox! It is better to die in your godly faith, rather than a hater of Christ, to get the banets!
Then Colonel Pereyaslavsky Teteria, walking in a circle, asked us on all sides:
- Is everything so deign?
“Everything is unanimous,” came the reply.
The getman began to speak again:
- Be so, may the Lord our God strengthen us under his kingly strong hand!
The people screamed at it unanimously:
- God, affirm! God bless!
May we all be one!
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