Politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Ukrainian lands briefly. The entry of Ukrainian lands into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The victories of the Ukrainian troops near Zhovti Vody, near Korsun and Pylyavtsy
The adoption of the Union of Lublin is not enough for the Ukrainian fatal consequences. If in 1569 the position of the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands within Lithuania was tolerable, now the situation has changed radically: the Polish-Lithuanian administration began a widespread attack on the rights of the Ukrainian population. It covered primarily the economic sphere, where the government of the Commonwealth again supported the magnate in every possible way, in whose hands even the king remained a puppet. National, religious and cultural oppression sharply intensified. As the fate of Galicia testified, with the transfer of Ukrainian lands from Lithuania to Poland, the very existence of the Ukrainian as a separate ethnic community was called into question. The historian N. Polovska-Vasilenko noted on this occasion: “From the middle of the 16th century, the situation has changed. Separate episodic cases are replaced by systematic underlining of contempt for the Ukrainian people, for which the term “serfs” is used, and from that peasant speech, peasant faith .. This "clap" faith ... the Poles call "heretical", "schismatic" and in terms of Ukrainian Orthodox faith identified with the Ukrainian nationality".
According to the new administrative-territorial structure, the Ukrainian lands, which were part of Poland, were divided into 6 voivodeships: Russian (with the center in Lviv), Belz (Belz), Podolsk (Kamenets), Volyn (Lutsk), Bratslav (Bratslav), Kiev (Kiev). In 1635, the Chernigov Voivodeship was formed with the center in Chernigov. Each voivodeship had its own sejmiki and sent its deputies to Warsaw for the Sejm. At first, the Lithuanian Statute and the government Ukrainian language were kept in the Kiev region, Bratslav region and Volhynia, but soon they give way to national law and Latin and Polish.
Newly annexed territories differed from each other in economic situation. Volhynia, Northern Kyiv region were considered prosperous, South-Eastern Podolia was less populated and the Left Bank was very devastated. Kanev and Cherkassy were the strongest cities in the south. Pereyaslavshchina began to quickly revive from the Mongol ruins in the second half. XV century. But its prosperity did not last long. Devastating raids Crimean Tatars starting from 1482r. again turned this region into a desert. The Siver region suffered less from nomadic raids. Even when it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, agriculture and various crafts developed here.
In con. 16th century the rapid colonization of Eastern Ukraine began, including the Left Bank, the Middle Poltava region, the lands between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug, Severshchina. Although some Polish historians claim that these areas were inhabited mainly by Masurians, the facts indicate the opposite - Eastern Ukraine was colonized by peasants from Volhynia, Galicia, Kholmshchyna and Podolia. Following the farmers came the magnates and thousands of their hirelings, who captured the richest black soil in the world. Huge latifundia were formed, virtually independent of the Polish crown. These gentlemen had a mercenary army, a repressive administrative apparatus. Until ser. 17th century on the expanses of the left and right banks of the Dnieper, they introduced serfdom No less cruel than in Western Ukrainian lands. The mass settlement of these territories is due to benefits, "settlements" for newcomers for 20 years or more. Oppression of the masses, that is, an increase in labor rent, increased in the XVI - early. 17th century in connection with the demand in Western Europe for Ukrainian bread. A cruel filvarka system was formed, which proved corvée up to 6 days a week. The free people met the introduction of corvée with hostility. Supported by the Cossacks, he was preparing for a decisive fight against the enemy.
It was not easy to live in the Polish state and the Ukrainian philistinism. Despite the provision of cities with points, it was used almost exclusively by Poles and Germans, while the self-government of Ukrainian philistines was significantly limited. In the XV-XVII centuries. they were forced out to separate quarters, they were forbidden to buy or build houses in the city center, to belong to handicraft workshops. Ukrainians could not be elected or appointed burgomasters, carry out Christian processions, even ring bells at funerals. There was a protracted struggle between Ukrainian and Polish artisans, more than once it escalated into bloody fights. Ukrainians sought equal participation in craft workshops.
So, with the formation of the Commonwealth and the transition of Ukrainian lands under the rule of Poland, their situation worsens significantly: economic oppression intensifies, political life is limited, and national traditions and culture decline.
Ukrainian lands in the first half of the XVII century. were part of Wormwood, Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia, and the largest part of Ukraine - from the Carpathians to Poltava and from Chernigov to Kamenetz-Podolsk - remained under the rule of Poland. Belarus was also under her rule.
Ukraine under the rule of the Commonwealth
The strengthening of feudal exploitation in the Commonwealth and the growth of the political influence of the magnate manifested itself with particular force in the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. Huge latifundia of such magnates as the Konetspolsky, Pototsky, Kalinovsky, Zamoysky and others were created in Ukraine through violent seizures of land. He also owned vast lands on the left bank of the Dnieper. At the same time, large-scale landownership of Ukrainian feudal lords also grew, who by this time had adopted the Catholic religion and became Polonized. The Vishnevetskys, Kiselis, Ostrozhskys and others belonged to their number. The Vishnevetsky princes, for example, owned almost the entire Poltava region with 40 thousand peasant and city households, Adam Kisel - huge estates on the Right Bank, etc.
The growth of magnate and gentry landownership in Ukraine was accompanied by a further increase in peasant duties. In the first half of the XVII century. the size of the corvée of the Ukrainian peasants increased sharply. In addition to performing corvee duties, the peasants were obliged to supply bread, poultry, and eggs to the pan's yard. The gentry and magnates levied money from the peasants both when registering a marriage and when receiving an inheritance. The peasants were forced to grind bread only at the pan's mill, use only the pan's forge, and buy vodka and beer exclusively in the pan's tavern. The situation of peasants on estates leased to merchants, usurers or gentry was especially difficult. Aiming at the shortest time to more than compensate the rent, the tenant rapaciously exploited the estate and often completely devastated the farms of the peasants. To prevent the serfs from fleeing, the tenants often sent the peasants to work in shackles and did not let them leave their estates for weeks.
The life and property of the peasant were at the complete disposal of the feudal lord. The Frenchman Beauplan, who lived in Ukraine for 17 years, noted that the peasants there are extremely poor, they are forced to give their master everything he wants; their position is worse than that of the galley slaves. The gentry and magnates called the Ukrainian peasants "cattle", that is, cattle. For the slightest disobedience, the peasant could be subjected to severe torture. The rebellious lords were ordered to be hanged and impaled. Koniecpolsky ordered his subordinates to ruthlessly deal with the rebellious peasants: “... You must punish their wives and children, and destroy them at home, for it is better that nettles grow in those places than traitors to his royal grace and the Commonwealth multiply.”
Almost in the same disenfranchised position were the inhabitants of the cities - the philistines. In no other state of Europe was there such a number of privately owned cities as in Poland. In the Kiev and Bratslav voivodships, more than 80% of cities and towns belonged to private owners. The most profitable industries in the cities - distilling, brewing, mining, potash, etc. - were the monopoly of the crown and the gentry. The philistines could not compete with the duty-free trade of pans in food, livestock, and leather. Along with the peasants, they paid the pans numerous taxes from all sources of their income. Weak royal power was not able to protect the townspeople from the arbitrariness of the magnates and the gentry.
The plight of the Ukrainian people was exacerbated by the feudal anarchy that prevailed in the country. The peasants suffered not only from their lords, but also from the constant raids of "foreign" feudal lords. The incessant armed struggle between individual gentry groups ravaged Ukrainian villages and cities. He was especially famous for his predatory raids in the 30s and 40s of the 17th century. gentry Lasch. A contemporary wrote about Lashch that he "raped, killed, cut off ears and noses, took away girls and widows and married them off to his scoundrels, who participated in robberies with him." Lasch was sentenced to exile 236 times and to deprivation of honor 37 times, but the patronage of the magnate Konetspolsky ensured him complete impunity. Demonstrating this impunity, Lasch once appeared in the royal palace in a fur coat hemmed with court verdicts.
The feudal exploitation of the Ukrainian people was intensified by national and religious oppression. In some large cities, for example, in Lviv, Ukrainians were denied access to workshops, they were restricted in trade, they were deprived of the right to participate in the city court and self-government, build houses in the city center, etc. The official language in Ukraine was Polish. The pans rudely violated local customs.
In their offensive against the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples, the Polish feudal lords relied on militant Catholic circles. The Catholic clergy, headed by the Pope, not only supported, but also inspired the policy of assimilation and catholicization of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. One of the most important tasks of the policy of the papacy and the ruling class of the Commonwealth was the planting of Catholicism among the Ukrainian and Belarusian population. For this purpose, the union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches was introduced. The Uniate Church received the right to conduct church services in the Slavic language, but recognized the Pope as the head of the church and accepted Catholic dogmas, becoming subordinate to the Roman Church. Therefore, the union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches, proclaimed at the Brest Cathedral in 1596, became a means of enslaving the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples by the Polish feudal lords. Ukrainians in the cities were obstructed in performing Orthodox religious rites, they were forbidden to build Orthodox churches, and the entire population was forced to pay tithes for the upkeep of priests and churches.
The predatory invasions of the Tatar detachments were a constant threat to the Ukrainian people. Crimean Tatars from year to year raided Ukraine, devastating its villages and cities. Scenes full of drama played out in the slave bazaars of Istanbul and other Turkish cities, where “yasir” was sold - prisoners captured by predatory nomads during their raids on the outskirts of Russia and Ukraine.
The Commonwealth weakly guarded the southern borders of the state and did not know how to organize a real rebuff to the Tatar-Turkish aggression. While the southern borders of Russia were protected by fortified lines with guards and observation posts, the Ukrainian lands remained almost open to attack by nomads.
The domination of the Polish lords and the incessant attacks of the Turkish-Tatar hordes threatened the very existence of the Ukrainian people, hindered the growth of the country's productive forces, and created a mortal danger for Ukrainian culture.
The policy of social and national-religious oppression of the population of Ukraine, pursued by the Polish magnates and gentry, met with a decisive rebuff from the Ukrainian peasants, philistines and Cossacks. The struggle of the Ukrainian people against social oppression was manifested in the refusal to perform duties, the arson of the lord's estates, the mass exodus to the lands of the Southern Kiev region, Bratslavshingl and Podolia, as well as to the lower reaches of the Dnieper.
The population that settled here - mostly Ukrainians, but also Belarusians, Russians, Poles, Lithuanians - opposed the Polish magnates, the Catholic Church and fought against the Tatar raids. In the conditions of this struggle as early as the beginning of the 16th century. Ukrainian Cossacks began to take shape, and in the middle of the XVI century. on the Dnieper islands, located below the rapids, the Zaporozhian Sich arose. Already at the end of the XVI century. and especially in the first half of the seventeenth century. The Sich did not actually recognize the power of Poland. Not only the population of the Dnieper region was guided by the Sich, but also all layers and groups of Ukrainian society that suffered from class and national oppression. The Sich maintained constant ties with Russia, with the Don Cossacks, and often organized military campaigns against the Crimean Khanate and Turkey against the will of the Polish government.
Socially, the Cossacks were not homogeneous. Its top was made up of senior Cossacks, or foreman. They owned land in the Kiev region, Bratslav region, Poltava region, exploited the poor Cossacks and peasants, and were engaged in usury. Senior Cossacks were usually elected to command positions, and, using their influence, they sought re-election. From among these Cossacks came out many small and medium-sized Ukrainian gentry. The overwhelming mass of the Cossacks, not included in a special list (register) and constantly replenished by fugitive peasants and townspeople, was the most active force in the struggle against feudal serf oppression.
Ukrainian cities also took part in this struggle. Among the urban population, special brotherhoods arose, for example, in Kyiv, Lvov and other cities. Formally, these brotherhoods were associations of a church-educational nature, but in essence they played the role of a kind of centers of the national liberation struggle. The brotherhoods had their own printing houses, published textbooks and journalistic works directed against Catholicism and the union. Thus, the liberation movement in Ukraine embraced various strata of the Ukrainian people and took on the most diverse forms.
The resistance of the Ukrainian people to the onslaught of the Polish-Lithuanian feudal lords, as well as to the offensive of the Catholic and Uniate churches, intensified at the end of the 16th and in the first half of the 17th century, when uprisings of peasants, Cossacks and philistines flared up one after another in Ukraine. The preponderance of forces during this period was on the side of the magnate-gentry of the Commonwealth, which managed to drown the popular uprisings in blood. However, despite the cruel reprisals of the pans, the struggle of the masses of the Ukraine did not stop. In 1648-1654. it resulted in a broad liberation war headed by the outstanding statesman and commander Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bogdan Khmelnitsky was widely known to the Ukrainian people long before the start of the liberation war. For his time, he was an educated person, knew several languages, was well acquainted with the history of his people, as well as with the history of neighboring peoples. A native of the small Ukrainian gentry, Khmelnitsky, starting from the 20s of the 17th century. took part in campaigns against the Crimean Tatars and in the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people, in particular in the peasant-Cossack uprisings of 1637-1638. Khmelnytsky's life path, full of anxieties and unrest, contributed to the development in his character of such traits as will, perseverance, courage and courage. “In behavior,” wrote the Venetian Vimina, “he is soft and simple, and this causes the love of the Cossacks, but, on the other hand, he maintains discipline among them with severe punishments.” The pans knew that Khmelnitsky, according to the same Vimina, “was a follower of the rebels Ostryanin and Guni, a participant in the cause for which the leaders themselves paid with their heads, and he escaped the deserved punishment.” Participation in these uprisings did not pass, however, without a trace for Khmelnitsky. In 1638, he was deprived of the position of a military clerk and became a simple Chigirinsky centurion.
Knowing well the mood of the Ukrainian people after the defeat of the uprisings of 1637-1638, Khmelnytsky was sure that the national liberation struggle would continue. This is clearly evidenced by the words of Khmelnytsky, spoken by him to Hetman Konetspolsky in 1639 during an inspection of the Kodak fortress, which was considered the stronghold of Polish domination over Ukraine. When Koniecpolsky pointed to the Kodak as a kind of symbol of this domination, Khmelnytsky declared: "Everything created by the hand can be destroyed by the hand."
The Polish lords, frightened by the recent peasant-Cossack uprisings, watched Khmelnitsky's activities with alarm. Even during these years, the Polish authorities repeatedly sent assassins to him. Later, he became a victim of tyranny of the lords: the Polish gentry Chaplinsky, during the absence of Khmelnitsky, plundered his farm Subbotov, killed his infant son with batogs and took his wife away.
The terrorist actions of the nobility hastened the implementation of those plans that Khmelnytsky had long hatched and which met the aspirations of the broadest sections of the Ukrainian people. When the cup of patience overflowed and the people rose to fight, Khmelnitsky acted as the organizer and leader of his military forces.
At the end of 1647, Khmelnitsky, at the head of a small detachment, headed for the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Replenished by numerous detachments of runaway peasants and Cossacks, Khmelnitsky's army grew rapidly. Already in January 1648, Khmelnytsky's detachments forced the Polish garrison, located in the area of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, to capitulate. Soon Khmelnytsky was proclaimed the hetman of the Zaporozhye Host. His calls for expanding the struggle against foreign domination found wide support among the working masses of the Ukrainian people.
The victories of the Ukrainian troops near Zhovti Vody, near Korsun and Pylyavtsy
The development of the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people proceeded in very difficult foreign policy conditions. Even when developing plans for the uprising, Khmelnytsky believed that the Ukrainian people had the only true ally in the person of the Russian people and that the goal of the struggle was the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. At the same time, Khmelnytsky knew that Russia could not provide him with military support and that in the first stage of the war he would have to rely only on the armed forces of the Ukrainian people. In an effort to protect his rear from Tatar-Turkish raids and to prevent, at least for the near future, the possibility of collusion between the Polish and Crimean feudal lords, Khmelnitsky embarked on the path of negotiations with the Crimean Khan.
The agreement with the Crimea, concluded at the beginning of 1648, had not only military, but also political significance. Khmelnitsky was well aware that the Crimean Khan was an unreliable and temporary ally, interested only in military booty and in the general weakening of all his northern neighbors. Nevertheless, he was forced and considered it necessary to maintain allied relations with the Crimea until Russian state will not be able to provide Ukraine with direct armed assistance.
Meanwhile, the uprising in the Dnieper region was growing. In March, Crown Hetman Nikolai Pototsky reported to the king that the flames had already flared up there, “that there was not a single village, not a single city in which calls for self-will were not heard and where they did not plot on the life and property of their lords and tenants ". In Poland, it was well understood that the matter would not be limited to the performance of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. Pototsky noted with concern that Khmelnytsky and the Cossacks raised an uprising "in a conspiracy with all the Cossack regiments and all of Ukraine." Polish magnates and lords tried to nip in the bud the liberation movement that was beginning. The crown hetman led the punitive troops sent to Ukraine.
On May 6, 1648, Khmelnytsky completely destroyed the vanguard of the Polish army at Zhovti Vody. After 10 days, a major battle took place near Korsun, in which Khmelnitsky proved to be an outstanding commander. Having information about the route of the Polish gentry troops, the Ukrainian hetman chose the place of the battle in advance and occupied the possible routes of retreat of the enemy. Clamped in pincers, the Polish-gentry army was completely defeated after a few hours of battle. The winners got all the enemy artillery. Pototsky, intending to “decorate the holy cross, as well as the glorious name of royal favor with a victorious laurel, by defeating the enemy,” was himself taken prisoner.
As a result of the victories at Zhovti Vody and near Korsun, a significant part of Ukraine was liberated. The large military losses of the Commonwealth favored the further development of the uprising, which embraced new layers of the Ukrainian peasantry, Cossacks and philistines. Peasant and Cossack detachments arose everywhere; the peasants "turned out" in masses. The rebels occupied cities and lord's estates, destroyed the remnants of government and magnate troops. A liberation movement began in Belarus as well. The Cossack detachments sent by Khmelnitsky to Byelorussia played an important role in developing the struggle of the Byelorussian people. Thus, the uprising of 1648 grew into a liberation war of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples against cruel feudal and national oppression.
In the course of this struggle, a wide bloc of various social forces was formed, united by the common task of liberating Ukraine. The main and decisive force in the war was the oppressed peasantry, which fought against foreign enslavement and opposed exploitation by magnates and gentry. At the same time, wide sections of the Cossacks, as well as the urban population - medium and small merchants, craftsmen, apprentices and students took part in the liberation war. The Ukrainian petty gentry did not remain aloof from the struggle, linking their plans to liquidate large magnate land ownership in Ukraine, strengthen their economic and political positions and eliminate the influence of the Catholic Church with the success of the uprising. Only participation in the war of liberation and the seizure of leadership positions could the Ukrainian gentry retain influence among the population in order to further strengthen the feudal-serf order in their class interests. The Ukrainian Orthodox clergy also joined the movement. The social contradictions that existed in the camp of the Ukrainian liberation movement temporarily receded into the background. Although in the further course of the struggle these contradictions aggravated and became more and more noticeable, they still did not lead to the disintegration of the existing bloc of forces fighting for the liberation of Ukraine.
The liberation war of the Ukrainian people was at the same time a struggle for the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. Expressing the will of the Ukrainian people and fulfilling the decision of the military Rada convened near Korsun, which unanimously called for reunification with Russia, Khmelnytsky already in 1648 raised this issue with the Russian government. In his appeal to the tsar in June of this year, he wrote: “Zichili Bikhmo (we wished. - Ed.) Yourself an autocrat of such a ruler in his land, like your royal greatness is an Orthodox Khrestian tsar ...”.
The Ukrainians who arrived in Moscow declared the nationwide desire of Ukraine to reunite with Russia, and the Russian people who came to Ukraine at that time were also convinced of this.
The liberation war of the Ukrainian people and their desire to reunite with Russia met with warm approval in Moscow as well. However, the tsarist government could not at that time satisfy the request of the Ukrainian people for reunification. This act would have caused an immediate war with Poland, for which Russia, weakened by the unsuccessful Smolensk War of 1632-1634, was not yet ready. In addition, the Russian government, frightened by the anti-feudal uprisings taking place at that time inside the country, was afraid of sending troops to the front to weaken the garrisons of Moscow and other cities. Postponing the solution of the issue of reunification and war with Poland until a more favorable time, it provided Ukrainians with food, weapons, and money.
Relying on this support, Khmelnitsky during the summer of 1648 achieved great success in the formation of a combat-ready army. At the same time, the hetman did not forget about the complex foreign policy environment of Ukraine and constantly followed the internal political struggle in the Commonwealth itself. The death of King Vladislav IV and the subsequent kinglessness aggravated internal strife in the camp of the Polish magnates. In connection with the difficulties of forming large armed forces for the war in Ukraine, supporters of the bloodless suppression of the Ukrainian liberation movement appeared in the ruling circles of the Commonwealth. E. Ossolinsky and A. Kisel, who headed this “peaceful” party, considered the tactics of merciless use of weapons, which was followed by the majority of the owners of Ukrainian latifundia, headed by I. Vyshnevetsky and A. Konetspolsky, to be untimely. Along with minor concessions to the Ukrainian gentry and wealthy Cossacks, they hoped to split the camp of the rebels and only then crush the movement.
Knowing about the disagreements among the lords, Khmelnitsky in the summer of 1648 began negotiations with the Polish government. By this time, however, supporters of the merciless suppression of the uprising had gained the upper hand, and a 40,000-strong army was hastily formed in Poland, led by magnates D. Zaslavsky, N. Ostrorog and A. Konetspolsky. Ironically over the effeminacy of Zaslavsky, the inexperience of the young Konetspolsky and the erudition of Ostrorog, Bogdan Khmelnitsky called this Polish "triumvirate" - "feather bed, dytyn and Latin".
The Polish-gentry and peasant-Cossack armies met near Pilyavtsy, not far from Starokonstantinov (South Volyn). The battle broke up into a series of skirmishes and lasted several days. The decisive battle was on September 13, 1648; which ended with the complete defeat of the Polish-gentry troops. The Ukrainian army captured rich trophies. The remnants of the enemy troops sought salvation in a stampede ("pilyavchiki", as the people of the gentry who fled from the field contemptuously called, overcame 300 miles in three days of flight). The victory at Pilyavtsy contributed to the development of the liberation movement in Western Ukraine, Volhynia, and also in Belarus, where the rebels captured such large centers as Iindk, Turov, Mozyr, Gomel, Bobruisk, and Brest. Together with the Belarusian people, detachments of Cossacks who came from Ukraine fought under the leadership of Anton Nebaba, Mikhnenko, Krivoshapka and others. However, the struggle in Belarus was less organized than in Ukraine. This made it possible for the Polish troops to capture the heroically defended Pinsk, and at the beginning of 1649 to capture Turov, Mozyr and Bobruisk.
Despite these failures, the struggle of the Belarusian people contributed to the success of the liberation war in Ukraine. The rebellious Belarusians pinned down the significant forces of the Commonwealth and thus secured the flank and rear of the Ukrainian people's army at the moment when it advanced far to the west.
Pursuing the retreating enemy, by the end of September 1648 the people's liberation army approached the walls of Lviv, and then Zamosc. Approximation Ukrainian army to the Polish lands proper was accompanied by the rise of the anti-feudal peasant-plebeian movement in Poland itself. Having suffered a series of heavy defeats, many Polish feudal lords began to incline towards a truce.
At the same time, a difficult situation arose in the Ukrainian army besieging Zamosc. By November 1648, a shortage of food and ammunition began to be felt, and an epidemic of plague spread. Therefore, Khmelnytsky agreed to start peace negotiations. Having sent the bulk of the rebels home, the hetman arrived in Kyiv in December, where he was solemnly welcomed by the population.
The course of the liberation war in 1649 - early 1651
Khmelnytsky understood that a truce could not be strong and lasting. In winter, the hetman energetically prepared for the resumption of hostilities. In January 1649, he sent Muzhilovsky's embassy to Moscow with a request to accept Ukraine into the Russian state and with a proposal for joint military operations against the Commonwealth. The Russian government at this stage of the struggle of the Ukrainian people did not object to the participation in it of the "sovereign people" - the Don Cossacks. It began to openly accept Ukrainian migrants to border territories. The tsarist government provided significant diplomatic assistance to Khmelnytsky not only by the very fact of his recognition, but also by protecting the interests of Ukraine in negotiations with the Crimean Khanate and Poland.
Attempts by the Polish government (in February 1649) to persuade Khmelnytsky to their side did not produce results, and hostilities resumed. In the battle near Zboriv, the Polish army was defeated. However, Khmelnytsky could not take advantage of the results of this victory, since the treacherous mediation of the Crimean Khan imposed on him the unfavorable Zboriv Treaty with the Commonwealth.
According to this agreement, concluded on August 8, 1649, the power of the Polish feudal lords in the Kiev, Chernihiv and Bratslav voivodships was limited: only representatives of the Ukrainian gentry, Cossack elders and burghers could occupy administrative posts in them. The number of registered Cossacks was increased to 40 thousand. By temporary concessions to the Ukrainian foreman, the Polish pans hoped to split the rebels and thereby prepare the conditions for the full restoration of their power over Ukraine.
The Ukrainian people did not want to put up with the terms of the Zboriv Treaty. However, magnates and gentry were not going to fulfill it either. The peasants who returned from the army “were tormented and beaten and boasted: it will be for yours and Khmelnitsky, give us some justice.” It was clear that the Polish feudal lords would resume the armed struggle if the opportunity arose. Therefore, one of the most important tasks of the Ukrainian people was to strengthen their armed forces. A contemporary noted significant progress in this direction: “And with a gun, the army is filled with everything. Some have a fiery battle, while others have archery, and with cues de, as it used to be, now there is no one in the army. The Ukrainian foreman did not waste time either. On the liberated territory, a new military-administrative and judicial apparatus was created, headed by the Ukrainian gentry and the Cossack officers. Local authorities, as well as central institutions under Hetman Khmelnytsky, sought to restore the feudal serfdom, which had been undermined by the war of liberation.
At the same time, the hetman increasingly energetically raised the issue of closer cooperation with Russia, and the exchange of embassies began to take place more often. In an effort to prevent further rapprochement between Ukraine and Russia, the government of the Commonwealth decided to resume hostilities. The war began with a treacherous attack by Polish troops on the Cossack detachment of Nechai, who was stationed in the village of Krasnoe. Then Vinnitsa, where the detachment of Bohun was located, was attacked.
The Polish gentry regiments advancing deep into the Ukraine felt, however, insecure. They were frightened not only by the prospect of a general battle with the Ukrainian-Cossack army, but also by the extremely tense situation that they left behind them in Poland itself.
The rise of the anti-feudal movement in Poland
Under the direct influence of the liberation war of the Ukrainian people in 1651, an upsurge in the anti-feudal struggle of the Polish peasantry took place. The flame of the peasant-plebeian movement spread to Mazovia - the regions of Shrensk, Tsekhanov, Ruzhan, Vizna, Vyshkov, to the Sieradz Voivodeship - the regions of Petrokov and Volbozh.
It took on the largest scale in the Krakow Voivodeship. In June 1651, Kostka Napersky, who led the movement of peasants, took possession of the Czorsztyn castle. This performance was immediately supported by the rural population of Podhale, as well as the districts close to Krakow. The rebels smashed the gentry's estates. In the universal (appeal), Napersky called on the peasants: “Free yourselves from this heavy bondage, before it's too late. Before they (i.e., pans. - Ed.) completely destroy you, it’s better that you destroy them all. Napersny had expansion plans peasant uprising to other regions of Poland, he wrote: "We will all go near Krakow and further through all of Poland."
Napersky in his agitation used Khmelnytsky's universals, referred to the example of the struggle of the Ukrainian people, spoke about the common goals of the Polish and Ukrainian masses. In all this, the presence of common anti-feudal interests among the Polish and Ukrainian peoples was manifested.
Frightened by the scope of the liberation movement in Ukraine, the pans hurried to liquidate the uprising of the Polish peasants. The bishop of Krakow managed to gather troops and deal with the rebels.
Military operations in Ukraine in 1651-1653.
Having suppressed the peasant movement in Poland, the lords began to carry out the military campaign that had begun in the spring in the Ukraine even more energetically. Their armed forces met with the army of Khmelnytsky and the troops of the Crimean Khan in Volyn, near Berestechko. Here, on June 18-20, the largest battle of the campaign of 1651 was played out. At the decisive moment of the battle, the Tatar Khan changed, giving the order to his troops to retreat. Khmelnitsky, who had gone to the Khan's headquarters for negotiations, was detained by him. Khan's betrayal dramatically changed the course of the battle. The superior forces of the Polish-gentry troops pressed the Ukrainian troops to the swamp. At the cost of heavy losses, Bohun, who took command, managed to withdraw the troops from the encirclement and save them from complete defeat. But the defeat at Berestechko forced Khmelnytsky to sign a very unfavorable treaty with the Commonwealth on September 18 in Bila Tserkva.
According to the Bila Tserkva Treaty, only the Kiev Voivodeship retained its special rights. The Cossack registry was reduced from 40 thousand to 20 thousand. The gentry got the opportunity to return to their estates, including in the Kiev province. The Bila Tserkva agreement, even less than the Zboriv agreement, met the interests of the Ukrainian people, but the ruling circles of Poland were not satisfied with it either, since they failed to fully restore the regime that existed before 1648 in Ukraine.
Preparing for the inevitable new war against the Commonwealth, Khmelnitsky had to restore allied relations with the Crimea in order to secure his rear from the attack of the Tatars. At the same time, he sought to renew the allied relations with Moldavia that existed before the Battle of Berestech.
With this latter goal in mind, in the spring of 1652 the hetman sent a detachment to Moldavia headed by his son Timosh. Upon learning of this, the command of the Polish-gentry troops decided to violate the agreement with Khmelnitsky and suddenly attack Timosh's detachment. But the intentions of Hetman Martyn Kalinovsky became known to Khmelnitsky, and he, with all his army, moved after his son's detachment. On May 22, 1652, in the battle near Batog, Ukrainian troops inflicted a heavy defeat on the enemy. The victory at Batog postponed the danger of a new general offensive by enemy troops. After this victory, allied relations between the Moldavian ruler and Khmelnitsky were restored. Ukraine, like the Russian state, received additional time to build up forces for the upcoming struggle.
But the Polish lords, realizing this, acted very energetically and without the usual delays. In the summer of 1652, the Seim decided to create a 50,000-strong mercenary army, partly from Landsknecht mercenaries, and already in March of the following year, the Polish-Lithuanian army under the command of an experienced commander Stefan Czarniecki began active operations in Ukraine. fighting. The 15,000th army invaded the Bratslav region. Here she was met by Cossack units under the command of Bohun, who managed to wear down the enemy and eventually put him to flight.
In the autumn of 1653, a large Polish-gentry army moved to Ukraine. Having smaller forces, Khmelnytsky carried out the tactics of guerrilla warfare for some time, and then, when the enemy forces were weakened, he surrounded him in the Zhvanets area. Here he intended to give pitched battle, but the betrayal of the Crimean Khan again confused his plans. Islam Giray entered into separate negotiations with Jan Casimir, offering him to conclude a truce. Under Zhvanets, an agreement was signed that restored the situation in Ukraine, fixed by the Zboriv Treaty of 1649. Naturally, both parties could not consider this agreement as final. The renewal of the struggle was inevitable.
Zemsky Sobor in 1653
By the end of the sixth year of the liberation war, the forces of the Ukrainian people were strained to the extreme. As a result of continuous battles with Polish troops and treacherous raids by the Crimean Tatars, entire regions of Ukraine were devastated.
Despite the defeat of the Commonwealth, the threat from her side did not weaken. An alliance with the Crimean Khan became more and more dangerous for the Ukrainian people. Having played on early stages its role, this union in the future less and less justified itself. At the most decisive moments of the war, the Crimean Khan entered into an agreement with the Polish feudal lords. It became obvious that the Ukrainian people under these conditions could either fall under the rule of the Turkish-Tatar conquerors, or again be subject to the magnate-gentry of the Commonwealth.
The Ukrainian people could secure the possibility of further economic and cultural development only by becoming part of the Russian state, in conjunction with the Russian people, close in language and culture, in common historical traditions and long-standing economic ties. Only the Russian state could provide Ukraine effective protection from foreign invaders. By the end of the sixth year of the liberation war, the preparations for the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, which had been carried out all this time, entered a decisive phase.
The Russian government during 1653 was completing military and diplomatic preparations for the active defense of Ukraine. A Russian embassy was sent to Poland, which became convinced that the Polish government was still striving with an armed hand to restore the order that existed before 1648 in Ukraine.
The Zemsky Sobor, which met in Moscow in the autumn of 1653, unanimously approved the proposed reunification of Ukraine with Russia. In the decision of the council (October 1, 1653), on behalf of the tsar, it was written: "... Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky and all the Zaporizhzhya Army with their cities and lands should be taken under their sovereign high hand ...". A few days later, Moscow solemnly announced the upcoming war with the Commonwealth for the liberation of Ukraine and Belarus. In the autumn of 1653, a large embassy headed by the boyar V. V. Buturlin set off from Moscow to Ukraine. The Ukrainian people along the entire route of the embassy cordially welcomed the Russian representatives, meeting them with bread and salt.
Pereyaslav Rada
Buturlin arrived in Pereyaslav. The Ukrainian hetman convened the Rada on January 8, 1654. This Rada differed from the usual foremen's or military glads in that it was declared "obvious to all the people", that is, open. It was attended by Cossacks, peasants, artisans, urban poor, merchants, Cossack foremen, representatives of the Orthodox clergy and small Ukrainian gentry who arrived from everywhere - "a great multitude of all kinds of ranks of people."
Opening the Rada, Khmelnytsky addressed the assembled people with a speech in which he recalled the "continuous warfare and bloodshed" that had been devastating the Ukrainian land for six years. The hetman further described the extremely difficult situation of those peoples who were under the Turkish yoke, spoke bitterly about the suffering inflicted on the Ukrainian people by the Tatar raids, said that “unbearable troubles took us” from the Tatar hordes, with whom “out of necessity” I had to conclude union. He also reminded the audience of the suffering that the Ukrainian people endured under the rule of the Polish enslavers.
At the end of his speech, Khmelnytsky said that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, whom "we have been asking ourselves for six years without ceasing prayers to ourselves," sent an embassy to the Ukrainian people and called for unity with the fraternal Russian people.
Representatives of the Ukrainian people met this appeal of the hetman with unanimous exclamations: "May we all be one forever!" Contemporaries noted that this historic decision of the Pereyaslav Rada met with universal approval in Ukraine: "There was a lot of joy between the people." "Across all Ukraine, hang the people with a desire to do this."
In February 1654, an embassy of representatives of the highest Cossack officers was sent to Moscow to negotiate the conditions for Ukraine's entry into the Russian state. The results of the negotiations found expression in the so-called Articles of Bohdan Khmelnitsky and letters of commendation from the Russian government. This is how the reunification of Ukraine with Russia took place.
This act radically changed the political situation in Eastern Europe: a long war began between Russia and the Commonwealth for Ukraine and Belarus (1654-1667), in which the Crimea took the side of Poland.
The historical significance of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia
On the basis of an agreement in 1654, the tsarist government began to exercise supreme power over Ukraine. The direct control of the Cossack army and administration remained with the elected hetman, the election of all officials, military administrative and judicial bodies, as well as city self-government, was preserved. The Ukrainian gentry and Cossack foremen, Orthodox monasteries and the elite of the townspeople retained the rights to the land.
The liberation war of the popular masses of Ukraine only temporarily shook the feudal-serf system. The administrative apparatus, already created during the war, in the center and locally, energetically defended feudal property and class privileges of the Ukrainian gentry. The continuous growth of landownership of Ukrainian feudal lords occurred due to the grants of "mayets" (estates) that previously belonged to Polish magnates, as well as through the seizure of land by peasants and ordinary Cossacks. Relying on the support of the tsarist government, Khmelnitsky and his successors demanded from the peasants "sounding obedience" to their feudal lords. The expelled Polish feudal lords were thus replaced by the Ukrainian nobility.
The desire of the Ukrainian feudal lords to restore the former size of feudal duties met with fierce resistance from the peasantry and the urban lower classes. 50-60s of the XVII century. marked by numerous outbreaks of popular uprisings. The anti-feudal struggle of the peasants, townspeople and ordinary Cossacks was intertwined with the struggle against the attempts of part of the foreman to tear Ukraine away from Russia and. return it to the Polish lords or transfer it to the Turkish feudal lords.
After the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1657), Ivan Vyhovsky became the Ukrainian hetman. He represented that group of Cossack foremen who believed that pan-Poland was better than royal Russia, will secure its class interests. Vyhovsky signed the Treaty of Gadyach with Poland (1658), according to which Ukraine was to return under the yoke of the Polish lords. When the hetman discovered that a weakened Poland could not implement this agreement, he committed a second treacherous act against the Ukrainian people - he began negotiations with Turkey on accepting Ukraine into its citizenship. Decisive actions of the masses forced Vyhovsky to flee to Poland. The son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Yuri, was elected hetman, who later turned out to be an obedient tool in the hands of a foreman who was oriented towards Poland.
Neither Yury Khmelnytsky's entourage nor the hetman's successors succeeded in carrying out their plans. Every time when the traitors of the Ukrainian people tried to tear Ukraine away from Russia, the working people of Ukraine rose up with weapons in their hands against the traitors.
The tsarist government closely watched the activities of the Cossack officers and from year to year strengthened its position in Ukraine. Tsarism gradually limited the autonomy and political privileges of the Ukrainian elders. Without a royal decree, the foreman could not re-elect the hetman, and the hetman lost the right to appoint and dismiss the foreman and colonels without the knowledge of the Rada. In the management of Ukraine, the Little Russian order created in Moscow (1663) became increasingly important. The activities of the local administration were placed under the control of the tsarist governors. The governors received the right to collect taxes from the Ukrainian population. Soon after the reunification, Russian troops were deployed in all the largest cities of Ukraine: Kyiv, Chernigov, Nizhyn, Poltava, etc.
At the same time, tsarism defended the class interests of the Ukrainian gentry and elders, helped them to crack down on the anti-feudal uprisings of the masses. In 1666, for example, the tsarist government sent an army to help the foreman to suppress the uprising of the Cossacks of the Pereyaslavsky regiment.
The reunification of Ukraine with Russia was of great progressive significance for the historical destinies of both peoples. The Ukrainian people were spared from being enslaved by Pan Poland, being swallowed up by Sultan Turkey, and being ravaged by the hordes of the Crimean Khan. From now on Russians and Ukrainians joint forces began to fight against foreign invaders. The reunification of Ukraine with Russia contributed to the strengthening Russian state and the rise of its international prestige.
The entry of Ukraine into Russia created more favorable conditions for the socio-economic and cultural development of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine joined the emerging all-Russian market. Ukrainian merchants sold wool, leather, livestock, and spirits in the central regions of Russia. Saltpeter, used for the production of gunpowder, was an important article of Ukrainian trade. At numerous Ukrainian fairs, Russian merchants sold salt, iron products, and furs. Strengthening economic ties with Russia contributed to the growth of Ukrainian cities and the spread of potash, iron, flour and other crafts.
In 1659 Poland and Lithuania concluded Union of Lublin and merged into one state - Commonwealth(in Polish "republic"). The Ukrainian gentry, which had long been attracted by the privileges of the Polish, helped them seize Ukrainian lands. Without state support, the Orthodox Church in Ukraine fell into decay. Because of the threat of a Muslim invasion, the Christians decided to unite. But the then stronger Catholics considered the union only as a means of absorbing Orthodoxy. Union of Brest formed the Greek Catholic Uniate) church. Most of the Orthodox were opposed to Uniatism. To protect their faith and culture, the Lvov philistines formed Brotherhood. Instead of a single one, three Christian churches were formed, which contributed to the split of the Ukrainian people. obsolete Ukrainian education it was difficult to compete with the Polish, connected with the front line European culture the Renaissance. therefore, the Ukrainian gentry sent their children to prestigious Catholic schools, from where they came out Polonized. In the XVI century. Ukrainians lost their elite, which became a tragedy of their further history. After the discovery of America, food prices rose sharply. The gentry enslaves the peasants, brings the panshchina to 5-7 days a week and forms farms. The money received was spent on entertainment or invested in the Polish economy. Ukraine has become a raw material appendage of Poland and a backward region of Europe.
The emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
Word "Cossack" means "a free man, a loner." Appeared Ukrainian Cossacks in the North. The Black Sea region, located between the Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate and Muscovy. These rich neutral lands have long attracted brave, self-willed people. Adventurers, driven out by organized society, also appeared here. Life in this fertile land was on the verge of mortal risk. Because of the constant threat of raids, the Cossacks were engaged in crafts - hunting, horse breeding, salt making. But the main source of their income was "cossacking" - the capture of booty. The political center of the Cossacks was Zaporizhzhya Sich. It was a log fortification located on one of the Dnieper islands. All power was in the general meeting of the Cossacks - Rada. executive power belonged to the elected ataman and foreman. To emphasize the dependence of the ataman on the will of the Cossacks, at the time of his election, his head was smeared with mud. Democracy of the Sich is a classic ochlocracy (crowd power) dangerous for the strengthening of the state. Since the time of the Scythians, the rite of brotherhood has been preserved. During the Rada, they carried out to the square kleinods(symbols of power) - gonfalon, bunchuk, mace, etc. The territory of the Sich consisted of 8 palanok(regions), including Kalmius (on the site of Mariupol stood the Cossack fortress of Domakh).
The struggle of the Cossacks against the Turkish-Tatar aggression.
In 1449, the Crimean Khanate was formed, which became dependent on the Ottoman Empire. Like all nomads, the Tatars lived by capturing booty. The Ukrainian lands became the main object of their aggression. In 1450-1556, Ukraine was subjected to predatory raids 86 times. This was facilitated by religious hostility, which weakened the Commonwealth. The Tatars had 100,000 cavalry and the Polish troops could not defend Ukraine. Therefore, the Cossacks were forced to fight the Tatars on their own. Most of the campaigns they carried out by sea. The Cossacks collected flotillas of 40-80 "seagulls". In 1538 they destroyed the Turkish fortress of Ochakov, in 1606 they devastated Varna, in 1608 they captured Perekop, in 1614 they stormed Trebizond, and twice burned ships in the port of Istanbul. In 1616, the Cossacks defeated the center of the slave trade in Kafu and freed thousands of slaves. The legendary Cossack soldiers became famous during the campaigns. hetmans P. Sahaydachny, S. Kishka and others. In 1621, the Cossacks helped the Polish army near Khotyn. The victories made the Cossacks a national elite, and they became the defenders of Orthodoxy and Ukraine.
Cossack-peasant uprisings of the XVI-XVII centuries.
To protect its borders, the Polish government recruited part of the Cossacks, giving them privileges. In 1572, 300 Cossacks were recorded on a special list - registry. The rest of the Cossacks also wanted to legitimize their position, i.e. become registered. The desire of the nobility to destroy the Cossacks became the cause of the uprising in 1591-1593. under the leadership of K. Kosinsky. In 1594-1596. there is an uprising S. Nalivaiko. It covered almost the whole of Ukraine and the Polish government threw all its troops against it. The foreman betrayed Nalivaiko and he was executed. This caused the decline of the Cossacks, but Hetman P. Sahaydachny organized the Cossack army in a new way and strengthened its spirit. In 1625, after the uprising of M. Zhmailo, the register increased from 3 to 6 thousand. After the uprising of T. Tryasilo in 1630 - up to 8 thousand. But there were 40 thousand Cossacks and the uprisings continued. In 1635, the Cossacks of I.Sulima destroyed the Polish fortress of Kodak. The foreman betrayed Sulima and he was executed. In 1637 there was an uprising by P. But (Pavlyuk), and in 1638 an uprising by D. Guni and I Ostryanin. The uprisings were suppressed, and the register was reduced to 6 thousand. But each new uprising testified to the growth of experience and strength.
War of Liberation in the middle of the 17th century.
Causes of the war: social oppression (arbitrariness of the gentry); religious oppression (persecution of the Orthodox); national oppression (limitation of the rights of Ukrainians). Bogdan Khmelnitsky (1595-1657) was at the head of the War of Liberation. In February 1648, he captured the Sich and was elected hetman. He concluded an agreement with the Crimean Khanate. In May, the Cossacks and Tatars, with the support of registered Cossacks, defeated the Polish troops near Zhovti Vody and Korsun. The peasants without exception "showed themselves." The uprising developed into a war of liberation and gradually turned into a national revolution. The Commonwealth was on the verge of destruction. In September 1648, the militia of the gentry was defeated near Pilyavtsy. The Cossacks approached Poland, but the hetman signed a truce. At this time, the Cossacks fought only for the autonomy of the Sich. Terms Zboriv Treaty In 1649, three voivodships came under the authority of the hetman, and the register increased to 40,000. A Cossack state was formed - the Hetmanate. In the winter of 1651, the gentry violated the truce, but its offensive was stopped by the troops of I. Bohun. In June, the Cossacks were defeated near Berestechko. Bila Tserkva Treaty 1651 reduced the Hetmanate to one voivodeship, and the register to 20 thousand. In 1652 near Batog and in 1653 near Zhvanets, the Polish troops were defeated, but the Tatars did not allow them to be finished off. Hetman began to look for a new ally. In 1654 Pereyaslav Rada decides to conclude an agreement with Muscovy. "March Articles" granted the Cossacks significant privileges. In 1654-1656. Cossack-Moscow troops again approached Poland. But the tsar, whom the Poles had promised to elect as king, concluded a truce with them. Then the hetman concludes a new agreement with Sweden and Semigradie. But after the failure of the campaign of 1657 B. Khmelnitsky dies and Ukraine is again at a crossroads.
Hetmanate in the second half. 17th century Ruin.
To strengthen the central power, B. Khmelnytsky appointed his son, Yuri, as hetman. Convinced of his weakness, the foreman chooses I. Vyhovsky (1657-1659) as hetman. He concludes Gadyach Treaty according to which Ukraine could become an equal part of the Commonwealth. The supposedly pro-Polish policy of Vyhovsky caused an uprising of part of the Cossacks and the invasion of the Moscow army. And although it was defeated, and the uprising was suppressed, the position of the hetman became hopeless, and he abdicated. The foreman again chooses Y. Khmelnitsky (1659-1663) as hetman. Moscow forced him to sign an agreement on the limitation of autonomy, and he also renounced. Ukraine was divided into Left and Right Bank with states of the opposite orientation: pro-Moscow and pro-Polish. Between them in 1663-1687. there was a long civil war Ruin. Polish-Moscow Andrusovo truce 1667 sealed the division of Ukraine, and was its political disaster. Hetman P. Doroshenko (1665-1676) managed to unite Ukraine for a while, but his capitulation meant the defeat of the War of Liberation. In the wars of the ruins, up to 70% of the population of Ukraine died - (3-3.5 million people out of 5).
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In accordance with the Union of Lublin in 1569, most of the Ukrainian lands came under the rule of the Commonwealth. The forcible Polonization of the Ukrainian people began. Polish laws, language, manners and customs were imposed everywhere. The Polish gentry rushed to the vast and fertile regions of Little Rus'. The territory of Ukraine was divided into voivodeships headed by Polish governors. Saunas of the city of voronezh all 223 saunas of voronezh.
The power of the Polish magnates and gentry assumed rude forms. The lands that were in the use of peasants, Cossacks, and philistines were captured by Polish magnates and gentry. Corvee reached 5-6 days a week. The peasants were turned into disenfranchised serfs, their property and life itself completely depended on the arbitrariness of the pan. The possessions of the Polish and Ukrainian magnates reached enormous proportions and turned into a state within a state.
The population of cities was also in a difficult situation. The Polish gentry, in addition to the lands, enjoyed monopolies in mills, breweries, concentrated crafts and trade in their hands.
The Catholic clergy set as their goal the accession of the Orthodox population to the Catholic Church. In 1596, a Church Council was held in Brest, at which a decision was made to unite the churches. The Polish government recognized the resolution of the Uniate Council as legal, the king issued a manifesto on the unification of the churches. Orthodoxy officially ceased to exist. Most of the Orthodox nobility of Ukraine adopted Catholicism and became Polonized. The ban on the Orthodox Church in Ukraine led to the division of Ukrainians into two camps, which marked the beginning of the differences that developed between Western and Eastern Ukrainians.
Thus, the heaviest feudal and national oppression established by the Polish feudal lords was the strongest brake on the economic and cultural development of Ukraine. The fundamental issue of the national existence of the Ukrainian people, the historical necessity for them was the liberation from the yoke of Poland.
In such conditions from the XVI century. The Ukrainian people rose up in a mass liberation struggle against foreign enslavers. Flight was one of the most widespread forms of protest by the peasantry against feudal oppression. They fled to the cities, populated the Dnieper region, the Left-Bank Ukraine. They fled south, into the steppe; here the fugitives united in detachments, were engaged in crafts: hunting, fishing, in the border areas the fugitives began to engage in agriculture, crafts, and trade. So the fugitives turned into Cossacks, that is, into free people.
"Cossack" - a word of Turkic origin, means "steppe robber", "free man". (source: Soviet Historical Encyclopedia, edited by E.M. Zhukov, M.-ed. "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1973, vol. 14, page 835).
The first information about the Ukrainian Cossacks dates back to 1480, when, according to the Polish chronicler M. Belsky, they accompanied the Polish army on a campaign against the Crimean Tatars. In the middle of the XVI century. the leader of the Cossacks - the headman Dmitry Vshinevetsky united the Cossacks. The Cossacks founded fortified settlements beyond the Dnieper rapids, which were called the Zaporozhian Sich.
The Zaporizhzhya Sich is a free military fraternity, headed by a kosh ataman. Each Cossack was obliged at his own expense to carry military service. Anyone who came voluntarily was accepted into the Sich, they did not ask who he was, how and how he had lived before, as long as he was not a Catholic or a Jew. Women were not allowed in the Sich. The Sich was continuously replenished with immigrants from Moscow Rus' and the Commonwealth. (source "Overview of Russian history", S.G. Pushkarev, St. Petersburg, 1999, ed. "Lan", p. 368).
Ivan the Terrible and the struggle to strengthen centralized power. Oprichnina
After the death of Vasily III in 1533, his three-year-old son Ivan IV took over the throne. In fact, the state was ruled by his mother Elena Glinskaya. Boyar rule led to a weakening of the central government, and the arbitrariness of the estates caused widespread discontent and open speeches in a number of Russian cities. In June 1547 in Moscow...
Concepts and ideas
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The general character of the political unification of the Eastern Slavs; autocracy of the Grand Duke until the middle of the 11th century.
The political unification of the Eastern Slavs, which took place at the end of the ninth and in the tenth century, as already indicated in its place, was at first purely external, devoid of internal cohesion. It was, in essence, a conglomeration of numerous urban and rural worlds under the supreme leadership of the Grand Duke of Russia. This connection could with t...
Ukrainian lands under the rule of Lithuania and Poland (XIV - mid-XVII centuries)
Plan.
1. Seizure of South Russian lands by neighboring feudal states.
2. Ukrainian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
3. Integration of Lithuania and Poland. Union of Lublin and its consequences for Ukraine.
4. The emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Zaporizhzhya Sich.
Seizure of South Russian lands by neighboring feudal states.
Military-political confrontation between Lithuania and Poland for Galicia and Volhynia. The socio-political processes that took place in the Ukrainian lands and bordering them in the 13th-14th centuries turned out to be devastating for the Galicia-Volyn principality. Deepening crisis phenomena in political life, deformation state structure, economic recession and depletion of economic forces by the devastating Mongol-Tatar yoke, continuous wars with aggressive neighboring countries gradually undermined the strength of the once powerful Galicia-Volyn state, caused the decline and fragmentation of its lands. Under these conditions, it became an easy prey for the aggressive encroachments of the neighboring states of Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Moldova.
The Lithuanian feudal lords were the first to take advantage of the decline of Ukrainian lands. After the death of Yuri II Boleslav in Volhynia and Galicia in 1340, Gediminas' son Lubart gained a foothold. The penetration of Lithuanians into the South Russian lands led to a 40-year military-political confrontation with Poland, which also claimed the Galicia-Volyn inheritance.
The aggressive policy towards Ukrainian lands was carried out by Poland. In 1340, King Casimir III, under the pretext of protecting the Catholics, entered Galicia with his army, received Lvov and robbed the princely palace. Having risen, the Galician boyars expelled the Poles, and their guide Dedko was recognized as the ruler of Galicia. For some time, two state formations arose in the expanses of the Galicia-Volyn principality: Volyn, headed by Lubart, and the oligarchic boyar autonomous republic in Galicia. The selfish policy of the boyar oligarchy, according to I. Kripyakevich, did not allow using the chance given by history to restore an independent Galicia-Volyn state, moreover, it led to its final destruction. in 1349, Casimir III attacks Galicia for the second time, captures the Galicia-Kholmsky and Peremishlsky principalities and proclaims himself "ruler of the Kingdom of Rus'."
Without renouncing the Galician land, Lithuania starts a war with Poland. In this long-term confrontation, the latter turned out to be stronger and in 1366 subjugated Galicia and part of Volhynia to its power, increasing its territories almost one and a half times at their expense.
After the death of Casimir III in 1370, Galicia, as a result of a dynastic agreement, came under the rule of Hungary. From 1372 to 1378, from 1385 to 1387, the rule in Galicia belonged to the vassal of the Hungarian king, the Silesian duke Volodislav of Opole, who pursued a course towards independence from Hungary, and even began to mint a coin in Lvov with the coat of arms of the Russian (Galician) Kingdom and with his own name. However, after the Union of Kreva (1385), Poland again gains strength and in 1387 finally annexes Galicia and part of Volyn (Kholmshchyna) to its possessions, keeping them under its rule until 1772. Formed in 1434 in the Galician lands, the Russian Voivodeship becomes a province of the Kingdom of Poland.
Weakened by the Golden Horde yoke, Ukrainian lands were captured by stronger European states: Hungary back in the 11th century. captured Transcarpathia; Lithuania by the 60-70s of the XIV century. annexed most of the Ukrainian lands (Volhynia, Left- and Right-bank Ukraine, Podolia) and held them until 1569; Poland in mid. XIV Art. captured Galicia, and from 1569 all Lithuanian possessions in Ukraine passed to it; Moldova in the XIV century. annexed Ukrainian Bukovina (in the 16th century, Moldova, together with Bukovina, became dependent on Turkey); Moscow state from the end of the 15th century. begins to move into the Ukrainian lands, capturing already in the con. XV Art. Chernihiv-Sivershchina (referring to the historical tradition, Moscow claims its rights to all Russian lands).
Most of the Ukrainian lands were at that time part of Lithuania and Poland, so the period was called the Lithuanian-Polish period.
Ukrainian lands within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Lithuanian principality formed in the thirteenth century. In the XIV century, under Prince Gediminas (1316-1341) and his sons Lubart and Olgerd (1345-1377), Lithuania acquired most of the Belarusian, Ukrainian, part of Russian lands. This is how the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formed, in which the Russian lands accounted for 9/10 of the territory.
Reasons for the rapid subjugation of Russian lands by Lithuania
The Russian lands were weakened by the Golden Horde yoke, which marked the beginning of the advance of the Lithuanians to Rus' and contributed to their success.
The population of the Russian lands preferred Lithuania over the Horde, and in the confrontation between these states, they took the side of Lithuania. In most cases, local princes and boyars voluntarily recognized the power of Lithuania. (Voluntarily recognized the power of Olgerd and the Kiev prince Fedor in 1362). Historians qualify Lithuania's advances into Russian lands not as a conquest, but as a "peaceful annexation", as a "quiet expansion".
The successful actions of Lithuania were facilitated by the weakening of the Horde and its split into warring parts as a result of feudal civil strife in the 1360s-1370s.
The policy of the great Lithuanian princes in the Ukrainian lands. Kreva and Horodelsk unions
The inclusion of Western and Southwestern Rus' to the possessions of the Principality of Lithuania made it the largest state of the then Europe. The Ukrainian lands, which became the property of the grand-ducal Gediminovich dynasty, made up 9/10 of the territory of the Lithuanian state, and the Rusyns that lived on it made up 90% of its population. The demographic disproportion and the powerful historical and cultural achievements of the Russians determined for some time the policy of the Lithuanians regarding the Ukrainian lands, which was based on the principle: "do not change the old and do not introduce the new." In the second half of the XIV century. Lithuanians adopted the traditions of the Ukrainian people in almost all areas public life: studied and mastered the experience of administration, housekeeping, establishing a tax system, etc. The source of law in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was Russkaya Pravda, the official language was Old Russian, and the dominant and state religion was Orthodox Christianity. Ukrainian princes and boyars had their seats in the grand ducal council and in the central and local administration. The traditional Ukrainian character was preserved by large cities: the power in them belonged to the city patriciate, management was carried out in Russian, the internal guild structure was also organized in the Ukrainian manner.
At first, there were no noticeable changes in the political and administrative structure of the Ukrainian lands. The Kiev and Volyn lands continued to exist, the specific possessions of the Lithuanian princes were formed in Podolia and Chernihiv. True, members of the Lithuanian dynasty reigned in them. According to the deals concluded with the Grand Duke, the Russian princes pledged to serve him as vassals, and he, in turn, promised to consistently adhere to the former rights and customs that existed on these lands and protect them from the Tatars.
In practice, the self-government of the Ukrainian lands was limited to economic affairs, the court, guardianship of the church and other minor local issues and did not undermine the competence of the central government. At the same time, Lithuania made fundamental changes in the structure of the Ukrainian lands: it took power from the Ukrainian princes and handed it over to its governors. So, as I. Kripyakevich writes, only "at first glance it seemed that the Lithuanian state was just a continuation of the ancient Russian Ukrainian statehood." In fact, in the Lithuanian country, tendencies towards the centralization of power and the eradication of autonomist manifestations are gaining momentum.
Integration of Lithuania and Poland. Union of Lublin and its
consequences for Ukraine.
After the death in 1340 of the last Galician-Volyn prince Yuri II Boleslav, a struggle began between Poland and Lithuania for Ukrainian lands. However, with late XIV V. a number of external and internal circumstances prompted these states to unite, which took place unevenly (the final, it would seem, the unification of states was replaced by their political independence) until the middle. XVI Art. In this unification, two main stages are distinguished - the Kreva Union of 1385, which marked the beginning of the unification of Lithuania and Poland, and the Lublin Union of 1569, which completed their unification into one state - the Commonwealth.
Union of Krevo in 1385 Reasons for the union
* The desire of Lithuania and Poland to join forces in the face of danger from the mighty Teutonic Order, which reigned on the Baltic coast, from the Moscow principality, whose authority grew after the victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 from the Crimean Khanate (singled out in 1443r. from the composition Golden Horde, from 1475 recognized dependence on the Ottoman Empire).
* The search for an ally by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello (1377-1392rr.)
strengthening his position. Jagiello, the youngest son of Olgerd, having taken
the grand-ducal throne, contrary to the principles of tribal seniority, turned out to be
in a difficult situation. The older Olgerdovichs and cousin Vitovt opposed him.
The content of the union
It was a marriage union - the Lithuanian prince Jagiello married the Polish queen Jadwiga and was proclaimed the Polish king; as a result, clashes between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ceased, and their armed forces united. The union was supposed to join the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to Poland. However, as a result of the desire of the Lithuanian elite for political independence, Lithuania actually remained a separate state, the power in which directly belonged to Jogaila's cousin, Prince Vitovt (1392-1430).
Under the terms of the union, Lithuania, which was the last pagan country in Europe, adopted Catholicism.
Consequences of the union
* Positive - the unification of the efforts of the two states helped to defeat the Teutonic Order and stop the advance of the Germans into the Slavic lands (Battle of Grunwald 1410).
* Negative - the influence of the Poles in Ukraine increased, the forcible planting of Catholicism began. Poland sought to completely subjugate the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The Union of Krewo radically changed the strategic interests of Poland, moving them from the West to the East.
Jagiello actively took up the embodiment of the union: he finally took possession of Galicia (1387); took away the lands of the Galician boyars; handed over to the Catholics in 1412 the old Orthodox see in Przemysl; liquidated Ukrainian law and established Polish authorities and courts; introduced Latin as official language, granted privileges and rights to the Polish gentry and the population that professes Catholicism.
Grand Duke . The pro-Polish policy of Jogaila met with active resistance from the Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nobility. The opposition was led cousin Jagiello - Lithuanian prince Vitovt (1392-1430). Under these conditions, in his person, the tendency to preserve the political independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became embodied. Supported by the weapons of the Lithuanian feudal lords and Russian princes, Vitovt was recognized as the lifelong ruler of the Principality of Lithuania. Trying to strengthen the internal political unity of his own state and centralize management as much as possible, he introduces the institution of governorship, which significantly limits the independence of the South Russian specific principalities.
The victory of the united Slavic and Lithuanian forces over the Teutonic Order in the Battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410 contributed to the growth of the authority of Vitovt and the strengthening of the political positions of Lithuania.
In 1413 was signed Union of Horodil, according to which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was recognized as an independent state, although the superiority of Poland over it remained: the election of the Grand Duke was controlled and approved by the Polish king. The Lithuanian Catholic nobility was equalized in rights with the Polish gentry.
Union of Lublin 1569
Reasons for union
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually fell into decline. As a result of the Livonian War with Muscovy (1558-1583), it was on the verge of a military disaster and was forced to make concessions to Poland, which persistently sought the annexation of Lithuania.
The content of the union
Poland and Lithuania united into one state, which was called the "Republic" (in Polish - the Commonwealth) with a single king, Sejm, monetary system, laws, Catholicism as the state religion. The Principality of Lithuania received the status of autonomy. All Ukrainian lands that previously belonged to Lithuania came under the rule of Poland directly.
Consequences of the union.
The Union of Lublin created a powerful political and legal basis for the implementation of a large-scale strategy aimed at curtailing national life in Ukrainian lands, expanding and strengthening the dominant position of the Polish gentry on them, intensifying economic and social oppression of the local population, establishing serfdom, plundering natural resources, eliminating spiritual and cultural values. The consequences of implementing this strategy were fatal for Ukraine.
Firstly, the loss of Podlasie, Volyn, Bratslav and Kiev regions, the territories where political and economic isolation from the state body of Lithuania lasted the longest, long time slowed down the development of autonomy tendencies in Ukrainian society.
Secondly, changes in the administrative-territorial structure, the introduction of administrative and judicial bodies alien in nature, the dominance of foreigners in them and the removal of Ukrainians from power - led to the extinction of national life and state traditions.
Third, the Union of Lublin accelerated the processions of polarization in the then Ukrainian society. The Ukrainian princes and gentry did not take the opportunity to declare during the Sejm debates the right of Ukraine to be, like Poland and Lithuania, the third equal participant in the federal Rzeczpospolita. The corresponding position of the Ukrainian elite in the political sphere marked the beginning of its dissociation from the interests of its own people, opened the way for its denationalization and seduction.
Fourth, the Union of Lublin opened wide opportunities for the Polish magnates and gentry to acquire Ukrainian lands. Moreover, the king handed out lands for "eternity" to persons of a noble state, not only "empty", but also inhabited by peasants and Cossacks. Polish magnates moved to the Ukrainian lands, and especially to the Bratslavshchina and the Dnieper region: Pototsky, Kalinovsky, Zholkevsky, Yazlovetsky, Senyavsky and others. The Ukrainian magnates also increased their possessions - Ostrozhsky, Zaslavsky, Vyshnevetsky, Zbarazhsky, Koretsky, Sangushki and others. The Ruzhinsky princes were especially cruel during the seizure of foreign lands. For many years, they, at the head of armed detachments of haiduk mercenaries, attacked neighboring estates from the boiler room, tortured and killed peasants and philistines, and burned villages.
Fifth, the strengthening and growth of feudal ownership of land intensified serfdom. "Articles" by Heinrich of Valois (1573) introduced unlimited corvée "by the will of the master." The Lithuanian statute of 1588 established the norm according to which a peasant who lived on the master's land for more than 10 years became a serf; up to 20 years, the term for the search for fugitive peasants and their return to "citizenship" was extended. The gentry regulated the duties of the peasants, disposed of their property and life. The peasant was under the jurisdiction of the patrimonial court.
At sixth, the "Charter for portages" (1577) was sent to destroy the old agrarian system, according to which the peasant's economy was subordinated to the interests of the farm: property stratification intensified, corvée increased, and rent in kind and cash increased. The peasants endured the arbitrariness of the tenants, usurers and the government, which levied heavy taxes on the workers.
Seventh, magnates and gentry ruthlessly exploited natural resources. In order to expand arable areas, they cut down ancient forests, burned forests in order to sell the ashes abroad for potash.
Eighth, The Union of Lublin intensified discrimination against the Ukrainian population in the cities. Ukrainians were prevented from joining craft workshops, restricted in the right to live in cities, subjected to exorbitant taxes (rent - 20-30 pennies from "smoke", church tithe, natural duties). The cities were run by Jews, Germans, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, who were engaged in trade, rented farms and crafts, and took over the cities.
Ninth, after the Union of Lublin, the Polish authorities and the Catholic Church in the Ukrainian lands intensified the policy of ousting the Ukrainian language, culture, and the Orthodox religion.
Brest Church Union
In 1596, a church union was proclaimed in Brest - the union of the Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church, as a result of which a new one was formed - the Uniate Church (Greek Catholic). The Uniate Church retained the Slavic language and Orthodox rites, but recognized the dogmas of the Catholic Church and came under the authority of the Pope. The existence of the Orthodox Church in the Commonwealth was prohibited.
If Lithuania was tolerant towards the Orthodox Church, customs of the Ukrainian people, economic and cultural life, which created the conditions for its further development, the leading circles of the Commonwealth set a course for the destruction of the remnants of the heritage of Kievan Rus, forcible Catholicization and enslavement of the peasants.
The masses of the people, part of the nobility led by Prince Vasily Konstantin Ostrozhsky (1527-1608), brotherhoods ( public organizations philistines, created to protect the Orthodox flock), this forced Poland in 1632 to again allow the legal existence of the Orthodox Church.
The emergence of the Ukrainian Cossacks. Zaporizhzhya Sich.
The first written mention of the Ukrainian Cossacks appears in 1492. But a sharp increase in the number of Cossacks falls on the XVI century.
The Cossacks arose in the southern Ukrainian lands - on the territory from the middle Dnieper and almost to the Dniester (the southern outskirts of the Kiev region, Bratslav region, Podolia). These lands were called the Wild Field: after the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, and then, as a result of frequent attacks by the Crimean Khanate, the lands became depopulated and remained uninhabited. The center of the Cossacks was Zaporozhye - the steppes beyond the rapids of the Dnieper.
Causes
The presence in Ukrainian society of separate strata of free people who occupied an intermediate position between the impossible gentry and the peasantry.
Strengthening social and religious oppression, enslavement of the peasantry. Peasants and philistines fled from feudal duties and state taxes.
Constant military danger from the Crimean Khanate and nomadic Tatar hordes.
In some cases - the organizational role of local, border landowners and government officials.
The Cossacks were replenished with people from different strata of the population: peasants, petty bourgeois, gentry. The Cossacks used economic lands, were engaged in crafts, took part in self-government. To defend against the Turkish-Tatar aggression, the Cossacks united in military units. They themselves struck at the Tatars and Turks: going down the Dnieper in their large boats - "seagulls", they attacked the Tatar garrisons, Turkish galleys, fortresses.
The bulk of the Cossacks was replenished at the expense of Ukrainians, among them were Belarusians, Russians, Moldovans. There were Poles, Tatars, Serbs, Germans, French, Italians, Spaniards, representatives of other ethnic groups. However, these cases were isolated.
In 1552-1556. Kanev and Cherkasy headman Dmitry (Bayda) Vishnevetsky unites the Cossacks, creating beyond the rapids of the Dnieper on about. Malaya Khortytsya is the Cossack center of the Zaporozhian Sich. Subsequently, the Sich repeatedly changed its location. The name "Zaporozhian Sich" spread to all the Cossacks united around the Sich.
The Zaporozhian Sich became the embryo of a new Ukrainian (Cossack) statehood. It, as a public entity, is characterized by the following features:
1. Military way.
Sich Cossacks made up an army - kosh, kosh was divided into military units - kurens (38 kurens).
2. Territorial device.
The territory controlled by the Sich was divided into palankas (5-10 palankas) headed by colonels. The Palankov Cossacks lived in farms and in small towns.
3. Form of government.
The Zaporozhian Sich was a Cossack republic. The supreme power in the Sich belonged to the Cossack Rada, in which all Cossacks had the right to participate. The Cossack Rada elected a foreman: a kosh ataman (hetman), a clerk, a baggage officer, a judge, and osavuls. Each kuren chose a similarly kuren foreman. The Cossack Rada met, as a rule, annually on January 1.
4. Legal system.
Used customary Cossack law, established in the XV - ser. XVI Art. The Cossacks were equal before the law, equal in the right to use the land and other lands, to take part in the councils, to choose a foreman.
Zaporizhzhya Sich as a state formation and as a social organization had a pronounced democratic character. This is explained by:
Firstly, the Zaporizhian Sich was created by the people themselves, embodying in it their freedom-loving character and ideals of social life;
Secondly In order to survive in the face of a constant external threat (from the Crimea, Turkey, the Commonwealth), the Cossacks needed internal harmony and stability, which were ensured by democratic orders.
The attitude of the government of the Commonwealth to the Cossacks.
Following the Cossacks, official authorities, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian magnates and gentry penetrate into the southern steppes. The government of the Commonwealth sought to take the Cossacks under its control in order to use them in their own state interests: to protect their possessions from the Tatars and Turs, in confrontation with Moscow. To this end, in 1572 the Polish king accepted 300 Cossacks into military service. They were inscribed in the register-list, from which they received the name of the registered Cossacks. On horseback XVI Art. the register was increased to 3 thousand (subsequently its number changed). Registered Cossacks enjoyed special privileges: they received land, payment in money, were exempt from taxes and duties, and had their own self-government. Registered Cossacks were also supposed to control non-registered Cossacks, suppress anti-Polish, anti-feudal movements. But the registered Cossacks themselves often took part in the Cossack-peasant anti-Polish uprisings, carried out independent foreign policy actions, defended the right to self-government.
The strengthening of social, national and religious oppression by Poland, the strengthening of Ukrainian forces led to the activation of the anti-feudal and liberation movement in Ukraine. The main forces of this movement were the peasantry and the Cossacks.
Oprishki. In the first floor XVI Art. in Western Ukraine (Galicia, Transcarpathia, Bukovina) the movement of oprishki - people's avengers (first remembered in 1529) is expanding.
Cossack-peasant uprisings. XVI century . At the end of the XVI century. two Cossack-peasant uprisings acquired an extremely wide scope: the uprising of 1591-1593. under the leadership of the hetman of the registered Cossacks Kryshtof Kosinsky (covered the Kiev region, Bratslav region, Podolia, Volyn) and the uprising of 1594-1596. under the leadership of the centurion of the court Cossacks, Prince K. Ostrozhsky - Severin Nalivaiko (covered almost all Ukrainian lands). The Nalivaiko uprising threatened the existence of Polish power in Ukraine.
Having suppressed the uprising, the Polish Sejm in 1597 proclaimed the Cossacks the enemies of the state and decided to "exterminate them by the end." But the decision remained on paper - Poland was no longer able to implement it. In addition, at the beginning XVII century Poland was bogged down in almost continuous wars with Moscow and Turkey and needed the help of the Cossacks.
Hetmanship of P. Konashevich-Sagaydachny (1616-1622)
Piotr Konashevich-Sagaydachny made a lot of efforts for the peaceful development of relations with Poland. Led by him, the Cossacks carried out several successful campaigns against the Tatars and Turks. The campaign against Kafa (Feodosia) in 1616 received particular fame, the Cossacks captured it and freed the captives from captivity.
Historians evaluate P. Konashevich-Sagaydachny as the most outstanding hetman before B. Khmelnytsky. Trying to strengthen the position of Ukraine and the Cossacks, Sahaidachny pursued a compromise policy regarding the Commonwealth. He carried out the reform of the Cossack army, for the first time turning it into a regular army with strict discipline. The Cossack army rose to the level of the best European armies. The greatest merit of Sagaidachny was that he turned the Cossacks to support Ukrainian culture and the Orthodox Church, united the military force of the Cossacks with the politically weak church and cultural elite of Ukraine. In 1620, Sahaidachny, together with the entire Cossack army, joined the Kiev Brotherhood, deducting significant funds for its activities. In the same year, the hetman invited the Jerusalem Patriarch to Kyiv, who revived in Ukraine Orthodox Church(the government officially recognized it in 1632).
The union of the Cossacks with the clergy was for the benefit of national interests, contributed to the formation of the ideological program of the Cossacks.
In 1620, a war broke out between Turkey and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was on the verge of losing state independence. In the battle of Khotyn in 1621, Sahaidachny's army saved Poland from a political catastrophe. But the hetman himself was seriously wounded and died in Kyiv in 1622.
The Cossacks became the leading force in the struggle for the national liberation of Ukraine. The activities of the Cossacks concerned all spheres of life of the Ukrainian people: they defended Ukrainian lands, developed the southern steppes, supported Ukrainian culture and the Orthodox Church, participated in anti-feudal protests, and made a major contribution to the liberation of Ukraine from the rule of the Commonwealth. The Cossacks created the Zaporozhian Sich, which became an important stage in the formation of Ukrainian statehood and the source of the Ukrainian state.
