Why did Ukrainian hetmans curry favor with the Turks, and How was life in Turkish Ukraine

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the 17th century, in addition to Russia and Poland, another contender appeared on the territory of modern Ukraine. Turkey intervened in the division, which saw the goal not at all to save Ukrainians from "oppression", but to its own geopolitical benefit. The first to rely on the help of the Turks was Bohdan Khmelnitsky, who asked the Sultan to accept the Zaporozhye army under his patronage. Later, other seekers of identity from the Ukrainian Cossacks turned their eyes to Turkey. But it all ended badly.

The third party and the role of Hetman Khmelnitsky

Historian N. Kostomarov wrote that Ukrainian supporters of identity sought to enlist the support of a third force, which would be directed simultaneously against Moscow and Poland. The Ukrainians saw Turkey as the only powerful neighbor with powerful military forces. Bohdan Khmelnitsky was the first to turn to Turkey. The antipolsk uprising of Zaporozhye in 1648 arose with the assistance of the Ottoman vassals - the Crimean Tatars. But, knowing the treachery of the khans, the Cossack leaders sought to establish direct contact with Turkey.

In the midst of the initiated uprising, Bohdan Khmelnitsky addressed a letter to Sultan Mehmed IV. In 1650, he received a gracious letter from the Vysokaya Port with the consent of the local nobles to accept the Cossacks under Ottoman protection. Khmelnytsky received a caftan from the Caliph of the faithful. But at that time, occupied by its own internal unrest, Turkey did not find the time and opportunity to keep Ukraine behind itself.

Doroshenko's plans and pro-Turkish encirclement

After the Russian-Polish war in 1654-1667. The Russian kingdom returned the territories lost in the Troubles, including the Novgorod-Seversk lands with Chernigov and Starodub, as well as Smolensk. The Poles recognized for Russia the right to the Left-Bank part of Ukraine. Kiev also temporarily ceded to Moscow, but later it was assigned to the Russian state.

The Commonwealth in the process of bloody rebellions and uprisings, wars with Russia and Sweden was drowning in crisis. Turkey decided to take advantage of this weakness, planning a wide expansion in the northern direction. In Ukraine, during this period, Petro Doroshenko became the hetman of the Right Bank. He relied on the Ukrainian "gentry", who copied the habits of the Polish clergy, and the clergy, headed by Metropolitan Joseph of Kiev. Both those and others were guided by the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. Doroshenko's headquarters reasoned something like this: Istanbul is far away, the Crimean Khanate is weak, so with their support it is possible to throw off the Polish-Russian shackles and achieve autonomy.

Autonomous hetmanship within the Ottoman Empire

Body movements in the direction of Turkey began to be observed on the left, pro-Russian side of the Dnieper. Here the greedy and cruel hetman Bryukhovetsky contrived to enlist the favor of the Moscow Tsar by means of tricks, gaining unlimited power. Bryukhovetsky now saw an opportunity to stay in power, directing popular discontent to Russia alone. Armed with such an idea, he went to an alliance with Doroshenko and treason to the tsar. At the same time, the hetman hoped that after joining the Ottoman citizenship he would remain the ruler of the Left Bank. This is how a unique, never repeated situation developed, when both parts of Ukraine, represented by the hetmans, recognized the Sultan of Turkey as their supreme power. In 1668, Doroshenko moved with an army to the left bank, but, contrary to the expectations of his ally, ordered Bryukhovetsky to resign. The Cossacks of Bryukhovetskiy without hesitation betrayed him, arrested and brought to trial an angry crowd.

In 1669, Doroshenko agreed with the Sultan that Ukraine would formally be an autonomous state under a Turkish protectorate. But Russia took a number of steps, and soon restored the hetmanate on the left side of the Dnieper under the supreme Moscow authority. Turkey secured Podolia, where a separate governorship (eyalt) of the Ottoman Empire was formed with an administrative center in Kamyanets-Podolsk. Throughout history, this was the northernmost possession of the Ottomans.

Wild Ukrainian field under Ottoman patronage

Under the rule of the Ottomans, Ukraine was gradually devastated. For services to the Turkish Sultan, Doroshenko received Mogilev-Podolsky. All Podolsk fortresses, except for the Ottoman garrisons themselves, were destroyed. The hetman was ordered to destroy all the right-bank fortifications, except for Chigirin. The local population literally fell into slavery. The Turks began to establish their own order in the occupied lands. The overwhelming majority of Christian churches turned into mosques, young nuns were sold into slavery, young people were sent to the Sultan's army. The people were obliged to pay unbearable taxes, and non-payment was punishable by slavery. The Turks looked contemptuously at the Cossack allies. And the leaders of the Turks outlined plans for the deportation of the Russians and the Islamization of Podolia.

Chigirin, the hetman's rate, turned into a large slave market. Slave traders of all stripes flocked there - Ottomans, Jews and others. And the Tatars, who felt themselves at ease on the Right Bank, drove endless lines of prisoners. Among ordinary Ukrainians, the name of Doroshenko and his associates, who led to them the "basurman", attracted only curses. The population of the Right Bank felt themselves sold into slavery, some of the people fled to the Left Bank under the cover of the tsarist regiments. Discontent was also ripening among ordinary Cossacks who did not want to fight for Turkish interests. So, the Ottoman influence lasted more than one decade in Ukraine. And only under the terms of the Karlovytsky Treaty in 1699, the Turks returned Podolia to Poland.

Well, other Ukrainian hetmans accepted awards from other rulers. For example, from the Pope himself.