Table of contents:
- Appeals to Moscow and currying favor with the Russian Tsar
- From hate to love with Poles
- Vassal relationship with the Turkish sultan
- Addiction dependence and Swedish proclamations
Video: How many times did Ukrainian leader Bohdan Khmelnitsky swear allegiance to foreigners?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The leader of the movement for Ukrainian independence Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the 17th century insisted on the adoption of Russian citizenship by the Cossacks. This decision of the hetman launched the war between Russia and Poland. Further events were accompanied by many diplomatic demarches on the part of Khmelnitsky, with which in his struggle he tried to enlist the support of various monarchs. Dealing with the Commonwealth with the help of the Crimean Khan and the Turkish Sultan, the hetman eventually turned into a subject of the Russian Tsar, while simultaneously building bridges with the Swedes.
Appeals to Moscow and currying favor with the Russian Tsar
In 1648, a petition letter was sent from Cherkassy to the name of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. On paper, signed by the hetman of the Zaporozhye army, the hope was expressed that the Russian sovereign would turn his eyes to the Ukrainians and take them under his protectorate. “We want for ourselves such an autocrat, a master in our land, like your royal mercy, an Orthodox Christian tsar,” read the frank message of Bohdan Khmelnitsky. With this letter, the hetman launched the process of unification of the Russian lands, which came to an end only 6 years later.
Mother Russia did not chop off her shoulder, observing and calculating. In 1649, the Duma clerk Unkovsky paid a visit to Khmelnytsky, saying that the sovereign, in principle, did not mind. But to enter instantly into an open war simply does not have the strength. But I am ready to support the Cossacks without delay. Therefore, the Polish side soon complained about Moscow, which seemed to have confirmed an armistice with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but continued to supply the Ukrainian rebels with gunpowder, bullets and food.
From hate to love with Poles
At the beginning of the 17th century, Khmelnytsky, as part of the Polish army, participated in a military campaign against the Turks, being captured by them and returning 2 years later to exchange prisoners. Bogdan took revenge on the Ottomans quickly, leading, with the consent of the Polish king, a robber Cossack campaign almost to Constantinople. In the 30s, the future Ukrainian leader, as part of the Polish army, beat the Swedes and Russians near Smolensk. For heroic merits, he was personally awarded by the Polish King Vladislav IV with a golden personal saber. Since then, the head of state has entrusted the leader with important assignments. Khmelnytsky visited many European countries as part of the Polish delegations.
Before writing to the Russian tsar in 1648, Khmelnitsky sent a letter of repentance to Vladislav. The hetman promised the former loyal citizenship. Even much later, suddenly stopping his successful offensive against the Poles in the fall of 1648, Bogdan requested a peace agreement with King Jan Casimir. After a new round of war and victory at Zborov, luck temporarily left Khmelnytsky. He had to again swear allegiance to the king as a Polish subject and go to the unprofitable Bila Tserkva peace. When in 1652 Khmelnytsky, together with the Crimeans, resumed hostilities, he did not allow himself more vassal appeals.
Vassal relationship with the Turkish sultan
Khmelnitsky's first betrayal of the Polish crown was his arrival with his son in December 1646 in the Zaporozhye Sich. Then the rebel, having abruptly turned his political course, set out to rouse the Cossacks to revolt against Poland. Soon Bohdan Khmelnytsky aggravated his betrayal, rushing towards Poland's sworn enemy - the Ottoman Empire. In Constantinople, according to some historical evidence, he spoke in favor of declaring war on the Polish king on behalf of Sultan Islam Giray III.
When Khmelnitsky, having enlisted the help of a 25,000-strong Tatar army, returned to the Sich, the Cossacks elected him hetman, which was then allowed only with the approval of the Polish ruler. With the Tatar-Cossack military force, the hetman moved to Poland.
The king, at first underestimating the seriousness of the Cossack intentions, quickly grouped up and sent 30 thousand soldiers against Khmelnytsky. But the Cossacks, with Tatar support, dealt with the Poles. After the hetman's victories, volunteers from all over Poland were drawn to his army.
Internal explosions also shook the powerful Polish empire. The uprisings initiated by Bohdan Khmelnitsky actually unleashed a civil war, and taking into account the involvement of the Crimean Khan's army, they already looked like an external intervention. Taking advantage of the Polish confusion with the death of King Vladislav, the Turkish sultan sent an Ottoman army to help Khmelnytsky, which received several thousand captured Poles, as well as a solid booty of looted valuables.
Addiction dependence and Swedish proclamations
During the period of hostilities between the Russians and the Swedes, Bogdan allowed secret negotiations with the Russian enemy. True, they thought about steps against Poland, not Russia. However, the Poles at that time were a Russian ally. In the negotiations, the question was raised of the protection of the Swedish king to the Ukrainians, if they decide to break the alliance with Russia. Bohdan Khmelnytsky did not reject such an opportunity. When in the spring of 1655 Bogdan, together with the Russians, sent troops to Poland, he concealed the agreements that had been made. The hetman's behavior in that campaign became nothing less than two-faced.
The Ukrainian historian Hrushevsky argued that Khmelnitsky did not conquer the city in order to prevent the establishment of Moscow garrisons there. And in negotiations with the Lviv people, the hetman's confidant, Vyhovsky, proposed not to surrender the city under the tsar's name. Khmelnytsky assured the Swedish king that he did not want to let the Russians into Western Ukraine. He warned the hetman against an alliance with Moscow. They say that the autocratic Russian system will not tolerate a free people within its borders and will completely enslave the Cossacks.
In December 1656, Khmelnytsky officially concluded an agreement with Sweden, Transylvania, Brandenburg and the Lithuanians on the division of the Commonwealth, and the next year he sent a Cossack unit for a joint operation with the Swedes against the Polish king. But soon he sent the visiting Swedish ambassadors home, confirming their loyalty to the Russian crown.
A century later, another Ukrainian hetman also followed this policy, but much more daringly. So there were 7 betrayals of Ivan Mazepa, for which he eventually paid with his life.
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