| The Cossack Era 1550's - 1775 |
Back to Timeline Cossack Era Bohdan Khmelnytsky Treaty of Pereyaslav |
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Cossack Era
The Cossack era in Ukraine started after Poland gained rule over most of Kyivian Rus'. The polish rule was quite oppressing for the Ukrainians so they risked death at the hands of the Tatars and started to settle in the fertile Ukrainian steppe along the Dnipro River. In the steppe there was the emergence of a new class of people; the Cossacks. As they ventured into the dangerous steppe, they would travel in small groups and choose amongst themselves a leader whom they called otaman. Eventually, they established permanent fortified camps in the steppe called sich. In 1553-1554, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky gathered several scattered groups of Cossacks and built a fort that would later become the Zaporozhian Sich. The Sich originated as a typical pirate republic of the 16th century. Its population was quite international. It included Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish peasants that ran away from their feudal masters and outlaws of every sort. No women or children were allowed in the Zaporozhian Sich. Any man who wanted to join the Cossacks at the Zaporozhian Sich had to meet three requirements: he had to be a man without family who could speak the Ukrainian language and was a member of the Orthodox Church. As the military skill and the fame of the Cossacks grew, the rulers of Poland took more and more interest in using them to their advantage. They frequently asked the Cossacks to fight for them in the endless wars against Moscovy, the Turks, and the Tatars. Though the efforts of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Ukrainian people, the Cossacks gained control of most of Ukraine. Though the Cossack Hetman state lasted until the 1780, this expansive unification was short lived as it dissolved in twenty years due to infighting of the various Cossack leaders. Bohdan Khmelnytsky 
It has been suggested by Ukrainian historian Mykhaylo Maksymovych that Khmelnytsky's date of birth was 27 December 1595. He was the son of Mykhailo Khmelnytsky who was of noble descent but it is not clear if Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself was a noble. In 1617, Bohdan entered into service with the Cossacks. In 1619, he was sent along with his father to Moldavia, as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into war with the Ottoman Empire. During the battle of Cecora on 17 September 1620, his father was killed, and Khmelnytsky among many others was captured by the Turks. He spent the next two years in captivity in Constantinople, as a prisoner of a Turkish Pasha. No one is sure how Khmelnytsky returned to Ukraine but upon return to Subotiv, Khmelnytsky took over the running of his father's estate and became a registered Cossack in the Chyhyryn Regiment. Then around the end of 1645, a powerful magnate began attempts to seize Khmelnytsky's estate and succeeded in 1647. After numerous attempts to regain his land through official means the stage was set for his role in the Cossack revolt against the Poles. As Khmelnytsky fought with the Poles his armies numbers grew quickly because as he march he was welcomed and eagerly joined by the peasants and surfs he in countered on the way. After many battles, armistices and treaties, the Cossacks controlled nearly all of Ukraine. Treaty of Pereyaslav The Treaty of Pereyaslav was concluded in 1654 in the Ukrainian city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi,which was Pereyaslav at the time. The treaty was between Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Tsar Alexey I of Muscovy. For Khmelnytsky the treaty of Pereyaslav offered first and foremost a legitimate monarch's protection and support from a friendly Orthodox power. There have been a number of conflicting opinions as to what kind of union Khmelnytsky had in mind, whether it was to be a military union, a suzerainty or a complete incorporation of Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia. The second Treaty of Pereyaslav was concluded on October 27, 1659 between son of Khmelnytsky, Yuri Khmelnytsky and Russian tsar and drastically limited the Ukranianian autonomy. This second treaty was an aftermath of the Treaty of Hadiach from 16 September 1658 between Cossacks and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which granted many privileges to Cossacks and thus threatened Muscovy influence over Cossacks. These treaties where part of the justification that Russia and the USSR would use to claim that Ukraine was truely part of their countries.
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