Bohdan Khmelnytsky: Encyclopedia II - Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Biography

Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Biography

Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Early life

Khmelnytsky was probably born in Chyhyryn, in Ukraine; it is unclear whether to a family of Ruthenian nobility or to Polish nobility of Abdank Coat of Arms who had immigrated to Ukraine from Masovia. Khmelnytsky was educated by the Jesuits in Lviv. Unlike many of their other pupils, he did not embrace Roman Catholicism but early in life became indifferent to the faith. Later he seemed to belong to the Greek Orthodox faith, to which most of the Cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants belonged. He had two sons - Yuriy and Tymofiy (Tymish). He was deprived of his estate of Subotiv by Daniel Czapliński, the bailiff of Chyhyryn. At this time he was still in the subordinate position of a "sotski" (an officer over a sotnia, or hundred cavalrymen) of the Registered Cossacks, subject to the Polish magnate Stanisław Koniecpolski. With Koniecpolski he took part in the disastrous Battle of Cecora in 1620. Czapliński availed himself of Khmelnytsky's absence to raid the estate, during which Khmelnytsky's young son Yuriy received injuries from which he ultimately died, and Khmelnytsky's second wife was carried off.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Cossack leader

As one of Czyhrynian and Zaporozhian Cossacks, he fought against Turks and Tatars in 1625-1630. He also participated in the Cossack rebellions of 1632 and 1637. In October 1645 he was invited to France by Cardinal Jules Mazarin with two regiments of Cossacks to participate in the war against Spain. Due to his military skills Dunkirk was taken by assault in two days.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky - The Uprising

Main article: Chmielnicki Uprising

For centuries after the creation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Orthodox people of Ruthenia had felt oppressed by the Polish nobles, Catholic priests and Jewish traders. Although Ruthenian nobility enjoyed full rights, they were quickly polonized and therefore were alienated from the common people; the advent of the Counter-Reformation worsened the relationship between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Unwilling to attend to the details of administration themselves, Polish magnates made Jewish traders their go-betweens in transactions with the peasants of Ukraine. The magnates sold and leased certain privileges to the Jews for a lump sum and, while enjoying themselves at their courts, left it to the Jewish leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants. Although Khmelnytsky's personal resentment influenced his ultimate decision to rid Ukraine of Polish domination, it seems that his ambition to secure the Nobles' privileges and the Cossacks' independence, was the main motive that led him to instigate an uprising of the Ruthenian people against them, known after him as the Chmielnicki Uprising.

Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews". With this as their battle-cry, the Cossacks killed a large number of Jews during the years 1648–1649. The precise number of dead may never be known, but the decrease of the Jewish population during that period is estimated at 50,000 to 200,000, which also includes deaths from diseases and Tatar imprisonment.

These events also initiated a series of campaigns (which began the period in Polish history known as The Deluge) that temporarily freed Ukraine from Polish domination but in time subjected it to Russian domination. Successes at Zhovti Vody, Battle of Korsun and Battle of Pilavtsi (respectively, in Polish, Żółte Wody, Korsuń, and Piławce) against Hetman Mikołaj Potocki led to the Polish king giving royal recognition for the contentious privileges under the Treaty of Zborov. Hostilities resumed when the Sejm refused to recognise the provisions of the treaty. After Khmelnytsky's forces were betrayed by their former allies, the Tatars, they suffered a massive defeat in 1651 at the Battle of Beresteczko, and were forced at Bila Tserkva to accept a loser's treaty. A year later, the Cossacks had their revenge at the Battle of Batoh. Ukraine was still perilously weak, and in 1654 Khmelnytsky persuaded the Cossacks to ally with the Russian tsar in the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which eventually led to the incorporation of the Left-bank Ukraine into Russia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Biography", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki