Bogdan Khmelnitsky decided to speak out "for trampling on the Russian faith and for desecrating the Russian people"! He asked the brothers for help, and they answered: "Let us stand with you: the Russian land will rise as it has never risen before."
The uprising of Ostryanin and Guni
The defeat of Pavlyuk's uprising, the bloody Polish terror and the "Ordinatsii", which severely infringed upon the rights of the Cossacks, did not stop the development of the liberation movement in South-Western Russia.
In early February 1638, the registered Cossack foreman gathered in Chigirin. The eternal question was solved: what to do? The sergeant-major was afraid of the king's anger and a new uprising of the Cossacks. In the lower reaches, the Cossacks proclaimed Yakov Ostryanin hetman, he, together with Dmitry Gunya, again raised the people to fight the Poles. The foreman drew up a letter in which he asked the High Diet to return the former rights to the Cossacks. But the Cossack embassy did not succeed, all the requests of the Cossacks were rejected.
Moreover, they decided to intensify the repression in order to finally suppress "willfulness and riots" with fire and sword. Polish commissars arrived in Ukraine. Commissar Meletsky with his detachment arrived in Zaporozhye and demanded the extradition of Ostryanin, Skidan and other instigators of the uprising. The Cossacks refused. The uprising expanded, the registered Cossacks, who were in the detachment of the Polish commissar, began to go over to the side of the Cossacks. Meletsky wrote in his report to Colonel Stanislav Pototsky (brother of the Polish hetman): "Cossacks are difficult to use against their people - it's like plowing the land with a wolf."
The Poles rampaged in Little Russia. Everywhere were gallows and stakes with the corpses of "rioters". The churches were defiled. People fled to Zaporozhye and the Russian kingdom. With the onset of the spring of 1638, the Cossacks raised another uprising. According to the "Chronicle of Velichko" in March 1638, on the eve of the campaign, Ostryanin addressed the Russian people with a universal, in which he announced that he would come out "with an army in Ukraine to free the Orthodox people from the yoke of enslavement and torment the tyrannical Lyakhovsky and to purge repaired grievances, ruin and painful swearing … to the entire Russian clan embassy, on both sides of the baggy Dnieper, "and urged the population to join them. Leaflets were distributed throughout Little Russia. They were transported and carried by the bandura elders, teenagers and monks.
After some time, detachments of Cossacks set out from Zaporozhye, divided into three parts. The first of them, led by Ostryanin, moving along the left bank of the Dnieper, took Kremenchug, Khorol and Omelnik, and then Goltva, where the Cossacks fortified. For the development of the offensive, there were not enough forces and they decided to hold the defense, waiting for the approach of new detachments. The Zaporozhye flotilla, headed by Gunya, climbed the Dnieper on gulls and occupied the crossings in Kremenchug, Maksimovka, Buzhin and Chigirin. Gunya was supposed to prevent the enemy from crossing to the right bank. Skidan went along the right bank of the Dnieper to Chigirin and occupied it. Skidan's task was to contain the enemy troops who would attempt to come to the aid of Potocki.
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Stanislav Pototsky, who was supported by the registered Cossacks led by Colonel Ilyash Karaimovich, moved to Goltva against Ostryanin. On May 1, 1638, the Polish army was defeated in a fierce battle. Pototsky retreated to Lubny, which were a very advantageous defensive point, and sent messengers to Bar to the crown hetman with a request for help. Ostryanin followed Pototsky to Lubny, intending to defeat the enemy before they received reinforcements. In the battle at Lubnaya on May 6, the Cossacks with a decisive blow forced the enemy to retreat to the fortress. The battle weakened both sides, giving neither of them an advantage, but Pototsky was in a better position. He sat in Lubny and waited for reinforcements.
Having learned that Nikolai Pototsky and Jeremiah Vishnevetsky (a large Ukrainian magnate with his own army) had already come to the aid of S. Pototsky, Ostryanin went to Lukoml and Mirgorod. When Ostryanin approached Sleporod, Pototsky and Vishnevetsky fell upon him with all their might. Ostryanin went to Lukoml, and from there along the Sula to its mouth on Zhovnin, where he became a camp. There the Cossacks built a well fortified camp and repelled enemy attacks. On June 3 (13), the Polish army launched a decisive assault on the rebel positions and achieved some success. Ostryanin, having suffered significant losses and considering further resistance to be inexpedient, with a part of the Cossacks retreated from under Zhovnin into the Russian kingdom. With the permission of the Russian government, the Cossacks settled in the Chuguevsky town, which they restored.
The remaining Cossacks elected Gunya as hetman. The Cossacks occupied a bend on the bank of the Sula, which was washed by the river from almost all sides, and built a new fortified camp. On the side that was not washed by the river, a rampart was poured. The siege of the camp by the Polish army continued until the end of July. Skidan's detachment tried to break through to the besieged comrades, but without success. In a fierce battle, he was defeated. The wounded Skidan was captured and executed. The Cossacks held their defenses until mid-August. As a result, the Cossacks, having no hope of outside help and experiencing an acute shortage of food and ammunition, were forced to capitulate. Only a part of the Cossacks, led by Gunia, made a breakthrough and made their way to the Don, outside the Commonwealth.
The defeat of the anti-Polish uprisings in 1637-1638. led to a sharp deterioration in the situation not only of ordinary Cossacks and peasants, but also of the registered Cossacks. With the help of "Ordination", the Poles "tightened the screws." From that time until 1648 there was a lull - 10 years of "golden rest". But that was the calm before the storm.
Golden Peace
Outraged by the repressions, the Cossacks in the fall of 1638 again sent their elected officials to the Polish king. They passed on another petition drawn up by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. They asked to leave the Cossacks on their former liberties and lands, to keep them a military salary, to provide for the widows of the dead Cossacks, etc. The King received the Cossack ambassadors, but he himself began to complain. The royal treasury was empty, the gentry and the magnates did not obey the royal decrees, the military strength of the royal power depended on them. The Cossacks returned with nothing.
Hetman Potocki gathered the Cossacks, and they read the "Ordination": the position of the hetman, the election of the Esauls and colonels, and others were abolished. The Registered Cossacks under the control of a commissioner appointed by the Polish Sejm were obliged to suppress any protests against the Polish government. Representatives of the registered Cossacks were forced to sign these conditions. Among these representatives was a centurion, demoted from the post of a military clerk, Bohdan Khmelnitsky. Meanwhile, the Poles rebuilt the Kodak Fortress, making it even stronger.
Apparently, the Poles were afraid of a new uprising and saw in Khmelnytsky a potential leader of the Cossacks - intelligent and resolute. They wanted to eliminate Bogdan. Therefore, he needed to leave his homeland for a while. When the Cossack ambassadors were in Warsaw, Count de Brezhi was the French envoy to the court. France at this time entered the Thirty Years War to prevent the strengthening of the Habsburgs. The French army, led by the Prince of Condé (nicknamed the Great Condé), needed additional "cannon fodder." Count de Brezhi advised Cardinal Mazarin of the Zaporozhye Cossacks as mercenaries. He wrote that these are "very brave warriors, good horsemen, perfect infantrymen, they are especially capable of defending fortresses." In September 1644, the ambassador informed Mazarin that the Cossacks "now have a very capable commander Khmelnitsky, he is respected here at court."The Cossacks had already noted themselves in the Thirty Years War, fighting on the side of the Habsburgs, and under the banners of Gustav-Adolphus, etc. Their authority as an excellent military force was very high. According to one version, Khmelnytsky headed or was part of a Cossack detachment that fought for France. When in 1655 Bohdan Khmelnitsky participated in negotiations with the French ambassador, he said that he was pleased to remember his stay in France, and he proudly called the Prince of Condé his former commander. In this war, Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks took Dunkirk by storm, gained new combat experience and strengthened their ranks. Khmelnitsky, in fact, created the nucleus of a new rebel army. According to one version, Khmelnitsky headed or was part of a Cossack detachment that fought for France. When in 1655 Bohdan Khmelnitsky participated in negotiations with the French ambassador, he said that he was pleased to remember his stay in France, and he proudly called the Prince of Condé his former commander. In this war, Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks took Dunkirk by storm, gained new combat experience and strengthened their ranks. Khmelnitsky, in fact, created the nucleus of a new rebel army. According to one version, Khmelnytsky headed or was part of a Cossack detachment that fought for France. When in 1655 Bohdan Khmelnitsky participated in negotiations with the French ambassador, he said that he was pleased to remember his stay in France, and he proudly called the Prince of Condé his former commander. In this war, Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks took Dunkirk by storm, gained new combat experience and strengthened their ranks. Khmelnitsky, in fact, created the nucleus of a new rebel army. In this war, Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks took Dunkirk by storm, gained new combat experience and strengthened their ranks. Khmelnitsky, in fact, created the nucleus of a new rebel army. In this war, Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks took Dunkirk by storm, gained new combat experience and strengthened their ranks. Khmelnitsky, in fact, created the nucleus of a new rebel army.
In addition, at this time Khmelnitsky developed a special relationship with King Vladislav. In 1646, Vladislav IV conceived, without the consent of the Diet, to start a war with Turkey, to recapture the lands and establish large hereditary possessions on them, strengthening the royal power. Lands meant income and troops. Therefore, the king needed the Cossacks. He began to seek support from the Cossack elders - Ilyash Karaimovich, Barabash and Khmelnitsky. The Cossack army was supposed to unleash a war with the Crimean Khanate and the Port, and for this it received a royal charter, which restored Cossack rights and privileges. In particular, the king promised to increase the register to 20 thousand Cossacks and reduce the number of Polish troops in Little Russia. Vladislav had known Bogdan Khmelnitsky for a long time, since the time of the campaign against Moscow. Learning about the negotiations of the king with the Cossacks,the diet interfered with these plans and the king was forced to abandon his plans. The letter issued by the king was kept secret by Barabash. Later Khmelnytsky took possession of it in order to use it for political purposes.
War of liberation
He learned so that Khmelnitsky became the most prominent figure among the Cossack atamans. One of the most capable warriors and commanders, educated and intelligent, Bogdan became the potential leader of the new Russian uprising against the Polish invaders. All that was needed was an excuse to finally move him from his place - service, estate, broad connections, family. For this hero to begin the struggle for the people.
A family tragedy became such an occasion. Khmelnitsky had a small farm Subotov, near Chigirin. The Chigirinsky elder Alexander Konetspolsky (the son of the great crown hetman) and the Chigirinsky podstarost Chaplinsky decided to take away the Subotov. Khmelnytsky wrote to the king and Vladislav, by his act, assigned Subotov to him. But the royal document did not help either. Taking advantage of Khmelnitsky's absence, Chaplinsky, who hated Khmelnitsky, attacked his farm, plundered it, took away the woman (Elena-Gelena), with whom Khmelnitsky lived after the death of his first wife Anna Somkovna, and beat the youngest son of Khmelnitsky, which apparently cost him his life … Chaplinsky got married with Elena. Khmelnitsky tried to find the truth in court, but without success. They laughed at him, they say, you will find a new woman, it's okay and paid a small compensation.
Then he turned to the king. Khmelnitsky tried to continue the work of recruiting Cossack troops for the war with the Crimea and Turkey. Vladislav supported the old idea. And about Khmelnitsky's insult, according to legend, he said: "Her natural Cossacks are brave warriors, you have a sword and strength, and why would you stand up for yourself?" According to some reports, the king, through the crown chancellor Ossolinsky, granted Bogdan the hetman of Zaporozhye and handed over the signs of hetman dignity - a banner and a mace.
As a result, Khmelnytsky "went on the warpath." In September 1647, near Chigirin, he gathered loyal people. Bogdan and his comrades, seeing the powerlessness of the royal power against the omnipotence of the magnates, finally decided on an uprising. Bogdan Khmelnitsky decided to speak out "for the trampling of the Russian faith and for the desecration of the Russian people"! He asked for help from the brothers and they answered: "Let us stand with you: the Russian land will rise, as it has never risen before."
However, there was a traitor among the Cossacks. He reported that "Khmelnitsky is revolting the Cossacks" to Konetspolsky. The same was reported to the Cossack commissar Shemberg, who notified the crown hetman Potocki. Khmelnitsky was captured. In Lviv, carts with weapons bought for the uprising were detained. Failed to ferry guns to Zaporozhye. Khmelnitsky was afraid to be executed, the Cossack "rabble" could rebel. They decided to release, and then quietly kill in another place. Until someone had to take the rebellious Cossack on bail. The voucher for Khmelnitsky was Pan Krichevsky, a colonel of the Zaporozhye Army and a friend of Bogdan. He also told Khmelnytsky that they wanted to secretly "betray death". In December 1647, Khmelnytsky went into hiding. Together with him, several hundred Cossacks left for Zaporozhye.
In mid-December 1647 Khmelnitsky and his comrades arrived at the Sich. Here, on the island of Tomakovka, his colleague, the registered centurion Fyodor Lyuty, was waiting for him with a detachment of Cossacks. He fled to Zaporozhye even earlier and was elected the koshev chieftain. The Zaporozhye Sich was then located on the island of Bazavluk (Chertomlyk). In the area of the island of Hotitsa there was a government garrison - the Cherkassk Regiment and a detachment of Polish dragoons, Colonel Gursky. Also, a serious garrison stood at the Kodak fortress. Therefore, all the fugitives gathered on Butsky Island, a little below the Sich. Khmelnitsky arrived here, on Butskoy Island. He was greeted with great joy, the chieftain was found, who raised all the offended. The liberation army began to form here.
In January 1648 Bohdan Khmelnitsky was elected hetman. A great holy work has begun. Liberation of the Russian land from the invaders and their local hangers-on.
Author: Samsonov Alexander
