In 1654, left-bank Ukraine was under Polish rule. The Ukrainian people suffered humiliation and oppression. In 1648, under the leadership of Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the Zaporozhye Cossacks began an uprising against the oppressors, and then turned to Russia for help, inviting the tsar to accept them as their subjects. The king accepted the offer. In 1654, Ukraine became part of Russia.
In 1654, an event occurred that changed the fate of several states - Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey. Such an event was the entry of left-bank Ukraine into Russia.
What formed the basis for Ukraine’s accession to Russia
Ukraine at the beginning of the 17th century was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a small part of its land belonged to Russia.
However, Ukrainians and Poles were not equal before the law. The Poles were the rightful masters of the country, and the Ukrainians lived as vassals, forced to endure oppression by both Poles and Jews. Ukrainian farmers had to pay rent to the Poles for leasing Ukrainian land to Ukrainians. The freedom-loving Cossacks hardly endured this oppression, and therefore periodically revolted. However, the forces were too unequal, and every rebellion was brutally suppressed.
It became clear that in order to gain freedom, the Cossacks needed a strong defender, and of course, the first candidate for this role was Russia.
First, hetman of registered Cossacks Krishtof Kosinsky asked for help from Russia, then hetman Pyotr Sagaidachny. In 1622, Bishop Isaiah Kopinsky invited the Russian Tsar to accept the Orthodox under his citizenship, and in 1624 Metropolitan Job Boretsky requested the same.
In addition to joining their lands to Russia, the hetmans also considered the option of unification with the Turkish Sultan. But this was, so to speak, a fallback: unification with a single faith and spirit of the Russian people was much closer to the Ukrainians.
However, for a long time Russia did not give an unambiguous answer to the proposal of the Ukrainians - the consequences of such a move were too ambiguous for her.
the uprising led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, a letter to the Russian Tsar
In 1648 there was the largest Cossack rebellion against the Poles. Hetman headed by Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
Khmelnitsky had rich combat experience. He participated in the Spanish-French War, in which he headed the Cossack regiment, which took part in the capture of Dunkirk.
Upon returning home, Bogdan could not calmly look at the humiliations of his fellow countrymen, who were forced to pay Jews not only land, the right to trade on the market, the ability to move on roads, but also the opportunity to perform Orthodox rites. Outraged by this state of affairs, Khmelnitsky wrote a complaint to the Polish king, but he ignored her, and through
The complaint, written by the hetman to the king of Poland, was left unattended, but its consequences were tragic: Bogdan lost his son, who was tracked to death, and his wife, who was forcibly married to a Pole, recognizing her marriage in Khmelnitsky as invalid (because according to Orthodox customs). Gathering by April 1648 a huge army of those times - 43, 720 people - Bogdan Khmelnitsky raised an uprising against the oppressors.
For several years, the uprising, which had already grown into an almost full-scale war, continued with varying successes, but in the end it became clear: the Cossacks alone could not defeat the Polish army.
Therefore, in 1653, Bogdan Khmelnitsky turned to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, writing a letter to him asking him to accept the Ukrainians under his protection and give them Russian citizenship.
Zemsky Cathedral 1953
This request was considered at the Zemsky Sobor, and not all of its participants spoke in favor of Ukraine joining Russia. The consequences could be too serious: Poland will not allow it to take its lands with impunity, which means there will be a war. And not the fact that Russia is ready for it. The cathedral dragged on. But Ukraine could not wait - the price of delay was too high, and delivered an ultimatum to Russia: if the tsar did not agree to take the Ukrainians under their wing, they would turn to the Turkish sultan with the same proposal. But Russia could not allow this in any way - the common border with the Turks posed too great a threat.
At the Zemsky Sobor, a decision was made to accept Ukraine as part of Russia.
Pereyaslavskaya Rada
The next stage in the unification of Russia and Ukraine was the meeting in Pereyaslav eminent Cossacks and residents. This event, which occurred on January 8, 1654, went down in history under the name Pereslavl Rada.
The decision to join Russia was made and confirmed by oath. And then an agreement was drawn up which described the conditions under which Ukraine became part of Russia. These conditions were described in 11 paragraphs. The Pereslavl agreement had 11 points, but later, already in Moscow, the number of points was increased to 23. After considering the agreement at the Zemsky Sobor on March 27, 1654, Ukraine officially became part of Russia. The results of the Pereyaslavl agreement fully paid off. Ukraine was now under the protection of a strong Russia. At the same time, Moscow provided financial assistance to the Ukrainians, but all the income of Little Russia remained in it.
Left-bank Ukraine quickly came to prosperity. It developed agriculture, livestock, trade. This led to the fact that from those Ukrainian territories, which were under the control of Moldova, Poland, Turkey, and where people were still oppressed, people began to flee en masse to Little Russia.
The war with Poland. Ukrainian demarche
Poland was not going to part with, in her opinion, its lands. Therefore, what happened was what the opponents of Ukraine’s annexation to Russia warned at the Council - in 1654, a war with Poland began, which lasted 13 years. The war was difficult and not always successful for Russia. And a considerable "contribution" to these failures was made by Ukrainians, who became the cause of hostilities.
Getman Ivan Vygovsky, who took the post of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who died in 1657, decided not to fulfill the terms of the contract with Russia, but to make the most of the war. The hetman began to bargain with both Russia and Poland, choosing the most profitable option. However, most Ukrainians did not suffer such betrayal, and in 1659 the place with the shame of the exiled Vygovsky was taken by the son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Yuri. Both Russians and Ukrainians assumed that this would lead to the most fruitful cooperation, but the new hetman did not justify anyone's hopes. In 1660, during a campaign to Lviv, in which 30 thousand Russians and 25 thousand Ukrainians participated, something happened that the Russians did not expect from their allies.
Near Lubar, Russian troops under the command of Sheremetev were suddenly attacked by Polish troops, united in the Crimean. Sheremetev’s army held on to the last, and in many ways because it was sure that the Cossacks were about to approach, and the outcome of the battle would be decided in our favor. The Russians were fatally mistaken. Yuri Khmelnitsky never brought his army to help. In addition, he promised that he would no longer fight against the Polish army, and concluded a peace treaty with the Poles.
The consequences of this betrayal became tragic for the Russian soldiers. The army was forced to capitulate. Most of it died, the rest became slaves of the Crimean Tatars. Only a small part of them was able to return home after a long time.
