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TheKhmelnytsky Uprising,[a] also known as theCossack–Polish War,[1]Khmelnytsky insurrection,[6]Cossack Revolution, or, inUkraine, as theNational Liberation War,[7] was a successfulCossack rebellion with elements ofreligious war that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in Cossack victory and the creation of theCossack Hetmanate. Under the command ofCossack HetmanBohdan Khmelnytsky, theZaporozhian Cossacks, supported by the rebellingRuthenianpeasantry and initially allied with theCrimean Khanate, fought against theCommonwealth's forces. The war was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacksagainst prisoners of war and the civilian population, especiallyPoles,Jews,Roman Catholic andRuthenian Uniate clergy,[8][9] as well as reprisals by the Polishszlachta and army, especiallyJeremi Wiśniowiecki's troops.[10]: 355
The uprising has a symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine's relationship withPoland andRussia. The uprising led to the eventual incorporation ofeastern Ukraine into theTsardom of Russia initiated by the 1654Pereiaslav Agreement. The event triggered a period of political turbulence and infighting in the Hetmanate known asthe Ruin. The success of the anti-Polish rebellion, along with internal conflicts in Poland and concurrent invasions waged byRussia andSweden against the Poles, ended thePolish Golden Age and caused a secular decline of Polish power during the period known as "theDeluge".
InJewish history, the Uprising is known for the atrocities against the Jews who, in their capacity as leaseholders (arendators), were seen by the peasants as their immediate oppressors and became the subject ofantisemitic violence.[8][11] The Jews consider this event "the biggest national catastrophe since the destruction ofSolomon's Temple."[12] The Cossack violence during the uprising inflicted damage on the Commonwealth's Jewish communities.[13]
In 1569 theUnion of Lublin granted the southernLithuanian-controlledRuthenianvoivodeships ofVolhynia,Podolia,Bracław andKiev—to theCrown of Poland under the agreement forming the newPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita). The Kingdom of Poland already controlled severalRuthenian lands which formed the voivodeships ofLviv andBelz. The combined lands would be formed into theLesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
Although thelocal nobility were formally granted full rights within the Rzeczpospolita by a 1572 royal decree,[14] this was often ignored by city councils, and both the nobility and city burgers were under enormous pressure to convert toRoman Catholicism and use of thePolish language.[14] This assimilation ofPolish culture on the part of the Ruthenian nobility alienated them from the lower classes, and most especially to theCossacks, who proved stubbornly resistant to Catholicism andPolonization.[14] It was especially important in regard to powerful and traditionally influential great princely families of Ruthenian origins, among themWiśniowiecki,Czartoryski,Ostrogski,Sanguszko,Zbaraski,Korecki andZasławski, which acquired even more power and were able to gather more lands, creating hugelatifundia. Thisszlachta, along with upper-class Polishmagnates, oppressed the lower-class Ruthenians, with the introduction ofCounter-Reformationmissionary practices and the use ofJewisharendators to manage their estates.
LocalOrthodox traditions were also affected from the assumption ofecclesiastical power by theGrand Duchy of Moscow in 1448. The growingRussian state in the north sought to acquire the southern lands ofKievan Rus', and with thefall of Constantinople it began this process by insisting that theMetropolitan of Moscow and All Rus′ was now the primate of theRussian Church.
The pressure ofCatholic expansionism culminated with theUnion of Brest in 1596, which attempted to retain the autonomy of the Eastern Orthodox churches in present-dayUkraine,Poland andBelarus by aligning themselves with theBishop of Rome. ManyCossacks were also against theUniate Church. While all of the peopledid not unite under one church, the concepts ofautonomy were implanted into consciousness of the area and came out in force during the military campaign ofBohdan Khmelnytsky.
Born to a noble family, Bohdan Khmelnytsky attended aJesuit school, probably inLviv. At the age of 22, he joined his father in the service of the Commonwealth, battling against theOttoman Empire in theMoldavian Magnate Wars. After being held captive inConstantinople, he returned home as aRegistered Cossack, settling in hiskhutorSubotiv with a wife and several children. He participated in campaigns for Grand CrownHetmanStanisław Koniecpolski, led delegations to KingWładysław IV Vasa inWarsaw and generally was well-respected within the Cossack ranks. The course of his life was altered, however, whenAleksander Koniecpolski, heir to hetman Koniecpolski's magnate estate, attempted to seize Khmelnytsky's land. In 1647Chyhyryn deputy ofstarosta (head of the local royal administration)Daniel Czapliński openly started to harass Khmelnytsky on behalf of the younger Koniecpolski in an attempt to force him off the land. On two occasions raids were made to Subotiv, during which considerable property damage was done and his sonYurii was badly beaten, until Khmelnytsky moved his family to a relative's house inChyhyryn. He twice sought assistance from the king by traveling to Warsaw, only to find him either unwilling or powerless to confront the will of a magnate.[15]
Having received no support from Polish officials, Khmelnytsky turned to his Cossack friends and subordinates. The case of a Cossack being unfairly treated by the Poles found a lot of support not only in his regiment but also throughout theSich. All through the autumn of 1647, Khmelnytsky travelled from one regiment to another and had numerous consultations with different Cossack leaders throughout Ukraine. His activity raised the suspicions of Polish authorities already used to Cossack revolts, and he was promptly arrested.Polkovnyk (colonel)Mykhailo Krychevsky assisted Khmelnytsky in his escape, and with a group of supporters he headed for theZaporozhian Sich.
The Cossacks were already on the brink of a new rebellion as plans for the new war with theOttoman Empire proposed by the Polish kingWładysław IV Vasa were rejected by theSejm. Cossacks were gearing up to resume their traditional and lucrative attacks on the Ottoman Empire (in the first quarter of the 17th century they raided the Black Sea shores almost annually), as they greatly resented being prevented from the pirate activities by the peace treaties between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Rumors about the emerging hostilities with "the infidels" were greeted with joy, and the news that there was to be no raiding after all was explosive in itself.[10]
However, the Cossack rebellion might have fizzled in the same manner as the great rebellions of 1637–1638, but for the strategies of Khmelnytsky. Having possibly taken part in the1637 rebellion,[16] he realized that Cossacks, while having an excellent infantry, could not hope to match the Polish cavalry, which was possibly the best in Europe at the time.[citation needed] However, combining Cossack infantry withCrimean Tatar cavalry could provide a balanced military force and give the Cossacks a chance to beat the Polish army.
While the starting point of the conflict is clear, sources vary as to when the uprising ended. Russian and some Polish sources give the end-date of the revolt as 1654, pointing to theTreaty of Pereyaslav as its ending point;[17] Ukrainian sources give the date as Khmelnytsky's death in 1657;[18][19] and a few Polish sources give the date as 1655 and theBattle of Jezierna or Jeziorna (November 1655). There is some overlap between the last phase of the uprising and the beginning of theRusso-Polish War (1654–1667), as Cossack and Russian forces became allied.
On January 25, 1648, Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 400–500 Cossacks to the island ofTomakivka, 60 kilometres to the south ofKhortytsia, and attacked theSich onMykytyn Rih, which had been guarded byCrown Army troops andRegistered Cossacks. The Following the defeat of the royal garrison, Registered Cossacks joined the rebels, and their commander fled.[20] Once at the Sich, his oratory and diplomatic skills struck a nerve with oppressed Cossacks. As his men repelled an attempt by Commonwealth forces to retake the Sich, more recruits joined his cause. TheCossack Rada elected KhemlnytskyHetman by the end of the month. Khmelnytsky threw most of his resources into recruiting more fighters. He sent emissaries toCrimea, enjoining theTatars to join him in a potential assault against their shared enemy, the Commonwealth.
By April 1648 word of an uprising had spread throughout the Commonwealth, as Khmelnytskyi'suniversals calling for the defence of "ancient Greek faith" against "Polish enemies" were distributed around Ukraine. The hetman also used his connections to acquiregunpowder and other military goods inVolhynia,Galicia and even in Poland itself. After diplomatic negotiations withCrimean khanIslam III Giray, a military alliance was created between him and the Cossacks. Simultaneously, Khmelnytsky engaged in written correspondence with Crown hetmanMikołaj Potocki, urging him to abolish the Ordination of 1638, remove crown troops from Ukraine and allow the Cossacks to engage in naval campaigns. These demands were likely part of a tactic aimed to prolong the time for military preparations, and were discarded by authorities.[21]
Either because they underestimated the size of the uprising,[22] or because they wanted to act quickly to prevent it from spreading,[23] the Commonwealth's Grand Crown Hetman Mikołaj Potocki and Field Crown HetmanMarcin Kalinowski sent 3,000 soldiers under the command of Potocki's son,Stefan, towards Khmelnytsky, without waiting to gather additional forces fromPrinceJeremi Wiśniowiecki. Four regiments of Registered Cossacks were sent on boats down by theDnieper, meanwhile two others joined amercenary squad marching fromKryliv. After leaving the Sich in late April, the Cossack army, numbering around 8,000 men, joined forces with a 3,000-4,000 squad ofPerekopbeyTugay.[24]
Khmelnytsky marshalled his forces and met his enemy at theBattle of Zhovti Vody on 29 April 1648. The Polish troops took a defensive position, meanwhile the main body of Khmelnytskyi's Zaporozhians marched to the Dnieper, where they met the Registered Cossacks and persuaded them to join the rebellion. Later on, two Cossack regiments supporting the besieged Polish army also deserted, forcing the Poles to start negotiations. However, the talks failed, and on 14 May Khmelnytsky ordered his troops to storm the camp. After a breakout attempt, on the night of 15-16th May Polish troops were encircled and routed.[25]
After the victory at Zhovti Vody, Khmelnytsky's vistorious Cossacks swiftly marched northwards, approaching the camp of both crown hetmans on the bank ofRos river nearKorsun. On 25 May the troops of colonelMaksym Kryvonis, aided by Tatars of Tugay Bey, cut the ways of retreat for Polish forces. During anbreakout attempt, the troops of the elder Potocki and Kalinowski were ambushed in a deepravine on the road leading from Korsun toBohuslav. Despite fighting bravely, both commanders were captured and imprisoned by the Tatars, and most of their soldiers perished.[26]
In addition to the loss of significant forces and military leadership, the Polish state also lost KingWładysław IV Vasa, who died in 1648, a few days before the Battle of Korsun,[27] leaving the Crown of Poland leaderless and in disarray at a time of rebellion. The szlachta was on the run from its peasants, their palaces and estates in flames. All the while, Khmelnytsky's army marched westward.
Following the king's death, the real power over the Commonwealth became concentrated in the hands ofchancellorJerzy Ossoliński. At his initiative, in June a government delegation was sent to the rebels, headed by Orthodox noblemanAdam Kysil.[28] Khmelnytsky stopped his forces atBila Tserkva and issued a list of demands to the Polish Crown, including raising the number of Registered Cossacks, returning churches taken from the Orthodox faithful and paying the Cossacks for wages, which had been withheld for five years.[29]
News of the peasant uprisings now troubled a nobleman such as Khmelnytsky; however, after discussing information gathered across the country with his advisers, the Cossack leadership soon realized the potential for autonomy was there for the taking. Although Khmelnytsky's personal resentment of the szlachta and the magnates influenced his transformation into a revolutionary, it was his ambition to become the ruler of a Ruthenian nation that expanded the uprising from a simple rebellion into a national movement.
In parallel to peace talks, both sides of the conflict continued to concentrate their forces. Starting from late June, royal troops under command ofWładysław Dominik Zasławski,Mikołaj Ostroróg andAleksander Koniecpolski gathered in Volhynia, numbering around 35-40 thousand soldiers. However, the attitude of the commanders to rebels, who were numerically superior, was too self-secure and not adequate to the real situation. On their march to meet the insurgents, Polish forces were slowed down by the hugebaggage train, which consisted of up to 100,000 carts. Upon reaching the riverIkva, on 23 September the crown army found itself opposed by Cossack troops numbering 50-70 thousand men, aided by Tatarcavalry. At theBattle of Pyliavtsi, Khmelnytsky's forces managed to annihilate the enemy infantry, forcing the rest of the Polish army, including its commanders, to flee in panic. The new victory allowed the rebels to capture over 90cannons, as well as large amounts of gunpowder, firearms, horses and other goods with an estimated price of 7 to 10 millionzłotys. The shameful retreat of royal troops opened Khmelnytsky the way for further advance in the western direction.[30]
Khmelnytsky's campaign in Galicia served as a demonstration of his army's force. After reachingLviv in early October, the Cossack army besieged the city for three weeks before lifting the siege in exchange for a ransom of 200,000ducats, with much of the sum being used to pay the hetman's Tatar allies. After obtaining the ransom, on 26 October the Cossack army moved to besiegeZamość. Simultaneously, a peasant war continued to burn in the Cossacks' rear, bringing devastation to noble estates in Volhynia, Galicia andPokuttia and resulting in deaths of many members of theszlachta. Possible capture of Zamość by Khmelnytsky would make the rebels' way onWarsaw practically open, so a possibility of calling up apospolite ruszenie was viewed by the Sejm, withJeremi Wisniowiecki being appointed to lead it. In the simulataneous electoral fight between various candidates for the Polish throne, Khmelnytsky hinted at his support forJohn II Casimir Vasa. At the same time, the size of the Cossack army was decreasing due to exhaustion, hunger, diesase and loss of motivation among many rebels. After the election of John II Casimir as Polish king on 17 November, parts of theCossack starshyna voiced their support for negotiations with the new monarch.[31]
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According to Hrushevsky, John Casimir personally sent Khmelnytsky a letter informing the Cossack leader about his election. He assured him that he would grant Cossacks and all followers of the Orthodox faith various privileges and requested for Khmelnytsky to stop his campaign and await the royal delegation. Khmelnytsky answered that he would comply with his monarch's request and then turned back. On 23-24 November Cossack troops left Zamość. On his march back to Ukraine, Khmelnytsky issued orders for revolting peasants to obey their landlords. On 2 January 1649, Khmelnytsky triumphantly enteredKyiv, where he was met byPatriarch Paisius ofJerusalem andKyiv MetropolitanSylvester Kosiv and publicly hailed as "the Moses, savior, redeemer, and liberator of the people from Polish captivity... the illustrious ruler of Rus".[32]
In February 1649, during negotiations with a Polish delegation headed by noblemanAdam Kysil inPereiaslav, Khmelnytsky declared that he was "the sole autocrat of Rus" and that he had "enough power in Ukraine,Podolia, andVolhynia... in his land and principality stretching as far as Lviv,Chełm, andHalych".[33] It became clear to the Polish envoys that Khmelnytsky had positioned himself no longer as simply a leader of the Zaporozhian Cossacks but as that of an independent state and stated his claims to the heritage of theRus'.[34]
AVilniuspanegyric in Khmelnytsky's honour (1650–1651) explained it: "While in Poland it is King Jan II Casimir Vasa, in Rus it is Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky".[35]
The ceasefire reached at Zamość was hard to support for both sides, and already in March 1649 Khmelnytsky sent a number of his units to fortify the defence onSluch andMurafa rivers, meanwhilemagnate forces crossed theHoryn. From February, hostilities were taking place aroundBar in Podolia. Tatar forces were gathering in Ukraine, withkhan Islam III Giray personally arriving to lead his troops. By late May, 120-150 thousand men, including 30-40 thousand Cossacks, as well as numerous recruits and volunteers, had gathered in the vicinity of Kyiv. From there, the force marched to meet the Polish crown army, which counted only up to 15,000 soldiers. Upon Khmelnytsky's approach toStarokostiantyniv in late June, Polish troops commanded byAdam Firlej retreated to thefortress of Zbarazh. After failing to capture the fortification, on 20 July Cossack troops started asiege.[36]
Amidst the siege, in early August elements of Cossack and Tatar cavalry jointly led by Khmelnytsky and Islam III Giray moved out to meet the Polish relief force advancing from Zamość, which numbered 15-20 thousand soldiers and was personally led by the king. On 15 August, the royal army was ambushed by Khmelnytsky's troops while crossing theStrypa river near the town ofZboriv. In the followingbattle the crown army lost up to 7,000 men, and the monarch himself found himself surrounded by the Cossacks and Tatars. In order to break the alliance between Khmelnytsky and the khan, John II Casimir sent envoys to the Tatar camp. As a result of following negotiations, which were later joined by the Cossacks as well, on 19 August 1649 the hetman agreed to theTreaty of Zboriv, according to which the Commonwealth would make numerous concessions. The treaty provided autonomy to Cossack-held voivodeships ofKyiv,Bratslav andChernihiv, as well as eastern parts of Volhynia and Podolia up to the river Sluch. Administrative positions in those areas could be held only by OrthodoxRuthenian nobility, and allJesuits andJews had to be expelled. Participants of the rebellion were to getamnesty.[37]
Following the Treaty of Zboriv, on 23 August Cossack troops lifted the siege of Zbarazh, ending the campaign. The return of peace was marred by the actions of Tatars, who, on their way back toCrimea, engaged in the taking of numerous captives from among the local population, violating the agreements with Cossacks. The peace treaty itself turned to be short-lived, and by 1650 the pro-war party took head in the Commonwealth's politics, starting preparations for new hostilities.[38]
In December 1650, the Sejm approved the decision to increase the size of the Polish and Lithuanian armies to 36 and 15 thousand men respectively, and to introduce general mobilization of szlachta (pospolite ruszenie) for the next year. By April 1651, the mobilized forces, numbering 40,000 regular soldiers, as many mercenaries and up to 60-80 thousand members of noble militia, had been concentrated nearSokal on the border of Galicia and Volhynia. Khmelnytsky meanwhile concentrated his troops, numbering up to 100,000 men, around half of them Cossacks, near Zbarazh. There the hetman's forces were joined by Tatar cavalry of Islam III Giray, numbering 30-40 thousand horsemen.[39]
On 28 June 1651 the two opposing armies met in a lowland on the outskirts of the town ofBerestechko, starting what would becomeone of the largest and bloodiest European battles of the 17th century. After two days without a decisive winner, the morning of 30 June saw a lull in fighting due to thickfog covering the battlefield. After midnight, Commonwealth cavalrymen led by Jeremi Wisniowiecki performed an attack, which allowedGerman mercenaries to break through Cossack positions and reach Islam Geray's tent. The attack, during which the ruler himself was wounded and his deputy killed, made the Tatars flee in panic. Attempting to stop his essential allies from leaving the battlefield, Khmelnytsky pursued the retreating khan, but was taken prisoner by his men. Having lost the support of Tatars and deprived of their commander, the Cossacks retreated to the banks of river Pliashivka, where they erected a temporary fortification, defending it for the following ten days. Finally, on the night of 9 to 10 June Cossack forces under the leadership of Khmelnytsky's deputyIvan Bohun started a retreat across the river. However, the withdrawal of Cossack cavalry caused panic among mobilized peasants, leading to the destruction of Bohun'srearguard. During one day, over 8,000 soldiers of the Cossack army perished, with Polish troops capturing most of their opponents' artillery and gunpowder and taking control over Khmelnytsky's documents,regalia and the hetman's treasury. Bohun was able to retreat with a cavalry corps numering 20,000 men, as well as parts of artillery.[40]
Berestechko didn't lead to a decisive defeat for Cossacks and their army fully recovered two months after the battle, but nonetheless Polish magnates recovered their possessions inRight-Bank Ukraine, with the Right-Bank population fleeing toLeft-Bank andSloboda Ukraine.[41] According to Ukrainian historianNatalia Yakovenko, the battle represented a turning point, during which the uprising led by Khmelnytsky transformed from acivil war inside of the Commonwealth into a full-scale Polish-Ukrainian war. In their pursuit of the retreating Cossack troops, Commonwealth forces were incessantly harassed bypartisans, with local peasants ruining bridges and river crossings. Hunger forced the soldiers to feed themselves with dead horses and grain from the fields, and epidemics contributed to mass deaths and desertion of troops. Jeremi Wisniowiecki himself died during the march after falling sick nearPavoloch. Meanwhile Khmelnytsky was able to escape Tatar captivity and arrived toBila Tserkva, where he gathered troops from around Right-bank Ukraine, establishing a fortified camp. By the second half of August, the hetman could amass an army of 25,000 Cossacks and 6,000Nogays. Another 4,000 Cossacks were stationed in Left-bank Ukraine threatening Kyiv, which had been recently taken by the Lithuanian army ofJanusz Radziwiłł.[42]
After both sides had been exhausted atBila Tserkva, they signedTreaty of Bila Tserkva, which was less favourable for Cossacks.[41] According to its terms, the Cossack registry was limited to 20,000, and Cossack autonomy was limited to Kyiv Voivodeship only. The hetman obliged himself to abandon the treaty with Crimean Tatars and refrain from any foreign contacts. However, the peace treaty was never ratified, as voting at the new Sejm, which gathered in early 1652, was blocked by one of the deputies executing his right ofliberum veto.[43]
The failure to ratify the Treaty of Bila Tserkva allowed Khmelnytsky to resume hostilities, and in April 1652 he informed his starshyna about new war preparations. The formal ground for a new campaign was theplanned invasion of a Cossack-Tatar force led by the hetman's sonTymish intoMoldova. Troops led by field hetmanMarcin Kalinowski, counting 12,000hussars and 8,000 infantry, marched to stop the Cossack force and encamped themselves near the Batih, a mountain located over theBuh river not far fromLadyzhyn. The Polish force was taken by surprise when Tatar cavalry attacked the camp, surrounding it by the evening of 1 June. Next day Polish positions were stormed and taken by force, killing Kalinowski and half of his hussars.[44] TheBattle of Batih served as a revenge for the previous year's defeat at Berestechko, with Khmelnytsky ordering Cossacks to kill all Polish prisoners, part of whom were bought from the Tatars, in an event known as theBatih massacre.[45][46]
Following the victory at Batih, Khmelnytsky proposed the Commonwealth to restore the Treaty of Zboriv, but the Sejm refused the offer. By the end of the year, Commonwealth army was expanded to 34,000 soldiers, including 68 new cavalry units. In March 1653 a new invasion by Polish troops started in the area ofBratslav, with units commanded byStefan Czarniecki devastating the region. In July of the same year the king personally arrived toHlyniany near Lviv in order to head the crown army. All approaches for new negotiations by Khmelnytsky were demonstratively ignored. In early October, the royal army established its camp nearZhvanets on theDniester, across the river fromKhotyn. Numbering around 40,000 soldiers, the Polish force was blocked by a similar-sized army of Cossacks supported by Tatars. After an exhaustingsiege, khan Islam III Giray initiated a round of negotiations, which resulted in the signing of a new peace treaty on 17 December.[47]
As the siege of Zhvanets was still ongoing, on 11 October 1653 theZemsky Sobor ofMuscovy approved the decision to accept the Zaporozhian Host under the rule of the tsar. This signified a new escalation in the war, which after six years started to attain an international character.[48] Following the signing of theTreaty of Pereyaslav in early 1654, a 18,000-strong Cossack force commanded byacting hetmanIvan Zolotarenko assisted the tsar's army during its invasion of Belarus. By July 1654 Zolotarenko's troops had occupied the areas ofBykhaw,Krychaw andMogilev, where they spent the following winter. During the summer of 1655 Cossack troops continued their advance northwards, takingSvislach andMinsk. After uniting with Muscovite forces, Zolotarenko's troops moved on to Vilnius andGrodno.[49]
Facing the newly established alliance between the Cossacks and Moscow, in June 1654 Poland signed an "eternal treaty" with Crimea inBakhchisaray, breaking the union between the khan and Khmelnytsky. From that point, royal troops and Tatars would coordinate their actions against the hetman. In October 1654 a 30,000-strong force under command of Seweryn Potocki entered the region of Bratslav, meanwhile the Tatars moved in the direction of Uman. The raid devastated the region of Podolia, forcing thousands to flee to Moldova and delaying Khmelnytsky's offensive in the direction of Volhynia. In late January 1655 the hetman's troops were finally able to unite with Moscow's troops commanded byvoivodeVasily Sheremetev. Amid severe frost, on 29-31 January the allied armies encountered the crown army at theBattle of Okhmativ. The action ended in a stalemate, but succeeded in stopping the Polish advance.[50]
The so-calledSwedish Deluge, initiated by the decision ofSwedish kingCharles X Gustav to use the Polish weakness in the east in order to establish control over theBaltic Sea, directly influenced the course of events in Ukraine. Already in late May 1655, weeks before the invasion, Khmelnytsky established diplomatic contacts with Charles X, joining forces with Sweden's allies -Transylvanian princeGeorge II Rakoczi andprince electorFrederick William ofBrandenburg. After uniting with a Muscovite corps under command ofVasily Buturlin, the Cossack army set out in the direction of Lviv, besieging the city on 29 September. However, a Tatar raid into Khmelnytskyi's rear forced the hetman to lift the siege in exchange for acontribution. After several battles against each other, the hetman started negotiations with the Crimean khanMehmed IV Giray, which ended in a peace agreement.[51]
Khmelnytsky's passivity during the siege of Lviv was influenced by his opposition to claims issued by Charles X onGalicia, as the hetman planned to attach that territory to his state. In addition, Muscovite voivodes provoked the Cossacks by demanding that all cities taken by Khmelnytsky's troops pledge allegiance to the tsar. A similar situation arose in the Cossack-occupied areas of southern Belarus, where the rule of hetman's administration was put in question by Moscow's representatives, who considered that territory to be the property of their monarch. In May 1656 the tsar's government, fearing the rise of Sweden, broke all relations with Charles X and startedpeace negotiations with the Commonwealth. The talks began on 22 August in Vilnius, but the delegation of Cossack representatives sent by Khmelnytsky was denied access to the meeting. Furious at this show of disrespect, the hetman started looking for ways to break the alliance with Moscow.[52]
In autumn 1656 Khmelnytsky signed aseries of agreements with Sweden, Transylvania,Wallachia,Austria, Moldova and Crimea, and renewed talks with Poland andTurkey. Simultaneously, a Cossack corps numbering 20,000 soldiers under command of Antin Zhdanovych joined the forces of George II Rakoczi and Swedish king intheir campaign against Poland. Suffering from ill health, in April Khmelnytsky gathered a council of Cossack officials and declared his 16-year old sonYuri to be his successor. After suffering astroke, on 6 August 1657 Bohdan Khmelnytsky died in Chyhyryn, leaving Ukraine surrounded by numerous enemies.[53]
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Bohdan Khmelnytsky's alliance with theCrimean Khanate was concluded on the conditions of Crimean Tatars being prohibited from takingOrthodoxRuthenians asyasir (slaves) and devastating Ukrainian lands.[54] The Crimean Tatars allied with Cossacks were officially only allowed to enslavePoles andJews.[55] However, these conditions weren't always honored by the Tatars.[citation needed]
The Tatars of theCrimean Khanate, then avassal state of theOttoman Empire, participated in the insurrection, seeing it as a source of captives to be sold.Slave raiding sent a large influx of captives to slave markets inCrimea[56] at the time of the Uprising. Ottoman Jews collected funds to mount a concerted ransom effort to gain the freedom of their people.
Starting from October 1648, Khmelnytsky established friendly relations with Moldovan rulerVasile Lupu, a Christian vassal of the Ottoman Empire, despite the fact that Lupu also cooperated with Warsaw. In summer 1650 kalga Kirim Geray started a punitive campaign against Moldovans after the latter had engaged in attacks against Tatars. As a vassal of the Crimean khan, Khmelnytsky was obliged to support the action, so his troops crossed the Dniester and in September 1650 tookIasi. The occupation was used by the hetman to demand the signing of an official union, as part of which his son Tymofiy (Tymish) was to marry Lupu's daughterRozanda. This marriage would spread Ukraine's influence onto Moldova and legitimize Khmelnytsky in the circle of legitimate rulers under the Ottoman patronage. In July 1652 Tymish himself set out for Moldova with a 6,000-strong force and married to Rozanda in Iasi. In early September he returned to Ukraine with his new wife.[57]
However, a dynastic coup, which took place in Moldova in early 1653 under the leadership ofGheorghe Stefan with the support of Transylvania and Wallachia, broke Khmelnytsky's plans. Forced to defend Lupu against his competitor, Tymish headed an army of Zaporozhian Cossacks invaded Moldova and took its capital inSuceava. The ambitious hetman's son then moved against Wallachia, but met stiff resistance from local troops and their Transylvanian allies. Forced to retreat with his force, Tymish was besieged in Suceava and died in battle. This event put an end to Khmelnytsky's plans in Moldova.[58]
_during_The_Deluge_and_Chmielnicki%2527s_Uprising.png)
The uprising is generally considered to have resulted in success or Cossack victory, as it achieved its main goals of ending Polish–Lithuanian rule over much of the Ukrainian lands and establishing theCossack Hetmanate.[4] Historians such asOswald P. Backus III [pl] believe thatBohdan Khmelnytsky's leadership played a crucial role in the uprising's success.[59] However, the Cossacks' struggle to consolidate their victory, increasing external pressures, and internal divisions after Khmelnytsky's death led to instability and decline for his state during the post-uprising period.[60] This period in Ukrainian history is known asthe Ruin.
The uprising led to decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.[13] It began a period in Polish history known asthe Deluge (which included the Swedish invasion of the Commonwealth during theSecond Northern War of 1655–1660), that contributed to freeing theRuthenians (Ukrainians) from Polish domination but in a short time subjected them to Russian domination. Weakened by wars, in 1654 Khmelnytsky persuaded the Cossacks to ally with the Russian tsar in theTreaty of Pereyaslav, which led to theRusso-Polish War (1654–1667). When Poland–Lithuania and Russia signed theTruce of Vilna and agreed on an anti-Swedish alliance in 1657, Khmelnytsky's Cossacks supported theinvasion of the Commonwealth by Sweden's Transylvanian allies instead.[61] Although the Commonwealth tried to regain its influence over the Cossacks (note theTreaty of Hadiach of 1658), the new Cossack subjects became even more dominated by Russia. The Hetmanate entered a new political situation which was far different than in the Commonwealth, and the church was much more subordinate to the tsar there. Russia had a traditional practice of imprisoning as well as executing Orthodox officials, which was foreign to people from the Commonwealth.[62] With the Commonwealth becoming increasingly weak, Cossacks became more and more integrated into theRussian Empire, with their autonomy and privileges eroded. The remnants of these privileges were gradually abolished in the aftermath of theGreat Northern War (1700–1721), in which hetmanIvan Mazepa sided with Sweden. By the time that the last of thepartitions of Poland ended the existence of the Commonwealth in 1795, many Cossacks had already left Ukraine to colonise theKuban and, in process, wererussified.
Estimates of the death tolls of the Khmelnytsky uprising vary, as do many others from the eras analyzed byhistorical demography. As better sources and methodology are becoming available, such estimates are subject to continuing revision.[63] Population losses of the entire Commonwealth population in the years 1648–1667 (a period which includes the Uprising, but also thePolish-Russian War andthe Swedish invasion) are estimated at 4 million (roughly a decrease from 11 to 12 million to 7–8 million).[64]
From its very beginning in May 1648, the uprising which engulfed Ukraine resulted terrible causalties. The combination of social, religious and political factors resulted in the initial Cossack rebellion growing into a full-scale peasant war. In an instance, almost every peasant turned into a soldier, fighting against the previously existing regime dominated by the nobility and its Jewish representatives, and adopting a military worldview, which lifted the taboo on murder. Not only members of peasant communities, but also the townsfolk would join the rebellion en masse, electing own leaders and claiming themselves to be Cossacks. During June 1648 alone, rebel squads in Left-bank Ukraine captured the towns ofLubny,Borzna,Nizhyn andNovhorod-Siversky, destroying among others the residence of prince Jeremi Wisniowiecki. To the south of Kyiv and in the areas of Bratslav and Podillia numerous rebel groups were active. In July-August the rebel movement spread to the villages and towns in Volhynia andPolesia, and by the end of summer reached Galicia and Pokuttia. As a result, the whole territory populated by ethnic Ukrainians fromSiveria to theCarpathians was engulfed in turmoil.[65]
According to witnesses and participants of the uprising themselves, hate was the main motive of killings by the rebels. It could be provoked by religious and national factors, such as intolerance to Catholics and Poles and a wish to avenge the persecution of brothers in faith, or by social motives, as opposition to the nobility's power over the commoners.[66]
In 1654,Paul of Aleppo reported that Cossacks had exterminated hundreds of thousands ofPoles in their brutalmassacres.[67] According to Paul, Cossacks also exterminated the "whole race" ofJews andArmenians, which turnedUkraine into amonoethnicOrthodoxCossack state.[68]
Before the Khmelnytsky uprising, magnates had sold and leased certain privileges toarendators, many of whom were Jewish, who earned money from the collections they made for the magnates by receiving a percentage of an estate's revenue. By not supervising their estates directly, the magnates left it to the leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants. 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, Cossacks and the peasantry massacred numerous Jewish and Polish–Lithuanian townsfolk, as well asszlachta during the years 1648–1649.Yeven Mezulah, the contemporary 17th-century chronicle byNathan ben Moses Hannover, an eyewitness, states:
Wherever they found theszlachta, royal officials or Jews, they [Cossacks] killed them all, sparing neither women nor children. They pillaged the estates of the Jews and nobles, burned churches and killed their priests, leaving nothing whole. It was a rare individual in those days who had not soaked his hands in blood ...[69]
Most Jewish communities in the rebelliousHetmanate were devastated by the uprising and ensuing massacres, though occasionally a Jewish population was spared, notably after the capture of the town ofBrody (the population of which was 70% Jewish). According to the book known asHistory of the Rus, Khmelnytsky's rationale was largely mercantile and the Jews of Brody, which was a major trading centre, were judged to be useful "for turnovers and profits" and thus they were only required to pay "moderate indemnities" in kind.[70] One estimate (1996) reports that 15,000–30,000 Jews were killed or taken captive, and that 300 Jewish communities were completely destroyed.[71] A 2014 estimate puts the number of Jews that died during the national uprising of Ukrainians to 18,000–20,000 people between the years 1648–1649;[9] of these, 3,000–6,000 Jews were killed by Cossacks inNemirov in May 1648 and 1,500 inTulczyn in July 1648.[9]
In Jewish circles, this massacre became known as Gzeyres Takh Vetat, sometimes shortened to Takh Vetat (spelled in multiple ways in English. InHebrew:גזירות ת"ח ות"ט). This translates to "the (evil) decrees of (years) 408 and 409" referring to the years 5408 and 5409 on the Jewish calendar, which corresponds to the years 1648 and 1649 on the non-Jewish calendar.[72][73]
Due to the widespread murders, Jewish elders at the Council of Vilna banned merrymaking by a decree on July 3, 1661: they set limitations on wedding celebrations, public drinking, fire dances, masquerades, and Jewish comic entertainers.[74] Stories about massacre victims who had been buried alive, cut to pieces, or forced to kill one another spread throughout Europe and beyond. These stories filled many with despair, led others to identifySabbatai Zevi as the Messiah,[75][76] and contributed in later years to growing interest inHasidism.
The accounts of contemporary Jewish chroniclers of the events tended to emphasize large casualty figures, but since the end of the 20th century they have been re-evaluated downwards. Early 20th-century estimates of Jewish deaths were based on the accounts of the Jewish chroniclers of the time, and tended to be high, ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 or more; in 1916Simon Dubnow stated:
The losses inflicted on the Jews of Poland during the fatal decade 1648–1658 were appalling. In the reports of the chroniclers, the number of Jewish victims varies between one hundred thousand and five hundred thousand. But even if we accept the lower figure, the number of victims still remains colossal, even exceeding the catastrophes of the Crusades and the Black Death in Western Europe. Some seven hundred Jewish communities in Poland had suffered massacre and pillage. In the Ukrainian cities situated on the left banks of the Dnieper, the region populated by Cossacks ... the Jewish communities had disappeared almost completely. In the localities on the right shore of the Dnieper or in the Polish part of Ukraine as well as those of Volhynia and Podolia, wherever Cossacks had made their appearance, only about one tenth of the Jewish population survived.[77]
From the 1960s to the 1980s historians still considered 100,000 a reasonable estimate of the Jews killed and, according toEdward Flannery, many considered it "a minimum".[78]Max Dimont inJews, God, and History, first published in 1962, writes "Perhaps as many as 100,000 Jews perished in the decade of this revolution."[79]Edward Flannery, writing inThe Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, first published in 1965, also gives figures of 100,000 to 500,000, stating "Many historians consider the second figure exaggerated and the first a minimum."[78]Martin Gilbert in hisJewish History Atlas published in 1976 states, "Over 100,000 Jews were killed; many more were tortured or ill-treated, others fled ...."[80] Many other sources of the time give similar figures.[81]
Although many modern sources still give estimates of Jews killed in the uprising at 100,000[82] or more,[83] others put the numbers killed at between 40,000 and 100,000,[84] and recent academic studies have argued fatalities were even lower. Modernhistoriographic methods, particularly from the realm ofhistorical demography, became more widely adopted and tended to result in lower fatality numbers.[63] Newer studies of the Jewish population of the affected areas of Ukraine in that period estimate it to be 50,000.[85] According toOrest Subtelny:
Weinryb cites the calculations ofS. Ettinger [he] indicating that about 50,000 Jews lived in the area where the uprising occurred. See B. Weinryb, "The Hebrew Chronicles on Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Cossack-Polish War",Harvard Ukrainian Studies 1 (1977): 153–77. While many of them were killed, Jewish losses did not reach the hair-raising figures that are often associated with the uprising. In the words of Weinryb (The Jews of Poland, 193–4), "The fragmentary information of the period—and to a great extent information from subsequent years, including reports of recovery—clearly indicate that the catastrophe may have not been as great as has been assumed."[86]
A 2003 study by Israeli demographerShaul Stampfer ofHebrew University dedicated solely to the issue of Jewish casualties in the uprising concludes that 18,000–20,000 Jews died out of a total population of 40,000. He attributes many of these deaths to disease and famine.[87]Paul Robert Magocsi states that Jewish chroniclers of the 17th century "provide invariably inflated figures with respect to the loss of life among the Jewish population of Ukraine. The numbers range from 60,000–80,000 (Nathan Hannover) to 100,000 (Sabbatai Cohen), but that "[t]he Israeli scholars Shmuel Ettinger and Bernard D. Weinryb speak instead of the 'annihilation of tens of thousands of Jewish lives', and the Ukrainian-American historianJaroslaw Pelenski narrows the number of Jewish deaths to between 6,000 and 14,000".[88] Orest Subtelny concludes:
Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history.[86]
In the two decades following the uprising the Commonwealth suffered two more major wars (The Deluge andRusso-Polish War (1654–67); during that period total Jewish casualties are estimated at another 20,000 to 30,000.
While the Cossacks and peasants (known aspospolity[89]) were in many cases the perpetrators of massacres of Polishszlachta members and their collaborators, they also suffered the horrendous loss of life resulting from Polish reprisals, Tatar raids, famine, plague and general destruction due to war.
At the initial stages of the uprising, armies of the magnateJeremi Wiśniowiecki, on their retreat westward inflicted terrible retribution on the civilian population, leaving behind them a trail of burned towns and villages.[90] Wisniowiecki's forces acted through terror, putting their victims on stakes, installinggallows in town squares, cutting off heads and hands, and blinding numerous people, including priests.[91]
In addition, Khmelnytsky's Tatar allies often continued their raids against the civilian population, in spite of protests from the Cossacks. Direct confrontations also took place, such as theclash at Syni Vody [uk] in 1651, where the Cossacks had defeated and slaughtered 10,000 Crimean Tatars engaged in plunder. After the Cossacks' alliance with theTsardom of Russia was enacted, the Tatar raids became politically unrestrained; coupled with the onset of famine, they led to a virtual depopulation of whole areas of the country. Cossacks responded withraids into theCrimean Khanate, such as theblockade of Kerch in 1655, which prevented 100,000 Tatars from carrying out a large-scale raid into Ukraine and led to devastation of the Crimean settlements. The extent of the tragedy inRight-bank Ukraine can be exemplified by a report of a Polish officer of the time, describing the devastation:
I estimate that the number of infants alone who were found dead along the roads and in the castles reached 10,000. I ordered them to be buried in the fields and one grave alone contained over 270 bodies... All the infants were less than a year old since the older ones were driven off into captivity. The surviving peasants wander about in groups, bewailing their misfortune.[92]
Mass killings, emigration, growth in the number of refugees and rise in crime caused terrible devastation in Ukrainian lands. According to demographic estimates, the population of the region of Bratslav during the 1660s had decreased in comparison to the latter third of the 16th century. There and in the regions of Volhynia and Galicia the population had decreased almost by half by the 1650s. War led to the mass migration of local population toMoldova and into the Left Bank andSloboda Ukraine. In additon, thousand of people were captured asesir by Tatars: in 1648 the number of captives captured by the nomads was said to be so high, that one nobleman would be exchanged for a horse, and one Jew - for a handful oftobacco. Throughout late 1654 and until spring 1655 the Tatar Horde, then acting in coordination with Polish forces, devastated 270 towns and villages in Podolia. During their campaigns in autumn 1655, Muscovite and Tatar armies devastated wide strips of land between Kyiv, Lviv andKamianets-Podilsky. Famine and disease were widespread from the very beginning of the uprising in 1648, contributed by large numbers of troops amassing in localized areas around Ukraine.[93]
The rebellion had a major effect onPoland andUkraine.With Fire and Sword is a historical fiction novel, set in the 17th century in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
With Fire and Sword is also a Polish historical drama film directed byJerzy Hoffman. The film is based on the novelWith Fire and Sword, the first part inHenryk Sienkiewicz'sThe Trilogy.
Founder of the Cossack Hetmanate, Khmelnytsky led asuccessful uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1648 to 1657, ultimately establishing an independent Cossack state.
Ukraine had the most to offer to general European discussions in the question of how asuccessful revolt could be mounted in the seventeenth century that could fulfill many of the criteria of a revolution.
Khmelnytsky was the hetman who led thesuccessful seventeenth-century uprising that freed many Ukrainian lands from Polish rule, but in the process, numerous Poles and Jews were killed, and the Cossack leader is depicted as a villain in their historiographies.
After nearly a decade of bloodshed, the uprising was successful, overthrowing Polish-Lithuanian rule.
Khmelnytsky led the Cossacks to victory against the Polish forces, establishing the Cossack Hetmanate, a Ukrainian Cossack state in the area of what is today central Ukraine.
A crucial element in the revolt was the leadership of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1648–57), whose exceptional organizational, military, and political talents to a large extent accounted for its success.
Between 1648 and 1654, Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian (Dnieper) Cossacks in a successful uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, permanently changing the balance among Eastern European powers and advancing the cause of Ukrainian nationalism.
Khmelnytsky Uprising or the National Liberation War headed by the hetman Bohdan Khmelnitskyi – the largest and successful Cossack uprising that finished with a creation of the first Ukrainian state – Hetmanate.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)During the decade of his rule, Chmielnicki was responsible for leading asuccessful revolt against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which dominated Ukraine at the time, and for bringing the lands he controlled under the authority of the tsardom of Muscovy in 1654.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)A po sim" pravilam" i obshirnyy torgovyy gorod" Brody, napolnennyy pochti odnimi Zhidami, ostavlen" v" prezhney svobodѣ i tsѣlosti, yako priznannyy ot" Ruskikh" zhiteley poleznym" dlya ikh" oborotov" i zarabotkov", a tol'ko vzyata ot" Zhidov" umѣrennaya kontributsíya suknami, polotnami i kozhami dlya poshit'ya reyestrovomu voysku mundirov" i obuvi, da dlya prodovol'stvíya voysk" nѣkotoraya provizíya.А по симъ правиламъ и обширный торговый городъ Броды, наполненный почти одними Жидами, оставленъ въ прежней свободѣ и цѣлости, яко признанный отъ Рускихъ жителей полезнымъ для ихъ оборотовъ и заработковъ, а только взята отъ Жидовъ умѣренная контрибуція сукнами, полотнами и кожами для пошитья реестровому войску мундировъ и обуви, да для продовольствія войскъ нѣкоторая провизія. [And according to these rules, the vast trading city of Brody, filled almost exclusively with Jews, was left in its former freedom and integrity, as recognized by the Russian inhabitants as useful for their turnover and earnings, and only a moderate indemnity was taken from the Jews in cloth, linen and leather for sewing to the registered army uniforms and shoes, and some provisions for feeding the troops.]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link), cited inStrauss, Herbert Arthur (1993).Hostages of modernization: Studies on Modern Antisemitism 1870–1933/39.Walter de Gruyter. p. 1013.ISBN 3-11-013715-1. (footnote 3)In 1648, under the leadership of Chmielnicki, they ravaged the land with fire and sword. Their hatred of the Jews was boundless and they rarely attempted to persuade the unfortunate to convert. These persecutions were characterized by hitherto-unknown atrocities. Children were torn apart or thrown into the fire before the eyes of their mothers, women were burned alive, men were skinned and mutilated. People must have thought hell had let loose all the tormenting monsters that medieval painters had portrayed dragging the condemned to eternal punishment. The roads were choked with thousands of refugees trying to escape the murderous hordes. The famous rabbis of the Talmud schools died by the hundreds as martyrs for their faith. The total number of the dead was estimated at about one hundred thousand.
In their revolt, the Ukrainians slaughtered over one hundred thousand Jews.
Thus, when in 1648, the Ukrainians under Chmielnicki rose against Polish dominion the Jews were to bear the main brunt of their fury. Within eighteen months over three hundred Jewish townships were destroyed and over one hundred thousand Jews—about a fifth of Polish Jewry—perished. It was the greatest calamity the Jews were to experience until the rise of Hitler.
Under the leadership of the barbaric Bogdan Chmielnitski, they exploded in a revolt of terrible violence in which their anger at their Polish lords also turned against Jewish 'infidels,' some of whom had been used by the Poles as tax collectors... In the ten years between 1648 and 1658 no fewer than 100,000 Jews were killed.
... set off bloody massacres, led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (1593–1657), in which nearly 300,000 Eastern European Jews were killed or uprooted.
Bogdan Chmelnitzki leads Cossack uprising against Polish rule; 100,000 Jews are killed and hundreds of Jewish communities are destroyed
The peasants of Ukraine rose up in 1648 under a petty aristocrat Bogdan Chmielnicki. ... It is estimated that 100,000 Jews were massacred and 300 of their communities destroyed.
Moreover, Poles must have been keenly aware of the massacre of Jews in 1768 and even more so as the result of the much more widespread massacres (approximately 100,000 dead) of the earlier Chmielnicki pogroms during the preceding century.
... as many as 100,000 Jews were murdered throughout the Ukraine by Bogdan Chmielnicki's Cossack soldiers on the rampage.
A series of massacres perpetrated by the Ukrainian Cossacks under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnicki saw the death of up to 100,000 Jews and the destruction of perhaps 700 communities between 1648 and 1654 ...
In response to Poland having taken control of much of the Ukraine in the early seventeenth century, Ukrainian peasants mobilized as groups of cavalry, and these "cossacks" in the Chmielnicki uprising of 1648 killed an estimated 100,000 Jews.
Is there not a difference in nature between Hitler's extermination of three million Polish Jews between 1939 and 1945 because he wanted every Jew dead and the mass murder 1648–49 of 100,000 Polish Jews by General Bogdan Chmielnicki because he wanted to end Polish rule in the Ukraine and was prepared to use Cossack terrorism to kill Jews in the process?
... massacring an estimated one hundred thousand Jews as the Ukrainian Bogdan Chmielnicki had done nearly three centuries earlier.
This situation changed for the worse in 1648–49, the years in which the Chmelnicki massacres took place. These persecutions, which swept over a large part of the Polish Commonwealth, wrought havoc with the Jewry of that country. Many Jewish communities were practically annihilated by the ruthless Cossack bands, and many more were disintegrated by the flight of their members to escape the enemy... The Jews of the Ukraine, Podolia and Eastern Galicia bore the brunt of the massacres. It is estimated that about two hundred thousand Jews were killed in these provinces during the fatal years of 1648–49.
...carried out in 1648 and 1649 by the Cossacks of the Ukraine, led by Bogdan Chmielnicki. The anti-Semitic outburst took the lives of from 150,000 to 200,000 Jews.
Between 100,000–500,000 Jews were murdered by the Cossacks during the Chmielnicki massacres.
After defeating the Polish army, the Cossacks joined with the Polish peasantry, murdering over 100,000 Jews.
In 1648–55 the Cossack under Bogdan Chmielnicki (1593–1657) joined with the Tartars in the Ukraine to rid themselves of Polish rule... Before the decade was over, more than 100,000 Jews had been slaughtered.
By the time the Cossacks and the Poles signed a peace treaty in 1654, 700 Jewish communities had been destroyed and more than 100,000 Jews killed.
Finally, in the spring of 1648, under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnicki (1595–1657), the Cossacks revolted in the Ukraine against Polish Rule. ... Although the exact number of Jews massacred is unknown, with estimates ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 ...
Even when there was mass destruction, as in the Chmielnicki uprising in 1648, the violence against Jews, where between 40000 and 100000 Jews were murdered ...
A lower estimate puts the Jewish pogrom deaths in the Ukraine, 1648–56, at 56,000.
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