Nalyvaiko uprising
Part ofCossack uprisings
Map of the uprising
Date 1594–1596 Location Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Result Polish-Lithuanian victory
Belligerents
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	Zaporozhian Cossacks
Commanders and leaders
Stanisław Żółkiewski	Severyn Nalyvaiko (POW)  Hryhoriy Loboda † Matviy Shaula (POW)

TheNalyvaiko Uprising (Polish:powstanie Nalewajki,Ukrainian:повстання Наливайка) was aCossack rebellion against thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Headed bySeveryn Nalyvaiko, it lasted from 1594 to 1596. The second in a long series of Cossack uprisings, the conflict was ultimately won by the Crown of Poland, but two years of warfare andscorched-earth tactics employed by both sides left much ofRight-bank Ukraine in ruins.

The steppe borderland between Poland–Lithuania,Muscovy, variousTatar states (under influence from theOttomans), and theBlack Sea was mostly under control of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, at least since the fall ofKievan Rus'. However, control over such a huge area was never direct and far from complete. The vast, scarcely populated areas of what is now Ukraine (the name itself could be translated asBorderlands) had been attracting all sorts of people, from adventurers to brigands, foreignmerchants, landlessgentry, and runawayserfs. Over time a certain common identity started to form among them, giving birth to theCossacks.

The Republic tried to strengthen control over those lands by creating the so-calledCossack registry, a small yet well-trained and well-equipped unit formed of local folk, tasked above all with policing and peace-keeping duties in theKiev Voivodeship, and most importantly in the so-calledWild Fields. Although in the 16th century the unit was at no time stronger than 1000 men, it was nevertheless a formidable force in an area where no large settlements existed. In addition, unlike the force fielded by and loyal to the central authorities rather than localmagnates—who often fielded their own armies—the Registered Cossacks were to be paid in the same manner as other Polish-Lithuanianstanding army units: the localvoivodes andcastellans were to distribute salaries to them once a year. However, the salaries were being paid irregularly and the basic source of income for the armed Cossacks remained pillaging raids onZaporizhian Sich,Crimea,Moldavia, and other lands underOttoman control. The international situation of the Cossacks and Polish-Lithuanian control over the vast areas ofKiev Voivodeship was further complicated by the fact that the rulers ofMuscovy andAustria (Feodor I andRudolf II, respectively) wanted to win the support of Cossacks in their struggle against the Turks.

In 1591 the so-calledKosiński Uprising started. What started as a private quarrel between one disgruntled Polish noble and some local Ruthenian magnates soon turned into a full-scale civil war between local Ruthenian nobility and the Cossacks. Despite initial successes, the Cossacks started to lose ground and were ultimately defeated by Polish-ledlevée en masse in thebattle of Piątek nearZhitomir. By 1593 the rebellion was quelled andKrzysztof Kosiński killed.

Nalyvaiko, who initially served in private units ofJanusz Ostrogski, took an active part in the suppression of the uprising.^[1] TheSejm, or the parliament of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, declared all Cossacks who took part in the rebellion to be guilty ofhigh treason, but pardoned them soon afterwards and the Cossacks were allowed to keep their boats and arms. Meanwhile, the army of theCrown of Poland, led at the time byhetmanStanisław Żółkiewski, started a new campaign in Moldavia andTransilvania in support ofIeremia Movilă's claims to the Moldavian throne.

Nalyvaiko left Polish service in 1594, organized a paramilitary unit of unregistered Cossacks in the vicinity ofBratslav, and raided severalMoldavian andHungarian towns. Nalyvaiko led his men throughGalicia,Volhynia, andBelarus. HisCossacks and rebelUkrainianpeasants took the cities ofBratslav,Husiatyn,Bar,Lutsk,Kaniv,Cherkasy andSlutsk,Babruisk, andMahiliou inBelarus. The following year Nalivaiko's Cossacks were joined by many runaway Ukrainian peasants and together they captured the town ofLutsk, where his men massacredPolish nobility, Catholic clergy, and localGreek-Catholics. FromVolhynia Nalivaiko's Cossacksmoved intoBelarus, where they pillagedMogilev.

Nalivaiko eventually offered peace to Polish kingSigismund III Vasa, conditioned that the Poles cede the lands betweenSouthern Buh andDniester rivers south ofBratslav to the Cossacks in exchange for their military service and loyalty to thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Having refused these terms, the king recalledHetmanStanisław Żółkiewski from Moldavia. In 1595 Żółkiewski and the royal army set out to end the rebellion. In response to this, Nalivaiko joined his forces with theZaporozhian CossackHetmanHryhory Loboda (Polish: Hryhor Łoboda), but was forced to retreat toleft-bank Ukraine, even after defeating the Poles atBila Tserkva.

In May 1596 the Cossacktabor was surrounded by Polish forces near the town ofLubny. After two weeks of siege, there was unrest as the Cossacks began to run out of food and water. Loboda was murdered, and on 7 July 1596 Nalyvaiko was handed over by the Cossacks to the Poles as a condition of surrender in exchange for their own lives, but the agreement was not kept, and Cossacks were attacked by the Poles immediately after Nalivaiko's surrender. Nalyvaiko was brought toWarsaw, where he was tortured, drawn and quartered, and put on public display (popular stories about his being crowned with a white-hot iron crown or boiled alive in a copper cauldron are not verified by factual evidence). After the rebellion all Cossack lands were taken and given to the Polishmagnates. Nalyvaiko became a legend and a hero ofUkrainianfolklore.

• Gordon, Linda (1983).Cossack Rebellions: Social Turmoil in the Sixteenth-Century Ukraine.State University of New York Press.ISBN 0-87395-654-0.
• Subtelny, Orest (2000).Ukraine: A History.University of Toronto Press.ISBN 0-8020-8390-0.

• Conflicts in 1594
• Conflicts in 1595
• Conflicts in 1596
• 16th-century rebellions
• Military history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
• Cossack uprisings
• Rebellions in Ukraine
• 1594 in Europe
• 1595 in Europe
• 1596 in Europe
• 1590s in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

• CS1 Polish-language sources (pl)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Polish-language text
• Articles containing Ukrainian-language text