Cossack Hetmanate
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- This article is about the Cossack republic of 1654 to 1775. For the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic 1918–20, see Hetmanate.
The Hetmanate (Ukrainian: Гетьманщина, Het’manshchyna) was a Cossack state in the central and north-eastern regions of Ukraine during 1649-1775. It came into existence as a result of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the alliance of the registered Cossacks with the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich and other segments of the Ukrainian populace. The Hetmanate's first hetman was Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who ruled from 1648–57.
In 1654 it became a suzerainty of the Tsardom of Russia as a result of the Treaty of Pereyaslav (Pereyaslavska Rada) of 1654 and the Treaty of Andrusovo (Andrusiv) of 1667, which divided the state between Russia and Poland. This division caused the civil war Ukraine between various parties of Ukrainian Cossacks that lasted till the end of the 17th century. In the 18th century the territory of the Hetmanate was limited to the left-bank Ukraine. In 1764 the authonomy of the Cossack state and the post of hetman were abolished by Catherine II of Russia. Its capital was at Chyhyryn, and later at Baturyn and Hlukhiv.
The Hetmanate state consisted of most of central Ukraine and a small part of Russia, including the oblasts (provinces) of Chernihiv, Poltava, and Sumy (without the southeastern portion), the left-bank territories of Kiev and Cherkasy, as well as the western portion of Bryansk Oblast of Russia.
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History
Establishment
After many successful military campaigns against the Poles, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky made a triumphant entry into Kiev on Christmas 1648 where he was hailed liberator of the people from Polish captivity. In February 1649, during negotiations in Pereiaslav with a Polish delegation, Khmelnytsky had made it clear to the Polish that he was the sole autocrat of Rus', positioning himself as the whole leader of all Ukraine.
There the state-building process began where Khmelnytsky's statesmanship was demonstrated in all areas of state-building: in the military, administration, finance, economics, and culture. With the political acumen, he invested the Zaporozhian Host under the leadership of its hetman with supreme power in the new Ukrainian state, He unified all the spheres of Ukrainian society under his authority. This would also built a government system and a developed military and civilian administrators out of Cossack officers and Ukrainian nobles, but also established an elite within the Cossack Hetman state.
Union with Russia
After the Crimean Tatars betrayed the Cossacks for the third time in 1653, Khmelnytsky realized he could no longer rely on the Ottoman support against Poland, the hetman was forced to turn to Muscovy for help. Negotiations began in January 1654 in Pereiaslav between Khmelnytsky, numerous cossacks and on the Muscovite side led Vasilii Buturlin, and concluded in April in Moscow by the Ukrainians Samiilo Bohdanovych-Zarudny, and Pavlo Teteria and by Aleksey Trubetskoy, Vasilii Buturlin, and other Muscovite boyars.
As a result of the treaty, the Zaporozhian Host became a suzerainty of Muscovy, and was split in two; the Cossack Hetmanate with its capital at Chyhyryn and Zaporizhia, centered around the fortress of the Zaporozhian Sich. The treaty also led to the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667.
The Ruin and the division of Ukraine
After Khmelnytsky's death, his son Yuri Khmelnytsky was appointed his successor. However, he was unfortunately not only young and inexperienced, but clearly lacked the charisma and the leadership qualities of his father.
Instead, Ivan Vyhovsky, the general chancellor of the Hetmanate and an adviser to Bohdan Khmelnytsky was elected hetman in 1657. Vyhovsky was trying to establish a more independent policy from Moscow and found himself in a middle of a civil war. After a revolt, led by the Zaporozhian Otaman Yakiv Barabash and Martyn Pushkar, which culminated in a bloody confrontation near Poltava in June 1658. Where Vyhovsky emerged victorious but weakened, he decided to break his ties with Muscovy and concluded the Treaty of Hadiach with Poland on September 16, 1658.
Under the conditions of the treaty, Ukraine would become a third and autonomous component of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the ultimate sovereignty of the King of Poland, but with its own military, courts, and treasury. But the treaty was never implemented because it was unpopular among the lower classes of the Ukrainian society where more rebellions occurred. Eventually Vyhovsky surrendered the office of hetman, and fled to Poland.
This led to the period called "the Ruin," where constant civil wars broke out through the state during the 17th century.
During the Ruin in 1667, the Russo-Polish war ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo where the Cossack Hetmanate was divided into regions called the left and right-bank Ukraine. The Hetmanate was only left with the Left-bank, while right-bank Ukraine except for the city of Kiev became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Mazepa era
The period of the Ruin was effectively over when Ivan Mazepa was elected hetman, and brought stability to the state. He united Ukraine which, once again, was under the rule of one hetman. The Hetmanate flourished under his rule, particularly in literature, and architecture. The architectural style that developed during his reign was called the Ukrainian Baroque style.
During his reign, the Great Northern War broke out between Russia and Sweden. And Mazepa's alliance with Peter I caused heavy losses of cossacks, and Russian interference in the Hetmanate's internal affairs. When the Tsar refused to defend Ukraine against the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, Mazepa and the Zaporozhia Cossacks allied themselves with the Swedes on October 28, 1708. The decisive battle took place in June in Poltava where it was won by Russia, which put an end to Mazepa's hopes of Ukraine independence, which the Swedes had promised independence in an earlier treaty.
End of the Zaporozhian Host
During the reign of Catherine II of Russia, the Cossack Hetmanate autonomy was progressively destroyed. After several earlier attempts, the office of hetman was finally abolished by the Russian government in 1764, and his functions were assumed by the Little Russian Collegium, thus fully incorporating the Hetmanate into the Russian Empire.
On May 7, 1775, from a direct order from the Empress Catherine II, the Zaporozhian Sich was to be destroyed. On June 5, 1775, Russian artillery and infantry surrounded the Sich, and razed it to the ground. The Russian troops disarmed the Cossacks, the treasury archives were confiscated. And the Koshovyi Otaman Petro Kalnyshevsky was arrested and exiled to the Solovki. This brought the end of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
See also
References
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External links
- Okinshevych, L.; A. Zhukovsky. Hetman state. Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
- The Left-Bank Hetmanate. Missiono of Ukraine to European Communities. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
- Cossack State after 1649 (map). sumy.net.ua. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.de:Hetmanat
fr:Hetmanat cosaque ja:ヘーチマン国家 pl:Hetmańszczyzna uk:Гетьманщина
