Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereiaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian protection. During the uprising the Cossacks led a massacre of thousands of Poles and Jews during 1648–1649 as one of the most traumatic events in the history of the Jews in Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalism.
The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christians.
Ataman was a title of Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds. In the Russian Empire, the term was the official title of the supreme military commanders of the Cossack armies. The Ukrainian version of the same word is hetman. Otaman in Ukrainian Cossack forces was a position of a lower rank.
The Pereiaslav Agreement or Pereyaslav Agreement was an official meeting that convened for a ceremonial pledge of allegiance by Cossacks to the Russian tsar, then Alexis, in the town of Pereiaslav in central Ukraine, in January 1654. The ceremony took place concurrently with ongoing negotiations that started on the initiative of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky to address the issue of the Cossack Hetmanate with the ongoing Khmelnytsky Uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and which concluded the Treaty of Pereiaslav. The treaty itself was finalized in Moscow in April 1654.
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, or simply Zaporozhians were Cossacks who lived beyond the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossacks and Sloboda Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in the history of Ukraine and the ethnogenesis of Ukrainians.
The bulava or buława is a ceremonial mace or baton or sceptre.
Hetman of Zaporizhian Cossacks is a historical term that has multiple meanings.
Ivan Vyhovsky, a Ukrainian military and political figure and statesman, served as hetman of the Zaporizhian Host and of the Cossack Hetmanate for three years (1657–1659) during the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). He succeeded the famous hetman and rebel leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky. His time as hetman was characterized by his generally pro-Polish policies, which led to his defeat by pro-Russian elements among the Cossacks.
Chyhyryn is a city in Cherkasy Raion, Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located on Tiasmyn river not far where it enters Dnieper.
Registered Cossacks comprised special Cossack units of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Cossack Hetmanate, officially the Zaporozhian Host or Army of Zaporozhia, is a historical term for the 17th–18th centuries Ukrainian Cossack state located in central Ukraine. It existed between 1649 and 1764, although its administrative-judicial system persisted until 1782.
Yurii Khmelnytsky, younger son of the famous Ukrainian Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and brother of Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, was a Zaporozhian Cossack political and military leader. Although he spent half of his adult life as a monk and archimandrite, he also was Hetman of Ukraine on several occasions — in 1659-1660 and 1678–1681 and starost of Hadiach, becoming one of the most well-known Ukrainian politicians of the "Ruin" period for the Cossack Hetmanate.
The Battle of Batih was fought between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day village of Chetvertynivka in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Otaman Tymofiy Khmelnytsky and Colonel Ivan Bohun attacked and completely defeated the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of Hetman Marcin Kalinowski, Noblemans Marek Sobieski and Zygmunt Przyjemski, all of them were killed in the battle. In the aftermath of the battle, the Polish–Lithuanian soldiers taken prisoner were brutally slain by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars in the Batih massacre in 3–4 June 1652 as a revenge for the Battle of Berestechko in 28 June — 10 July, 1651.
The Wild Fields is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th to 18th centuries to refer to the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea and Azov Sea. It was the traditional name for the Black Sea steppes in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a narrow sense, it is the historical name for the demarcated and sparsely populated Black Sea steppes between the middle and lower reaches of the Dniester in the west, the lower reaches of the Don and the Siverskyi Donets in the east, from the left tributary of the Dnipro — Samara, and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug — Syniukha and Ingul in the north, to the Black and Azov Seas and Crimea in the south.
Acting hetman or appointed hetman was a title during the 17th and 18th centuries in the Cossack Hetmanate. The acting hetman was the governing authority in the Cossack Hetmanate temporarily substituted for the Hetman.
Ottoman Ukraine, Khan Ukraine, Hanshchyna is a historical term for right-bank Ukraine, also known by its Turkic name Yedisan. The first recorded use of the term Khanska Ukraina are traced to 1737 when the Russian secret-agent Lupul urged Empress Anna of Russia to attack Ottoman Ukraine.
The Battle of Kopychyntsi was fought between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day city of Kopychyntsi in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks under the command of Osavul Demko Lyzovets, Colonels Fylon Dzhalaliy and Semen Savych was defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth’s forces under the command of Hetman Marcin Kalinowski, Noblemans Marek Sobieski and Aleksander Koniecpolski.
The Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host was the head of state of the Cossack Hetmanate. The office was abolished by the Russian government in 1764.
The Truce of Zamość was signed on November 20, 1648 during the siege of Zamość between the King of Poland John II Casimir of Poland and the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
The Moldavian campaign of Tymofiy Khmelnytsky in 1653 was a military campaign in Moldavia and Wallachia by the Cossack-Moldavian army of the voivode Vasile Lupu and the hetman in charge, Tymofiy Khmelnytsky, against the pretender to the Moldavian throne, George Stefan, and the Wallachian troops of prince Matviy Basarab, supported by mercenaries from Transylvania, Poland, and Serbia. The Cossack-Moldavian army was defeated, and Tymofiy himself was killed, which put an end to Bohdan Khmelnytsky's attempts to include Moldavia in the sphere of influence of the Zaporozhian Army, as well as to Lupu's attempt to take the throne of Wallachia and his power in Moldavia.
