One of the most controversial personalities in Ukrainian history is Yuri Khmelnitsky. The son of the great Bogdan received an assessment from historians that diverged greatly, depending on their ideological position. But all of them agree that the son, in his abilities, was significantly inferior to his father. Biography of Yuri Khmelnitsky will be the subject of our consideration.
Childhood
Yuriy Khmelnytsky was born around 1641 on the Subotov farm near Chyhyryn in the family of a petty Ukrainian gentry Bogdan (Zinovy) Khmelnytsky and Anna Semyonovna Somko, the sister of the future hetman Yakov Somko. In addition to him, the family had seven more children: 3 boys and 4 girls.
Nothing is known about Yuri's early life, except that he lived with his father and mother in his native farm.
The life of the Khmelnitsky family and the entire Commonwe alth changed radically after 1647, when Bogdan's personal enemy, nobleman Danilo Chaplinsky, made a robbery raid on Subotov. He ruined the estate when the head of the family was away from home and whipped one of his sons half to death.
Liberation War
Not finding a legal remedy for the unbridled gentry, B. Khmelnitsky at the beginning of 1648 kindled a popular uprising in Ukraine against Polish rule. The main driving force behind the uprising was the Zaporozhye Cossacks, whose hetman Bogdan-Zinovy was elected that same year.
The initial successes of the uprising were impressive, as the Cossack army, in alliance with the Crimean Tatars, managed to control most of modern Ukraine. But still, Bohdan Khmelnitsky was not so sophisticated as a politician, and as a result of undercover games and a series of betrayals, he was forced to conclude an unfavorable Bila Tserkva peace in 1651, which meant the loss of a significant part of the territories.
Bogdan Khmelnitsky realized that without a powerful ally he could not win the war. At the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654, a decision was agreed on the adoption of citizenship by the Russian Tsar. After that, Russia entered the war with the Commonwe alth.
Yuri Khmelnitsky, unlike his older brother Timosh, due to his early age, did not take direct part in his father's military campaigns. After Timosh was killed in 1653 during a campaign in Moldavia, Yuri remained the only son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, since his brothers had died even earlier. He was sent by his father to study at the Kyiv Collegium.
After graduating at the age of sixteen, with the participation of his father, Yuri Khmelnitsky was declared hetman. That is, it was Bogdan who was preparing him to inherit power after his death, which happened in 1657 from a stroke.
After the death of my father
SixteenYuri, after the sudden death of his father, was not ready to take control of the state in his own hands. Although some of the Cossacks proclaimed him a hetman, but at the Chigirinsky Rada, the foreman chose Ivan Vyhovsky as the head of the general clerk (analogous to the European chancellor). Yuri Bogdanovich was forced to give up power in favor of a more experienced candidate.
Ivan Vygovsky from the first days led a policy independent of the Russian state. He believed that the Russian Tsar was violating the original alliance agreements. Vyhovsky went to rapprochement with the Commonwe alth, which was embodied in the conclusion of the Hadiach Treaty of 1658. It provided for the inclusion of Ukraine (the Grand Duchy of Russia) into the Commonwe alth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania.
This treaty led to a split in the Cossack ranks. A significant number of representatives of the elders and ordinary Cossacks were opposed to rapprochement with Poland and remained loyal to the Russian Tsar. The split led to a thirty-year civil war in Ukraine, the period of which was called the Ruin. During the fighting between the Russian army, which received the support of the part of the Cossacks loyal to the tsar, and the troops of Vyhovsky, the latter was defeated and forced to flee to Poland in 1659.
Second Hetmanate
After the flight of Vyhovsky, the Cossack officers decided to elect a new hetman. One of the most active supporters of the deposition of Vyhovsky was Yuri's maternal uncle, Colonel Yakov Somko, who himself aimed for the head of the Cossacks. But the main contender was the songreat Bogdan - eighteen-year-old Yuri. The glory of his father was his main trump card. And at the 1659 Rada in the White Church, Yuri Khmelnitsky was approved for the hetman's position. The reign of this hetman (1659-1685) coincided with the bloodiest period of Ruin. It should be noted that in order to ensure his election, Yuriy sent his father's trusted man, Ivan Bryukhovetsky, who in the future will become a hetman in the Left-Bank Ukraine, to the White Church to the White Church.
The new Rada adopted a resolution on a petition to the Russian Tsar regarding the expansion of the rights of the Cossacks. In particular, questions were raised about strengthening the power of the hetman and the autonomy of the Ukrainian church. But the petition was rejected by the tsar's voivode Trubetskoy. He also demanded a new council, in which the rights of the Cossacks were even more limited in comparison with the time of Bohdan Khmelnitsky.
Split Little Russia
In 1660, Russian troops led by the boyar Sheremetyev opposed the forces of the Commonwe alth. Yury Khmelnitsky and his Cossacks were supposed to join the governor, but he hesitated because of cowardice. He was late and was himself surrounded by Polish troops, who had already managed to lay siege to Sheremetyevo.
Under pressure from the foreman, Yuri was forced to sign a new treaty with the Commonwe alth. According to the place of its compilation, it was called the Slobodischensky treatise. This treaty was in many ways similar to the Gadyach one, but already provided fewer freedoms to the Ukrainian population, in particular, it did not provide for autonomy. Yuri Khmelnitskywas forced to recognize himself as a subject of the Polish king.
This fact was not to the liking of a significant part of the elders and the Cossacks. They refused to obey Yuri and elected Colonel Somko as the hetman, who was supported by the Russian kingdom. Only Right-bank Ukraine remained under the control of Yuri Khmelnitsky. Thus, over a hundred years, Little Russia actually split into two parts: the right-bank part alternately recognized Polish and Ottoman rule, and the left-bank part recognized the power of the Russian tsar.
New failures
Trying to regain power over the entire territory of Little Russia and relying on the support of the Commonwe alth, Yuri Khmelnitsky began a campaign on the Left Bank. At first, he was partially successful, but after reinforcements approached Somko in the form of Russian troops led by the boyar Romodanovsky, the right-bank hetman suffered a crushing defeat near Kanev in the summer of 1662.
Khmelnitsky was able to stop the Russian troops only by entering into an alliance with the Crimean Khan. So there was no merit in the victory. As the commander showed his complete failure, Yuri Khmelnitsky, his policy was defeated, the glory of his father could no longer provide authority to the right-bank hetman. Therefore, at the end of 1662, he was forced to renounce power in favor of Colonel Pavel Teteri, and he took the vows as a monk under the name of Brother Gideon.
Imprisonment
But the misadventures of the son of Bohdan Khmelnitsky did not end there. Pavel Teterya began to suspect him of wanting to borrow money again.place of the hetman and therefore imprisoned Yuri in 1664 in the Lviv fortress. Only after the death of the hetman in 1667, Khmelnytsky was released and began to live in the Uman monastery.
Having taken part in the Cossack Rada in 1668, Yuri Khmelnytsky initially supported the pro-Turkish orientation of the new right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko, who accepted Ottoman citizenship, but then went over to the side of his rival Mikhail Khanenko.
In one of the battles with the Tatars, Yuri was captured and sent to Istanbul. However, Turkish imprisonment for the former hetman was relatively comfortable.
Hetman again
After Petro Doroshenko renounced hetmanship and passed into Russian citizenship, it became clear why the Turks were loyal to Yuri Khmelnitsky. The Sultan considered him as a reserve candidate for the post of hetman. Indeed, from the point of view of the Turks, Bogdan's son was ideal for this position. The characterization of Yuri Khmelnitsky made it possible to say that this weak-willed person would fully act in the direction in which the Turks were required, because one could hardly expect any independent actions from him.
So, in 1876, Yuri was again appointed hetman, this time by the Turkish sultan. He participated in the Turkish campaign against Chigirin, and then made the city of Nemirov his residence.
Execution
Unable to really manage the Ukrainian lands, Yuri Khmelnitsky began to arrange executions of his own subjects. These events expose in unsightlylight portrait of Yuri Khmelnitsky. The hetman's short term of office ended in 1681, when the Turks exiled him to one of the Aegean islands.
There is a version according to which Yuriy Khmelnytsky was appointed hetman by the Turks one more time - in 1683. But he also continued the atrocities, as before. This angered the Turkish pasha, who brought Yuri to Kamenetz-Podolsky, where he executed him in 1685.
General characteristics
Yury Khmelnitsky lived a rather complicated and tragic life. A brief biography of this person was reviewed by us. It must be said that most historians agree that he was a weak-willed, unhappy person who had been in captivity for a long time. It can be said that Yury Khmelnitsky has become a toy of foreign political interests. This could not but affect his psyche, which resulted in unjustified executions of subjects at the end of his life.
At the same time, it must be said that we still know relatively little about the motives of this man's actions. Even regarding his death, there are disagreements among historians.
