During the years 1649-1775 in the central and north-eastern regions of Ukraine there was a Cossack military-political association, which went down in history under the names of the Zaporizhian Army, or the Zaporozhian Sich. The Cossacks called themselves the Cossack state, but this was a clear exaggeration.
The history of the Cossacks is replete with both exploits and betrayals. A rare hetman did not cheat on the tsar, and each justified his betrayal by slandering Moscow. The institute of hetmanship was abolished by decree of Catherine II. The liquidation of the hetmanate in Ukraine was completed in 1764.
History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks
The image of the Zaporizhzhya Cossack in the minds of a contemporary is strongly associated with Taras Bulba from the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. Say, brave lads gathered, fiercely fought with the Poles and Tatars for the Orthodox faith, for their native land. The reality was different.
Cossack armyformed from marginal elements. People of different nationalities and classes, often persecuted by the authorities, fled to the Sich. The main occupation of the Sich were raids on Tatar and Turkish lands, and in their free time from military campaigns - hunting and fishing.
During military campaigns against the Turks and the Crimean Tatars, the Cossacks simultaneously freed Christian slaves from Muslim slavery. Often former slaves joined the ranks of saviors.
The Cossacks did not obey the authorities of neighboring states, but willingly took part in the military campaigns of their neighbors as mercenaries. Detachments of Cossacks served in the Russian troops, fought shoulder to shoulder with the knights of the Polish king. Large detachments of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks were constantly kept in their troops by the Crimean Khan.
Registered Cossacks
Territorially, the Zaporozhian Sich was part of the Commonwe alth, but it was an independent and extremely aggressive, with a penchant for anarchy, organization. In 1572, the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus made an attempt to put an end to the Cossack freemen. A register of Cossacks was created, a banal list. Registered Cossacks were considered soldiers of the royal troops, received a salary, were exempt from taxes, and were subordinate to the crown hetman. By 1590, the number of registered Cossacks exceeded a thousand people. The number of non-registered ones was much higher.
In the minds of particularly ambitious Cossacks, the idea of a higher status in the country's hierarchy was born. Petitions rained down on the king and the Sejm asking for the assignment of knighthoods.and privileges enjoyed by hereditary gentry.
An attempt to resolve the issue by diplomatic means failed. The Cossacks decided to get what they wanted by force of arms.
The era of Cossack uprisings
From the end of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, permanent Cossack riots break out in the country, which the peasants willingly support. At any moment they were ready to burn the estates and smash the family castles of the Polish oppressors.
A series of endless uprisings of registered Cossacks swept through the territory of Ukraine. They flared up at intervals of a couple of years, were massive, and were brutally suppressed by regular royal troops.
The uprising of Khmelnytsky
The uprising led by Khmelnitsky was successful. Having announced at the beginning of the rebellion that the Cossacks were fighting not against the king or the Commonwe alth, but against the "evil gentlemen", Bogdan managed to attract the numerous powerless and embittered peasantry. The thesis that the troubles of the common people come from the dominance of the Gentiles - Catholics and Jews, gave the uprising the form of a religious confrontation.
The prudent and cunning Khmelnitsky enlisted the support of the Crimean Khan: he left his son Timothy in the Horde, and in return received a detachment of four thousand mounted Tatars. Islam Giray also benefited from the weakening of the Polish kingdom.
What the Cossack army could not accomplish for half a century, the masses accomplished in a few weeks. The royal power in Ukraine was swept away by a wave of popular anger. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwe althlay at the feet of the rebellious peasants and Cossacks.
The further course of the uprising irrefutably proves that Khmelnytsky did not fight for the independence of Ukraine. He wanted to win back the rights of the Cossacks from the Polish king, similar to the rights of the Polish gentry. But Ukraine rebelled against Polish rule, and a peasant revolution began. Khmelnitsky had no choice but to become the leader of this rebellion.
Oath to the Russian autocrat
In 1649, having defeated the royal army near Zborov, Khmelnytsky signed an agreement with the Commonwe alth, the provisions of which endowed the Cossacks with numerous privileges. Ukraine remained part of the Commonwe alth, and the peasants - serfs. In fact, by signing this document, he betrayed those who won victory for him.
The war in Ukraine broke out with renewed vigor. Hetman Khmelnytsky was forced to conclude an alliance with the Russian Empire.
In 1654, in Pereyaslavl, the Cossack army swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar, recognizing him as sovereign. Ukraine was divided along the Dnieper into two hostile parts: the left Russian and the right Polish. Until the 18th century, the anarchic and unpredictable Cossack foreman created endless problems for the tsarist government.
Hetman Khmelnytsky was not a loyal vassal, he violated his oath more than once. The unfolding struggle for power after the death of Bogdan, a series of betrayals, the disloy alty of the hetmans of the Zaporizhzhya army made Russia think about eliminating the hetmanate in Ukraine.
First restrictions
After the betrayal and flight to Poland of Ivan Vyhovsky, who accepted the hetman's mace after the death of B. Khmelnitsky, Yuriy, the son of Khmelnitsky, was proclaimed hetman. At the same time, the Pereyaslav Articles of 1659 were adopted, according to which the right to control the Cossack hetmanship was transferred to the governors of the Russian tsar. In the power of the hetman, only command and control of the troops was left. Powers in other areas of public life - administrative, judicial and others - were transferred to royal officials.
This was the initial stage of liquidation of the hetmanate and elements of autonomy in Ukraine.
The betrayal of Hetman Mazepa
In the process of the liquidation of the Ukrainian hetmanate, Ivan Mazepa deserves special credit. In 1687, Hetman Mazepa and representatives of the tsarist government signed the Treaty of Kolomak. Declaratively, the agreement reserved for the Cossack freemen all the privileges granted to them earlier. At the same time, the treaty significantly limited the powers of the hetman and the Cossacks. From now on, without the approval of the Russian tsar, it was impossible to re-elect the hetman and change the composition of the Cossack officers. A regiment of Russian archers is deployed on the territory of the Hetmanate.
After the betrayal of Mazepa and his flight with a detachment of Cossacks in 1500 bayonets to the Swedish king Charles XII in 1708, the next hetman I. Skoropadsky was practically appointed by Peter I. Officers from Russia began to be appointed to the colonel's and senior positions of the Cossack troops. The process of eliminating the hetmanship in Ukraine was gaining momentum.
Liquidationhetmanate
In 1764, by decree of Catherine II, the Little Russian Collegium, created by Peter I in 1722 and abolished by Peter II in 1728, was restored. The Empress continued to strengthen the vertical of power of the Russian state and brought the administrative structure of the outlying autonomies to a single general form that corresponded to the norms of the empire. The Collegium was delegated all powers in the affairs of the Left Bank and Slobozhanskaya Ukraine, as well as control over the local administration. The board was headed by Governor-General P. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. Hetman Razumovsky was dismissed, the post of hetman was abolished.
The liquidation of the hetmanate in Ukraine by Catherine the 2nd was completed.
Liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich
1764 was the year of liquidation of the hetmanship in Ukraine.
After the victory in the war with the Ottoman Empire and the signing of a peace treaty, the Crimean Tatars came under the protectorate of Russia. The threat of raids from the Crimean Khanate has been eliminated. Being in deep decline, torn apart by internal contradictions, the Commonwe alth also did not pose a danger to Russia.
Russia no longer needed the Zaporozhye Cossacks to protect the southwestern outskirts of the empire. Zaporizhzhya Sich has lost its military and political significance.
After the devastating uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev, which was joined by part of the Ural and Zaporozhye Cossacks, Catherine II had good reason to consider the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks as a source of potential danger.
Manifesto On the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich and onattributing it to the Novorossiysk province”signed by Catherine II on August 4, 1775.
The Cossack officer class was included in the Imperial Russian nobility. Ordinary Cossacks, including a significant part of the old Cossacks, were reduced to peasant status, most of the Cossacks were resettled in the Kuban and Don.
