Tuesday, May 26, 2015

The Civil War and the division of Ukraine (1657 - 1663)

During the 1657-1663 years was a significant weakening of Ukraine and strengthen the position of Poland and Moscow. As a result of adverse external and internal conditions the Ukrainian state was actually split into two parts - the Right Bank and the Left Bank (on the Dnieper River).  The political orientation of these parts of Ukraine was significantly different.

The current war of Russia against Ukraine causes many associations with World War II. However, it should be noted that the Russia's modus operandi does not change more than 800 years since the emergence of statehood of the Finno-Ugric tribes. 

No matter how the name of this country in the past - Moskoviya, Great Russia, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation. The mode of action remains the same - permanent territorial conquest war. In Russia, this process is called an innocent term "territorial acquisitions."

European states have renounced military colonial policy, as this policy has ceased to be profitable for them. It is time for economic expansion and competition of economic models operating in other countries. But Russia cannot offer to other countries the  successful economic development model, and forced to fight for its influence by means of former military-colonial methods.

One example of this mode of action is the outbreak of the civil war in Ukraine 1657-1663's.
During these years was a significant weakening of Ukraine and strengthen the position of Poland and Moscow. As a result of adverse external and internal conditions the Ukrainian state was actually split into two parts – the Left-bank Ukraine and the Right-bank Ukraine (on the Dnieper River).  The political orientation of these parts of Ukraine was significantly different – the Left-Bank Ukraine oriented on Moscow, and the Right-Bank Ukraine oriented on Poland and Europe.

October 25, 1657 Korsun officers' council elected  Ivan Vyhovsky as a Hetman of a Hetmanate (Cossack Ukraine). Hetman Vyhovsky started negotiations with the Polish king for the return of Ukraine to Poland in favorable terms of the Commonwealth.

In September 1658 in Hadyach between the Hetman and Poland signed an agreement under which Ukraine as the Grand Duchy of Rus was a member of the Commonwealth and created together with Lithuania and Poland, a separate state entity - "Commonwealth of Three Nations".

Thus, the Treaty of Hadiach was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ukrainian Cossacks. It was designed to elevate the Cossacks and Ruthenians to the position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian union and in fact, transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth. 
The specific features of the Treaty of Hadiach were:
1.     Creation of the Duchy of Ruthenia from Chernigov Voivodeship, Kyiv Voivodeship and Bratslav Voivodeship (The Cossack negotiators had originally demanded that Ruthenian Voivodeship, Volhynian Voivodship, Belz Voivodeship, and Podolian Voivodeship be included as well), which would be governed by a Cossack hetman, elected for life from among four candidates presented by the Cossacks and confirmed by the King of Poland;
2.     Creation of parallel Ruthenian offices, tribunal, academy (Kiev's Orthodox Collegium would be raised to the status of an academy; a second Orthodox higher institution of learning would be founded; and as many schools and printing presses "as were necessary" would be established), a judicial system, treasury and mint as existed in Poland and Lithuania;
3.     The Duchy would be connected with the Commonwealth by the common king. There would be only one national parliament (Sejm) and one foreign policy in the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth;
4.     Admission to the Senate of Orthodox ecclesiastic members: the Archbishop (metropolitan) of Kiev and other Orthodox bishops (of Lutsk, Lviv, Przemyśl, Chełm and Mstislav) and elevation of the Orthodox religion and Church to the same level as Catholicism. No Uniate monasteries or churches were to be built in the Duchy - the Union of Brest would be dissolved on the territory of the Ruthenian Duchy;
5.     Ennoblement of Cossack elders. Each year the hetman would recommend to the king 1,000 Cossacks to receive a patent of hereditary nobility, and up to 100 Cossacks in each military regiment could be personally ennobled as well.
6.     Establishment of a Cossack army, in the form of the Cossack register of 30,000. The officers of these forces would be elected by their own members. The Cossacks' own forces would be supplemented by 10,000 regular mercenaries, paid from public taxes. No other Commonwealth troops were to be allowed in Rus' without the consent of the Cossack Hetman, except in the event of war, and then they would come under the Cossack Hetman's command;
7.     Return of land and property to Commonwealth nobility, which had been confiscated by Cossacks after the 1648 Khmelnytsky Uprising;
8.     A general amnesty for previous crimes would be decreed.

Qualifying the signing of the Treaty of Hadiach as the beginning of the war, Moscow began military operations against the Hetmanat.

Initially, the United Ukrainian-Polish-Tatar troops defeated a large army of Moscow near from Konotop. However Vygovskyy could not beat Moscow and put an end to the civil war in Ukraine.

Instead of searching for an understanding with the opposition Vygovskyy began terror, which strengthens hatred to him a large part of the population of the Left Bank Ukraine.  This tactic was favorable for Moscow. The shelves of Left Bank Ukraine rebelled against Vygovskogo. At the same time, on the Right Bank of the opposition have forced Vygovsky to a renunciation from Hetmanate.
The new Hetman was elected on September 24, 1659. It was Yuri Khmelnitsky, son of Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
Y. Khmelnytsky signed a new treaty with Moscow. New agreement was a significant step in an attempt to strengthen the position of Russians in the Ukrainian lands: increasing the number of officials from Moscow and the Moscow garrisons, the Hetman was not allowed to enter into foreign contacts without the permission of the Moscow tsar, Cossack Management approves by Moscow.
Most of the left bank of the Cossacks and the elders immediately opposed the signed agreement and started to refuse to recognize the authority of Y. Khmelnitsky. In addition, the population of the right bank was dissatisfied with a mass return of the Polish gentry and looting Polish military.
Thus, in the years 1661-1663 in Ukraine there was a wave of civil war and split the left-bank Ukraine (in alliance with Russia) and the right bank (in alliance with Poland).
In 1667 Muscovy (Russia) and Rzeczpospolita (Poland) behind Ukraine  concluded Andrusovo a separate treaty, which significantly increased the rift between the Left-Bank Ukraine and Right-Bank Ukraine.
The terms of the Truce of Andrusovo:
·         A truce was signed for 13.5 years during which both states were obligated to prepare the conditions for the eternal peace.
·         Russia secured the territories of the Left-bank Ukraine, Siever lands, and Smolensk.
·         Poland-Lithuania was left with the Right-bank Ukraine, and the Russian-occupied Belarus with Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Dzwinsk.
·         The city of Kyiv, though situated on the right bank of the Dnieper River, was handed over to Russia for two years under a series of conditions. The transfer, though phrased as temporary, was in fact a permanent one, cemented in 1686 in exchange for 146,000 rubles.
·         The Zaporizhian Sich was recognized as a condominium of both states.
·         Both states agreed to provide a common defense against the Ottoman Empire.
·         The right of a free trade was granted.
·         Compensation from Russia to Poland-Lithuania of 1,000,000 zloty or 200,000 rubles was agreed on for the lands of Left-bank Ukraine.

So, Andrusovo separate agreement defined the place of Moscow, Poland and Ukraine in international relations 60-70's. 17th century.
The effect of these events on religious relations between Ukraine and Russia.
The transfer of Kyiv to the Russian tsardom had far-reaching consequences. Kyiv, situated in the Greek-orthodox part of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy before the Union of Lublin (1569) and in the Polish kingdom thereafter, was the seat of the orthodox metropolitan, who, despite being formally placed under the Roman pope since the Union of Brest (1596) retained authority over the orthodox population in Poland-Lithuania's eastern territories. 
Prior to Andrusovo, Kyiv had been an orthodox counter-weight to the Moscow patriarchate, founded in 1589, and since the metropolitanship of Petro Mohyla hosted the Mohyla Academy which opened orthodoxy to Western influence. 
The transfer of Kyiv to Russia came only days after patriarch Nikon, who reformed the rites within the Muscovite partriarchate, had won the upper hand over his adversary Avvakum, resulting in an inner-Russian schism between reformed orthodoxy and the Old Believers. 
Kyiv now supplied the Russian partriarch with an academy—Mohyla's offer to found an academy in Moscow had previously been rejected—on whose scholars Nikon had relied already for his reforms. 
Nikon himself though, having proposed to replace the Russian simfonia (i.e. the traditional balance of ecclesiastical and secular power) by a more theocratic model, was banned upon his success, effectively shifting the power balance to the Romanov tsars ruling Russia since the end of the Great Smuta (1613). 
As the see of the metropolitan, Kyiv furthermore granted Moscow influence on the orthodox population in Poland-Lithania. "Protection" of the orthodox population, thus became a future argument, or excuse, for Romanov interference in Poland-Lithuania.
 It must be said that in our time, the Church in Ukraine has split in Ukrainian on Church Patriarchate and the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Monasteries of the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine are the real fortress.



Related post: The chronicle of the Cossack Hetmanate

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