The Ruin (Ukrainian history)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Ruins (disambiguation).
See also:
Hetman of Zaporizhian Host
The Ruin
Date29 June 1659 – 16 May 1686
Location
Ukraine
Territorial
changes

Eternal Peace Treaty

  • Partition of Ukraine between Poland–Lithuania, Russia and the Ottomans
    • Left-Bank Ukraine with Kyiv and the territories of the Zaporizhia came under Russian control
    • Right-Bank Ukraine first came under Polish control and later partially under Ottoman control.
Belligerents
Right-bank Ukraine
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth		 Ottoman Ukraine (from 1669)
Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire (from 1669)		 Left-bank Ukraine
 Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders

Right-Bank Hetmans
:

Ottoman Hetmans:

Left-Bank Hetmans
:

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Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, Johann Baptiste Homann (Nuremberg, 1720)
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The Ruin (

Ukrainian history
during the second half of the 17th century.

The timeframe of the period varies among historians:

The period was characterised by continuous strife,

Bohdan to Ivan
there was no hetman [in between]), accurately summarises the chaotic events of this period.

Background

Right-bank Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries
Left-bank Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries

The Ruin started after the death of

Tsardom of Moscow. While Khmelnytsky had operated as a charismatic and influential leader, clearly one of the prominent figures in Ukrainian history, he did not establish clear rules of succession and his will favoured his son Yurii
as the new hetman. Yurii Khmelnytsky (1641–1685), young and inexperienced, clearly lacked the charisma and the leadership qualities of his father, as he showed during his attempts to rule (1657, 1659–1663, 1677–1681, 1685).

At the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's death, the Cossack state had a territory of about 250,000 square kilometres (97,000 sq mi) and a population of around 1.2 to 1.5 million.[

Orthodox Church held 17% of the land; local nobles held 33%. The remaining 50% had been confiscated from the Poles and was up for grabs. Ukrainians comprised a frontier society with no natural borders, no tradition of statehood and a population committed to Cossack liberty or anarchy
.

The confiscated lands could easily change hands in any conflict. There was an unresolved conflict between the mass of poorer cossacks and the wealthier group who aspired to semi-noble status. The state was weak and needed a protector, but of the regional powers, the Poles wanted to take the Ukrainian lands back, Muscovite-Russian autocracy fitted ill with Cossack ideals of liberty, the

Kalmucks
stayed out of the conflict.

The history of Ukraine in this period became very complex. Basic themes included:

  • the failure to find a single leader of Ukraine who could pursue a consistent policy
  • the constant switching of alliances with outside powers who had their own interests
  • conflict between richer and poorer Cossacks
  • the influence of the Orthodox Church, which tended to favour coreligionist Moscow

Left and Right Banks 1648–1663

1648-57: Khmelnytsky: Crimea and Russia: Khmelnytsky started his rebellion in alliance with the

Treaty of Pereiaslav) led to the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
, the Crimeans switched sides and began raiding Ukraine. In his last years Khmelnytsky backed away from Russia and was negotiating with Sweden and Transylvania.

1657-59: Vyhovsky and the Poles: At the time of Khmelnitsy's death his son Yurii was only 16, so the hetmanate was given to

Muscovite-Ukrainian War where Russians were defeated at the Battle of Konotop
on 29 June 1659. Faced with a revolt by several pro-Moscow colonels, Vyhovsky resigned and retired to Poland in October 1659.

1659-63: Yurii Khmelnytsky: Russia and Poland: The hetmanate passed to Bohdan's son Yurii Khmelnytsky who was now about 18. In 1659 he was forced to sign the Pereiaslav Articles, which were often confused with the treaty itself. They significantly increased Russian power. The next year, fighting resumed between Russia and Poland. Yurii hung back. After a number of Polish victories, Yurii agreed to return Ukraine to the commonwealth. This led the left-bank cossacks under Yakym Somko to depose him. Depressed by this effective partition of Ukraine, in January 1663 Yurii surrendered his hetman's mace and retired to a monastery.

Polish Right Bank 1663–1681

Hetman Petro Doroshenko

1663-65: Teteria and Poland: Pavlo Teteria, who held only the right bank, followed a strongly pro-Polish policy. When his invasion of the left bank failed, he returned to deal with the numerous rebellions that had broken out against the Poles. The behaviour of his Polish allies cost him what little support he had, and he resigned and fled to Poland.

1665-76: Doroshenko and the Turks: The goal of

Polish-Cossack-Tatar War (1666–1671)). In the fall of 1667 an Ottoman-Cossack force invaded Galicia and compelled the king to grant extensive autonomy to Doroshenko. He accepted a loose Ottoman overlordship, invaded the left bank, removed the rival hetman and in 1668 declared himself hetman of a united Ukraine. Crimea backed another rival hetman and the Poles backed Mykhailo Khanenko, with whom they invaded the right bank. Turning to meet the invaders, he placed Demian Mnohohrishny in control of the left bank, which quickly came under Russian control. In 1672 he helped the Turks annex Podolia. During the Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681) he aided the Turks against Russia. This involvement with non-Christians cost him his remaining support. On 19 September 1676, he gave up authority to Ivan Samoylovych
of the left bank and went into exile in Russia.

1678-81: Yurii Khmelnytsky and the Turks: In 1678 the Turks, who had a large army in the area, appointed their prisoner Yurii Khmelnytsky as hetman. He participated in the second campaign of Chyhyryn and was deposed by the Turks in 1681.

At this point, English sources become thin. The Right Bank was severely depopulated, many of those who were not killed or enslaved by the Tatars having fled to the Left Bank or Sloboda Ukraine. Polish rule was gradually restored and the country began to fill up again.

Russian Left Bank 1661–1687

1661-63: Somko and the Starshina: In 1660 the left-bank Cossacks deposed Yurii Khmelnytsky because of the Polish alliance and made

Chorna rada of 1663
, he was replaced by Briukhovetsky and executed.

Ivan Samoylovych

1663-68: Briukhovetsky and the Russians 1663–1668: Ivan Briukhovetsky was almost completely dependent on Russia. In 1665 he went to Moscow and signed the Moscow Articles of 1665. Russian tax collectors and soldiers were allowed in, a Russian was to be head of the church, a Russian representative would be present at hetman elections and the Hetman would go to Moscow for confirmation. Soldiers and tax collectors provoked resistance and the church resisted Moscow influence. The Truce of Andrusovo (1667) seemed a Russian betrayal of Cossack interests. A series of revolts broke out. Briukhovetsky back-pedaled. In the spring of 1668, as Doroshenko's forces crossed the Dnieper, Briukhovetsky was beaten to death by a mob.

1668-72: Mnohohrishny and Left Bank Autonomy: On 9 June 1668 Doroshenko proclaimed himself hetman of a united Ukraine. In 1669 the Poles set up a rival hetman, Mykhailo Khanenko, and invaded the right bank. Turning to meet the invasion, Doroshenko placed Demian Mnohohrishny as acting hetman of the left bank. As Doroshenko weakened, under Russian pressure, he accepted Russian supremacy. A stable relationship developed as Moscow moderated its demands and Mnohohrisny protected local interests. He made some progress in restoring law and order but could not control the starshina. Some of these denounced him to the Tsar, who had him arrested, tortured and exiled to Siberia.

1672-87: Samoylovych and Russia: When

Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686, which again recognized Polish rule of the right bank and removed the Poles from Zaporozhia, a major disappointment for Samoylovych. In 1687, 100,000 Russians and 50,000 Cossacks launched an attack on the Crimea (Crimean campaigns
), which failed. Samoylovych was blamed, removed, and exiled to Siberia.

1687–1709: Mazepa and Stability: With the election of Ivan Mazepa as hetman, the Ruin effectively came to an end, and the history of the left bank merged with the Hetmanate as part of Russia. With the start of the Great Northern War in 1700, Russian demands began to seem excessive. In 1708 Mazepa allied himself with Charles XII of Sweden. At the Battle of Poltava, Charles, Mazepa and those cossacks that followed him were defeated and exiled to Turkey.

Results

  1. The attempt to create a Ruthenian Cossack state failed.
  2. Ukraine was partitioned between Russia and Poland along the Dnieper.
  3. Poland lost the left bank, became weakened, and declined.
  4. Russia expanded to the south and somewhat to the southwest.
  5. There was a major shift of Ruthenian population from the devastated right bank to the left bank and Sloboda Ukraine, thereby increasing the area under peasant agriculture.
  6. Turkey briefly expanded its power into Ukraine (Doroshenko to about 1699).

List of treaties

For reference, this is a list of treaties and agreements during the period.

Sources

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