History of Ukraine-Rus

Volume 9 of Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus` is the longest and most extensively documented of its ten volumes. The two books of volume 9 contain the master historian’s study of the Khmelnytsky era from the height of Cossackdom’s political and military successes in early 1650 to the death of the founder of the Cossack Hetmanate, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, in 1657. The driving force of this era was, in Hrushevsky’s words, ‘the struggle for the liberation of the Ukrainian masses,’ dictated by socioeconomic conditions and led by the Cossack officer elite. The ‘great political upheaval’ that ensued effectively shifted the center of political gravity in eastern Europe from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to Muscovy. Book 1 of volume 9 covers the period from early 1650 to late 1653. Topics examined here include the Cossack Hetmanate’s drive to overthrow the rule of the Commonwealth; Hetman Khmelnytsky’s efforts to secure Ottoman and Muscovite support; the disastrous defeat at Berestechko; Khmelnytsky’s rallying of his forces; the Bila Tserkva peace settlement; and the victorious Battle of Batih, which restored Cossack rule in Right-Bank Ukraine and parts of Podilia. Also examined are dramatic developments in Ukrainian-Moldavian relations, beginning with a victorious Cossack campaign in Moldavia and culminating in the marriage of Khmelnytsky’s son Tymish to the Moldavian hospodar’s daughter Roksanda. The book concludes with a discussion of the hetman’s political and dynastic plans, which came to an abrupt end with his son’s tragic death. Hrushevsky’s extensive research allowed him to examine the Khmelnytsky era in great detail. His illumination of the Cossack state’s relations with the Commonwealth, Muscovy, the Ottoman Empire, and the Danubian principalities, in…