a112 - 124 (AD) BATTLE UKRAINE 23/6/05 2:34 pm Page 112 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 112 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 113 FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM: THE 1649 WAR BETWEEN THE COSSACKS AND THE POLISH- LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALT H To most westerners, the Cossacks remain a mysterious and romanticized people. Nineteenth century writers and artists depict the Cossacks as extraordinary horsemen. This image is often reinforced by descriptions of Cossacks immune to the vigour of the Russian winter as they continued to nip at the heels of Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812. Novels, like Gogol’s Taras Bulba, and the opera Mazepa, suggests the Cossacks were both cruel and crafty, while ‘The conflict others highlight their barbarity and backwardness. between nobles and By Dr Adrian Mandzy Cossacks would periodically boil over UCH STEREOTYPES ARE OF LIMITED VALUE, the time, as these social outcasts became ever more S term Cossack has evolved over time. Initially skilled in the military arts, Cossack year-round into outright the term was used as a verb to indicate a specific fortified camps developed. Royal officials of the part-time activity that men undertook when in Commonwealth, fearful of the gro w i n g Cossack revolt and the ‘unsettled’ or ‘wild lands’ of the steppe. In number of armed Cossacks, began recruiting these freemen as border guards. So the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth successful were the Cossacks in their rebellion, most of centuries, the Cossacks lived in independent military abilities that by the end of the which were crushed communities along the frontiers of Muscovy, sixteenth century foreign govern m e n t s the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and appealed to the Cossacks for aid. without much the Ottoman Empire. Like the courier-de- Since the Cossacks saw themselves as bois and cowboys of the Americas, defenders of the frontiers, they believed mercy.’ Cossacks hunted, fished, traded, and that they had the same rights and e x p l o red sparsely settled re g i o n s . privileges as the nobles who defended Periodically, males journeyed to the open the realm. In times of war monarchs frontier, spent their time ‘cossacking’ and reaffirmed Cossack privileges and in re t u rned home. Others joined the times of peace, nobles sought to limit Cossacks and spent their lives raiding Cossack authority. The conflict between nobles and Cossacks would settlements in search of loot. periodically boil over into outright T h roughout the sixteenth century, as Cossack revolt and rebellion, most of magnates began to place ever- i n c re a s i n g which were crushed without much mercy. restrictions on peasants and subjugate them to Yet of all the Cossack wars for rights and ever-increasing servitude, many villagers fled freedom, Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s successful to the steppe frontier. Not all Cossacks, war against the Polish-Lithuanian however, were previously farmers - nobles, Nineteenth century Commonwealth changed the face of burghers and former priests could also be artistic depiction of a Europe forever. found amongst this social estate. Over Bohdan Zenovij Khmelnytsky (c. 1595- Cossack Officer. 112 113 a112 - 124 (AD) BATTLE UKRAINE 23/6/05 2:34 pm Page 114 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 114 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 115 Battlefields Annual Review F I G H T I N G F O R F R E E D O M • T H E C O S S A K S & P O L I S H - L I T H U A N I A N S Together, these two traditional enemies faced the largest and one of the most powerful states in Europe - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In May 1648, Hetman Khmelnytsky defeated two Polish-Lithuanian armies, one at Zhovti Vody and another at Korsun. Ukrainian regiments, who served in the Polish-Lithuanian a rmies, defected to Khmelnytsky’s banner. Invigorated by the success of the Cossacks, serfs, peasants and urban dwellers also rebelled. In this ‘Great Revolt’, Jews, Catholics and Polish nobles were killed or driven out from what is today Central Ukraine. Polish nobles responded to the massacres in kind and employed their own terror tactics. Following the destruction of a third Polish-Lithuanian army at Pyliavtsi, Khmelnytsky re t u rned to Kiev where the Ukrainian Orthodox hierarchy treated him as a liberator. Yet is spite of these dramatic victories, the relationship between the rebellious Ukrainians and the Commonwealth remained unclear. The Cossack elite and long-serving rank and file had fought to secure the rights and privileges of noblemen. Others within the Ort h o d o x hierarchy fought for parity with Catholics. Serfs, peasants and the lower urban classes struggled General Map of Central Europe. Showing the locations of the battlefield. against economic exploitation. Since neither 1657) was born on his father’s estate successor of the Polish-Lithuanian Khmelnytsky nor the monarch could propose a at Subotiv, in what is today Central Commonwealth, it was in fact a multi- peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict, the Ukraine. After completing his ethnic and multi-religious state in war continued into 1649. education, Bohdan joined his father which class was more important than In preparation for the spring campaign, more in a war against the Ottoman Turks nationality or religion. During the Cossacks, peasants, townsmen, and nobles and in 1620 he was capture d mid-seventeenth century, many old joined Khmelnytsky and his Tatar ally Khan following the battle of Cecora established Ukrainian nobles held key Islam Girei. Against this force stood thre e (Moldavia). After two years of offices within the Polish-Lithuanian separate Polish armies and a Lithuanian army. captivity in Istanbul, Khmelnytsky’s Commonwealth. The Polish armies struck first and consolidated A 1649 military engineering map of the 1649 Battle of ransom was paid and he returned As a Cossack, Khmelnytsky could their forces at the fortress of Zbarazh under home to his estate at Subotiv. In time, not attain justice in a legal system Prince Jeremi Wi [niowiecki, while the Zboriv; most likely completed by Christopher Houwaldt, a he rose to the rank of colonel, but in c o n t rolled by nobles and in the Lithuanian army moved south to attack Saxon. Original map is in Berlin. 1638, based on a rumour of his autumn of 1647, he was placed under Khmelnytsky’s forces. In such a manner, the p a rticipation in a failed Cossack a rrest on the orders of the local Commonwealth hoped to trap Khmelnysky between the town of Zboriv, less than a day’s ride from Zbarazh, rebellion he was demoted to captain. magistrate. After escaping custody, in Polish and the Lithuanian army. Unfortunately for the Khmelnytsky ambushed the monarc h ’s army as it Over the next decade, Khmelnytsky January 1648, Khmelnytsky fled to the Commonwealth, the Cossacks were able to turn back the crossed the Strypa River. Suffering heavy losses, the offered his services to the monarchy Zaporozhian Sich, the Cossack armed Lithuanian army and advance on the Polish army at Polish-Lithuanian forces established a defensive and was involved in the development A 1651 engraving of the camp located south of the Dnipro Zbarazh. On 29 June, Khmelnytsky reached Zbarazh perimeter and as evening fell, the king’s arm y of his estate. In 1646, a raid by a Ukrainian Cossack leader, River rapids. Now beyond the reach of and besieged the Polish arm y. Surrounded and constructed earthworks in preparation for the coming Polish nobleman on Khmelnytsky’s Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Polish authorities, Khmelnytsky outnumbered, the only hope of salvation lay in the battle. In the morning, Cossacks and Tatars breached the property resulted in the death of his persuaded the local Cossacks that they timely arrival of a relief force. partially completed defensive works. German troops in youngest son. Khmelnytsky tried to find redress to his needed to defend their rights and rebel against their The newly elected King Jan Casimir, personally led a the service of the crown successfully counter-attacked claims in the courts of the Polish-Lithuanian injustices. Unlike other previous Cossack rebellions, second army to free the Polish troops trapped at and sealed the breaches in the line, but in doing so the Commonwealth, which then ruled Ukraine. While the which failed due to the lack of cavalry, Khmelnytsky Zbarazh. Leaving a force behind to maintain the siege, king exhausted his only remaining military reserves. modern day Polish state considers itself to be the direct created an alliance with the Muslim Crimean Tatars. Khmelnytsky moved to intercept the king. Outside the Surrounded and with no hope for rescue, the crown 114 115 a112 - 124 (AD) BATTLE UKRAINE 23/6/05 2:34 pm Page 116 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 116 BATTLEFIELDS ANNUAL REVIEW 117 Battlefields Annual Review F I G H T I N G F O R F R E E D O M • T H E C O S S A K S & P O L I S H - L I T H U A N I A N S opened negotiations with the rebels. The perspective of people who are poorly archaeological record into a holistic sites such as camps, castles and resulting Treaty of Zboriv created an re p resented within the documentary interpretation of these events. The fortresses. The best-known exception autonomous Ukrainian Cossack state. re c o rd. This applies to non-literate first attempt to link the historical to this was Shvechnikov’s Not surprisingly, the Wars of Bohdan societies who left no historic record, those accounts of the battlefield with the excavations at the 1651 Cossack Khmelnytsky are among the most ignored in the historical record (the poor, local topography was undertaken Battle of Berestechko, where, over important events in the history of East illiterate or marginalized groups), and by the Ukrainian historian Ivan the course of multiple field seasons, Central Europe.