Cossack Hetmanate

The Cossack Hetmanate (Ukrainian: Гетьманщина, Het’manshchyna), officially known as the Rus State or Zaporizhian Host (Військо Запорозьке, Viys’kо Zaporoz’kе), was a Ukrainian Cossack state in Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1764 (some sources claim until 1782). For other names, please, see section Name.

The Hetmanate was founded by the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Uprising of 1648–57. In the Soviet, Ukrainian, and Russian historiography as a major benchmark of Cossack Hetmanate was a signing of a military alliance with the Tsardom of Russia during the Council of Pereyaslav. The official document which symbolized the union between the modern Russia and Ukraine however was never preserved and thought to be a fiction. The 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo, however, was conducted without any representation from the Cossack Hetmanate and concluded the borders between the Polish and Russian states, dividing the Hetmanate in half along the Dnieper.

After a failed attempt to break union with Russia by Ivan Mazepa in 1708, the whole area was included into the Government of Kiev and the Cossack autonomy was very restricted. Catherine II of Russia officially abolished the institute of Hetman in 1764 and in 1764-1781 Cossack Hetmanate was incorporated as the Little Russia Governorate headed by Pyotr Rumyantsev.