Khmelnytsky Uprising

The Khmelnytsky Uprising (Polish: Powstanie Chmielnickiego; Ukrainian: повстання Богдана Хмельницького; Russian: восстание Богдана Хмельницкого; also known as the Cossack-Polish War, or the Khmelnytsky insurrection) was a Cossack rebellion in the Cossack Hetmanate, then within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, (the present territories of Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and parts of Russia) in 1648–1657. Under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars and the local peasantry, fought against the armies and paramilitary forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The insurgency was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacks against civilian population, especially against the Roman Catholic clergy and the Jews.

The uprising has a symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine's relationship with Poland and Russia. It ended the Polish Catholic Szlachta′s domination over the Orthodox Christian population; at the same time it led to the eventual incorporation of eastern Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia initiated by the 1654 Pereyaslav Agreement, whereby the Cossacks would swear allegiance to the Tsar while retaining a wide autonomy. The event triggered a period of political turbulence and infighting in the Hetmanate known as the Ruin. In the 20th century, the revolt came to be ideologically presented as the "Ukrainian War of Liberation" and even the "Ukrainian national revolution."