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Russia
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300 Years of Ukraine and Russia Union Commemorative
1954 Commemorative Pin
3.8×2.8mm (12.00 grams)
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The Pereyaslav Agreement,[1]
also known as the Treaty of Pereyaslav, was an act undertaken by the
Council (rada)
of Pereyaslav (Russian:
Переяславская рада) convened in the town of
Pereyaslav (now
Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi
in
central Ukraine
) in January 1654 on the
initiative of
Hetman
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
to address the issue of the
rebellious
Cossack Hetmanate
, at the time a vassal state
in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
, securing the
military protection from the
Tsardom of Russia
in exchange for allegiance to
the Tsar. The Council was attended by a delegation from
Moscow
headed by
Vasiliy Buturlin
. The event was soon thereafter
followed by the adoption in Moscow of the so-called
March Articles
that stipulated an autonomous
status of the Hetmanate within the Russian state. The agreement precipitated the
Russo-Polish War (1654–67)
. The definitive
legal settlement was effected under the
Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686
concluded by
Russia and Poland that re-affirmed Russia′s sovereignty over the lands of
Zaporizhian Sich
as well as the city of
Kiev.
No written treaty was concluded in Pereyaslav. An
oath of allegiance
to the
Russian monarch
from the leadership of Cossack
Hetmanate was taken, shortly thereafter followed by swearing allegiance by other
officials, clergy and inhabitants of the Hetmanate. The exact nature of the
relationship stipulated by the agreement between the Hetmanate and Russia is a
matter of scholarly controversy.[2]
-
Background
1
-
Cossack — Moscow
negotiations timeline
1.1
-
Preparations
2
-
Pereyaslav meeting
and the autonomous Cossack state
3
-
Historical
consequences
4
-
See also
5
-
References
6
-
Literature
7
Background
In January of 1648, a major anti-Polish
uprising
led by
Bohdan Khmelnytskyi
began in the
Zaporizhia lands
. Supported by popular masses,
the rebels won a number of victories over the government forces of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
seeking the
increase of Cossack registry (kept at the expense of the state treasury),
weakening of the Polish aristocratic oppression, oppression by the Jews who
governed estates as well as recovery of positions of the Orthodox Church in own
lands. However, the autonomy obtained by Khmelnytsky found itself squeezed
between three Great powers:
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
,
Tsardom of Muscovy
and
Ottoman Empire
.
Being the main leader of the uprising,
Bohdan Khmelnytskyi
was not able to declare
independence, because he was not a legitimate monarch and there was not such a
candidate among other leaders of the uprising. Taking into consideration the
economic and human resources, the uprising was taking place in backward regions
of the Polish Crown, Kijow, Czernihow and Braclaw voivodeships. The Crimean
Khan, the only ally, was not interested in a decisive victory of Cossacks.
Cossack — Moscow negotiations timeline
It is believed that negotiations to unite the Zaporizhia land with Russia
started as early as in 1648. Such idea is common among Soviet historians of
Ukraine and Russia such as
Mykola Petrovsky
.[3]
Many other Ukrainian historians among which are
Ivan Krypiakevych
,[4]
Dmitriy Ilovaisky
,[5]
Myron Korduba
,[6]
Valeriy Smoliy[7]
and others interpret negotiations as an attempt to attract the Tsar to military
support of Cossacks and motivate him to struggle for the Polish Crown which
became available after the death of
Władysław IV Vasa
.
Preparations
The 1653 Zemsky Sobor that took place in Moscow in the fall adopted decision
on including Ukraine to Muscovy and on November 2, 1653 the Moscow’s government
declared war onto the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
. To conduct
negotiations between two states to Ukraine from Moscow departed a big delegation
headed by boyar
Vasili Buturlin
. In its composition were also
okolnichiy
I.Olferiev,
dyak
L.Lopukhin and representatives of clergy.
The travel took almost three months. And not just because of bad roads and
disorder: there had to be made new
royal standard
, the Buturlin’s speech text,
from the mace (bulawa) designated to Hetman disappeared several precious stones
that had to be recovered. Also the delegation had to wait almost a week for
arrival of
Bohdan Khmelnytskyi
who was delayed in
Chyhyryn
at the burial of his older son
Tymofiy Khmelnytsky
and later was not able to
cross Dnieper
as the ice on the river was not strong
enough.
Pereyaslav meeting and the autonomous Cossack state
At a meeting between the council of
Zaporozhian Cossacks
and
Vasiliy Buturlin
, representative of
Tsar
Alexey I
of the
Tsardom of Russia
, during the
Khmelnytsky Uprising
. The “Pereyaslav Council”
(Pereyaslavs’ka Rada in
Ukrainian
) of Ukrainians took place on January
18; it was meant to act as the supreme
Cossack
council and demonstrate the unity and
determination of the “Rus’
nation“. Military leaders and representatives of regiments, nobles
and townspeople listened to the speech by the
Cossack hetman
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
, who expounded the necessity
of seeking the Russian protection. The audience responded with applause and
consent. The treaty, initiated with Buturlin later on the same day, invoked only
protection of the
Cossack state
by the Tsar and was intended as
an act of official separation of
Ukraine
from the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
(Ukrainian
independence had been informally declared earlier in the course of the Uprising
by Khmelnytsky). Participants in the preparation of the treaty at Pereyaslav
included, besides Khmelnytsky, Chief Scribe
Ivan Vyhovsky
and numerous other Cossack
elders, as well as a large visiting contingent from Russia and their
translators.[2]
The Cossack leaders tried in vain to exact from Buturlin some binding
declarations; the envoy refused claiming lack of authority and deferred
resolution of specific issues to future rulings by the Tsar, which he expected
to be favorable to the Cossacks. Khmelnytsky and many Ukrainians (127,000 total
including 64,000 Cossacks, according to the Russian reckoning) ended up swearing
allegiance to the Tsar nevertheless, while numerous other leaders, Cossacks and
private individuals objected or refused[citation
needed]. The actual details of the agreement were
negotiated the following March and April in
Moscow
by Cossack emissaries and the Tsardom.
The Russians agreed to the majority of the Ukrainian demands, granting the
Cossack state broad autonomy, large
Cossack register
and preservation of the status
of the Kiev
Orthodox Patriarch, who would keep
reporting to the
Patriarch of Constantinople
(rather than
Moscow). The Cossack hetman was prohibited from conducting independent foreign
policy, especially in respect to the Commonwealth and the
Ottoman Empire
, as the Tsardom pledged now to
provide the Hetmanate’s defense. The status of Ukraine, seen by the negotiators
as being now in union with the Russian state (rather than Poland), was thus
settled. The erroneous but stubborn policies of the Commonwealth are widely seen
as the cause of the Cossacks’ changed direction, which gave rise to a new and
lasting configuration of power in central, eastern and southern Europe.[2]
The seemingly generous provisions of the Pereyaslav-Moscow pact were soon
undermined by practical politics, Moscow’s imperial policies and Khmelnytsky’s
own maneuvering. Disappointed by the
Truce of Vilna
(1656) and other Russian moves,
he attempted to extricate the Hetmanate from the dependency. The Pereyaslav
treaty led to the outbreak of the
Russo-Polish War (1654-1667)
and in 1667 to the
Truce of Andrusovo
, in which eastern Ukraine
was ceded by Poland to Russia (in practice it meant a limited recovery of
western Ukraine by the Commonwealth). The Cossack Hetmanate, the autonomous
Ukrainian state established by Khmelnytsky, was later restricted to
left-bank Ukraine
and existed under the
Russian Empire
until it was destroyed by Russia
in 1764-1775.[2]
The contemporary written records of the Pereyaslav-Moscow transactions do
exist and are kept in the
Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts
in
Moscow.
Historical
consequences
The eventual consequence for the Hetmanate was the dissolution of the
Zaporizhian Host
in 1775 and the imposition of
serfdom
in the region, as well as a systematic
process of
Russification
.[14]
For Russia, the deal eventually led to the full incorporation of the
Hetmanate into the Russian state, providing a justification for the title of
Russian tsars and emperors, the
Autocrat of all the Russias
(Russian:
Самодержецъ Всероссійскій). Russia,
being at that time the only part of former
Kievan Rus’
which was not dominated by a
foreign power, considered itself the successor of Kievan Rus’ and the re-unifier
of all Rus’ lands. Subsequently, in the 20th century, in official
Soviet
propaganda and history, the Council of
Pereyaslav was officially viewed and referred to as an act of “re-unification
of Ukraine with Russia“.
For Poland, the deal provided one of the early signs of its gradual decline
and
eventual demise
by the end of the 18th century.
The decision adopted in Pereyaslav is seen by Ukrainian nationalists as a sad
occasion and lost chance for Ukrainian independence. The
“Rainbow” monument
in the Ukrainian capital
Kiev, colloquially referred to as the “Yoke
of the Peoples”, further demonstrates the controversial nature of the treaty.
Pro-Russian Ukrainian parties, on the other hand, celebrate the date of this
event and renew calls for re-unification of the three
East Slavic
nations: Russia, Ukraine and
Belarus
.
In 2004, after the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the event, the
administration of President
Leonid Kuchma
of Ukraine established January 18
as the official date to commemorate the event, a move which created controversy.
In 1954, the anniversary celebrations included the
transfer
of
Crimea
from the
Russian Republic
to the
Ukrainian Republic
of the
Soviet Union
, a movement reversed by the
annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
in 2014.
See also
-
Khmelnytsky Uprising
-
Cossack Hetmanate
-
Pereyaslav Articles
-
History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
(1648–1764)
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