One of the most controversial personalities in Ukrainian history is Yuri Khmelnitsky. The son of the great Bogdan received from historians an assessment that diverged greatly, depending on their ideological position. But all of them agree that the son was significantly inferior to his father in his abilities. The biography of Yuri Khmelnitsky will be the subject of our consideration.
Childhood
Yuri Khmelnitsky was born around 1641 on the Subotov farm near Chigirin in the family of the small Ukrainian gentry Bogdan (Zinovy) Khmelnitsky and Anna Semenovna Somko, sister of the future penal hetman Yakov Somko. In addition to him, the family had seven more children: 3 boys and 4 girls.
Almost nothing is known about the early years of Yuri's life, except that he lived with his father and mother in his native farm.
The life of the Khmelnitsky family and the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth radically changed after 1647, when the personal enemy of Bogdan, the nobleman Danilo Chaplinsky, made a robbery raid on Subotov. He ravaged the estate when the head of the family was absent at home, and half to death tore one of his sons.
War of liberation
Not finding legal authority on an unbridled gentry, B. Khmelnitsky at the beginning of 1648 fomented a popular uprising in Ukraine against Polish rule. The main driving force of the uprising was the Zaporozhye Cossacks, whose hetman in the same year was elected Bogdan-Zinovy.
The initial successes of the uprising were impressive, since the Cossack army in alliance with the Crimean Tatars managed to bring under control most of modern Ukraine. But still, the politician Bogdan Khmelnitsky was not so sophisticated, and as a result of a covert game and a series of betrayals, he was forced to conclude the unprofitable Belotserkovsky peace in 1651, which meant the loss of a significant part of the territories.
Bogdan Khmelnitsky realized that without a powerful ally he could not win the war. At the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654, a decision was agreed on the adoption of citizenship by the Russian Tsar. After that, Russia entered the war with the Commonwealth.
Yuri Khmelnitsky, unlike his elder brother Timosh, because of his childhood, did not take his father directly into military campaigns. After Timosh was killed in 1653 during a campaign in Moldova, Yuri remained the only son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, as his brothers died even earlier. He was sent by his father to study at the Kiev Collegium.
After graduation at the age of sixteen with the participation of his father, Yuri Khmelnitsky was declared hetman. That is, Bogdan was preparing him to inherit power after his death, which happened in 1657 from a stroke.
After father’s death
Sixteen-year-old Yuri, after the sudden death of his father, was not ready to take control of the state. Although part of the Cossacks proclaimed him hetman, at the Chigirinsky Rada the foreman chose Ivan Vygovsky as the head of the general secretary (analogue of the European chancellor). Yuri Bogdanovich was forced to give up power in favor of a more experienced candidate.
From the first days, Ivan Vygovsky led a policy independent of the Russian state. He believed that the Russian Tsar violates the original agreement on an alliance. Vygovsky went on rapprochement with the Commonwealth, which was embodied in the conclusion of the Gadyachsky treaty of 1658. It provided for the inclusion of Ukraine (the Grand Duchy of Russia) in the Commonwealth on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania.
This agreement led to a split in the Cossack ranks. A significant number of elders and ordinary Cossacks were opposed to rapprochement with Poland and remained loyal to the Russian Tsar. The split led to a thirty-year civil war in Ukraine, the period of which was called Ruin. During the hostilities between the Russian army, which received the support of a part of the Cossacks loyal to the tsar, and Vygovsky’s troops, the latter was defeated and forced to flee to Poland in 1659.
Second hetman
After the flight of Vygovsky, the Cossack foreman decided to elect a new hetman. One of the most active supporters of the deposition of Vygovsky was Yuri’s maternal uncle, Colonel Yakov Somko, who himself was aiming for the place of head of the Cossacks. But the main contender was the son of the great Bogdan - eighteen-year-old Yuri. The glory of his father was his trump card. And in the parliament of 1659 in the White Church, Yuri Khmelnitsky was approved for the hetman's post. The years of rule of this hetman (1659 - 1685) coincided with the most bloody period of the Ruins. It should be noted that in order to secure his election, Yuriy sent his father, Ivan Bryukhovetsky, a trusted person, who will become a hetman in the Left-Bank Ukraine in the future to the Bila Tserkva .
At the new parliament, a resolution was adopted on a petition to the Russian Tsar regarding the expansion of the rights of the Cossacks. In particular, questions were raised about strengthening the power of the hetman and the autonomy of the Ukrainian church. But the tsarist governor Trubetskoy rejected the petition. He also demanded a new parliament, at which the rights of the Cossacks were even more limited in comparison with the time of Bohdan Khmelnitsky.
The split of Little Russia
In 1660, Russian troops led by the boyar Sheremetyev opposed the forces of the Commonwealth. Yury Khmelnitsky was to join the governor with his Cossacks, but he hesitated because of cowardice. He was late and was himself surrounded by Polish troops, who had already managed to besiege Sheremetev.
Under pressure from the foreman, Yuri was forced to sign a new agreement with the Commonwealth. At the place of its compilation, it was called the Slobodische tract. This agreement was in many respects similar to Gadyachsky, but already provided less freedom to the Ukrainian population, in particular, did not provide for autonomy. Yuri Khmelnitsky was forced to admit himself a subject of the Polish king.
This fact was not to the liking of a significant part of the foreman and the Cossacks. They refused to obey Yuri and elected Colonel Somko, the punished hetman, who was supported by the Russian kingdom. Under the control of Yuri Khmelnitsky remained only Right-Bank Ukraine. Thus, for a hundred years, Little Russia actually split into two parts: the right-bank part alternately recognized the Polish and Ottoman rule, and the left-bank part - the power of the Russian Tsar.
New failures
Trying to regain power over the entire territory of Little Russia and relying on the support of the Commonwealth, Yuri Khmelnitsky began a campaign on the Left Bank. At first, he was partially successful, but after reinforcements in the form of Russian troops led by boyar Romodanovsky approached Somko, the right-bank hetman suffered a crushing defeat at Kanev in the summer of 1662.
Khmelnitsky was able to stop the Russian troops only by concluding an alliance with the Crimean Khan. So the victory was not his merit. As the commander showed his complete failure, Yuri Khmelnitsky, his policy was defeated, the glory of his father could no longer provide credibility to the right-bank hetman. Therefore, at the end of 1662, he was forced to give up power in favor of Colonel Paul Teteri, and he tonsured himself a monk under the name of Brother Gideon.
Imprisonment
But the misfortunes of the son of Bohdan Khmelnitsky did not end there. Pavel Teterya began to suspect him of wanting to take the place of the hetman again and therefore imprisoned Yuri in 1664 in the Lviv fortress. Only after the death of the hetman in 1667, Khmelnitsky was released into the wild and began to live in the Uman Monastery.
Taking part in the Cossack Council in 1668, Yuri Khmelnitsky initially supported the pro-Turkish orientation of the new right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko, who accepted Ottoman citizenship, but then switched to the side of his rival Mikhail Khanenko.
In one of the battles with the Tatars, Yuri was captured and sent to Istanbul. However, the Turkish imprisonment for the former hetman was relatively comfortable.
Hetman again
After Petro Doroshenko refused hetmanism and transferred to Russian citizenship, it became clear why the Turks were loyal to Yuri Khmelnitsky. The Sultan regarded him as a backup candidate for the post of hetman. Indeed, from the point of view of the Turks, the son of Bogdan was ideally suited for this position. The characteristic of Yuri Khmelnitsky made it possible to say that this weak-minded person would fully act in the direction that was required by the Turks, because one could hardly expect any independent actions from him.
So, in 1876, Yuri was again appointed hetman, this time by the Turkish Sultan. He participated in the Turkish campaign on Chigirin, and then made the city of Nemirov his residence.
Execution
Unable to really manage the Ukrainian lands, Yuri Khmelnitsky began to arrange the execution of his own subjects. These events expose the portrait of Yuri Khmelnitsky in an unattractive light. The hetman’s short reign ended in 1681, when the Turks exiled him to one of the islands of the Aegean Sea.
There is a version according to which Yuri Khmelnitsky was appointed hetman by the Turks one more time - in 1683. But he also continued atrocities, as before. This outraged the Turkish Pasha, who brought Yuri to Kamenetz-Podolsky, where he executed in 1685.
general characteristics
Yuri Khmelnitsky lived a rather complicated and tragic life. A brief biography of this person has been reviewed by us. It must be said that most historians agree that he was a weak-willed, unfortunate person who spent a long time in prison. We can say that Yuri Khmelnitsky became a toy of other people's political interests. This could not but affect his psyche, which resulted in the end of his life in unjustified executions of his subjects.
At the same time, it must be said that we still know relatively little about the motives of this person’s actions. Even regarding his death, there are disagreements among historians.