During the years 1649-1775 in the central and northeastern regions of Ukraine there was a Cossack military-political association, which went down in history under the names Zaporizhzhya Army, or Zaporizhzhya Sich. Cossacks called themselves the Cossack state, but this was a clear exaggeration.
The history of the Cossacks is replete with both exploits and betrayals. A rare hetman did not cheat on the tsar, and each justified his betrayal by slandering Moscow. The Institute of Hetmanism was abolished by decree of Catherine II. The process of elimination of hetmanism in Ukraine in 1764 was completed.
History of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks
The image of the Zaporozhye Cossack in the minds of his contemporary is firmly connected with Taras Bulba from the novel by N.V. Gogol. Say, brave lads gathered, fiercely fought with the Poles and Tatars for the Orthodox faith, for their native land. In reality, things were different.
The Cossack army was formed from marginal elements. People of different nationalities and estates, often persecuted by the authorities, fled to Sich. The main occupation of the seviks was raids on the Tatar and Turkish lands, and in their free time from military campaigns - hunting and fishing.
During military campaigns against the Turks and Crimean Tatars, the Cossacks simultaneously liberated slaves - Christians from Muslim slavery. Often, former slaves joined the ranks of rescuers.
The Cossacks did not submit to the authorities of neighboring states, but willingly took part in the military campaigns of their neighbors as mercenaries. Cossack troops served in the Russian troops, fought shoulder to shoulder with the knights of the Polish king. Large detachments of Zaporozhye Cossacks were constantly kept in their troops by the Crimean Khan.
Registered Cossacks
Geographically Zaporizhzhya Sich was part of the Commonwealth, but was an independent and extremely aggressive, with a penchant for anarchy, organization. In 1572, an attempt was made by the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus to put an end to the Cossack freemen. A register of Cossacks was created , a banal list. Registered Cossacks were considered soldiers of the royal troops, received a salary, were exempted from taxes, obeyed the crown hetman. By 1590, the number of registered Cossacks exceeded one thousand people. The number of non-registrants was much larger.
The idea of a higher status in the country's hierarchy arose in the minds of especially ambitious Cossacks. The king and the Sejm rained on petitions asking them to confer titles of chivalry and privileges, which were used by hereditary noblemen.
An attempt to resolve the issue by diplomatic methods failed. Cossacks decided to get the desired force of arms.
The era of the Cossack revolts
From the end of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, permanent Cossack riots broke out in the country, which peasants willingly support. At any moment they were ready to burn estates and smash the family castles of Polish oppressors.
A series of endless uprisings of registered Cossacks swept through the territory of Ukraine. They broke out with an interval of a couple of years, were massive, brutally suppressed by regular royal troops.
The uprising of Khmelnitsky
The uprising led by Khmelnitsky was successful. Having announced at the beginning of the riot that the Cossacks were fighting not against the king or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but against the "evil gentry gentlemen," Bogdan managed to enthrall the numerous powerless and embittered peasantry. The thesis that the troubles of the common people stem from the dominance of Gentiles - Catholics and Jews, gave the insurrection a form of religious confrontation.
The prudent and cunning Khmelnytsky enlisted the support of the Crimean Khan: he left his son Timofei in the Horde, and in return received a detachment of four thousand horse Tatars. Islam Girey also benefited from the weakening of the Polish kingdom.
What the Cossack army could not accomplish for half a century, the masses carried out in a few weeks. Royal power in Ukraine is swept away by a wave of popular anger. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lay at the feet of the rebellious peasants and Cossacks.
The further course of the uprising irrefutably proves that Khmelnitsky did not fight for the independence of Ukraine. He wanted to recapture from the Polish king the rights of the Cossacks, similar to the rights of the Polish gentry. But Ukraine rebelled against Polish rule, and the peasant revolution began. Khmelnitsky had no choice but to become the leader of this rebellion.
Oath to the Russian autocrat
In 1649, having defeated the royal army near Zborov, Khmelnitsky signed an agreement with the Commonwealth, the provisions of which gave the Cossacks numerous privileges. Ukraine remained a part of the Commonwealth, and the peasants - serfs. In fact, by signing this document he betrayed those who won for him.
The war in Ukraine broke out with renewed vigor. Hetman Khmelnitsky was forced to form an alliance with the Russian Empire.
In 1654, in Pereyaslavl, the Cossack army swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar, recognizing him as a sovereign. Ukraine was divided along the Dnieper into two hostile parts: the left Russian and the right Polish. Until the eighteenth century, anarchy prone and unpredictable Cossack foreman created endless problems for the tsarist government.
Hetman Khmelnitsky was not a faithful vassal, more than once violated the oath. The unfolding struggle for power after the death of Bogdan, a series of betrayals, disloyalty of the hetmans of the Zaporizhzhya army made Russia think about the elimination of hetmanism in Ukraine.
First limitations
After the betrayal and flight to Poland of Ivan Vygovsky, who accepted the hetman's mace after the death of B. Khmelnitsky, hetman was proclaimed Yuri, son of Khmelnitsky. At the same time, the Pereyaslav articles of 1659 were adopted, according to which the right to control the Cossack hetmanism was transferred to the governors of the Russian Tsar. In the power of the hetman, only command and control was left. Powers in other spheres of public life - administrative, judicial and others - were transferred to tsarist officials.
This was the initial stage of the elimination of hetmanism and elements of autonomy in Ukraine.
Hetman Mazepa's betrayal
In the process of elimination of Ukrainian hetmanism, a special merit belongs to Ivan Mazepa. In 1687, the Hetman Mazepa and representatives of the tsarist government signed the Kolomak Treaty. Declaratively, the treaty retained for the Cossack freemen all the privileges granted to him earlier. At the same time, the agreement significantly limited the powers of the hetman and the Cossacks. From now on, without the approval of the Russian tsar, it was impossible to re-elect the hetman and change the composition of the Cossack foreman. A regiment of Russian archers is deployed on the territory of the Hetman.
After Mazepa's betrayal and his flight with a detachment of Cossacks of 1,500 bayonets to the Swedish king Charles XII in 1708, the next hetman I. Skoropadsky was practically appointed by Peter I. Cossack troops began to appoint officers from Russia to colonel and petty officers. The process of eliminating hetmanism in Ukraine was gaining momentum.
The elimination of hetmanism
In 1764, the Decree of Catherine the Second restored the Little Russian Collegium, created by Peter I in 1722 and abolished by Peter II in 1728. The empress continued to strengthen the vertical of power of the Russian state and brought the administrative structure of the outlying autonomies to a single common view that corresponded to the norms of the empire. The collegiums delegated all powers in the affairs of the Left-Bank and Slobozhansky Ukraine, as well as control over the local administration. The collegium was headed by Governor General P. Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky. Hetman Razumovsky dismissed, the post of hetman abolished.
The elimination of hetmanism in Ukraine by Catherine the 2nd was completed.
The elimination of the Zaporizhzhya Sich
1764 was the year of the liquidation of hetmanism in Ukraine.
After victory in the war with the Ottoman Empire and the signing of a peace treaty, the Crimean Tatars came under the protectorate of Russia. The threat of raids from the Crimean Khanate has been eliminated. Being in a deep decline, torn by internal contradictions, the Commonwealth also did not pose a danger to Russia.
Russia no longer needed the Zaporozhye Cossacks to protect the southwestern outskirts of the empire. Zaporizhzhya Sich has lost its military-political significance.
After the devastating uprising of Emelyan Pugachev, which was joined by some of the Ural and Zaporozhye Cossacks, Catherine II had good reason to consider Zaporozhye Cossacks as a source of potential danger.
The manifesto "On the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and on reckoning it among the Novorossiysk province" was signed by Catherine II on August 4, 1775.
The Cossack officer class was included in the Imperial Russian nobility. Ordinary Cossacks, including a significant part of the old Cossacks, were reduced to peasant status, most of the Cossacks were resettled to the Kuban and Don.