The Khmelnytsky Uprising
In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Ruthenian peasantry in revolt against the szlachta of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, enraged by serfdom, magnate exploitation, and the suppression of Orthodoxy. Victories at Zhovti Vody and Korsun destroyed the crown armies; the rising was accompanied by mass massacres, especially of Jews. The 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav placed the Cossack Hetmanate under Russian protection, drawing in Muscovy and, soon after, Sweden in the devastating 'Deluge' (1655-60). The Commonwealth survived but lost perhaps a third of its population and never recovered its great-power standing, beginning the slide toward the 18th-century partitions.
- Year: 1648 CE
- Category: Political
