Bohdan Khmelnytskyi

Khmelnytskyi monument in Kiev

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Mychajlowytsch ( Ukrainian Богдан Михайлович Хмельницький ., Scientific transliteration : Bohdan Mychajlovyč Chmel'nyc'kyj ; Russian Богдан Михайлович Хмельницкий , scientific transliteration. Bogdan Michajlovič Khmelnickii ; Polish : Bohdan Khmelnytsky * 1595 probably in Subotiv at Chihirin (possibly also in Zhovkva ); † August 6, 1657 in Tschyhyryn) was a Ukrainian Cossack hetman and the founder of the first Cossack state. He is known for a bitter struggle against the rule of Poland-Lithuania and the annexation of his state to Tsarist Russia .

Life

Bohdan Khmelnytskyi

Khmelnytskyi was the son of a Polish sub- starost, probably a small noblewoman, and a Cossack woman. He was probably born in Subotiw , possibly also in Schowkwa (Polish Żółkiew) near Lemberg . He received his training in a Jesuit college in Tschyhyryn . In 1620 he took part in the campaign against the Turks under the hetman of the crown Stanisław Żółkiewski and was taken prisoner. After his ransom he made a career in the Cossack army; When the Polish government later deprived the Cossacks of many rights, he behaved loyally to them and led a quiet family life on his estate near Tschyhyryn. It was not until 1646, when legal disputes affecting him personally, that he saw his lack of rights, that he took this as an opportunity to leave his estate and family and take up the fight against Poland .

→ Main article : Khmelnytskyi uprising

For the Ukrainian Cossacks, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi was a hero in the struggle for Cossack rights. This struggle was about the legal recognition of the traditional privileges of the Cossacks, including tax exemption and the preservation of paramilitary structures. Furthermore, it was requested that the Cossack troops, directly paid by the Polish king, be expanded to the 40,000 men that had already been promised. In 1648 and 1649 Chmelnyzkyj defeated a Polish army at Zboriv (Zborów). In 1648 he turned to the Russian Tsar Alexei I and asked him to place the Ukrainian Cossack state under Russian rule. In 1654 this had to be approved by the Semski Sobor . On January 8, 1654 came into Perejaslav the signing of the Treaty of Pereyaslav over - after Ukrainian reading an agreement of two independent states, according to the Russian version, the territorial annexation of the Cossack state to the Russian Empire.

Bohdan Khmelnyzkyj later married Hanna Somkiwna , daughter of a wealthy Cossack from Pereyaslavl. The couple moved to Subotiv , a village seven kilometers northeast of Chyhyryn .

The marriage resulted in first three daughters and later two sons:

• Stepandia,
• Olena,
• Kateryna,
• Tymofij Khmelnitsky (* 1632, † 5 ^jul. / 15. September  1653 ^greg. In Suceava )
• Jurij Khmelnyzkyj (* 1641 † 1685)

His two sons Tymofij (Tymisch) and Jurij continued the battles against Poland-Lithuania , the Crimean Tatars and the Russians (Jurij Chemnyzkyj) with him.

Khmelnitsky and the uprising under his leadership are remembered for anti-Jewish excesses. Estimates assume a Jewish population of around 50,000 in what was then Ukraine, of whom over 10,000 are said to have died during the years of fighting in pogroms . The Jewish population was neither the original nor the primary target of the aggression. Because of their economic ties to the main enemy, the Polish nobility, they became victims of the conflicts. As a result, many poorer Jews emigrated to more western areas.

See also: History of Ukraine , Cossack Uprising in the Context of Jewish History ; Subsidiary article: Hetmanat

Aftermath

The Kiewer equestrian monument of Khmelnytskyi on a Ukrainian 200,000 Karbovanziv coin

In 1954 the Crimea was annexed to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic by decree of the then Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev. The official occasion for this was the 300th anniversary of the Rada of Pereyaslav of 1654 and the unification of Ukraine with Russia. At the time, however, plans to simplify and streamline administrative structures and to rebuild the Crimea, which had been almost completely destroyed in the war and, not least due to the deportation of the Crimean Tatars ordered by Stalin, largely depopulated, also had a major impact on this decision.

In the course of the celebrations, which were very present in the media, the Ukrainian city of Proskuriv was renamed Khmelnyzkyj in 1954. Before that, the Soviet Bogdan Khmelnitsky Order was founded on October 10, 1943 .

In Russia and the Soviet Union, the memory of Khmelnytskyi was booming. B. the 1954 celebrations and the order created during the war. At the same time the ancient remains of the Cossack culture were destroyed, including a. the castle complex on the island of Khortytsia (also an institute for primitive culture founded under Stalin ).

In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Victory Day, the Ukrainian Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky was founded.

The novel With Fire and Sword (Polish Ogniem i mieczem ) by the Polish Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz is about the Cossack uprising under Khmelnyzkyj. The film adaptation by the Polish director Jerzy Hoffman from 1999 is the most successful film of the post-reunification period in Poland (over 7 million viewers).

Web links

Commons : Bohdan Khmelnytsky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Article about the Cossack uprising

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Shaul Stampfer: What Actually Happened to the Jews of Ukraine in 1648? In: Jewish History . tape 17 , no. 2 , 2003, ISSN  0334-701X , p. 207-227 , doi : 10.1023 / A: 1022330717763 .