With the word "Ruin" the Ukrainian people called the era of internecine strife and bloody strife, which lasted more than two decades in the Little Russian lands in the 17th century. The main reason for the "Ruins" was that a significant part of the Cossack foremen set a course for the return of Ukraine under the scepter of the Polish king.
"You should give up the hetman title before the Rada …"
On August 6, 1657, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky passed away, who roused the Ukrainian people to a liberation struggle to get out of slavery to the Polish-Lithuanian state - the Commonwealth. Before his death, he put the hetman's mace in the hands of his youngest son Yuri, who, however, was not yet sixteen. Despite his unparalleled youth, close associates of Hetman Khmel at the council in Chigirin agreed with this choice.
According to the will of Khmelnytsky, the general military clerk Ivan Vygovsky (in the picture above) was appointed guardian and mentor of the new hetman, and this appointment played a fatal role in the fate of Ukraine
A Polish nobleman by origin, Vygovsky first fought with the Cossacks, and having fallen into captivity, allegedly completely sided with the insurgent Little Russians. He liked the hetman for his sharp mind, dexterity in handling almost any business and, as it seemed to Khmelnytsky, his complete devotion. In the end, the hetman began to trust him as a friend. But the intrigue was that Ivan Evstafievich, long before the Pereyaslav Rada, established special, secret relations with Moscow, which consisted in informing the Kremlin about everything that was happening at the hetman's headquarters and, in particular, about the foreign policy plans and connections of the leader of the insurgent Little Russia, which then spread not only to Russia, but also to many other neighboring states. The clerk general informed the hetman in advance that he was a secret informant, and, in agreement with him, reported to Moscow only what was beneficial to Khmelnitsky. Therefore, before his death, the hetman saw in Vyhovsky the most reliable companion-in-arms, being severely mistaken about his "loyalty" …
With Jesuit slyness and the ability to conduct an insidious intrigue of this man, whom Bohdan Khmelnytsky actually endowed with the powers of regent with his minor son, and the Ukrainian "Ruin" caught fire …
Vyhovsky began by making sure that Khmelnitsky Jr. gave his hetman mace to him, the clerk general, and quite voluntarily. In order not to look in anyone's eyes, God save me, a vile usurper, Ivan Evstafievich skillfully played a comedy of his own hesitation, whether to accept hetman power.
Vyhovsky's dexterous maneuvers around the hetman's mace were described in detail by the historian N. I. Kostomarov in the major work "Vyhovsky's Hetmanate". For example, at first, the clerk himself, as it were, casually instigated disapproving rumors between the honored Cossacks that they were now obeying the lad whose milk had not dried out on his lips, and then painted to young Yuri that the iconic (i.e., endowed with positions) Cossacks on this reason, they began to grumble and did not even want to obey such a young hetman. At the same time, Vyhovsky skillfully pretended that he himself did not need supreme power over Ukraine at all. It was not for nothing that the general clerk sent dispatch after dispatch to the border Russian voivode, repeating the same thing: "After military labors I am glad to sleep, and I do not want any officers and officers!"
Of course, the inexperienced Yuri asked Vygovsky, whom he trusted then as his father, advice: what should he do?
“You should give up the hetman title before the Rada and thus win the favor and love of the people,” the general clerk instructed Khmelnitsky's son on the “true path” … And then he explained that, they say, the Cossacks have had an unwritten law for a long time: several times refuses the proposed position and accepts it as if by force, that is, only when the Cossack circle almost forcibly inclines him to this.
At the same time, Vyhovsky himself did not waste time and in every possible way tried to please those on whom his election to the hetman depended
To do this, he dug out of the ground the treasures stored "for a rainy day" and hidden by him on the orders of Khmelnitsky the elder - more than a million zlotys (at that time a fabulous sum!) And began to present chervonets and generously treat those oncoming and across. “The merry feasts went on without a break for several weeks,” notes Kostomarov. - Vygovsky was a sober man, but in order to please the crowd, he pretended to be drunk, showed a burlak treatment of ordinary Cossacks, was extremely courteous with his subordinates, and people shouted in delight: from schirii (simple to get around - A. P.), not proud Cossack!"
And soon Yuri, having listened to the reasoning of the "mentor" - the clerk, at the next meeting in 1657 put the signs of his hetman power - a bunchuk and a mace on the table, modestly declaring that due to his youth and inexperience he could not bear such an important dignity. But instead of persuading him to remain hetman (as it certainly should have happened, according to the clerk general), the crowd of Cossacks shouted as one person: hand the hetman kleinods to Vygovsky! And this skillful actor with a downcast gaze kept pretending not to bear the burden of power … But the more stubborn Ivan Evstafievich, the louder the Cossacks, enchanted by the hospitable and "generous" clerk, shouted that only he and no one wanted to be their supreme leader and all Ukraine more. In the end, Ivan Yevstafievich submitted to the people's choice - indeed, as if reluctantly, the only one yielding to the general unanimous opinion …
The quiet coup that took place in Ukraine, as a result of which Khmelnitsky's overly gullible successor - his own son, voluntarily gave the hetman's mace into the hands of a secret supporter of the Polish king - did not at first greatly alarm Moscow.
The very fact of Vyhovsky's appearance on the Ukrainian proscenium, who had been informing Moscow for many years about everything that happened with Hetman Bogdan and around him, was even regarded by Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich as a good sign for some time
The devout tsar saw in this neither more nor less, but a real evidence of the Creator's favor to his policy of uniting the Orthodox Eastern Slavs under the rule of Moscow, for which Russia waged a difficult war with the Commonwealth (simultaneously entering the war with Sweden)! Moreover, in the letters to the tsar, the new hetman never ceased to assure the tsar of boundless loyalty …
Medieval "Internet"
Meanwhile, somehow suddenly, as if all kinds of mass media already existed in those years (of course, biased ones!), Ukraine was filled with alarming rumors that recklessly vilified Russian politics in the eyes of the Little Russian population. Word of mouth passed, for example, that "the tsar wants the Cossacks not to wear red boots, but certainly all put on black boots, and the polite (that is, not servicemen, peaceful people) would dress like Great Russian men and walk in bast shoes" …This detail is not as small as it might seem at first glance. It shows a sharp contradiction, which, in essence, became the root cause of the bloody strife that stretched out for decades.
As you know, not only the Cossacks, but practically the entire Ukrainian people participated in the liberation of Little Russia from the Polish yoke. Naturally, for the period of the struggle, all its participants turned out to be equal to each other. Almost the entire male population turned into the Cossacks. But with the end of the war of liberation, it became obvious that one part of the people should remain on guard of the new order of things, remaining Cossacks, and the other, obviously a large part, nevertheless returned to peaceful pursuits, becoming polite - that is, ordinary villagers and urban bourgeois.
But at the same time, the Cossacks remained with the conquered rights and freedoms, in all their fullness, and those who were polished in that feudal era had no rights at all, but there were a lot of duties, and among them the first was to pay taxes. The situation was complicated by the fact that there was still no clear border between the two main Ukrainian estates, and if necessary, the rich took up arms and thus turned into Cossacks, and those previously recognized by the Cossacks could suddenly fall into the category of the rich …
This confusion, fraught with incessant turmoil, had to end at some point. Therefore, every now and then attempts were made to draw up a register (list of names) of the Cossack army. Naturally, the population was greatly worried by the rumors spread by Vygovsky's supporters that Moscow would sharply reduce the Cossack register, turning most of the free people into slaves and serfs, commanding them to change into peasant sermyags and change their shoes in bast shoes.
In fact, this is one of the rather early examples of information warfare, which at all times has the most important goal in all possible ways to denigrate the enemy and present any of his actions in the most unfavorable light …
Meanwhile, in fact, as the Ukrainian historian Golobutsky testifies, Moscow at that time did not intend to touch upon the question of the register of Cossacks at all. In order not to turn against itself the peasantry that showed itself almost without exception, who did not want to bend their backs on the feudal lords (even if they were their own, even newcomers), the tsarist government did not demand the immediate compilation of an accurate list of Cossacks, and even more so - its limitation by any threshold. This very delicate undertaking was postponed by the tsarist government indefinitely. But since in that era there were no press services at the state bodies, of course, but the most incredible rumors were spreading perfectly, Moscow's fairly balanced position reached ordinary Little Russians in a distorted form that was completely unrecognizable.
By the way, Vyhovsky, having barely taken possession of the hetman's mace, immediately began to provoke the tsar to really send delegates to compile the 60-thousandth register of the Cossack army, not otherwise, hoping to provoke indignation of the broad masses with the policy of Russia, and to present himself as their defender.
The goal pursued by the hetman, his envoy, the Mirgorod Colonel Lesnitsky, having arrived in Moscow, expressed quite clearly. In the register, he said, only "direct and old service Cossacks", that is, the well-to-do part of the estate, would be entered, and all "gullies and not direct Cossacks" (peasants and bourgeoisie, mostly poor) would be declared outside the register and, accordingly, were again deprived of of all the rights won in the bloody struggle, and even many of them will be enslaved again. For the same provocative, insidious purposes, the representative of Vyhovsky asked the tsar, together with those authorized to send the governor and regiments of servicemen to Ukraine, "so that the Cossack army would be scared and no one would dare to perpetrate riots."
Day by day, month by month, the unrestrained anti-Moscow agitation was growing. Ill-wishers of Russia on both banks of the Dnieper drummed fables at gatherings and in shanks to the people
“This is how the tsar and Moscow will take you into their hands, then they will introduce taverns, everyone will not be able to smoke vodka and honey, and they will not be willing to wear cloth caftans, they will send their priests, they will put their metropolitan in Kiev, and they will take ours to Moskovschina, yes and all the people will be driven there, and only ten thousand Cossacks will remain, and even those in Zaporozhye (in the Sich - AP) ….
Envoys of "civilized Europe"
As you can see, the commoners were frightened by the supporters of the then "European choice" with very uncomplicated horror stories. But for the elders' elite, Vygovsky invented much more sophisticated means. During that period, rumors were intensely circulated that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, having concluded an armistice with the Poles and agreed with them in Vilna in October 1656 on joint actions against the Swedes, was now seeking to be elected to the Polish throne. But since in the Vilna treatise the tsar promised the Poles, upon his election as king, to return all the lands torn away from the Commonwealth, this meant that … Polish magnates and gentry returned to Ukraine as sovereign and undivided masters, who still considered the Cossack leaders their "rebellious flaps" !
Vyhovsky and his supporters proposed to forestall such a development of events by voluntary unification of Ukraine with Poland on federal rights, on conditions that would ensure the Cossack foreman preserve the rights he had won.
The treacherous agreement was concluded at the Vyhovsky hetman's headquarters in Gadyach in September 1658. Little Russia returned to the Rzecz Pospolita under the name of the "Grand Duchy of Russia" (this name was borne by Lithuania before the union with Poland, as a result of which the Rzeczpospolita was formed). The register of the Zaporizhzhya army was determined in the same 60 thousand people, but at the same time the hetman took on a secret obligation to actually reduce the number of Cossacks by half. But now, according to his ideas, the king could elevate the foreman to the dignity of the gentry. A number of seats in the Polish Senate were assigned to the Orthodox gentry, while for himself Vygovsky, in addition to hetmanship and senatorial rank, also bargained for the post of "first Kiev governor."
The Rada in Gadyach passed like clockwork - just like the political performances are now being played on the Kiev Maidan Nezalezhnosti … The Rada ceremony was played out by Vygovsky as deftly as if he were a theater director. Introducing the Polish representatives of Benevsky and Yevlashevsky to the Maidan, where the colonels were sitting importantly in festive kuntushi, with feathers in their hands, Ivan Evstafievich exclaimed:
- The Zaporozhian army expresses its desire for eternal peace and union with the Commonwealth, if only it hears the gracious word of His Royal Majesty from the commissars!
The word of the royal commissar awakened in the agitated souls of the colonels "the brightest, highest" feelings …
- The highest being, at its will, elevates and destroys kingdoms, - Benevsky spoke pompously, - has rooted in the heart of each of you an innate love for the fatherland, so that wherever anyone wanders, he always wants to return home … Now it has become so with the Zaporozhye army (meaning the whole of Ukraine. - A. P.), when it, by its name and its hetman, turned to His Majesty King Jan Casimir with a desire for loyal citizenship, and asks for his patronage to himself and everything Russian (that is, Little Russian. - A. P.) people … For ten years now, like a mother for one child, two peoples have been arguing for Ukraine: Poles and Muscovites. The Poles call it their property, their offspring and member, and the Muscovites, using your courage and your weapons, want to take possession of someone else's …. You have now tasted both Polish and Moscow rule, you have tasted both freedom and bondage. They said: Poles are not good! And now you will probably say: the Muscovites are even worse! What else is there to hesitate? The Fatherland is calling to you: I gave birth to you, not a Muscovite; I nurtured you, nurtured you - come to your senses, be my true children, not geeks!
- Well! - Vygovsky cried nimbly, noticing how moved the colonels, - what was it worthy of you, gentleman, the radio (speech - A. P.) of his mercy, Pan commissar?
- Garazd speak! The colonels shouted.
The trouble was that the salary for the Ukraine (both to the tsarist troops stationed here and there, and to the Cossacks) was then sent not in silver, but in copper money, which was rapidly depreciating. The lack of financial support prompted some of the archers and hired soldiers sent by Moscow to get food for themselves by robbery and looting, many turned into deserters.
The wars with Poland and Sweden depleted the Russian treasury, due to which the Kremlin, unfortunately, could not reconsider its financial policy in Ukraine. But instead of any explanatory measures addressed to the Cossacks and the population of Little Russia, Moscow only ordered the Russian governors, who appeared in Kiev and several other Little Russian cities since 1658, to catch the fugitives from the army and hang them on the Maidans!
The bloody price of treason
The Russian government, which allowed Vyhovsky to lead itself by the nose for a while, was quite early aware of the hetman's traitorous policies. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich received the first news about her back in the fall of 1657 from a deputation of the Cossacks who had arrived in Moscow, sent by the Koshev Ataman Yakov Barabash. The deputation complained about the elders that they were stealing the salaries that the tsar sent not to them alone, but to the entire Cossack army, and at the same time they themselves imposed heavy taxes on the people. The Cossacks also told that Vygovsky was negotiating with the Polish king about the conditions for the return of Little Russia under his arm.
Poltava Colonel Martyn Pushkar, who dared to raise an uprising against Vyhovsky on the left bank of the Dnieper, also sent alarming signals to Moscow.
But the Kremlin continued to bend the line on "non-interference" in Little Russian affairs, as if it was overwhelmed by complete indifference both to the fate of the Ukrainian brothers and to its own geopolitical prospects
And hetman Vyhovsky, making sure that Moscow was not up to him, gathered forces, in May 1658 moved to the rebellious Poltava. But he really wanted the Russian warriors to stain their hands with the blood of the rebels. Therefore, as they say, “with a blue eye,” he assured the voivode Grigory Romodanovsky, who came with the army to Pereyaslavl, that the rebellious “headstrong” allegedly betrayed Russia and intend to betray the Ukrainian lands to enemies: some to the Polish king, and some to the Crimean khan. But Romodanovsky - "grated kalach" - showed caution and avoided the dubious honor of conducting a punitive expedition in the interests of the traitor Vygovsky.
Having received no support from the boyar, the hetman quickly reached an agreement with the Crimean khan. He sent a horde of many thousands to Ukraine under the command of the Perekop Murza Karach-bey.
On May 18, 1658, fierce battles broke out near Poltava. The Cossacks of Pereyaslavsky, Chernigov and other regiments, turned into punishers, fought with their fellow countrymen reluctantly, and Vygovsky used more Krymchaks and German mercenary infantry. In the midst of the battle, alas, the leader of the rebels, Martyn Pushkar, was killed. The rebels were defeated, and the Cossacks who supported them decided to retreat back to the Sich.
Having occupied Poltava, the hetman ruthlessly dealt with the population. The city was burned to the ground, its inhabitants, including women and children, were mercilessly killed. Saying goodbye to the Crimean allies, Vygovsky paid them off … by his compatriots: the Tatars were given complete freedom to drive all the surviving inhabitants of the surrounding villages into captivity! By the will of self-serving hetmans, similar tragedies were repeated in Ukraine in the second half of the 17th century almost a dozen times, until the terrible era of "Ruins" has sunk into the past …
The fate of Poltava, wiped off the face of the earth, befell a number of towns and villages on the Left Bank, outraged by Vygovsky's treacherous (both in relation to Russia and Little Russia) policy. Fleeing from punishers and Tatars, peasants and bourgeoisie went to the Russian lands, settling on the border Sloboda Ukraine. Vygovsky - this characteristic predecessor of Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych and others like them - had the audacity to even demand the extradition of the fugitives from the Russian governors. But the heads of the border towns, who had already figured out what Vygovsky was, rejected his harassment and willingly provided refuge, protection and help to the settlers …
… and the price of blissful illusions
When the whole truth about the Gadyach Treaty (including the secret article about the Cossack register) came out, most of the Cossacks opposed the break with Moscow. In addition, in Ukraine they firmly remembered the price of the promises of the Polish king and the Senate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And perhaps Vyhovsky's opponents would have been able to quickly unite and overthrow him if Moscow had supported them immediately and honestly. But Aleksey Mikhailovich, even after the alarming news of the Poltava and Gadyach events, continued to indulge himself with the illusions that Poland was very weak, longed to see him on its throne, hated Sweden, which he was fighting, which meant that he would sacrifice everything lost for self-preservation, including Ukraine. Yes, and Vyhovsky proved his loyalty even under the hetman Bogdan, and if sometimes he "staggers", then out of necessity, either calming opponents, or maneuvering between his quarreling supporters. He is a reasonable man and will not cross the line, he will not change his oath (although the true facts of the hetman's betrayal have already been presented to the tsar).
Self-deception began to dissipate among the autocrat only when, at the Vilna negotiations at the end of 1658, the Polish-Lithuanian representatives suddenly "forgot" their honeyed tone and resolutely refused to elect him to the Polish throne
Moreover, they demanded the return of Smolensk, recently conquered by Russian troops, other border cities, and, of course, all of Ukraine.
The war with Poland flared up with renewed vigor. In the spring of 1659, the Russian army under the command of the boyar A. N. Trubetskoy moved from Sevsk to Little Russia. But boyar Alexei Nikitich's hands were immediately tied: he was ordered first to "persuade the Cherkas to finish off the sovereign in their wines", and only otherwise, "if they do not finish them off with their brows, go to war with them." Since Vygovsky continued to incessantly cheat and play around, still assuring Trubetskoy of loyalty to Russia, the boyar was in constant doubt and indecision, and instead of seizing the initiative and dictating the course of events, he was forced to follow them all the time.
Meanwhile, Vyhovsky waited for the approach of a new one hundred thousandth Crimean horde and the Polish banners promised by the king and attacked the Moscow regiments near Konotop. On June 27, 1659, as a result of the military cunning applied by the hetman, Trubetskoy's army was defeated.
The trick used by the Cossacks was to first rush furiously into the attack, and then take flight and lure the enemy into a trap prepared in advance. Having bought into this trick, Trubetskoy sent in pursuit of the "faltering" Cossacks and Tatars regiments of the noble militia led by the princes Pozharsky and Lvov. Determined to capture Khan Muhammad-Girey himself, S. R. Pozharsky forgot all caution. And when his numerous noble detachment crossed the Sosnovka River, he fell under a powerful blow from the Tatars sitting in ambush. Very soon the fight turned into a beating of the colors of the Russian nobility. Up to five thousand representatives of eminent names were killed. Both princes were captured and wounded.
Pozharsky was first brought to Vygovsky. The prince began to reprimand the hetman for his treason, and then Ivan Evstafievich sent him to the khan. The proud boyar refused to bow his head before the ruler of the Crimea and, according to Moscow custom, scolded the khan, spitting in his eyes. The enraged Mohammed-Girey ordered Prince Semyon Romanovich to be cut off his head immediately …
The shape-shifter was not spared and "ours"
After the defeat at Konotop, Trubetskoy's army retreated to Putivl. However, Vyhovsky did not triumph for long. The Tatar horde, like locusts, produced incredible devastation on the Ukrainian land and did not return to Perekop. The mood of all strata of the Ukrainian population began to change rapidly, not in favor of Vyhovsky.
Soon, even the part of the foreman who welcomed the Hadyach Treaty renounced the traitor-hetman. Pereyaslavl Colonel Timofey Tsetsura led negotiations with the Russian commander Sheremetev on returning to Moscow citizenship
One by one, the Cossack regiments went from Vygovsky to Yuri Khmelnitsky, who was again assigned by the foreman. Despite the tragic embarrassment with the resignation of the hetman’s powers, one surname Khmelnitsky fascinated the Cossacks, reviving past successes and former power in their memory. And then the moment came when yesterday's accomplices demanded that Vyhovsky lay down the hetman's kleinods. He was forced to agree (putting forward an obviously impossible condition that the Zaporozhye army would remain loyal to the king), and left for Poland, for the sake of which he committed the darkness of such heinous crimes … But in 1664, at the slander of his next protege, Hetman Teteri, the Polish authorities accused the shape-shifter Vyhovsky of treason and still shot …
And the pendulum keeps swinging …
After the news of the fall of Vyhovsky, the Russian army again moved to Ukraine and strengthened the position of supporters of reunification with Russia. In October 1659, the Prilutsk colonel Petro Doroshenko (the future hetman who will donate part of the Right Bank Ukraine to the Ottoman Empire) arrived in Pereyaslavl, where the boyar Trubetskoy was staying. He brought a list of conditions on which the Zaporozhye army (and with it the whole of Ukraine) agreed to return to tsarist citizenship. The treaty provided for the broadest autonomy: the hetman received the right, without even notifying the tsar, to communicate with all states and conclude any agreements; without the hetman's signature, Moscow should not have accepted a single letter from Ukraine; tsarist governors could only stand in Kiev …
On October 18, 1659, a council took place near Pereyaslavl, at which Yuri Khmelnitsky was declared hetman. Then the articles of the agreement were read, but not brought by Doroshenko, but sent from Moscow. They differed quite significantly. Along with the conditions adopted by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, points were added that obliged the hetman to participate with the army in military campaigns, forbade him to distribute colonel's clubs at his will, and allowed him to keep Russian garrisons in six Ukrainian cities. The pendulum of changeable Cossack moods has now swung towards Moscow, and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich caught it …
After the ceremonial mutual oath-kissing, the Cossack and Moscow leaders gathered for a feast at the boyar Trubetskoy. Celebrated the end of the "great shakiness", the overcoming of the Ruins
But very little time will pass, and those who connected the cups of health at the boyar table will again be enemies. That was by no means the end, but only a repetition of what is happening with a different cyclical movement of the Ukrainian people in agony … “Trubetskoy did the job skillfully in favor of the Moscow authorities,” Kostomarov writes about the Pereyaslavl Rada on October 18, 1659. “But this case included further reasons for betrayal, disorder and popular enmity for the future” …
Nevertheless, in the end, peace and tranquility came to the land of Ukraine, and it was almost all the time (with the exception of the periods of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars) one of the most prosperous and fertile lands in the Russian Empire, and then Soviet Union.
What is happening in Ukraine today? Is the cycle repeating? Ruin again?
