Polish Nobility’s Opinions on the Political Reasons behind the Khmelnytsky Uprising

Abstract

The article discusses the political reasons for the Khmelnytsky Uprising, as they were expressed in the opinions of the nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The outbreak of the Cossack insurrection led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky with the beginning of 1648, which from the first moment stimulated the broad strata of Ukrainian society and quickly transformed into a national liberation war, provoked terror in broad circles of the nobility. An additional factor influencing the mood of the noblemen was the growing awareness of Khmelnytsky’s political ambitions, the implementation of which was a deadly threat to the current political system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Therefore, the main part of the publication is devoted to discussing the views of the nobility on the subject of political motives underlying the Cossacks’ armed resistance against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. These opinions fundamentally influenced the noblemen’s assessment of the nature of the uprising. Detailed analysis is presented concerning such sources as correspondence, lauda, and sejmik instructions as well as occasional and journalistic literature. It is emphasised that there was a conviction among the nobility of the Republic of the political motives of the Cossack uprising. This conviction was based mainly on the news coming to the noblemen about Khmelnytsky’s aspirations to separate Ukraine and build an independent state entity, referred to by the nobility as the Russian Principality. Understanding of the emancipatory aspirations of the insurgents by the gentry had a huge impact on the shape of the Republic of Poland’s policy towards the events in Ukraine in the second half of the seventeenth century. Consequently, one of its main goals was to stop the movement that posed a threat to the wholeness and existence of the state.