Bohdan Hmelnicky

[StasUA]

Greetings! This topic is for those who do know who Hmelnicky was.

What do you think about Hetman Bohdan Hmelnicky? Some say he's a hero, other's say he's a traitor. I think he's both, first he fought for Ukrainian independence, but then... what happened? He sold off Ukraine to Russia, why? What do you think about it?

Good luck,
Stas

[Bartosz]

Hi Stas!

As a militry man he certainly was an eminent person, but as a politician he failed.

I've got the impression that from one slavery of Ukraine he turned it into another one, much worse (if of course the graduation is addmitable).

[beata]

Well, I think he wasn't a good "politician". I'm saying it from my Polish point of view. So for us he was an agressor, he disobeyed the rules. He was a rebel, and a very brutal one. But this is our point of view. But I don't think he shall be a national hero in Ukraine either. I am surprised that in the centre of Kiev there is this big monument of Hmelnicky (in Polish his names starts with "Ch"). First he seemed to fight for Ukraine, for its people, mainly peasants. But later...Well, he was changing his allies like the wind changes its direction. Actually that monument was nothing pleasant to me - a Pole. But are Ukrainians also proud of it?

[Irena]

Beata, Bogdan was very fond of Poland to win Poland. I can't to forgive his night near Poland's border. He couldn't to wage war on territory of Poland. He had a Poland education.

[LippyChick]

I was just emailed this account of Bohdan, it's quite an open un-baised and interesting account of his role in the 1648 up rising. What do you think?



Bohdan Khmelnytsky Rarely do individuals dominate epochal developments as completely as did Bohdan Khmelnytsky the great Ukrainian uprising of 1648. Because of his great personal impact on events that changed the course of Ukrainian and East European history, scholars consider him to be Ukraine's greatest military and political leader. (Subtelny, 1994, p. 125)

But a typical case of magnate acquisitiveness and arrogance completely altered Khmelnytsky's life and with it the course of his country's history. In 1646, during his absence from [his estate] Subotiv, Daniel Czaplinski, a Polish nobleman backed by the local magnates, laid claim to Khmelnytsky's estate, raided it, killed his youngest son, and abducted the woman that the recently widowed Cossack captain [that is, Khmelnytsky himself] intended to marry. When numerous appeals to the court brought no satisfaction, the infuriated Khmelnytsky resolved to lead a revolt against the Poles. (Subtelny, 1994, p. 126)

While Khmelnytsky's victories stunned the Poles, they electrified the Ukrainians. First on the Right Bank [of the Dnipro River] and then on the Left Bank, Cossacks, peasants, and burghers rushed to form regiments and either joined the hetman or, led by numerous local leaders, staged mini-rebellions of their own. Many peasants and Cossacks used the opportunity to vent pent-up hatred against their oppressors. The so-called "Eye Witness Chronicle" paints a frightful picture of these events: "Wherever they found the szlachta [Poles], royal officials or Jews, they killed them all, sparing neither women nor children. They pillaged the estates of the Jews and nobles, burned [Catholic] churches and killed their priests, leaving nothing whole. It was a rare individual in those days who had not soaked his hands in blood and participated in the pillage." Within a few months, almost all Polish nobles, officials, and priests had been wiped out or driven from Ukraine. Jewish losses were especially heavy because they were the most numerous and accessible representatives of the szlachta regime. Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews - given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures - were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history. Whenever they had the opportunity, the Polish magnates and nobles responded to the massacres in kind. The most notorious practitioner of the szlachta terror tactics was Jeremi Wisniowiecki, the wealthiest magnate in the land. When the rebellion caught him on his estates on the Left Bank, Wisniowiecki mustered his well-trained private army of 6000, gathered together as many of the terrified nobles, priests, and Jews as he could, and set off on an epic roundabout retreat to the West. Everywhere his forces moved, they tortured and killed Cossacks, peasants, women, and children, leaving behind them a grisly trail of corpses. Although Wisniowiecki's feats won him adulation in Poland, they so infuriated the Ukrainian masses that they would brook no talk of compromise and vowed to fight him to the death. (Subtelny, 1994, pp. 127-128)

It is difficult to overestimate Khmelnytsky's impact on the course of Ukrainian history. Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian historians have compared his achievements to those of such giants of 17th-century history as Cromwell of England or Wallenstein of Bohemia. Studies of the hetman and his age frequently stress his ability to create so much from so little. Where a Ukrainian political entity had long since ceased to exist, he established a new one; out of hordes of unruly peasants and Cossacks he molded powerful, well-organized armies; from among a people abandoned by their traditional elite he found and united around him new, dynamic leaders. Most important, in a society bereft of self-confidence and a clear sense of identity, he instilled pride in itself and a will to defend its interests. An example of the momentous change in Ukrainian attitudes brought about by Khmelnytsky is provided by the words of a simple Cossack captain addressed to a high Polish official:
In regard to Your Grace's recent letter stating that we, the common people, should not dare to address such high officials as a [Polish] wojewoda, it should be known that we are now, thanks be to God, no longer common people but knights of the Zaporozhian Host ... and, may God grant Lord Bohdan Khmelnytsky health, we are now ruled by our colonels and not by your wojewody, by our captains and not by your starosty, and by our otamany and not by your judges.
(Subtelny, 1994, pp. 137-13)

The fine points of scholarly evaluation have had little effect on the Ukrainian people's instinctive, unbounded admiration for "Batko (father) Bohdan." For the vast majority of Ukrainians, both in his day and up to the present, Khmelnytsky has towered as the great liberator, as the heroic figure who by the force of his personality and intellect roused Ukrainians from a centuries-long miasma of passivity and hopelessness and propelled them toward national and socioeconomic emancipation. (Subtelny, 1994, p. 138)


LippyChick

[Bartosz]

Funny case this Chmielnicki. I don't care how many Poles and Jews he contributed the death, but more intrigating is how many Ukrainians were slaved, exterminated and ripped by his allies Tatars. You have astounding idols.

[LippyChick]

Originally posted by Bartosz
Funny case this Chmielnicki. I don't care how many Poles and Jews he contributed the death, but more intrigating is how many Ukrainians were slaved, exterminated and ripped by his allies Tatars. You have astounding idols.

There are loads of issue over Khmelnytsky and he▓s always going to be a figure of controversy, but it is funny how you Poles can▓t come to terms with the fact that he kicked your imperial armies backsides. You got your superior ha ha, butts whipped. You never got over it.

LippyChick