Muscovite-Ukrainian War (1658–1659)

The Muscovite-Ukrainian War (Moscow-Cossack War) was an armed conflict that lasted from September 21, 1658, to October 17, 1659, between the Hetmanate, led by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, and the Moscow State. It began with the intervention of the Moscow State in the internecine struggles in Ukraine - the support of opposition forces. Military action was conducted in the Left-bank Ukraine.

Muscovite-Ukrainian War (1658–1659)
Part of Russo-Ukrainian Wars

Battle of Konotop
Date21 September 1658 — 17 October 1659
Location
Ukraine
Result Defeat of the Hetmanate. Pereiaslav Articles
Belligerents
Cossack Hetmanate
Crimean Khanate		 Moscow State
Commanders and leaders
Ivan Vyhovsky
Mehmed IV Giray		 Grigory Romodanovsky
Aleksey Trubetskoy
Strength
20—25 thousand cossacks,
30—40 thousand tatars,
3 thousand poles and others.		 70—100 thousand muscovetes

During the war, Vyhovsky left the Moscow protectorate, passing under the Treaty of Hadiach as the third equal member ("Grand Duchy of Russia") of the bilateral union of Poland and Lithuania into the Commonwealth. In the battle of Konotop in 1659, the Ukrainian Cossacks and their allies, the Crimean Tatars, defeated the principal elements of the Moscow army, but could not take advantage of this victory. Vyhovsky's unpopular alliance with the Poles deprived him of the support of most of the Cossacks, especially the Zaporozhian Sich and the left-bank regiments. As a result, he ceded to the new Hetman Yuri Khmelnytsky, who terminated the Hadiach agreement and made peace with Moscow. The war ended with the conclusion of the Pereyaslav Articles, which established a Moscow protectorate over Cossack Ukraine.

Politics of the Moscow Empire

Even during the life of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Moscow began to violate the terms of the March Articles (see Truce of Vilna). The Tsar of Moscow and the government viewed the 1654 treaty as the annexation of Ukraine and the establishment of control over its territory. For their part, Bohdan Khmelnytsky and most Cossack officers saw the agreement as a military-political union of equals. The Ukrainian leadership and the Hetman personally consistently opposed the restriction of international relations of the hetman's government and the collection of taxes in the royal treasury. The Moscow government was dissatisfied with the fact that it was prevented from establishing real control over the territory of the Hetmanate. The death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (July 27, 1657) was perceived in Moscow as a signal to take decisive action to consolidate its position in Ukraine and transform the Ukrainian lands into part of the Moscow state.

On August 11, 1657, the Tsar of Moscow sent his ambassador to Ukraine, Vasyl Kikin, who announced that Tsarist boyar Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy was coming to Ukraine to organize the election of a new hetman. The Cossacks were also informed that tsarist warlords would assume administrative, arbitration, and judicial functions and begin preparing for the introduction of Moscow's government in Ukraine. At the same time, there was an attack on the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian clergy campaigned for the subordination of the Kyiv metropolitanate to the authority of the Moscow patriarch and demanded that the election of a new Kyiv metropolitan be prevented without the participation of Moscow representatives. Although the treaty of 1654 did not contain clauses on the subordination of the UOC to Moscow, Kyiv Metropolitan Sylvester Kosiv and most of the Orthodox clergy refused to swear allegiance to the Moscow tsar.

Nevertheless, the Cossack officers and ordinary Cossacks held elections for the hetman at the Rada, according to ancient Cossack customs, not organized by the Moscow government and without the participation of the special tsarist envoy Trubetsky. On August 26, Ivan Vyhovsky was elected Hetman of the Zaporozhian Army. After that, Hetman Vyhovsky and the officers were "ordered" to prepare supplies for the troops of Prince Grigory Romodanovsky, whom Moscow, against Chyhyryn's will, sent to Ukraine. The treaty of 1654 did not give Moscow such rights either. All claims of the tsarist government to reconsider relations were rejected at the All-Military Cossack Council in Korsun.

On October 24, 1656, the Tsar of Moscow (without warning Ukraine about this, as provided for in the Pereyaslav Treaty), concluded a truce with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, according to which Ukraine became a protectorate of the Commonwealth. At the same time, a Cossack officer was "persuaded" against Hetman Vyhovsky, and Moscow ambassadors were sent with generous gifts and promises to the Zaporozhian Sich and colonels.

The uprising of Pushkar and Barabash

At the end of December 1657, Poltava Colonel Martyn Pushkar and his regiment, with the support of Moscow, opposed the Hetman. At that time, the Belgorod warlord, Prince Semyon Lvov, and the Kolontaiv warlord, David Protasov, were held in prisons of Cossacks loyal to the hetman and a sergeant. In February 1658, the tsar's ambassador Bogdan Khitrovo, supporting the anti-Hetman rebels (whose leaders were given royal gifts), began to demand from Hetman Vyhovsky consent to the introduction of Moscow garrisons in Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Pereyaslav, and other cities and their maintenance at the expense of the local population.

On April 3 and 4, 1658, tsarist decrees were issued appointing warlords to Bila Tserkva, Korsun, Nizhyn, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Myrhorod, and on April 6, a decree was issued appointing boyar Vasyl Sheremetyev head of the new Moscow administration in Ukraine. The instructions instructed him to ensure the transfer of the administrative apparatus in the cities into the hands of the bourgeoisie, which favored the autocratic tsarist government. The support of the city authorities against the Cossack administration was another means of shaking the foundations of the power of the Cossack state.

In the battle of Poltava, Hetman Vyhovsky's troops defeated the rebels, and Martyn Pushkar was killed. Realizing that it would not be possible to resolve the civil war in Ukraine only with ambassadors and persuasions, Moscow introduced troops into the Hetmanate. In mid-June 1658, under the pretext of "taming" the tyrants, the troops of Prince Vasyl Sheremetyev (in Kyiv) and Prince Grigory Romodanovsky arrived with 15,000 troops (he was in Vepryk on June 28).

The uprising of Pushkar and Barabash, which broke out in 1657–1658, was tacitly supported by the Moscow authorities and the Moscow warlords who were in Ukraine. After the tsar refused Vyhovsky to help against the rebels, the hetman began to look for other options. The Crimean Khanate has been in alliance with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since 1654. Therefore, it was decided to return to negotiations with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The result of the negotiations was the conclusion of the Treaty of Hadiach. The new union of Ukraine and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was based on the principle of the federal system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth implemented at the Lublin Sejm in 1569. Under the conditions of Ukraine as an independent state, under the name of the Grand Duchy of Russia was on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania in the federation. The agreement was very negatively received in Moscow, which accelerated the beginning of military events.

In August 1658, again ignoring the Treaty of Pereyaslav, under the protection of Moscow's troops, Prince Romodanovsky proclaimed Ivan Bezpaly acting hetman. Moscow's troops and their allies behaved on the Left Bank as if they were an occupied country. In the state of Prince Romodanovsky was another leader of the defeated anti-Hetman opposition, Jacob Barabash, and his men, who, at the connivance of the warlord, began to ravage the left-bank cities, plunder and kill; Moscow hostages were sent to the cities of the Left Bank without the consent of the Ukrainian government.

In Pryluky, Pryluky Colonel Petro Doroshenko was illegally removed and several centurions loyal to the Hetman's government were executed.[1][2]

Beginning

In response to the military actions of the Moscow warlord, the Hetman's government decided to respond with a military action on Moscow territory. In August–September 1658, the hetman's troops went to the Ukrainian-Moscow border. In parallel with the hetman, Colonel Ivan Nechai launched military operations against the Muscovites in Belarus.

The Russian-Ukrainian war was officially declared by the parties in September 1658. Then the Ukrainian government concluded the Treaty of Hadiach with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which recorded the renunciation of the hetman's state from tsarist citizenship and issued a Manifesto to the "Rulers of Europe" explaining the cause of the war with the Muscovy. The Treaty of Hadiach proclaimed the creation of the Grand Duchy of Russia. Poland, Lithuania, Russia-Ukraine were three parts of the Commonwealth ( Commonwealth of Three Nations ). The highest power in Ukraine belonged to the hetman and the Grand Council. Ukraine had to have its own court, where all cases were conducted in Ukrainian, its own state, where all taxes went, to its own warlord, the Cossack army. For his part, the Moscow tsar issued a letter dated September 21, 1658, calling for the removal of the head of the Ukrainian state, who was displeasing to Moscow, and announced the beginning of hostilities against the hetman's troops. In general, a large tsarist army entered Ukraine - according to various sources, from 70 to 100 thousand.[1][2]

Stages

The first stage

The first stage of the war took place from late September to mid-December 1658. Colonel Nechay's troops managed to drive the Moscow garrisons from the cities of Belarus. On October 20, a 15,000-strong Moscow army, led by Prince Romodanovsky, entered Ukraine for the third time with the task of establishing Muscovy's military control over the southern and central regions of the Left Bank. Hetman Vyhovsky divides his army into two parts. Colonels Hryhoriy Hulyanytskyi, Petro Doroshenko, and Onykyi Sylych begin hostilities against Romodanovsky's army in the Pyriatyn area, and the hetman travels to Kyiv to drive out the Moscow garrison. However, the defeat of the hetman's troops on October 30 near Kyiv and the siege of Romodanovsky by Cossack troops led by Gulyanytsky in Varva on the one hand, and the lack of resources and support among the local population, forced the parties to conclude a truce.[3]

In November, Moscow troops managed to capture the town of Chornukha, which was located on the road from Pyriatyn to Lokhvytsia. Under the terms of the armistice, Prince Romodanovsky lifted the siege of Varva and retreated to Lokhvytsia. In the winter of 1658, both sides were actively preparing for the continuation of the war.

The second stage

The second stage of the war lasted from mid-December 1658 to the second half of March 1659. In December 1658, regrouping its troops, the Hetman's government seized the initiative: the main Moscow occupying forces were blocked in Lokhvytsia. Having received reinforcements from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Crimean Khanate, Vyhovsky went to the Left Bank in order to regain some of the lost control over those parts of the Poltava, Myrhorod, and Lubny regiments that already had Moscow garrisons. The whole winter and the first half of March 1659 were spent in constant clashes between the hetman's and Moscow's troops in the border areas and periodic clashes near Kyiv. During the campaign, the hetman's government managed to regain control over most of the territories of these regiments. But Vyhovsky was unable to achieve a final victory, as about 10 Ukrainian cities remained under Moscow's control.

The third stage

The third stage of the war (late March - early August 1659) began with a campaign in Ukraine by the Moscow army led by Prince Trubetsky in late March. April 18, 1659 - Moscow's army approaches Konotop - a strategically important city on the Ukrainian border near Putivl. Konotop then housed the most capable part of the Hetman's troops on the Left Bank - three Cossack regiments (Nizhyn, Chernihiv, and Kalnytsky) led by the hetman of the north, Hryhoriy Hulyanytsky. On April 21, the city was under complete siege. Surrounded in Konotop, the Cossacks refused to surrender the city to the Muscovites, as well as to blame the tsar and return his citizenship. The number of Moscow troops near Konotop was about 70 thousand people. At the same time, to expand the territory controlled by the Muscovites, Trubetsky, in May 1659, regularly sent raids against the hetman's troops: twice near Borzna (Moscow troops "stormed the city of Borzna and stormed and burned"), in the area of Khorol, Khorol, Gov Nizhyn.

Victory in the war
Scheme of the Battle of Konotop

In June 1659, fierce battles between the hetman's and Moscow's troops took place in the Glukhov area. There, Putivl and Sevwarlords Hryhoriy Dolgoruky and Mykhailo Dmytriyev kept the city under siege for more than two weeks, but the siege was successfully lifted. And near Govtva, Moscow troops were defeated by the Cossack-Tatar army. In Konotop, the main forces of the Moscow troops during the decisive battle of Konotop suffered a crushing defeat. On June 24 on Krupichpol (10 miles north of Ichnia) Hetman and Tatar troops unite. The hetman was then accompanied by 16,000 Cossacks with 10 colonels and 3,000 Poles, Serbs, and Wallachians with A. Potocki, S. Yablonovsky, and Y. Nemyrych. With Khan Muhammad Giray - 30-40 thousand Tatars. On June 28, Moscow and Cossack-Tatar troops met at the Sosnivka crossing. Due to the defeat of Moscow's troops, Prince Trubetsky was ordered to retreat from Konotop, the siege of the city was lifted, the convoys were removed. June 29 - Hetman Vyhovsky approached Konotop with the main forces and laid siege to the Muscovite camp. Wanting to save the remaining troops and escape from the encirclement, Prince Trubetskoy on July 2 began retreating towards Putivl. On July 4, Moscow troops left the territory of the Hetmanate.[4]

Results

The news of the defeat of the Moscow army near Konotop and the possibility of a further offensive and the threat of a Tatar attack on Moscow cities, according to records in the journal of the Swedish diplomat Mueller, caused panic in Moscow. Russian historian Sergei Solovyov wrote:[5]

"The elite of the Moscow cavalry, which took place in the happy campaigns of 1654 and 1655, died in one day, and never after that was the tsar of Moscow able to bring such a brilliant army to the field. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich came out in mourning clothes to the people and terror gripped Moscow… ».

As a result of Tatar attacks in the southern counties of the Moscow state in late July - early August, more than 25,000 people were taken prisoner. Moscow's troops were defeated and driven out of Ukrainian territory - the Hetman's government offered the tsar "appeasement" and exchange of prisoners. The defeat in this war forced Moscow to push the issue of establishing direct control over the territory of Ukraine to the background. Orders to Prince Trubetsky to send part of the regiments to Belgorod, and himself to withdraw from the border with the main forces against the background of consultations launched in the second half of July on the location of the congress of representatives of the parties to "curb bloodshed" and "agreement" to negotiations with the government of Hetman I. Vyhovsky and agrees to recognize the existence of the Cossack state. However, the Ukrainians could not use this victory to strengthen their own state. Soon, due to internal strife and the active work of the Moscow ambassadors and warlords, Ivan Vyhovsky was forced to renounce the Hetman's mace, and the creation of the Grand Duchy of Russia remained only on paper. The events of the next two months (mid-August–October 1659) after the actual end of the war were unfavorable for Ukraine. The political reorientation of most officers to Moscow (the oath of the tsar and the call of the Moscow army), due to her dissatisfaction with the version of the Treaty of Hadiach ratified by the Sejm of the Commonwealth, canceled the military achievements of the Ukrainian army.

In September 1659, Colonels Zolotarenko, Somko, and Tsitsyura opposed I. Vyhovsky. This forced I. Vyhovsky to renounce the Hetman's mace in favor of Yuri Khmelnytsky. The Ukrainian Ruin began. Conclusion: the armed victory in the war ended in later political capitulation. The final political results of the war, which contradicted the military results, were enshrined in the new "Pereyaslav Articles". On October 17, 1659, Muscovy achieved most of its goals at the beginning of the war: by sending troops to the main cities of Ukraine, it established real military and political control over the Left Bank, gaining direct access to its material, financial and human resources; was able to directly influence the appointment of the hetman and other officers, significantly reducing the powers of the hetman and the Cossack council in personnel and other matters; reached a formal agreement of the Cossack officers not to pursue an independent, much less different from Moscow's foreign and domestic policy; expelled the Cossack administration from Belarus.[1][2]

References
  1. Smoliy, A. (2006–2007). Istorii︠a︡ ukraïnsʹkoho kozat︠s︡tva : narysy u dvokh tomakh. Kyiv. ISBN 966-518-398-2.
  2. Smoliĭ, V. A.; Русина, О. В. (2016). Ukraïnsʹka nat︠s︡ionalʹna revoli︠u︡t︠s︡ii︠a︡ : 1648-1676. Kyiv. ISBN 978-966-498-508-3.
  3. Micic, Yu. (2003–2019). Kyiv siege 1658 // Ent︠s︡yklopedii︠a︡ istoriï Ukraïny. Kyïv: Наукова думка. p. 528. ISBN 978-966-00-0692-8.
  4. V., Lytvyn (2003–2005). The Ukrainian-Russian War of 1658-1659. The Battle of Konotop // History of Ukraine: in 3 vols. Alternativi. p. 539.
  5. Соловьев С. М. История России с древнейших времен. Книга третья. Том XI - XV. - 2-е изд. — СПб.: Товарищество "Общественная польза", 1851-1879. — С. 46—47.
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