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BOGDAN See also:CHMIELNICKI (c. 1593-1657)
, See also:hetman of the See also:Cossacks, son of See also:Michael See also:Chmielnicki, was See also:born at Subatow, near Chigirin in the See also:Ukraine, an See also:estate given to the See also:elder Chmielnicki for his lifelong services to the See also:Polish See also:crown
.
Bogdan, after learning to read and write, a rare accomplishment in those days, entered the Cossack ranks, was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner in his first See also:battle against the See also:Turks, and found leisure during his two years' captivity at See also:Constantinople to acquire the rudiments of See also:Turkish and See also:French
.
On returning to the Ukraine he settled down quietly on his paternal estate, and in all See also:probability See also:history would never have known his name if the intolerable persecution of a neighbouring Polish See also:squire, who See also:stole his hayricks and flogged his See also:infant son to See also:death, had not converted the thrifty and acquisitive Cossack See also:husband-See also:man into one of the most striking and sinister figures of See also:modern times
.
Failing to get redress nearer See also:home, he determined to seek for See also:justice at See also:Warsaw, whither he had been summoned with other Cossack delegates to assist See also:Wladislaus IV. in his See also:long-projected See also:war against the Turks
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The See also:
Every Uniat and See also:Catholic See also:priest was hung up before his own See also:altar, along with a See also:Jew and a hog
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The panic-stricken inhabitants fled to the nearest strongholds, and soon the rebels were swarming all over the palatinates of See also:Volhynia and See also:Podolia
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But the ataman was as crafty as he was cruel
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Disagreeably awakened to the insecurity of his position by the refusal of the See also:tsar and the See also:sultan to accept him as a See also:vassal, he feigned to resume negotiations with the Poles in order to gain See also:time, dismissed the Polish commissioners in the summer of 1648 with impossible conditions, and on the 23rd of See also:September, after a contest of three days, utterly routed the Polish See also:chivalry, 40,000 strong, at Pildawa, where the Cossacks are said to have reaped an immense See also:booty after the fight was over
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All Poland now See also:lay at his feet, and the road to the defenceless See also:capital was open before him; but he wasted the See also:precious months in vain before the fortress of Zamosc, and was then persuaded by the new king of Poland, See also: But he was no statesman, and his difficulties proved overwhelming . See also:Instinct told him that his old ally the khan of the Crimea was unreliable, and that the tsar of Muscovy was his natural See also:protector, yet he could not make up his mind to abandon the one or turn to the other . His See also:attempt to carve a principality for his son out of See also:Moldavia, which Poland regarded as her vassal, led to the outbreak in 1651 of a third war between subject and suzerain, which speedily assumed the dignity and the dimensions of a crusade . Chmielnicki was now regarded not merely as a Cossack See also:rebel, but as the See also:arch-enemy of Catholicism in eastern See also:Europe, and the See also:pope granted a plenary See also:absolution to all who took up arms against him . But Bogdan himself was not without ecclesiastical sanction . The See also:archbishop of See also:Corinth girded him with a See also:sword which had lain upon the See also:Holy See also:Sepulchre, and the See also:metropolitan of Kiev absolved him from all his sins, without the usual preliminary of See also:confession, before he rode forth to battle . But See also:fortune, so long his friend, nsw deserted him, and at Beresteczko (See also:July 1, 1651) the Cossack ataman was defeated for the first time . But even now his See also:power was far from broken . In 1652 he openly interfered in the affairs of Transylvania and See also:Walachia, and assumed the high-See also:sounding • See also:title of " See also:guardian of the See also:Ottoman See also:Porte." In 1653 Poland made a supreme effort, the diet voted 17,000,000 gulden in subsidies, and John Casimir led an army of 60,000 men into the Ukraine and defeated the arch-rebel at Zranta, whereupon Chmielnicki took the See also:oath of See also:allegiance to the tsar (compat of Pereyaslavl, See also:February 19,1654),and all See also:hope of an independent Cossack See also:state was at an end . Re died on the 7th of August 1657 . With all his native ability, Chmielnicki was but an eminent See also:savage . He was the creature of every passing See also:mood or whim, incapable of cool and steady See also:judgment or of the slightest self-See also:control—an incalculable See also:weather-See also:cock, blindly obsequious to every blast of See also:passion . He could destroy, but he could not create, and other See also:people benefited by his exploits . See P . Kulish, On the Defection of Malo-See also:Russia from Poland (Rus.) (See also:Moscow, 189o) ; S . M . Solovev, History of Russia (Rus.) (Moscow, 1857, &c.), vol. x.; See also:Robert Nisbet See also:Bain, The First Romanovs, chaps . 3-4 (See also:London, 1905) . (R . N . |
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