Registered Cossacks
At the beginning of 1646 there took place a secret meeting between Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Cossack hetman, and Vladislav IV the Vasa, during which the Polish king promised to increase the Cossack register up to 12,000 and to restore the rights and freedoms of Cossacks. During the liberation struggle that followed, the number of the Registered Cossacks, which was a powerful force of the Ukrainian military, reached 100,000. Attempts to lower the number to 40 thousand (according to Treaty of Zboriv of 1649) and to 20,000 (as specified by the Treaty of Bila Tserkva of 1651) did not prove successful. The March Articles, approved by the Moscow Tsar in 1654, provided 60,000 register. In the course of time the dependence of Ukraine upon Moscoviya was the main factor that influenced development of the Registered Cossacks. The handover of Ukraine by Russia to Poland in 1667 led to destruction of the Right-bank Cossacks. In 1735 the Cossack register in Left-bank Ukraine was limited to 20,000 elective Cossacks, and in Sloboda Ukraine in 1700 were only 4200 Cossacks. After 1782, the Registered Cossacks were destroyed as an organization.