page_title: History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764)
section_title: Khmelnytsky Uprising, peasant movements, Cossack alliance with Russia
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764) / Wars fought to protect territorial integrity, decline of government / Khmelnytsky Uprising, peasant movements, Cossack alliance with Russia
caption_attribution_description: Maxym Kryvonis (woodcut of Kryvonis's likeness, probably a Polish caricature)
context_page_description: The history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1764) covers a period in the history of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, from the time their joint state became the theater of wars and invasions fought on a great scale in the middle of the 17th century, to the time just before the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
  From the 17th century, the nobles' democracy, experienced devastating wars and fell into internal disorder and then anarchy, and as a result declined. The once powerful Commonwealth had become vulnerable to internal warfare and foreign intervention. In 1648 the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising engulfed the south and east of the vast Polish–Lithuanian state, and was soon followed by a Swedish invasion, which raged through core Polish lands. Warfare with the Cossacks and Russia left Ukraine divided; the eastern part, lost by the Commonwealth, became a dependency of the Tsardom of Russia. John III Sobieski, who fought protracted wars against the Ottoman Empire, revived the Commonwealth's military might once more. In one decisive engagement he helped in 1683 to deliver Vienna from a Turkish onslaught.
context_section_description: The long-lasting Cossack uprising began in 1648 and was led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. It was a great national and social movement, as the increasingly exploited Rus' peasant masses joined the Cossacks to fight their szlachta oppressors. Polonization, catholicizing, state support for the Uniate Church (especially in western Ukraine) at the expense of the often persecuted Orthodox religion, and denying the Ukrainian people cultural opportunities were some of the factors that contributed greatly to the unrest. In spite of the suppression, during the first half of the 17th century the Rus' elements in the region matured, consolidated and gained strength at all levels of society. Accordingly, a great majority of the Ukrainian nobility from the Kiev and Bratslav Voivodeships and the Ukrainian urban people joined the uprising as well.
  The unusually dry summer of 1648 and locust attacks caused destruction of crops and hunger in Ukraine, adding to the region's instability.
  As Władysław IV carried out preparations for the Turkish expedition that he had planned, by the time the Sejm halted the undertaking, large numbers of Cossack warriors had been mobilized and put in a state of military readiness. The appearance of an outstanding leader, a scribe in the Zaporizhian Army of Registered Cossacks, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, was another decisive factor. Having suffered a wrong from Daniel Czapliński, a Polish nobleman, and unable to obtain redress through official channels, Khmelnytsky headed for the Zaporizhian Sich, where he agitated among the Cossacks already embittered by the repressions of the 1630s, and now also made restless by the cancellation of the war they were told to expect. Khmelnytsky effectively caused the Cossack force to change sides. He was able to secure support from the Crimean Khanate, taking advantage of the Tatars' (and their Ottoman overlords') interest in disabling the Commonwealth's offensive military capabilities. The Cossack-Tatar alliance, a new factor in the regional civil warfare, turned out to be militarily highly effective.
  The disastrous consequences of the erroneous and short-sighted, during the reigns of the first two Vasa kings, Cossack policies of the Polish Republic of Nobility were about to make their impact, first of many. In April and May 1648, in the Battle of Zhovti Vody and the Battle of Korsuń the joined Cossack-Tatar forces completely destroyed the Crown army, capturing Crown Hetmans Mikołaj Potocki and Marcin Kalinowski. Thousands of Registered Cossacks, sent into combat with the Polish forces, were persuaded by the rebels to change sides. As a result of the dramatic events, vast expanses of Dnieper Ukraine became engulfed in the spreading social upheaval and the region's separation from the Polish kingdom had begun.
  Ukrainian land potentate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, who embarked on the defense of his huge threatened latifundium and its people, began retreating at the end of May from left-bank Ukraine. Fighting the Cossacks with some measure of success he matched the ruthlessness of the rebels, but brought no resolution to the conflict and prevented a possibility of the considered negotiated solution. Wiśniowiecki commanded his army at the Battle of Starokostiantyniv in late July against Cossack forces led by Maksym Kryvonis; its indecisive outcome allowed Wiśniowiecki and his units to continue their westward movement.
  The death of Władysław IV on May 20 and the discordant interregnum had made the matters worse. Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński and Voivode Adam Kisiel, a magnate influential with the Ukrainian population, advocated making the concessions necessary to placate the Cossacks. Other magnates, especially Wiśniowiecki, Aleksander Koniecpolski and Janusz Radziwiłł, demanded taking whatever radical punitive steps were required to quench the disorder. The convocation sejm was likewise indecisive and the newly appointed military chiefs incompetent, which resulted in a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Pyliavtsi in September. This allowed Khmelnytsky to move toward Lwów and Zamość, while the uprising 
caption: Maksym Kryvonis, a peasant Cossack commander
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