page_title: Khmelnytsky Uprising
section_title: Massacres
hierarchical_section_title: Khmelnytsky Uprising / Casualties / Massacres
caption_attribution_description: English: Execution of Polish captives after the battle of Batoh 1652.Русский: Казнь (резня&#160;?) польских? пленников после битвы под Батогом 1652.Polski: Masakra polskich jeńców po bitwie pod Batohem 1652Українська: Страта польських? бранців після битви під Батогом 1652 року
context_page_description: The Khmelnytsky Uprising, also known as the Cossack-Polish War, the Chmielnicki Uprising, the Khmelnytsky massacre or the Khmelnytsky insurrection was a Cossack rebellion that took place between 1648 and 1657 in the eastern territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to the creation of a Cossack Hetmanate in Ukraine. Under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars and local Ukrainian peasantry, fought against Polish domination and against the Commonwealth forces. The insurgency was accompanied by mass atrocities committed by Cossacks against the civilian population, especially against the Roman Catholic clergy and the Jews.
  The uprising has a symbolic meaning in the history of Ukraine's relationship with Poland and Russia. It ended the Polish Catholic Szlachta′s domination over the Orthodox Christian population; at the same time it led to the eventual incorporation of eastern Ukraine into the Tsardom of Russia initiated by the 1654 Pereyaslav Agreement, whereby the Cossacks would swear allegiance to the Tsar while retaining a wide autonomy.
context_section_description: Before the Khmelnytsky uprising, magnates had sold and leased certain privileges to arendators, many of whom were Jewish, who earned money from the collections they made for the magnates by receiving a percentage of an estate's revenue. By not supervising their estates directly, the magnates left it to the leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants. Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews." With this as their battle cry, Cossacks and the peasantry massacred numerous Jewish and Polish-Lithuanian townsfolk, as well as szlachta during the years 1648–1649. The contemporary 17th-century Eyewitness Chronicle (Yeven Mezulah) by Nathan ben Moses Hannover states:
  Wherever they found the szlachta, royal officials or Jews, they [Cossacks] killed them all, sparing neither women nor children. They pillaged the estates of the Jews and nobles, burned churches and killed their priests, leaving nothing whole. It was a rare individual in those days who had not soaked his hands in blood ...
caption: Massacre of 3000–5000 Polish captives after the battle of Batih in 1652
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