Zaporozhian Cossacks - Alliance With Russia

Alliance With Russia

After the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, Ukraine became a suzerainty under the protection of the Russian Tsar, although for a considerable period of time it enjoyed nearly complete autonomy.

After Khmelnytsky's death in 1657, his successor, Ivan Vyhovsky, alarmed by the growing Russian interference in the affairs of the Hetmanate, initiated a turn towards Poland. An attempt was made to return to the three-constituent Commonwealth of nations with the Zaporozhian cossacks joining the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth by signing the Treaty of Hadiach (1658). The treaty, ratified by the Polish Sejm (parliament), was rejected at the Hermanivka Rada by the Cossack rank and file, which would not accept a union with Catholic Poland that they perceived as an oppressor of Orthodox Christianity. The angered cossacks executed Polkovnyks (colonels) Prokip Vereshchaka and Stepan Sulyma, Vyhovsky's associates at the Polish Sejm and Vyhovsky himself narrowly escaped death.

The Zaporozhians maintained a largely separate government from Hetmanate, where the hetmans ruled. The Zaporozhians elected their own leaders, known as Kosh otaman, for one-year terms. In this period, friction between the cossacks of Hetmanate and the Zaporozhians escalated.

Cossacks who in the past fought for their independence from Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, were involved into several uprisings against the Russian Tsar, in fear of losing their privileges and autonomy. In 1709, for example, the Zaporozhian Host led by Kost Hordiienko joined Hetman Ivan Mazepa against Russia. Mazepa was previously a trusted adviser and close friend to the Russian Emperor Peter the Great but allied himself with Charles XII of Sweden against Peter I. After the defeat at the Battle of Poltava Peter ordered a retaliatory destruction of the Sich.

With the death of Mazepa in Bessarabia in 1709, his council elected his former general chancellor, Pylyp Orlyk, as his successor. Orlyk issued the project of the Constitution, where he promised to limit the authority of the Hetman, preserve the privileged position of the Zaporozhians, take measures towards achieving social equality among them, and steps towards the separation of Ukraine from the Russian State—should he manage to obtain power in Ukraine. With the support of Charles XII, Orlyk made an alliance with the Crimean Tatars and Ottomans against Russia, but following the early successes of their 1711 attack on Russia, their campaign was defeated, and Orlyk returned into exile. The Zaporozhians built a new Sich under Ottoman protection, the Oleshky Sich on the lower Dnieper.

Although some of the Zaporozhian cossacks returned to Moscow's protection, their popular leader Kost Hordiienko was resolute in his anti-Russian attitude and no rapprochement was possible until his death in 1733.