Editing Cossacks (section)

====Formation of the Cossack class in the Hetmanate====

[[File:Pic I V Ivasiuk Mykola Bohdan Khmelnytskys Entry to Kyiv.jpg|thumb|left|350px|''[[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]]'s entry to Kyiv'' by [[Mykola Ivasyuk]], end of the 19th century]]
The waning loyalty of the Cossacks, and the ''[[szlachta]]'s'' arrogance towards them, resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to accede to the demand to expand the [[Registered Cossack|Cossack Registry]] prompted the largest and most successful of these: the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]], that began in 1648. Some Cossacks, including the Polish ''szlachta'' in Ukraine, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, divided the lands of the Ruthenian ''szlachta'', and became the [[Starshina#Ukraine|Cossack ''szlachta'']]. The uprising was one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth, known as [[The Deluge (Polish history)|The Deluge]], which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later.

Influential relatives of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian ''szlachta'' in Moscow helped to create the Russian–Polish alliance against Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, portrayed as rebels against order and against the private property of the Ruthenian Orthodox ''szlachta''. Don Cossacks' raids on [[Crimea]] left Khmelnitsky without the aid of his usual Tatar allies. From the Russian perspective, the rebellion ended with the 1654 [[Treaty of Pereyaslav]], in which, in order to overcome the Russian–Polish alliance against them, the Khmelnitsky Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the [[Russian Tsar]]. In return, the Tsar guaranteed them his protection; recognized the Cossack ''[[starshyna]]'' (nobility), their property, and their autonomy under his rule; and freed the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence and the land claims of the Ruthenian ''szlachta''.<ref name="EB_Pereyaslav">"In 1651, in the face of a growing threat from Poland and forsaken by his Tatar allies, Khmelnytsky asked the tsar to incorporate Ukraine as an autonomous duchy under Russian protection ... the details of the union were negotiated in Moscow. The Cossacks were granted a large degree of autonomy, and they, as well as other social groups in Ukraine, retained all the rights and privileges they had enjoyed under Polish rule." {{cite encyclopedia| encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica| year=2006| article=Pereyaslav agreement| url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Pereyaslav-Agreement| title=Archived copy| access-date=2015-08-07| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924185022/https://www.britannica.com/event/Pereyaslav-Agreement| archive-date=2015-09-24| url-status=live}}</ref>

Only some of the Ruthenian ''szlachta'' of the [[Chernigov]] region, who had their origins in the Moscow state, saved their lands from division among Cossacks and became part of the Cossack ''szlachta''. After this, the Ruthenian ''szlachta'' refrained from plans to have a Moscow Tsar as king of the Commonwealth, its own [[Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki]] later becoming king. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish–Cossack alliance and create a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 [[Treaty of Hadiach]]. The treaty was approved by the Polish king and the [[Sejm]], and by some of the Cossack ''starshyna'', including [[hetman]] [[Ivan Vyhovsky]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dvornik |first1=Francis |title=The Slavs in European History and Civilization |year=1962 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Jersey |isbn=978-0-8135-0799-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/slavsineuropeanh0000dvor_f9h0 }}</ref> The treaty failed, however, because the ''starshyna'' were divided on the issue, and it had even less support among rank-and-file Cossacks.