Editing Cossacks (section)

== Ukrainian Cossacks ==
===Zaporozhian Cossacks===
{{Main|Zaporozhian Cossacks}}
[[File:Запорожский казак. 1884.jpg|thumb|Zaporozhian Cossack by [[Konstantin Makovsky]], 1884]]
The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] below the [[Dnieper Rapids]] (Ukrainian: ''za porohamy''), also known as the [[Wild Fields]]. The group became well known, and its numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European [[geopolitics]], participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The Zaporozhians gained a reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its [[vassal]]s, although they also sometimes plundered other neighbors. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the period of the Commonwealth (1569–1795).

====Emergence====
Prior to the formation of the Zaporozhian [[Sich]], Cossacks had usually been organized by [[Ruthenians|Ruthenian]] [[boyar]]s, or princes of the nobility, especially various [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuanian]] [[starosta]]s. Merchants, peasants, and runaways from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]], and Moldavia also joined the Cossacks.

The first recorded ''sich'' prototype was formed by the starosta of [[Cherkasy]] and [[Kaniv]], [[Dmytro Vyshnevetsky]], who built a fortress on the island of Little [[Khortytsia]] on the banks of the Lower [[Dnieper]] in 1552.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CV%5CY%5CVyshnevetskyDmytro.htm|title=Vyshnevetsky, Dmytro|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2020-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201135227/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CV%5CY%5CVyshnevetskyDmytro.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The Zaporozhian Host adopted a lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with those of the [[Knights Hospitaller]].

The Cossack structure arose, in part, in response to the struggle against Tatar raids. Socio-economic developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were another important factor in the growth of the Ukrainian Cossacks. During the 16th century, serfdom was imposed because of the favorable conditions for grain sales in Western Europe. This subsequently decreased the locals' land allotments and freedom of movement. In addition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government attempted to impose Catholicism, and to [[Polonization|Polonize]] the local Ukrainian population. The basic form of resistance and opposition by the locals and burghers was flight and settlement in the sparsely populated steppe.<ref name="Cossacks">{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Relations with surrounding states====

The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In the 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Ure, John |title=The Cossacks: An Illustrated History |location=London |publisher=Gerald Duckworth}}</ref> Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King [[Stephen Báthory]] granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of the government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Rudolf II]] in the 1590s.<ref name="Cossacks"/> [[Registered Cossacks]] formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.

[[File:Kremenets Mountains, Piatnitski (Cossack) cemetery, 27.08.2007 01.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Cossack cross]]es on a cemetery near [[Kremenets]], Ukraine]]
Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during the second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, [[Tatars]] living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the [[Dnieper]] river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of [[Constantinople]], forcing the [[Ottoman Sultan]] to flee his palace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |title=Cossack Navy 16th–17th Centuries |website=Geocities |access-date=2 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020001446/http://geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |archive-date=20 October 2009}}</ref> In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the [[Don Cossacks]], captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of [[Azov]], which guarded the Don.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Brian L. |last1=Davies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |via=Google Books |title=Warfare, State, and Society on the Black Sea Steppe |year=2007 |pages=89–90 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-55283-2 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729181622/https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman [[Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny]], who launched successful campaigns against the Tatars and Turks. Tsar [[Boris Fyodorovich Godunov|Boris Godunov]] had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712}}</ref> In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for the Tsar ([[False Dmitry I|Dmitri I]]), against the Muscovite army.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712|quote="The bulk of the rebels supporting Dmitrii were cossacks, petty gentry, lower status military servitors, and townsmen […] It is well known that Tsar Dmitrii maintained good relations with the Zaporizhian cossacks"}}</ref> By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dunning|first1=Chester S. L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|title=Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty|date=2010|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-04371-5|language=en|quote="to gather a force of approximately twenty five hundred men, about eleven hundred of whom were cavalry and infantry forces drawn from men into the service to the magnates and approximately fourteen hundred of whom were so called "cossacks". About two thirds of the latter group were, in fact, Ukrainians, and only about five hundred of Dmitrii's "cossacks" were true Ukrainian Cossacks."|access-date=2020-11-10|archive-date=2022-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071159/https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|url-status=live}}</ref> On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the [[Battle of Klushino]], on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat a combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with [[Stanisław Żółkiewski]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm|title=Kluszyn 1610, Battle between Polish Commonwealth and Russia (Moscovy)|website=www.kismeta.com|access-date=2020-02-14|archive-date=2013-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515185814/http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm}}</ref>

The final attempt by [[Sigismund III Vasa|King Sigismund]] and [[Władysław IV Vasa|Wladyslav]] to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was [[Jan Karol Chodkiewicz]] who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of [[Dorogobuzh]] and [[Vyazma]] had surrendered. But a defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and [[Mozhaysk]], prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including [[Livny]] and [[Yelets]]. In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace was secured.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|title=Polacy rządzili na Kremlu. Syna Zygmunta III Wazy obwołano carem|last1=S.A|first1=Wirtualna Polska Media|date=2014-02-03|website=opinie.wp.pl|language=pl|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="For Poland, the Dymitriads found their end only at the turn of 1618 and 1619 of the truce contained in Dywilno. As a result of an earlier march of hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, supported by a Cossack army of 20,000, the capital of Russia was threatened again. At the same time, troops of Lisowczyk and Cossacks spread terror, ravaging nearby towns. Faced with the country's poor internal situation, Moscow could not afford to repeat the devastating struggle. Tsar Michał I Romanow decided to end the war."|archive-date=2020-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728230325/https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Peterson, Gary Dean.|title=Warrior kings of Sweden: the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries|date=2007|publisher=McFarland & Co|isbn=978-0-7864-2873-1|oclc=237127678|quote="The treaty came none to soon for Russia as later that year Poland led a campaign led by Wladyslaw and supported by the Dnieper Cossacks that carried all the way to the gates of Moscow. A truce followed and an exchange of prisoners."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="When Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny not only spread their fame through his successful campaigns against the Tatars and the Turks and his aid to the Polish army at Moscow in 1618"|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Верстовий стовп з Мошориного.jpg|thumb|One of the unique granite columns with which the Cossacks marked their territory]]
Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the [[Habsburg monarchy]] sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against the Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the [[Moldavian Magnate Wars]] (1593–1617) to the [[Battle of Cecora (1620)]], and campaigns in the [[Polish–Ottoman War (1633–34)|Polish–Ottoman War]] of 1633–1634.

====Conflict with Poland====

Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by [[peasantry|peasants]] escaping [[serf]]dom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the ''[[szlachta]]'' to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the formerly strong Cossack loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambitions for recognition as equal to the ''szlachta''. Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a [[Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth]] made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian ''szlachta'' of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the ''szlachta''. The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] also put them at odds with officials of the [[Roman Catholic]]-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the [[Union of Brest]]. The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish.<ref name="Plokhy2001">{{cite book |author=Serhii Plokhy |author-link=Serhii Plokhii |title=The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCzzxNisc1MC&pg=PR4 |access-date=1 August 2015 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-924739-4 |page=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624122655/https://books.google.com/books?id=NCzzxNisc1MC&pg=PR4 |archive-date=24 June 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wilson2002">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Andrew |title=The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4f324_LVBL4C&pg=PA62 |access-date=1 August 2015 |year=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09309-4 |pages=62, 143 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527050350/https://books.google.com/books?id=4f324_LVBL4C&pg=PA62 |archive-date=27 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the Ottoman-Polish and Polish-Muscovite warfare ceased, the official Cossack register was again reduced. The registered Cossacks (''reiestrovi kozaky'') were isolated from those who were excluded from the register, and from the Zaporizhian Host. This, together with intensified socioeconomic and national-religious oppression of the other classes in Ukrainian society, led to many Cossack uprisings in the 1630s. The nobility, which had obtained legal ownership of vast expanses of land on the Dnipro from the Polish kings, attempted to impose feudal dependency on the local population. Landowners utilized the locals in war, by raising the Cossack registry in times of hostility, and then radically decreasing it and forcing the Cossacks back into serfdom in times of peace.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine|title=Ukraine {{!}} History, Geography, People, & Language|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2020-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124023022/https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine|url-status=live}}</ref> This institutionalized method of control bred discontent among the Cossacks. By the end of the 16th century, they began to revolt, in the uprisings of [[Kosiński uprising|Kryshtof Kosynsky]] (1591–1593), [[Nalyvaiko Uprising|Severyn Nalyvaiko]] (1594–1596), [[Hryhory Loboda|Hryhorii Loboda]] (1596), [[Marko Zhmaylo|Marko Zhmailo]] (1625), [[Taras Fedorovych]] (1630), [[Ivan Sulyma]] (1635), [[Pavlyuk uprising|Pavlo Pavliuk]] and Dmytro Hunia (1637), and [[Ostryanyn uprising|Yakiv Ostrianyn]] and Karpo Skydan (1638). All were brutally suppressed and ended by the Polish government. [[Cossack rebellions]] eventually culminated in the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]], led by the hetman of the Zaporizhian Sich, [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Under Russian rule====

[[File:Zaporozhian Cossacks Officer in 1720.JPG|thumb|An officer of the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1720]]

The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own [[Zaporizhian Sich|"Lower" Zaporozhian Host]], and its own land.
In 1775, the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host was destroyed. Later, its high-ranking Cossack leaders were exiled to Siberia,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zM6XT8LP69sC&q=cossack+leaders+exiled+to+siberia+in+1775&pg=PA51 |title=The History of Ukraine |last1=Kubicek |first1=Paul |year=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-34920-1 |language=en |access-date=2020-11-10 |archive-date=2022-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071148/https://books.google.com/books?id=zM6XT8LP69sC&q=cossack+leaders+exiled+to+siberia+in+1775&pg=PA51 |url-status=live }}</ref> its last chief, [[Petro Kalnyshevsky]], becoming a prisoner of the [[Solovetsky Islands]]. Some Cossacks moved to the [[Danube Delta]] region, where they established [[Danubian Sich|a new sich]] under Ottoman rule.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FRUMENKOW/uzniki_monastyrya.txt_with-big-pictures.html |script-title=ru:Георгий Георгиевич Фруменков. Узники соловецкого монастыря |website=Lib.ru |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209200330/http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FRUMENKOW/uzniki_monastyrya.txt_with-big-pictures.html |archive-date=2016-02-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowed them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later to reorganize into other hosts, of which the [[Black Sea Cossack Host|Black Sea Host]] was most important. Because of land scarcity resulting from the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among landlords, they eventually moved on to the [[Krasnodar krai|Kuban region]].

The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Groups were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period,{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region are bilingual, speaking both Russian and [[Balachka]], the local Kuban dialect of central [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]. Their folklore is largely Ukrainian.{{efn|This is also true of the Don Cossacks of the Lower Don, where the local dialect is related to Ukrainian. Many Ukrainian peasants joined the Terek Cossacks in the 1820s–30s, influencing local dialects. But among the Terek Cossacks, the Grebensky (Row) Cossacks, who had deep [[Adyghe people|Adyghe]] roots through intermarriage, still speak an old northern Russian Viatka dialect which likely has connections to the old dialects of the [[White Sea]] shores. The Middle Don dialects are related to northern Russian dialects, the Belarusian language, and the [[Volyn Oblast|Volyn]] dialects of Ukrainian. The Volyn dialects are close to Belarusian dialects, only the Upper Don dialects being from southern Russia.}} The predominant view of ethnologists and historians is that its origins lie in the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ngkub.ru/news/old_265 |script-title=ru:Есть ли на Кубани мова? |trans-title=Is there "(Ukrainian) language" in Kuban? |language=ru |website=Ngkub.ru |date=22 October 2009 |access-date=2 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606012617/http://ngkub.ru/news/old_265 |archive-date=6 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Bogdan Zolotarevsky |url=http://www.ukrterra.com.ua/developments/history/modern/zolotarevsky-kub.htm |script-title=ru:Кубань – Украина: вопросы истории и политики |trans-title=Kuban – Ukraine: Historical and political questions |language=ru |publisher=Institute of Social Studies |year=2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522141817/http://www.ukrterra.com.ua/developments/history/modern/zolotarevsky-kub.htm |archive-date=22 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Tatiana Stepanovna Malykhina |url=http://pedsovet.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,99614/Itemid,118/ |script-title=ru:Кубанская балачка |trans-title=Kuban balachka (language) |language=ru |work=pedsovet.org |date=11 January 2013 |access-date=5 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312001452/http://pedsovet.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,99614/Itemid,118/ |archive-date=12 March 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Cossack Hetmanate===
{{main|Cossack Hetmanate}}

====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.

====Relations with neighbours====

As a result of the mid–17th century Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Zaporozhian Cossacks briefly established an independent state, which later became the autonomous [[Cossack Hetmanate]] (1649–1764). It was placed under the [[suzerainty]] of the Russian Tsar from 1667 but was ruled by local hetmans for a century. The principal political problem of the hetmans who followed the [[Pereyaslav Council|Pereyeslav Agreement]] was defending the autonomy of the Hetmanate from Russian/Muscovite centralism. The hetmans [[Ivan Vyhovsky]], [[Petro Doroshenko]] and [[Ivan Mazepa]] attempted to resolve this by separating Ukraine from Russia.<ref name="auto"/>

Relations between the Hetmanate and their new sovereign began to deteriorate after the autumn of 1656, when the Muscovites, going against the wishes of their Cossack partners, signed an armistice with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in [[Vilnius]]. The Cossacks considered the Vilnius agreement a breach of the contract they had entered into at Pereiaslav. For the Muscovite tsar, the Pereiaslav Agreement signified the unconditional submission of his new subjects; the Ukrainian hetman considered it a conditional contract from which one party could withdraw if the other was not upholding its end of the bargain.<ref name="auto1">{{Citation|last1=Plokhy|first1=Serhii|title=The Battle of Konotop 1659|chapter=Konotop 1659: exploring alternatives in East European history|pages=11–19|publisher=Ledizioni|isbn=978-88-6705-050-5|doi=10.4000/books.ledizioni.374|year=2012|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Ukrainian hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who succeeded Khmelnytsky in 1657, believed the Tsar was not living up to his responsibility. Accordingly, he concluded a treaty with representatives of the Polish king, who agreed to re-admit Cossack Ukraine by reforming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to create a third constituent, comparable in status to that of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The [[Treaty of Hadiach|Union of Hadiach]] provoked a war between the Cossacks and the Muscovites/Russians that began in the fall of 1658.<ref name="auto1"/>

[[File:Stanisław Masłowski (1853-1926), Cossacs, ca 1900, drawing, 29 x 36,5 cm.jpeg|thumb|left|''Kozacy'' (Cossacks), [[drawing]] by [[Stanisław Masłowski]], {{circa|1900}} ([[National Museum in Warsaw]])]]
In June 1659, the two armies met near the town of [[Konotop]]. One army comprised Cossacks, Tatars, and Poles, and the other was led by a top Muscovite military commander of the era, Prince [[Aleksey Trubetskoy]]. After terrible losses, Trubetskoy was forced to withdraw to the town of [[Putyvl]] on the other side of the border. The battle is regarded as one of the Zaporizhian Cossacks' most impressive victories.<ref name="auto1"/>

In 1659, [[Yurii Khmelnytsky]] was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian Host/Hetmanate, with the endorsement of Moscow and supported by common Cossacks unhappy with the conditions of the Union of Hadiach. In 1660, however, the hetman asked the Polish king for protection, leading to the period of Ukrainian history known as [[The Ruin (Ukrainian history)|The Ruin]].<ref name="auto1"/>

====Suppression of Cossack autonomy in the Russian Empire====

Historian Gary Dean Peterson writes: "With all this unrest, Ivan Mazepa of the Ukrainian Cossacks was looking for an opportunity to secure independence from Russia and Poland".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Peterson, Gary Dean.|title=Warrior kings of Sweden: the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries|date=2007|publisher=McFarland & Co|isbn=978-0-7864-2873-1|oclc=237127678}}</ref> In response to Mazepa's alliance with [[Charles XII of Sweden]], [[Peter the Great|Peter I]] ordered the sacking of the then capital of the Hetmanate, [[Baturyn]]. The city was burnt and looted, and 11,000 to 14,000 of its inhabitants were killed. The destruction of the Hetmanate's capital was a signal to Mazepa and the Hetmanate's inhabitants of severe punishment for disloyalty to the Tsar's authority.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/excavations-at-baturyn-in-2016-2017-ceramic-decorations-of-the-hetmans-palaces-and-offices/|title=Excavations at Baturyn in 2016-2017: ceramic decorations of the hetman's palaces and offices|last1=Mezentsev|first1=Volodymyr|website=The Ukrainian Weekly|date=27 October 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=2020-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200217143143/http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/excavations-at-baturyn-in-2016-2017-ceramic-decorations-of-the-hetmans-palaces-and-offices/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Zaporizhian Sich at [[Chortomlyk Sich|Chortomlyk]], which had existed since 1652, was also destroyed by Peter I's forces in 1709, in retribution for decision of its otaman [[Kost Hordiyenko]], to ally with Mazepa.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CZ%5CA%5CZaporozhianSich.htm|title=Zaporozhian Sich|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=2018-06-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623033138/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CZ%5CA%5CZaporozhianSich.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Under Russian rule, the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Russian Tsardom: the [[Cossack Hetmanate]], and the more independent [[Zaporozhian Sich|Zaporizhia]]. These organizations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]] in the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of [[Little Russia]], and Zaporizhia was absorbed into [[New Russia]].

===Black Sea, Azov and Danubian Sich Cossacks===
{{see also|Black Sea Cossack Host|Azov Cossack Host|Danube Cossack Host}}
[[File:Józef Brandt - Wesele kozackie.jpg|thumb|Cossack wedding, by [[Józef Brandt]]]]
With the destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich, a number of Ukrainian-speaking Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks fled to the territory under the control of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Together with [[Nekrasov Cossacks|Cossacks of Greater Russian origin]], as well as the vast majority of [[Old Believers]] and other people from "Greater Russia" ([[Moscovia (region)|Muscovy]]), they settled in the area of the [[Danube]] river, and founded a new Sich. Many Ukrainian peasants and adventurers later joined the [[Danubian Sich]]. While [[Ukrainian folklore]] remembers the Danubian Sich, other new siches of Loyal Zaporozhians on the [[Bug River|Bug]] and Dniester rivers did not achieve such fame. Other Cossacks settled on the [[Tisza|Tisa]] river in the [[Austrian Empire]], also forming a new Sich.

During the Cossack sojourn under Turkish rule, a new host was founded that numbered around 12,000 people by the end of 1778. Cossack settlement on the Russian border was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the [[Abdul Hamid I|sultan]]. Yet internal conflict, and the political maneuvering of the Russian Empire led to splits among the Cossacks. Some of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia, where the Russian army used them to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greeks, Albanians and Crimean Tatars. After the [[Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)|Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792]], most of these Cossacks were absorbed into the [[Black Sea Cossack Host]] together with Loyal Zaporozhians. Most of the remaining Cossacks who had stayed in the Danube Delta returned to Russia in 1828. They settled in the area north of the [[Sea of Azov|Azov Sea]], becoming known as the [[Azov Cossack Host|Azov Cossacks]]. The majority of Zaporizhian Cossacks who had remained loyal to Russia despite the destruction of Sich became known as [[Black Sea Cossack Host|Black Sea Cossacks]]. Both Azov and Black Sea Cossacks were resettled to colonize the [[Kuban steppe]], a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the [[Caucasus]]. In 1860, more Cossacks were resettled to the [[North Caucasus]], and merged into the [[Kuban Cossacks|Kuban Cossack Host]].