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Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth as proposed by Treaty of Hadiach in 1658

The Treaty of Hadiach (Polish: ugoda hadziacka; Ukrainian: гадяцький договір) was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Stanisław Kazimierz Bieniewski [pl] representing Poland and Kazimieras Liudvikas Jevlaševskis [lt] representing Lithuania) and Zaporozhian Cossacks (represented by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and starshina Yuri Nemyrych, the architect of the treaty, and Pavlo Teteria).

It was designed to elevate the Cossacks and Ruthenians to a position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian union and in fact transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, lit. 'Republic of Three Nations', Lithuanian: Trijų Tautų Respublika, Belarusian: Рэч Паспалітая трох народаў, Ukrainian: Річ Посполита Трьох Народів).

Background

A way to establish a Grand Principality of Ruthenia was considered by the Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky at various times, particularly during the 1648 Cossack insurrection against Polish rule in the mainly ethnically-Ukrainian territories (see Khmelnytsky Uprising).

Terms

Oath of Polish king, John II Casimir, on the treaty of Hadiach, 10 June 1659.

The list of points and humble requests that are submitted at his mercy by Serene Hetman of Zaporizhian Host along with the whole Zaporizhian Host and Ruthenian people to his royal mercy and the whole Rzeczpospolita:

  1. Creation of the Grand Principality of Ruthenia (Ukrainian: Велике Князівство Руське) from the palatinates of Chernihiv, Bratslav and Kyiv, which along with the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania would be part of one and indivisible "Rzeczpospolita" (res publica, or Commonwealth) in equal rights.
  2. The duchy was to be governed by the Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host, elected for life from among four candidates that were chosen by all estates of Ukrainian society and confirmed by the King of Poland.
  3. In the duchy were to be established local offices in Polish manner.
  4. In the duchy were to be restored law and courts as well as the administrative-territorial system of governing that existed prior to 1648.
  5. The Grand Principality of Ruthenia shall not have rights to independent relations with other counties.
  6. Individuals of Eastern Orthodox religion shall hold a senatorial seat.
  7. It was permitted to establish own printing institutions of money with an image of one common king.
  8. Number of own Armed Forces should be accounted for 60,000 of Cossacks and 10,000 of mercenaries.
  9. There were to be restored a big landownership, serfdom and all obligatory duties that existed prior to 1648.
  10. To the Cossack Estate were guaranteed the old rights and privileges and up to 100 Cossacks from each regiment on request of the Hetman to be ennobled by the King.
  11. The 1596 Church Union of Brest on the territory of the Grand Principality of Ruthenia was to be cancelled, announced the freedom of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic religions, to the Eastern Orthodox metropolitan bishop and 5 other bishops were granted permanent seats in common Senate of the Rzeczpospolita.
  12. Polish and Lithuanian armed forces had no rights to be on the territory of the Grand Principality of Ruthenia except for emergencies and in such case, they would be subordinated to the Hetman.
  13. Existence of 2 universities: the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was to be granted the same rights as the Jagiellonian University of Kraków and a newly created college with status of university.
  14. Nationwide it was permitted to establish colleges and gymnasiums with rights to teach in Latin.
  15. Freedom of publishing as long as the published materials would not have personal attacks against the King.

Ratification

In May 1659 the Polish Diet (the Sejm) ratified the treaty with an amended text. The plan, as envisioned by Yuri Nemyrych, would have ennobled some Cossacks, who would then run the Grand Principality of Ruthenia (1658). Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky could not get enough Cossacks to agree to keeping the Uniate Church, which the Catholic church refused to liquidate, but many Cossacks strongly opposed the idea.

The plan meant an annulment of the Pereiaslav Agreement's arrangements and thus renewed hostilities between the Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia.

Response

Republic of Three Nations according to the 1658 proposal

The Treaty of Hadiach (Polish: ugoda hadziacka, Ukrainian: гадяцький договір) was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach between the representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Cossack Hetmanate. Its main goal was to create an equal position of Poles, Lithuanians and Ruthenians through the creation of the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth, a country of three nations.

This decision, however, divided the Ukrainian Cossacks into pro-Russian and pro-Polish parties and led to the Ruin (Ukrainian history).

The concept of reconciliation between the Cossack Hetmanate and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was based on the principle of the confederal system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth implemented at the Lublin Sejm in 1569.

According to the conditions proposed by the hetman Vyhovsky, Ukraine as an independent state called the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia was to join the confederation on equal terms with Poland and Lithuania. The territory of the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia consisted of the Kyiv, Bratslav and Chernihiv Voivodeships. The highest legislative power belonged to the national assembly of deputies, who were elected from all lands of the principality. Executive power was exercised by the hetman, who was elected for life and approved by the king. The selection of candidates for hetman was to be carried out jointly by all levels of Ukrainian society — the Cossacks, the nobility, and the clergy. The hetman headed the armed forces of Ukraine. In the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia, the state positions of chancellor, marshal, sub-treasury and the highest judicial tribunal were established.

All paperwork was to be conducted in the Ruthenian language. In Kyiv or in another city, it was supposed to create a mint for minting one's own coin.

The Ukrainian army was to consist of 30,000 Cossacks and 10,000 troops hired by the hetman. The troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were forbidden to stay on the territory of the principality. In the event of hostilities in Ukraine, the troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were on its territory, came under the command of the hetman. The rights and privileges of Cossacks were guaranteed. At the request of the hetman, one hundred Cossacks from each regiment were to be admitted to the nobility every year.

Orthodox believers were equal in rights with Catholics. The Greek Catholic Church was preserved, but could not spread to new territories. The Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv and five Orthodox bishops were to be given the right to sit in the common senate of the Commonwealth.

The agreement provided for the consolidation of the academic status of the Kyiv–Mohyla Academy and equalization of its rights with the University of Kraków. On the territory of the principality, it was planned to establish another Orthodox academy and secondary educational institutions — collegiums, as well as to fund the required number of primary schools and printing houses.

Generally speaking, the treaty was unsuccessful. From the point of view of the politics of the Cossack Hetmanate, the terms of the treaty drafted by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were a step back compared to the terms offered to the Cossacks by Moscow four years ago. Instead of a de facto independent state under the protection of a foreign ruler, the Cossack state, now called the Duchy of Ruthenia, became a component of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, integrated into its administrative and territorial system. Its territory was divided into three voivodeships. The hetman had no right to diplomatic relations with foreign rulers. The Ukrainian Cossack army was reduced from 60 to 30 thousand. The Cossacks lost the right to elect the hetman, which now passed to the foreman. Moreover, the granting of nobility to a limited circle of Cossack elders deprived the common Cossacks of their own elite. Such conditions were significantly inferior to the proposed and largely implemented conditions of the Treaty of Pereiaslav in 1654.

After the Russo–Polish War (1654–1667), Ukraine was divided into the Right Bank, which remained part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until its Second Partition in 1793, and the Left Bank, which, together with Kyiv on the Right Bank, became part of the Tsardom of Russia.

The idea of a Ruthenian Duchy within the Commonwealth was completely abandoned in 1659 after the second Agreement. The Canadian historian Paul Robert Magosci believes that happened because of the divisions among the Cossacks and because of the Russian invasion. However, those events were much earlier than the signing of the Treaty of Hadiach. The Russian historian Tairova-Yakovleva regards the resistance of Polish society and papal pressure as the reasons for the failure in ratification.

History and importance

A 19th-century design for a coat of arms of a proposed Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth, which never came into being. It comprises the Polish White Eagle, Lithuanian Charging Knight, and Ruthenian Archangel Michael.
Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth, or Commonwealth of Three Nations (1658)

The historian Andrew Wilson has called it "one of the great 'What-ifs?' of Ukrainian and East European history". He notes:

"If it had been successfully implemented, the Commonwealth would finally have become a loose confederation of Poles, Lithuanians and Ruthenians. The missing Ukrainian buffer state would have come into being as the Commonwealth's eastern pillar. Russian expansion might have been checked and Poland spared the agonies of the Partitions or, perhaps just as likely, it might have struggled on longer as the 'Sick man of Europe'" (p. 65).

In spite of considerable opposition by the Roman Catholic clergy, the Treaty of Hadiach was approved by Polish king and the Sejm on 22 May 1659 but with an amended text. The idea of a Ruthenian Duchy within the Commonwealth was completely abandoned. It was a Commonwealth attempt to regain influence over the Ukrainian territories, which had been lost after the series of Cossack uprisings (like the Khmelnytsky Uprising) and growing influence of Russia over the Cossacks (like the 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement).

Hetman Vyhovsky supported the negotiations with the Commonwealth, especially after he suppressed a revolt led by the colonel of Poltava, Martyn Pushkar, and severed relations with Tsardom of Russia for its violations of the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654. The Treaty of Hadiach was, however, viewed by many Cossacks as "too little, too late", and they especially opposed the agreement to return the land property to the szlachta. After the 1648 revolt, the Commonwealth was very unpopular with ordinary Cossacks. Rank-and-file Cossacks saw the Orthodox Tsardom of Russia as their natural ally and did not care for an alliance with the overwhelmingly-Catholic Commonwealth. Furthermore, Hadiach was too much a deal that merely benefited the elite of the Cossacks, the starshyna, who wanted to be recognized as equal to the Polish nobility. Thus, while some Cossacks, among them the hetman Ivan Vyhovsky supported the Commonwealth, many opposed it, and Cossack unrest continued in Ukraine.

The Commonwealth position was further weakened by a string of losses in the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667). The Tsar felt threatened by the Treaty of Hadiach, which weakened his hold on Cossacks. The Russians saw the treaty as an act of war and, even before its ratification, sent an army into Ukraine. Although Polish-Lithuanian forces under Stefan Czarniecki dealt a defeat to Russian forces at the Battle of Polonka and recaptured Vilnius in 1660, the lack of other Commonwealth military successes, especially in Ukraine, further undermined Cossack support of the Commonwealth. Vyhovsky's early success at the Battle of Konotop in June 1659 was not decisive enough and was followed by a series of defeats. The Russian garrisons in Ukraine continued to hold out; a Zaporozhian attack on the Crimean Khanate forced Vyhovsky's Tatar allies to return home, and unrest broke out in the Poltava region. Finally, several pro-Russian colonels rebelled and accused Vyhovsky of "selling Ukraine out to the Poles".

Unable to continue the war, Vyhovsky resigned in October 1659 and retired to Poland. The situation was further complicated by the Ottoman Empire, which tried to gain control of the disputed region and played all factions against one another. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth was weakened by Lubomirski's rebellion. The treaty was mostly repeated in the 1660 Treaty of Chudnov.

In the end, Russia was victorious, as seen in the 1667 Truce of Andrusovo and the Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686). Ukrainian Cossacks fell under the Russian sphere of influence, with much fewer privileges under the Hetmanate than would have been granted under the Treaty of Hadiach. By the late 18th century, Cossack political influence was almost destroyed by the Russian Empire.

Second Treaty of Hadiach

In the aftermath of the November Uprising in 1831, there was an attempt to recreate the Treaty of Hadiach to form a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth to throw off the partitions of Poland. It was then that the coat of arms of the proposed Commonwealth was created. The planned convention in Hadiach was declared illegal by the Russians, who stationed close to 2,000 soldiers there to ensure that no meetings or demonstrations took place, and they blocked passage through nearby bridges. Despite the precautions, a mass and a celebration involving 15–20,000 people and over 200 priests (both Catholic and Orthodox) took place near Hadiach.

Second Union of Horodło

The idea of a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth revived during the January Uprising when a patriotic demonstration took place at Horodło in 1861. The so-called Second Union of Horodło was announced there by the szlachta of Congress Poland of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania of Volhynia and of Podolia. The New Commonwealth, based on the Second Union of Horodło, was to be based on the three nations, and its proposed coat of arms included the Polish eagle, the Lithuanian Pahonia, and the patron saint of Ruthenia, the Archangel Michael.

See also

Notes

  1. The Cossack negotiators had originally demanded that Ruthenian Voivodeship, Volhynian Voivodship, Belz Voivodeship, and Podolian Voivodeship be included as well
  2. there were 16 regiments
  3. Catholisation
  4. The official language of the Kingdom of Poland was Latin.

References

  1. ^ "Unia hadziacka i marzenia o stworzeniu Rzeczpospolitej Trojga Narodów". Polskie Radio (in Polish). 16 September 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  2. Vyhovsky, I. The list of points and humble requests that are submitted at his mercy by Serene Hetman of Zaporizhian Host along with the whole Zaporizhian Host and Russian [Ruthenian] people to his royal mercy and the whole Rzecz Pospolita (ПЕРЕЛІК ПУНКТІВ І ПОКІРНИХ ПРОХАНЬ, ЯКІ ПОДАЄ ЙОГО МИЛІСТЬ ЯСНОВЕЛЬМОЖНИЙ ГЕТЬМАН ВІЙСЬКА ЗАПОРОЗЬКОГО РАЗОМ З УСІМ ВІЙСЬКОМ ЗАПОРОЗЬКИМ І НАРОДОМ РУСЬКИМ ЙОГО КОРОЛІВСЬКІЙ МИЛОСТІ І ВСІЙ РІЧІ ПОСПОЛИТІЙ). Izbornik.
  3. The 1658 treaty of Hadiach (Гадяцький договір 1658 року). Ukrayinskyi istoryk.
  4. ^ The 1658 treaty of Hadiach (Гадяцький договір 1658 року). Ukrayinskyi istoryk.
  5. Władysław Konopczyński (1936). Dzieje Polski nowożytnej (A History of Modern Poland. Second edition, Warsaw 1986, p.27). ISBN 83-211-0730-3 : W izbach dużo było narzekania na to, że nowy układ łamie unię lubelską (...) Ostatecznie nad tymi rozczeniami, jak i nad protestem nuncjusza oraz biskupów, sejm przeszedł do porządku dziennego. 12 maja, w dzień Wniebowstąpienia, król, prymas i senat zaprzysięgli ugodę.
  6. Snyder, Timothy (2004-07-11). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Yale University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-300-10586-5.
  7. ^ The 1658 treaty of Hadiach (Гадяцький договір 1658 року). Ukrayinskyi istoryk.
  8. Frost, Robert I (2000). The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe 1558–1721. Longman. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-582-06429-4.
  9. Т.Г. Таирова-Яковлева, Иван Выговский // Единорогъ. Материалы по военной истории Восточной Европы эпохи Средних веков и Раннего Нового времени, вып.1, М., 2009: Под влиянием польской общественности и сильного диктата Ватикана сейм в мае 1659 г. принял Гадячский договор в более чем урезанном виде. Идея Княжества Руського вообще была уничтожена, равно как и положение о сохранении союза с Москвой. Отменялась и ликвидация унии, равно как и целый ряд других позитивных статей.
  10. Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp.221-225. ISBN 0-8020-0830-5
  11. Robert Paul Magocsi "A History of Ukraine" pp.221-225
  12. Т.Г. Таирова-Яковлева Иван Выговский // Единорогъ. Материалы по военной истории Восточной Европы эпохи Средних веков и Раннего Нового времени, вып.1, М., 2009: Под влиянием польской общественности и сильного диктата Ватикана сейм в мае 1659 г. принял Гадячский договор в более чем урезанном виде. Идея Княжества Руського вообще была уничтожена, равно как и положение о сохранении союза с Москвой. Отменялась и ликвидация унии, равно как и целый ряд других позитивных статей.
  13. "Embassy of Ukraine in the South Africa Republic - Publications". Archived from the original on 2011-04-30.
  14. Dvornik, Francis (1962) The Slavs in European History and Civilization. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press

Further reading

External links

Polish truces and peace treaties
Kingdom of Poland
Polish–Lithuanian
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