Accession of Ukraine to Russia (1654). Reunification of Ukraine with Russia: reasons

Ukraine's accession to Russia (1654) took place against the background of complex socio-political events related to the desire of Ukrainians to become more independent and not depend entirely on Poland. Since 1648, the confrontation has passed into the armed phase, but no matter how many victories Cossacks won under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky over Polish troops, they could not draw victories on the battlefield into tangible political dividends. It became clear that without the help of a powerful ally, it would not be possible to get out of the care of Rzecz Pospolita, as a result, the reunification of Ukraine with Russia took place. Let us briefly describe the causes of the historical event.

Equality and autonomy

During the six years of the war, in many bloody battles, the Ukrainian people were overwhelmed by Polish troops with a huge strain of their forces. But, while delivering tangible blows to the Commonwealth, Khmelnytsky was not yet going to separate Ukraine from the Polish state at first. He stood on the position of the Cossack autonomy, that is, he strove to have the Cossacks with the nobility equal rights, and the Ukrainian lands became equal in rights to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At that time, speech was not conducted about the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. 1654 changed the situation.

Or maybe independence?

Few people believed in the idea of equality in the framework of autonomy. Already in the first years of the war in Ukraine, and even in Poland, there were rumors that:

1. Khmelnitsky wants to restore some "Old Russian" or create a new principality.
2. He titles himself "prince of Rus."
3. Cossacks want to establish an independent state.

But then for the independence of Ukraine, the necessary prerequisites have not yet been formed. The main participants in the war - and this illiterate Cossacks and the same illiterate peasantry - could not create their own state ideology, the leading layer-Cossack sergeants and gentry-did not have the proper political weight to implement the separatist plans. Moreover, even the hetman Khmelnytsky had not yet a nationwide trust. Only in the course of the war, during the formation of the Ukrainian Cossack State, the idea of independence was increasingly spreading and asserted.

Union with Turkey

The longer the fighting went on, the more Khmelnytsky, the foremen and the masses were convinced that Ukraine alone would not be able to free itself from the power of the gentry Poland solely with its own forces without foreign assistance. Mighty neighbors, ready to resist the Commonwealth, there were only two: the Russian state in the east and the Ottoman Empire in the south. Khmelnitsky had little choice: either Ukraine's membership in Russia, or recognition of vassal dependence on Turkey.

Initially, the Turkish sultan became the contender for the role of the patron of Ukraine, who had enough strength to withstand the encroachments of Poland in Ukraine. Between Khmelnitsky and the government of the Sultan, appropriate negotiations were held. In 1651, the Ottoman Porta declared that it accepts the Zaporozhye Army as vassals. In practice, the real help of the Turkish Sultan was limited only by the fact that the Crimean Tatars, who had been at war with the Cossacks for centuries, participated in the battles. They remained very unreliable allies and their treacherous behavior, robberies and the removal of the population into bondage brought more misery than benefit to the Ukrainians.

Seeking help from Russia

The union with the Ottoman Empire actually did not take place. The matter was not even in the weak military and financial assistance of the Sultan, but in mental incompatibility. The differences between Orthodox and Muslims, which the people called "basurmans", proved insurmountable. In this situation, the look of Bogdan Khmelnytsky and the population of Ukraine appealed to co-religionists - Russians.

June 8, 1648, six years before Ukraine joined Russia (1654), Bogdan Khmelnitsky wrote the first letter to help the Russian autocrat Alexei Mikhailovich. Initially, Russia was not in a hurry to get involved in a full-scale war with a strong Polish-Lithuanian kingdom. But the leader of the Ukrainians all six years urged the king to help, seeking to include the Russian state in the war with the Polish nobility. Khmelnytsky before the Moscow ambassadors stressed the importance of joint defense of the Orthodox faith, which was unified for the fraternal peoples, by its victories, debunked the exaggerated ideas about the strength of the Commonwealth, noted the great advantages that the reunification of Ukraine with Russia would have. 1654 year showed the foresight and correctness of Khmelnitsky.

The Expectant Position of Russia

Moscow understood the importance of an alliance with Ukraine:

1. The strategic alliance, first of all, opened the way to the south up to the Black Sea and to the west.
2. He weakened Poland.
3. Destroyed the possible union of Zaporizhzhya Sich with Turkey.
4. He strengthened the state by joining the Russian banners of the 300,000-strong Cossack army.

However, for a long time due to complex internal and external circumstances, and also in the expectation of weakening of both belligerents - Poland and Ukraine - the tsarist government took a wait-and-see attitude. Assistance was limited to sending bread and salt to Ukraine, allowing Ukrainians to move to outlying lands, exchanging embassies.

Approach rate

The ties between Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the Russian government revived in 1652-1653, in the last years of the war of liberation. Almost continuously, embassies from Ukraine to Moscow and from Moscow to Ukraine went. In January 1652 Khmelnytsky sent his envoy Ivan Iskra to the Russian capital. The spark in the ambassadorial order stated that the hetman and the entire Zaporozhye army wished that "the royal majesty took them to their side."

In December 1652 and January 1653 in Moscow he held talks with Samoylo Zarudnyi and his comrades. Zarudny said that the tsar "ordered them to take under his sovereign High hand." On January 6, 1653 Khmelnytsky convened in Chyhyryn a meeting of the elders, who decided not to make peace with Poland, but to continue fighting until Ukraine's accession to Russia.

In April-May 1653, the negotiations in Moscow were led by the ambassadors Kondraty Burlyai and Siluan Mujilovsky. The tsarist government also sent ambassadors to Bogdan Khmelnitsky, in particular, in late May 1653 A. Matveev and I. Fomin left for Chigirin.

1654: Ukraine-Russia - together for centuries

Complicating the situation in Ukraine caused the tsarist government to speed up the decision-making process. June 22, 1653 in Ukraine from Moscow went to the steward Fyodor Ladyzhensky with a letter from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, which gave consent to the transfer of lands of Ukraine under the "high king's hand."

October 1, 1653 in Moscow gathered Zemsky Sobor, designed to finally resolve the issue of relations between Russia and Ukraine and declare war on the Commonwealth. In the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin decided "The army of Zaporozhye and Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky with the lands and their cities to take the hand of the sovereign." So the story was made. The reunification of Ukraine with Russia was approved not only by the tsar, but by all sections of the population (except serfs who did not have the right to vote), whose representatives gathered at the cathedral. At the same time, the Zemsky Sobor decided to start a war with Poland.

However, this is not the final accession of Ukraine to Russia. 1654 year demanded several more meetings, before the final conditions of entry were worked out. Important was the recognition by Russia of Ukraine as a free, independent country. This was stated in the decision of the Zemsky Sobor: "So that they do not let the Turkish sultan or the Crimean khan belong to citizenship, because they have become an oath royal free people."

Signing of the contract

On January 31, 1653, the Russian embassy arrives in Khmelnitsky's bid - the city of Pereyaslav - with a charter on the decision of the Zemsky Sobor and "the highest command." The embassy headed by V. Buturlin was solemnly greeted by the elders and ordinary people.

On January 6, 1654 Bogdan Khmelnitsky arrived in Pereyaslav and the next day met with ambassadors to discuss the terms of the union. January 8, after secret negotiations with the elders about the terms of accession, Bohdan Khmelnitsky went out to the people and confirmed Ukraine's accession to Russia. 1654 was a turning point in the fate of the two peoples.

The Ukrainian embassies visited Moscow several times to discuss the details of the voluntary entry of the Left Bank Ukraine into the protectorate of the Russian Empire.

History of Ukraine in dates: reunification with Russia

• 1591-1593 years. - the rebellion of the registered Cossacks against the Polish gentry and the first appeal of Hetman Krishtof Kosinsky for help to the Russian tsar.
• 1622, 1624 years. - the appeal of Bishop Isaiah Kopinsky, and then Metropolitan Job Boretsky to the tsar to take Orthodox Little Russia into Russian citizenship.
• 1648 - Bogdan Khmelnytsky raises the all-Ukrainian uprising against the nobility and on June 8 wrote the first letter to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich for help and union. The first victory of the Cossack army and the signing of the Zboriv peace treaty, which granted autonomy to the Zaporozhye Army.
• 1651 - the resumption of hostilities, a heavy defeat of the Cossacks near Berestechko.
• 1653 - a new appeal Bohdan Khmelnitsky to the Russians with a request to help the Cossacks and a petition for the adoption of Left-bank Ukraine in citizenship. October 1 the Zemsky Sobor gathered.
• 1654 - On January 8, the Pereyaslavl Rada met, having publicly decided to unite with Russia. On March 27, the Zemsky Sobor and the Tsar satisfied most of the requests put forward by the foremen and the hetman, which provided for broad autonomy. This document finally consolidated the reunification of the Left Bank Ukraine with Russia.