Eternal Peace with Poland in 1686: Preconditions and Results

In 1686, Russia and Poland concluded the Eternal Peace. He put an end to the numerous and protracted wars of neighboring countries for influence in the border regions. The treaty fixed the strengthening of Russia and the return of part of Ukraine and Smolensk to it.

Shaky world

In the years 1654-1667. Russia and Rzeczpospolita were in a state of exhausting war. The powers argued over the frontier lands claimed by each of the countries. The eternal peace with Poland in 1686 became a treaty that confirmed the outcome of this conflict. In fact, he duplicated the provisions of the document signed in the village of Andrusovo in 1667. If the first treaty was only a temporary 13-year truce (which was fixed in one of the paragraphs), the Eternal Peace with Poland in 1686 enshrined the reconciliation of the two countries and their political rapprochement.

According to the agreements reached, Russia received Novgorod-Seversky, Smolensk, left-bank Ukraine and Kiev (located on the right bank of the Dnieper). For Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, at one time it was a real historical triumph. He returned the lands that once were part of a single Old Russian state. They were annexed to Lithuania when the Eastern Slavic principalities were fragmented and not consolidated. At the end of the XIV century. The rulers of Vilna concluded a union with Poland, after which Moscow, and then Russia, received a powerful force from its western borders.

Reunion with Ukraine

It was especially important that the Eternal Peace with Poland in 1686 returned Smolensk to Russia. This city was first won from Lithuania by Basil III, and then again lost in the Time of Troubles. With the restoration of stability in Russia on the throne of Moscow were the Romanovs. The second king of this dynasty, Alexei Mikhailovich, now restored historical justice, and with his daughter Sophia it was fixed.

In the second half of the 17th century, Polish uprisings of local nationalists gravitating toward Moscow began to shake the Polish Ukraine. Their leader was Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Many years of struggle ended only when the Eternal Peace was concluded with Poland. 1686 was a festive date for Ukrainians. Their conflict with the Poles ripened on the basis of confessional (some were Orthodox, and others Catholics) and language differences.

The Cossack lands division

Nevertheless, Poland preserved the Right-Bank Ukraine. The section only widened the gap between the two parts of the country, the border between which became the Dnieper. The Eternal Peace with Poland contributed to the consolidation of the new political situation in the region (1686). The result of lengthy negotiations was also that Zaporizhzhya Sich became a buffer between the two powers. This was an important region in which the free Cossacks lived. Atamans and their armies were a reliable defense against the Ottoman Empire, which strengthened its influence in the Black Sea region.

Turkey became the very force that facilitated the rapprochement of Poland with Russia and the conclusion of their mutual peace treaty. In 1672, when the negotiations in Andrusovo were already over, and it was still unclear how the situation would develop, the Muslims seized Kamenets-Podilsky, which previously belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After that, the Turks began to systematically attack the Cossack lands that were in the zone of Russia's interests. It became clear that it was time for the two Christian countries to smooth out their own contradictions and join forces in the struggle against the Ottoman threat.

The Turkish threat

The Turks continued to fight with all of Europe. In 1683 they even tried to besiege Vienna - the capital of Austria and the mighty Habsburg dynasty. A general coalition against Istanbul has begun to take shape. The Commonwealth, which was in the most vulnerable position, did not want to recognize the results of the last war with Russia, after which the Romanovs returned Smolensk and other important Russian lands.

But in the new conditions, when the southern Polish cities suffered from the raids of the Turks and Tatars, the monarchy decided to reconsider its attitude to the agreements with Moscow. Central authority, feeling the approach of the denouement, even convened the last in the history of the country's Zemsky Sobor in the capital. At its meeting, the conditions of Eternal Peace with Poland 1686 were to be discussed.

Signing of the contract

The final stage of negotiations with the Poles fell on the regency of Queen Sophia, the eldest daughter of Alexei Mikhailovich. She placed her favorite Prince Golitsyn at the head of the Posolsky order. He, directly in contact with the foreign delegates sent, insisted that Russia would join the anti-Turkish union only if the Commonwealth would finally confirm the terms of the former Andrusov Treaty.

These proposals were adopted. The royal ambassadors decided not to bargain in conditions when their country was on the verge of ruin because of the war with the Turks. So the Eternal Peace was agreed with Poland (1686). Where is this important for the national history document signed? He was imprisoned in Moscow on May 6. According to the agreements, Russia joined the union of European countries, which fought with the Ottoman Empire. In 1687 and 1689 the famous Crimean campaigns took place , headed by the same prince Golitsyn.