The Ruin (Ukrainian history)
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The Ruin (Ukrainian: Руїна) is a period of Ukrainian history from the death of hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky in 1657 and until ascension of hetman Ivan Mazepa in 1687. This period is characterised by continuous strife, civil war, and foreign intervention of Ukraine's neighbours. The Ukrainian saying of the time: "Від Богдана до Івана не було гетьмана" (there was no hetman between Bohdan (Khmelnitsky) and Ivan (Mazepa)) — accurately summarises the chaotic events of this period.
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[edit] Background
The Ruin started after the death of hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky who delivered the country from centuries of Polish domination though years of Wars of Liberation only to enter it into new one with Muscovy. While Khmelnytsky was a charismatic and influential leader, clearly one of the prominent figures in Ukrainian history, he did not, however, establish clear rules of succession and in his will wanted his son Yurii to become the new hetman. Yurii Khmelnytsky was unfortunately not only young and inexperienced but clearly lacked the charisma and the leadership qualities of his father. As a result, he was used as a puppet by different foreign powers and when he ruled on two different occasions the result of his reign was devastating both for him and for the country.
[edit] Start of Civil War
Out of many contenders for the hetman's office one of the most famous and talented was Ivan Vyhovsky. He was not only a shrewd politician, a general chancellor of the Hetmanate for many years, but a close adviser to Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself. In his will the hetman wanted to see him as Yurii's right hand. Having been elected a hetman himself, in 1657 he was trying to establish a more independent policy from Moscow and found himself in a middle of a civil war, which in many instances was instigated by many of Ukraine's neighbours. In particular, Muscovite military commanders in many of Ukrainian cities supported his contenders for the office and thereby kept civil war growing in intencity and size.
In this situation Vyhovsky was forced to enter into negotiations with Poland, a rival of Moscow and a contender for Ukrainian territories which it had lost during the Liberation war of 1648 - 1654. As a result the Treaty of Hadiach was concluded in 1658 with very favourable conditions for Ukraine.
At this period Muscovy istself was itself involved in long and protracted war with Poland and was occupying some of its territories. Vyhovsky's alliance with Poland alarmed the Tsar, who treated this as a violation of the Treaty of Pereyaslav and used this as a pretext to send a military force to Ukraine in 1658 to pursue Vyhovsky. In addition to exterminating hetman's supporters, Muscovite army led by Prince Romodanovsky was involved in wide spread robbery and abuse of the local population.[1]
Even though the Muscovite forces and their allies were routed at the battle of Konotop in 1659, Vyhovsky's rule was doomed mainly because his alliance with the Poles remained very unpopular among general populace and also because he neglected the lower classes of the Ukrainian society and sought support among the rich Cossack elite who were quick to betray him either to Poland or to Moscow.
[edit] Succession of hetmans
What followed was a bloody and destructive civil war during which a number of hetmans tried to establish their rule in different parts of Ukraine. Virtually all of them tried to ally themselves with foreign powers: Muscovy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Pereyaslav that allied Ukraine with Moscow had been rewritten as Yurii Khmelnytsky was forced to amend the treaty with even more favourable conditions. If alliance with Orthodox Muscovy was not popular with some hetmans, alliance with non-Orthodox powers, such as Poland, Crimea, or Turkey, was even less popular.
During this period a number of hetmans stayed in power for short periods of time and often controlled only parts of the country:
- Yuhym Somko (1660–1663)
- Yurii Khmelnytsky (1659–1662) (1678-1681)(in the Right-bank Ukraine)
- Pavlo Teteria (1663–1665) (in the Right-bank Ukraine)
- Petro Doroshenko (1665–1672) (in the Right-bank Ukraine)
- Ivan Briukhovetsky (1663-1668)
- Demian Mnohohrishny (1669-1672)
- Mykhailo Khanenko (1669-1674) (in the Right-bank Ukraine)
- Ivan Samoylovych (1672–1687)
With Ivan Mazepa coming to office in 1687 and with stability that followed, the period of the Ruin was effectively over.
