The Pereyaslav Articles (Ukrainian: Переяславські статті, Russian: Переяславские статьи) were concluded on October 27, 1659 between Yuri Khmelnytsky, the son of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and the Russian tsar. The treaty drastically limited the Ukrainian (Cossack) autonomy. This second treaty was an aftermath of the Treaty of Hadiach from 16 September 1658 between the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which granted many privileges to Cossacks and thus threatened Russian influence over Cossacks. The articles de-facto constituted a full-pledge annexation of the Cossack Hetmanate on the increasingly limited autonomous rights similar to a militarized region.
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Under the new articles, Ukraine was not allowed conduct any foreign policy including military alliances.[1] The Cossacks were not allowed to declare war without the approval of the tsar.[2]
Under the treaty, Muscovite military governors and garrisons were placed in Bratslav, Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Pereiaslav, and Uman (previously they had only been in Kiev since 1654).[1] Ukrainian Cossack forces were also withdrawn from Belarus.[1] In addition, the Cossacks could no longer elect their own hetmans or colonels without the approval of the tsar.[2]
Future Cossack leaders who tried to break Ukraine away from the Russians were to be executed, and the Ukrainian Orthodox church was made subordinate to the Patriarch of Moscow. The treaty led to popular unrest in Ukraine and later influenced Khmelnytsky's decision to pledge his loyalty to Poland in 1660.[1]