Concept

Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Summary
Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytskyi (Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький; 1595 - 6 August 1657) was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian protection. During the uprising the Cossacks led a massacre of thousands of Jewish people during 1648–1649 as one of the most traumatic events in the history of the Jews in Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalism. Although there is no definite proof of the date of Khmelnytsky's birth, Ukrainian-born historian Mykhaylo Maksymovych suggests that it is likely 27 December 1595 Julian (St. Theodore's day). As was the custom in the Orthodox Church, he was baptized with one of his middle names, Theodor, translated into Ukrainian as Bohdan. A biography of Khmelnytsky by Smoliy and Stepankov, however, suggests that it is more likely he was born on 9 November (feast day of St Zenoby, 30 October in Julian calendar) and was baptized on 11 November (feast day of St. Theodore in the Catholic Church). Khmelnytsky was probably born in the village of Subotiv, near Chyhyryn in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland at the estate of his father Mykhailo Khmelnytsky. He was born into Ukrainian lesser nobility. His father was a courtier of Great Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, but later joined the court of his son-in-law Jan Daniłowicz, who in 1597 became starosta of Korsuń and Chyhyryn and appointed Mykhailo as his deputy in Chyhyryn (pidstarosta). For his service, he was granted a strip of land near the town, where Mykhailo set up a khutor Subotiv. There has been controversy as to whether Bohdan and his father belonged to the Szlachta (Polish term for noblemen).
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