Bogdan Hmelnicky had been chosen by the Swedish King of Poland, Vladislas (or Valdemar) Vasa, as Hetman of the Cossacks of the Ukraine, on account of his record as a soldier, and because judged by the standards of his time, he possessed "no small share of learning" — the ability both to read and write. Such talents were almost a mark of erudition among the Cossacks of the seventeenth century. In his youth a brilliant defense of the
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fortress of Zolkiev against the Crimean Tartars had made his reputation known even in Europe, where the gazettes were always much concerned with Polish affairs.*
The incident which changed Bogdan from a conscientious official of the Polish crown and made him the implacable enemy of his former patrons is recorded in different ways by contemporary historians, — usually according to their race or prejudices. All are agreed that he was the victim of a cruel wrong, and even a Pohsh writer of his time finds his principal fault to have been that "he revenged himself upon the state for a private iniquity."**
Bogdan was a "free-holder" or non-noble proprietor of a small farm and flour mill at a place
* If we are to accept the version set forth in Sienkiewicz's "Heroic Romance" — "Fire and Sword," Bogdan's reputation would not be much better than that of a brutal adventurer who, by inciting the frontier populations to revolt, caused untold misery throughout the Polish "Republic," and among his own countrymen. Fortunately for Bogdan's good name, the fine scorn of the gifted Polish writer for the "base-born" Cossack and his glorification of the perjured "Yarema" (Prince Jeremy Visnowiecki), are not shared by historical authorities. The truth is probably to be found somewhere between the work of fiction referred to and the account found in Salvandy's Histoire de Jean Sobieski."
** See note, Vol. I., page 189, Salvandy's Histoire de Jean Sobieski.
called Czehrin near the shores of the Dnieper. His little property lay in a country where for leagues around the land was owned, or rather claimed, by the great Polish family of Konietspolski. The intendant of these feudal lords casting a covetous eye on the Naboth's vineyard belonging to the Cossack hetman, summoned him before a tribunal presided over by their common master, Alexander Konietspolski. Here, after due process of feudal laWj Bogdan heard himself summarily dispossessed. To protest against such a sentence was unheard-of insolence. Yet the hetman (although he knew that Cossack "rights" stood little chance of prevailing against a Polish magnate who himself interpreted the laws) ventured to take this step — trusting in his record of past services to the "republic." As an all-sufficient answer, the veteran soldier was sentenced to serve a term in the jail of the Konietspolski.
Fortunately for the Cossack nation, Bogdan was able to make his escape, and we soon find him an honoured guest in that citadel of personal liberty, the impenetrable sitch of the Zaporogians. Among the island fortresses defended by this famous brotherhood, even the armed retainers of Konietspolski dared not pursue him. Meanwhile, the intendant, Czaplinski, in order to revenge himself in true seignorial fashion, visited Bogdan's homestead at the head of his retainers. The crime that ensued is recounted in many ways. The poetical necessities
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of the case may have caused the Cossack balladhistorians to rouse their countrymen by painting the intendant's conduct in its blackest colours. Czaplinski, besides depmong the hetman of his property sought, in his absence, "to place upon the honour of his victim's family an unspeakable outrage."
The whole incident is but one in a long story of oppression, yet it was the spark necessary to fire the powder magazine of Cossack indignation and to rouse their fierce resistance to wrongs they had too long patiently endured. The war wliich now began between the nobles of the Polish "republic" on the one hand and the Free Cossacks and Ukrainian peasants on the other was to end only after the fairest provinces of the border land had again and again been devastated with "fire and sword."