The Moscovite armies quickly overran Lithuania, capturing in succession Vilna, Grodno and Kovno, long centres of contention between the armies of Russia and Poland. Meanwhile Bogdan and his Cossacks advanced upon the border provinces of the south, capturing the proud city of Lemberg, whose burghers enjoyed the rights of Polish nobility. Few writers of the time seem to have realized that the whole political balance of Eastern Europe was about to change. A new "Great Empire" whose weight in the future councils of Europe was to become preponderant, had come into existence. The defection of the Cossacks from their Polish alliance turned the scales of the balanced forces at the command of the two great Slav states in favour of Russia. Henceforth Poland was to remain on the defensive in all her struggles with her mighty neighbour.
By a strange turn of events, now briefly to be described in their relation to the Cossack cause, the appearance of a third enemy in the field alone saved the Polish state. Charles X of Sweden, alarmed by the rapid success of the Russians in Lithuania, tried to secure a share of the spoil for Sweden.
BOGDAN:
After conquering — with the help of Polish malcontents — the great cities of Posen, Warsaw and Cracow, he allowed himself to be elected King of Poland by the distracted Diet. With little love for the "republic" of which he was now the titular head, he turned his armies and ambitions against the Tsar in her defense. The Polish nation, trampled underfoot by this double conquest, could henceforth only profit by the quarrels of its destroyers over their spoils, to preserve for more than a century a precarious independence.
In judging of Bogdan's conduct in connection with the complicated situation which now arose, it must be remembered that the freedom and privileges of the Cossack nation in the Ukraine had been the primary object of his momentous revolt against Poland. He had indeed appeared to abandon this ambition for independence by placing the Cossack nation under the rule of the Tsar Alexis. Although the Assembly of Perieslav and the decisions taken under Bogdan's influence became the most significant and lasting event of his career, the situation created by the invasion of the Swedes caused him to regret this alliance with Russia. Once more the Cossacks dreamed of a third great Slav state, which their valor might establish in the "land of Bus," In the later plans of Bogdan we may perhaps find the first signs of the Rutheno-Slav or Ukrainian movement of the present day.
In January 1657, the Voievoda of Transylvania,
George Rakovsky, invaded the distracted Polish "republic" as the ally of Charles of Sweden. A dismemberment of Poland now threatened, which might have anticipated the events which occurred more than a century later. Bogdan and his Cossacks saw in the onslaughts of this newcomer an opportunity to recover the liberties which had been lost or restricted by their agreements with the Tsar. Although joining their forces to the new enemy of their Polish oppressors, the Cossacks found themselves allied to an avowed enemy of Russia. The maritime nations of Europe now began to take part in these complicated struggles of the Northern Powers. The jealous intervention of Sweden's old enemies, the rival sea-powers of Denmark and Holland, forced Charles to retire from Poland in such haste that in his retreat, he had not even time to notify his allies. Rakovsky escaped the anger of the Poles through a series of humiliating concessions, only to fall into the hands of the Tartars while retreating homewards. Thus, in the short space of six weeks, through a series of unforeseen events and combinations which their own courage did little to bring about, the Polish nobles found their territory rid of the devastating presence of thi'ee armies.
At this embarrassing juncture in the affairs of the Cossacks — hated by the Poles and separated from their Russian aUies — there disappeared from the scene a man, who, in the turmoil of these events
BOGDAN:
had played so great and singular a part. "Able, both as a statesman and a warrior, accorded a kingly state by all the Great Powers, Bogdan continued until the end of his career to lead the life of a peasant or a common soldier. In the same room that he shared with his wife and children he received embassies from the greatest crowned heads of Europe. The sudden apoplectic stroke which carried off the veteran chief of the Cossacks removed a factor which, for ten years, had played a role in Eastern Europe which has been compared to that of Cromwell in the West. Yet today Bogdan's name is all but forgotten in history.*