This article is about the 1654 treaty. You may also be looking for the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1630) and Treaty of Pereyaslav (1659).

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The Treaty of Pereyaslav (Pereiaslav) was concluded in 1654 in the Ukrainian city of Pereyaslav (Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi nowadays), at a meeting between the Cossacks of the Zaporizhian Host and Tsar Alexey I of Tsardom of Russia, during the Khmelnytsky rebellion. Known as the Pereyaslav Council (Pereyaslavs'ka Rada in Ukrainian), the treaty declared protection of the Cossack state by the tsar. Participants in the preparation of the treaty at Pereyaslav included the Cossack Hetman, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, numerous Cossacks, and a large visiting contingent from Russia and their translators.

The original copies of the treaty did not survive, and the exact nature of the relationship stipulated by this treaty between Ukraine and Russia is a matter of scholarly controversy. The treaty led to the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate in left-bank Ukraine, under the Russian Empire, and to the outbreak of the Russo-Polish War (1654-1667).

Historical consequences [edit]

A monument in commemoration of 325 anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, in Kiev, Ukraine.

The outcome of the treaty differed from Khmelnytsky's intentions; originally a political manoeuvre intended only to secure the support of powerful allies, it revealed the full extent of its far-reaching consequences over time.^[1] Major results of the treaty included the separation of Ukraine from formerly dominant Catholic Poland, the re-strengthening of Orthodoxy in the historic center of Ukraine, and the eventual domination of Ukraine by neighboring Orthodox Russia, with Ukrainian clergy dominating the church.

In the long run, the consequences for Ukraine were pivotal. Polish colonization and Polonization of the upper class soon became replaced by a systematic process of Russification, culminating in the Ems Ukaz of 1876, which restricted the printing of books in Ukrainian language. Further consequences included the disbandment of the Zaporizhian Host and reinstating serfdom in Ukraine.

Eternally Together A Soviet Poster made for the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1954.

For Russia, the treaty eventually led to the acquisition of Ukraine, providing a justification for the ambitious title of Russian tsars and emperors, The Ruler of All Rus’. Russia, being at that time the only part of the former Kievan Rus' which was not occupied by a foreign power, considered itself as legitimate successor and reunificator of former Rus' lands.

For Poland, the treaty provided one of the early signs of its gradual decline and eventual demise by the end of the 18th century.

This treaty is seen by Ukrainian nationalists as a sad occasion of the lost chance for Ukrainian independence. The "Rainbow" monument in the Ukrainian capital Kiev being colloquially referred to as "Yoke of the Peoples" further demonstrates the controversial nature of the treaty. Pro-Russian Ukrainian parties, on the other hand, celebrate the date of this event and renew calls for the re-unification of the three Eastern Slavic nations: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

In 2004, after the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the event, the administration of president Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine established January 18 as the official date to commemorate the event, a move which created controversy. Previously, in 1954, the anniversary celebrations included the transfer of Crimea from the Russian Republic to the Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union.

See also [edit]

• Cossack Hetmanate
• Pereyaslav Articles

References [edit]

Printed [edit]

• Basarab, J. Pereiaslav 1654: A Historiographical Study (Edmonton 1982) [1]
• Braichevsky, M. Annexation or Unification?: Critical Notes on One Conception, ed and trans G. Kulchycky (Munich 1974)
• Hrushevs’kyi, M. Istoriia Ukraïny-Rusy, vol 9, bk 1 (Kiev 1928; New York 1957)
• Iakovliv, A. Ukraïns’ko-moskovs’ki dohovory v XVII–XVIII vikakh (Warsaw 1934)
• Dohovir het’mana Bohdana Khmel’nyts’koho z moskovs’kym tsarem Oleksiiem Mykhailovychem (New York 1954)
• Ohloblyn, A. Treaty of Pereyaslav 1654 (Toronto and New York 1954)
• Prokopovych, V. ‘The Problem of the Juridical Nature of the Ukraine's Union with Muscovy,’ AUA, 4 (Winter–Spring 1955)
• O'Brien, C.B. Muscovy and the Ukraine: From the Pereiaslavl Agreement to the Truce of Andrusovo, 1654–1667 (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1963)
• Pereiaslavs'ka rada 1654 roku. Istoriohrafiia ta doslidzhennia (Kiev 2003) [2]
• Velychenko, S., THE INFLUENCE OF HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL IDEAS,

ON THE POLITICS OF BOHDAN KHMELNYTSKY AND THE COSSACK OFFICERS BETWEEN 1648 AND 1657 PhD Dissertation (University of London, 1981) <http://aleph.ukma.kiev.ua/e-lib/V/Velychenko_The%20Influence.pdf>

Online [edit]

• To the History of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), October 4-10, 2003, available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
• Encyclopedia of Ukraine entry on the subject
• Ukrainian World Congress' Statement Press Release - On Observance of the Pereyaslav Treaty
• The Treaty of Pereyaslav

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