Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky (Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи;[1] modern Ukrainian: Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький, Polish: Bohdan Chmielnicki; 1595 – 6 August 1657) was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Zaporozhian Cossacks[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

[9] During the uprising, the Cossacks under his leadership massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews, making it one of the most traumatic events in Jewish history.

[10] Although there is no definite proof of the date of Khmelnytsky's birth, Ukrainian-born historian Mykhailo Maksymovych suggests that it is likely 27 December 1595 Julian (St. Theodore's[11] day).

[13] In the work of Paul of Aleppo, "the Travels of Macarius: Patriarch of Antioch", Khmelnytsky is called as the Khatman Zenobius Akhmil.

[16] Some sources state that in 1590 his father Mykhailo was appointed as a sotnyk for the Korsun-Chyhyryn starosta Jan Daniłowicz, who continued to colonize the new Ukrainian lands near the Dnieper river.

[citation needed] Khmelnytsky married Hanna Somkivna, a sister of a rich Pereyaslav Cossack; the couple settled in Subotiv.

During the battle of Cecora (Țuțora) on 17 September 1620, his father was killed, and young Khmelnytsky, among many others including future hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, was captured by the Turks.

[18] Other sources claim that he spent his slavery in Ottoman Navy on galleys as an oarsman, where he picked up a knowledge of Turkic languages.

It happened after the capitulation of the Pavlyuk uprising in the town Borowica on 24 December 1637, when field hetman Mikołaj Potocki appointed new Cossack eldership.

[22] The emissaries didn't achieve much, mostly because all decisions were already made by the Sejm earlier this year, when deputies accepted the project presented by the grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski.

According to one of the articles of the Ordynacya Woyska Zaporowskiego ("Ordinance of the Zaporozhian Army") registered Cossacks lost the right to elect their own officers and a commander, called elder (starszy) or commissar.

In his other writing, Relation des Cosaques (avec la vie de Kmielniski, tirée d'un Manuscrit), published the same year, which also contains a biography of Khmelnytsky, there is no mention about his or any other Cossacks stay in France or Flanders.

Trying to find protection from this grab by the powerful magnate, Khmelnytsky wrote numerous appeals and letters to different representatives of the Polish crown but to no avail.

At the end of 1645 the Chyhyryn starosta Daniel Czapliński officially received authority from Koniecpolski to seize Khmelnytsky's Subotiv estate.

Władysław, who wanted Cossacks on his side in the wars he planned, gave Khmelnytsky a royal charter, protecting his rights to the Subotiv estate.

Finally, in April 1647, Czapliński succeeded in evicting Khmelnytsky from the land, and he was forced to move with his large family to a relative's house in Chyhyryn.

During this time, he met several higher Polish officials to discuss the Cossacks' war with the Tatars, and used this occasion again to plead his case with Czapliński, still unsuccessfully.

While the Czapliński Affair is generally regarded as the immediate cause of the uprising, it was primarily a catalyst for actions representing rising popular discontent.

[citation needed] The Poles attempted to retake the Sich but were decisively defeated as more registered Cossacks joined the forces.

The two armies met on 16 May 1648 at Zhovti Vody, where, aided by the Tatars of Tugay Bey, the Cossacks inflicted their first crushing defeat on the Commonwealth.

In February 1649, during negotiations in Pereiaslav with a Polish delegation headed by Senator Adam Kysil, Khmelnytsky declared that he was "the sole autocrat of Rus" and that he had "enough power in Ukraine, Podilia, and Volhynia... in his land and principality stretching as far as Lviv, Kholm (modern Chełm), and Halych.

And for the purpose lest you won't attack cossacks by conquering peasants, I will have two, three hundred thousands of them.After the period of initial military successes, the state-building process began.

However, despite appeals for help from Khmelnytsky in the name of the shared Orthodox faith, the tsar preferred to wait, until the threat of a Cossack-Ottoman union in 1653 finally forced him to action.

He not only shaped the future of Ukraine but affected the balance of power in Europe, as the weakening of Poland-Lithuania was exploited by Austria, Saxony, Prussia, and Russia.

On the balance, the view of his legacy in present-day Ukraine is more positive than negative, with some critics acknowledging that the union with Russia was dictated by necessity and an attempt to survive in those difficult times.

[53][54] The official Russian historiography stressed the fact that Khmelnytsky entered into union with Moscow's Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with an expressed desire to "re-unify" Ukraine with Russia.

[59] Soviet historiography followed in many ways the Imperial Russian theory of re-unification while adding the class struggle dimension to the story.

[55] Khmelnytsky was praised not only for re-unifying Ukraine with Russia, but also for organizing the class struggle of oppressed Ukrainian peasants against Polish exploiters.

The pogroms contributed to a revival of the ideas of Isaac Luria, who revered the Kabbalah, and the identification of Sabbatai Zevi as the Messiah.

[63] Orest Subtelny writes: Between 1648 and 1656, tens of thousands of Jews—given the lack of reliable data, it is impossible to establish more accurate figures—were killed by the rebels, and to this day the Khmelnytsky uprising is considered by Jews to be one of the most traumatic events in their history.