Here on 23 December 1648, residents of Kyiv met Khmelnytsky leading his Cossacks' regiments entering the city through the Golden Gates soon after the victory over Polish Army at the Battle of Pyliavtsi.

The erection of the monument began on the initiative of Mykola Kostomarov, a historian and professor of the Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kyiv in the 1840s.

Mikhail Yuzefovich, the deputy commissioner of the Kyiv School District supported the idea and originally wanted to establish the monument for the 200th anniversary of the Council of Pereyaslav.

A basrelief of the pedestal was to show images of the Siege of Zbarazh, the Council of Pereyaslav, and a scene depicting the entrance of Khmelnytsky's Cossack Host into Kyiv.

The Kyiv Fortress administration donated granite blocks for the pedestal that had been left over from the construction of the Nicholas Chain Bridge over Dnieper.