Zynoviy Bohdan Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky of the Abdank coat of arms (c. 1595 – 6 August 1657) was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Zaporozhian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led the Cossacks to victory in a successful uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Dnieper Ukraine.
In 1648–1649, the Cossacks under Khmelnytskyi's leadership massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews, with more handed over as yasir (slaves) to his Crimean Tatar allies, one of the most traumatic events in Polish and Jewish history. Under his rule of the newly established Cossack state, the massacres continued until at least 1652 and possibly led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, with the goal of eradicating non-Orthodox Ruthenian populations. In 1654, Khmelnytsky concluded the Treaty of Pereiaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing Ukraine under Russian protection.
Khmelnytsky's uprising permanently changed the balance of power in Europe and would play a significant role in the development of Ukrainian nationalism. In Western Europe, Khmelnytsky was compared to his rebel contemporary, Oliver Cromwell. Among Ukrainians, Khmelnytsky has been lauded as a folk hero and defender of the Orthodox faith, as well as a fighter for Ukrainian independence and founder of the first Ukrainian state; Russian imperial and Soviet propaganda meanwhile promoted him as a "unifier" of Ukraine with Russia. However, even among his compatriots Khmelnytskyi's image remained controversial due to his questionable alliances and harsh policies, which caused the death and enslavement of numerous people.
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 day). As was the custom in the Orthodox Church, he was baptized with one of his middle names, Theodore, translated into Ukrainian as Bohdan. A biography of Khmelnytsky by Smoliy and Stepankov, however, suggests that it is more likely he was born on 9 November (feast day of St Zenoby, 30 October in Julian calendar) and was baptized on 11 November (feast day of St. Theodore in the Catholic Church). In the work of Paul of Aleppo, "the Travels of Macarius: Patriarch of Antioch", Khmelnytsky is called Khatman (hetman) Zenobius Akhmil. Khmelnytsky would usually be called by his second name, Zynoviy, on religious occasions, but in everyday life always signed as Bohdan.
Khmelnytsky was probably born in the village of Subotiv, near Chyhyryn in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland at the estate of his father, Registered Cossack Mykhailo Khmelnytsky. According to a hypothesis of historian Ivan Krypiakevych, the elder Khmelnytsky stemmed from Peremyshl Land, although Paul Robert Magocsi proposed Belarus as his likely place of origin. Initially a courtier of Great Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski in Zhovkva, he later joined the court of his son-in-law Jan Daniłowicz, the lord of Olesko, who in 1597 became starosta of Korsuń and Chyhyryn and appointed Mykhailo his deputy (podstarosta) in Chyhyryn. Some sources state that Daniłowicz appointed Mykhailo as sotnyk already in 1590. It is likely that Mykhailo also served as an osadchy, being responsible for settlement of peasants on his master's lands. For his service, he was granted a strip of land near the town, where he set up a khutor Subotiv, establishing an apiary and organizing a sloboda nearby.
Khmelnytsky's mother was of Cossack birth.According to the 18th century History of Ruthenians, she was a daughter of Cossack Hetman Bohdan Różyński from a princely Ruthenian-Lithuanian family.
There has been controversy as to whether Bohdan and his father belonged to the szlachta (Polish term for noblemen). Modern historians tend to agree, that he was of noble birth, coming from Ukrainian lesser nobility.
Khmelnytsky received education at Lviv Jesuit collegium and/or in Jarosław, which could have been motivated by the absence of Orthodox schools in his native region. His course included grammar, poetics and rhetorics and comprised part of standard humanitarian education of a young nobleman during that era.
Upon completion of his studies in 1617, Khmelnytsky entered into service with the Cossacks. As early as 1619, he was sent together with his father to Moldavia, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into war against the Ottoman Empire. 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. He spent the next two years in captivity in Constantinople as a prisoner of an Ottoman Kapudan Pasha (presumably Parlak Mustafa Pasha). 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.
While there is no concrete evidence as to his return to Ukraine, most historians believe Khmelnytsky either escaped or was ransomed. Sources vary as to his benefactor – his mother, friends, the Polish king – but perhaps it was Krzysztof Zbaraski, ambassador of the Commonwealth to the Ottomans, who in 1622 paid 30,000 thalers in ransom for all prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Cecora. Upon return to Subotiv, Khmelnytsky took over operating his father's estate and became a Registered Cossack in the Chyhyryn Regiment.
According to some sources, Khmelnytsky could have taken part in Cossack naval raids during the 1620s, and in the Smolensk War, during which he was supposedly awarded with a sword by king Władysław IV Vasa. Khmelnytsky was known to support an increase in the number of Registered Cossacks, and some historians suggest he took part in the Pavliuk uprising. After the defeat of the revolt, he participated in talks with field hetman Mikołaj Potocki, and, as military scribe of the Zaporozhian Host, put his signature on the rebels' capitulation act adopted in the town Borowica on 24 December 1637.
Fighting didn't stop in Borowica, and rebel Cossacks rose up again under the new command of Ostryanyn and Hunia in the spring next year. Mikołaj Potocki was successful again and after a six week long siege, the rebel Cossacks were forced to capitulate on 3 August 1638. Like the year before, some registered Cossacks joined the rebels, while some of them remained loyal. Unlike the last time, Potocki decided not to punish the rebel Cossacks, but forced all of them to swear loyalty to the king and the state and swear not to seek revenge against each other. The Hetman also agreed to their request to send emissaries to the king to seek royal grace and preserve Cossack rights. They were elected on a council on 9 September 1638 in Kiev. Bohdan Khmelnytsky was one of them; the other three were Iwan Bojaryn, colonel of Kaniów, Roman Połowiec and Jan Wołczenko.
The emissaries didn't achieve much, mostly because all decisions were already made by the Sejm earlier that year, when deputies accepted the project presented by the grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski. Cossacks were forced to accept harsh new terms at the next council at Masliv Stav, at the Ros river. 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. From now on, the elder was to be nominated by the Sejm, from the Grand Hetman's recommendation. The Grand Hetman also got the right to appoint all officers. Commissars, colonels, and osauls had to be noblemen, while sotniks and atamans had to be Cossacks, who were "distinguished in a service for Us and the Commonwealth". After the introduction of Sejm ordination in 1638, Khmelnytsky was demoted from the rank of colonel and became one of the ten sotnyks of Chyhyryn Regiment. However, French ambassador Count de Brégy, who met him in Warsaw in 1644, continued titling him as "colonel"; in his letter to Mazarin the diplomat described Khmelnytsky as an educated and intelligent person with a knowledge of Latin.