The Zaporozhian Cossacks and Poland

After the Mongol-Tartar invasion of Rus', Lithuania, the North-Western neighbor, began "filling the void" of power, and eventually expanded to the territory from Baltic to Black sea, and "incorporated" lands of defeated Kievan Rus' that simply did not have resources to resist.. Most of the people of the Great Duchy of Lithuania were actually Slavs, not Lithuanians, and belonged to the Orthodox religion (although, in Russian documents up to XVIII century all people from the Great Duchy of Lithuania were called Litva (Lithuanians), regardless of their ethnic origin or religious background). Lithuanian rulers were very tolerant to their Slavic subjects (we can see the same tolerance to Slavic minorities in Lithuania even today, unlike in neighbouring Latvia and Estonia) and guaranteed religious liberties to all their subjects, regardless of nationality or religion. And even after the unification of Lithuania with Poland, nothing really changed: Poles at first were quite indifferent on the subject. And the Zaporozhian Cossacks served the Polish kings in their wars against the enemies of Poland. But, by the beginning of the 17th century, the Jesuits began to undermine the position of the Orthodox Church in the Great Duchy of Lithuania. A Uniate Church controlled from Rome was established; Greek Orthodox congregations were repressed; and the attitude of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Polish crown began to change.

Zaporozhian Cossacks took active part in anty-Polish campaigns and rebellions that took places in Ukraine, even though they were not actually part of Ukraine at that time. After a few important victories, they had a few defeats. It was clear that the anty-Polish movements began running out, simply because the sides were not of equal power. Among other options, Zaporozhian Cossacks under Bohdan Khmelnitsky looked at Moscow as a possible ally.

In 1654, threatened by Polish domination, the Zaporozhian Cossacks signed a treaty with Russia (Union of Pereyaslav) and received privileges from the Russian government now, - in return for the military service. At the end of the 18th century the Zaporozhian Host was disbanded by Catherine II on very unfriendly terms. Most of the Zaporozhian Cossacks were moved to the area of Kuban (Northern Caucasus) under the name of the Black Sea Cossacks. Later they became part of the Kuban Cossack Host.

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