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 p135  Chapter XV
The Muscovite and Swedish Wars

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

1. The Accession of Ladislas Vasa (1632)

At the fourth Election Diet of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth held in 1632, Sigismund's son, Ladislas, was unanimously acclaimed ruler of the Republic in a session which lasted only one-half hour. For the first time since the Union of Lublin, the Lithuanian representatives took part in all proceedings without making any protests or issuing any demands.

To Ladislas himself was due a great deal of credit for this speedy and unprecedented election. He had on numerous occasions demonstrated his own keen interest in public opinion and the good-will of his subjects. He had shown himself quite anxious to reconcile or at least to lessen the intensity of the hatreds existing among the religious rivals of the Republic. For this reason he promised the Lithuanian Protestant, Christopher Radvila II, the palatinate of Vilnius and the post of Lithuanian Grand Hetman after the death of the Catholic, Leon Sapiega (the promise was carried out in 1633); he also guaranteed his subjects absolute equality and freedom in matters of faith.

It was indeed most fortunate after the Polish-Lithuanian Republic that the election of Ladislas did not follow the course of his predecessors. Immediately after the death of Sigismund, Michael, the reigning Tsar of Muscovy, apparently trusting to the security that would be afforded by a troubled and prolonged interregnum,  p136 invaded the Lithuanian province of Smolensk. The Lithuanian Field Hetman, Christopher Radvila II, was unable to repel the attack and Smolensk itself was besieged by the Muscovites. Ladislas, however, with a comparatively small force of Lithuanian and Polish soldiers, succeeded in raising the siege and in 1634 compelled the surrender of the Muscovite troops. That same year the treaty of Polianovka was signed; Lithuania retained possession of the palatinate of Smolensk; Moscow paid 200,000 roubles as an indemnity of war; and Ladislas renounced all his claims to the Tsar's throne. These territorial boundaries remained intact until the Muscovite invasion of 1654.

2. Truce of Stumdorf

Although at his election Ladislas had solemnly promised to abandon the Vasa pretensions to the Swedish Crown, yet after the death of Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Lützen (1632), those same dynastic aims, which had dominated his father, also found expression in his own life. Meanwhile, Christina, Gustavus' six-year‑old daughter was recognized as Swedish Queen and Axel Oxenstierna assumed the regency until the child would become of age. In vain did Ladislas seek the hand of the widow, the Queen-Mother, Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. Likewise his claim to the royal Swedish title by reason of hereditary right was summarily dismissed by the Swedes. As a result, after coming to terms in 1634 with the Turks at Lwow (concerning Polish interests in Moldavia, Wallachia, the Tatar and Cossack activities in the border­lands), Ladislas renewed the war of the Vasas against Sweden the following year. At the head of a Polish army he invaded Prussia. At the same time, the Lithuanian Hetman Christopher Radvila attacked Swedish-occupied Livonia.

The struggle, nevertheless, was destined to come to a sudden ending. Sweden at the moment had been playing an important role in the Thirty Years' War raging in Germany. Furthermore, peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Republic was a necessity for the proper functioning of the Franco-Swedish alliance; and therefore Richelieu  p137 intervened. Claude de Mesmes was delegated, with the assistance of Dutch and English ambassadors, to restore the truce of Altmark. Negotiations were begun at Stumdorf, near Marienburg. Ladislas proved entirely irreconcilable, insisting upon hostilities in order to gain the Swedish throne. He received little encouragement, however, from the Emperor and from Spain, whose interests an armed conflict between Poland-Lithuania and Sweden certainly would have furthered. The Polish gentry were overwhelmingly in favor of an immediate settlement and were quite unwilling to provide the King with necessary funds, being contented with the Swedish promise to withdraw from the Prussian areas occupied since 1629. Ladislas found his sole support among the Lithuanian nobles, who were intent upon the recovery of Livonia. But contrary to the will of the King, the Poles proceeded to arrange a twenty-six year truce with Sweden, which restored Prussia to Polish jurisdiction, but permitted Livonia to remain under Swedish rule. Christopher Radvila, who had succeeded in driving the Swedes out of Wenden (Cesis) and had continued his victories even after the truce, was then forced to surrender his conquests. Ladislas, a sorely disappointed individual, was compelled to give his assent to the treaty. The Lithuanian representatives refused to approve the agreement at the Diet. They were soon appeased and pacified by the Poles, and the pact was ratified. It remained in force until 1655.

3. The Cossack Uprising

With the treaty of Stumdorf the international relations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had temporarily attained a peaceful settlement. But not all was well within the boundaries of the dual state. In rapid order the various plans concocted by Ladislas for the advancement and the progress of the Republic were rejected by the members of the Diet and Senate. The Republic betrayed signs of internal decay and approaching anarchy. Danzig, with the cooperation of Denmark, rebelled against Ladislas' attempt to impose a custom tax on the ports of the Baltic. The Diet connived at the failure of any project, which, in the course of time would have  p138 brought the Republic prestige among the maritime powers, preventing thereby the organization of a naval force as had been envisioned by Ladislas' father, Sigismund. Difficulties between the Uniates and the Disuniates continued to reappear in spite of the fact that Ladislas had officially allowed the Orthodox to proceed with the establishment and development of their ecclesiastical organization. The convention summoned at Thorn in 1645 for Catholics and Protestants produced no religious unity. Furthermore, the Diets of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic had begun to retire more frequently without achieving any purpose or completing any business. The aristocracy of the Republic, intensely jealous of its power, continued to multiply its wealth, expand and protect its privileges for no altruistic motives. Ladislas' dreams of a large scale crusade against the Turks failed to crystallize, perhaps because of the inability of the Republic to win the support of the Cossack hordes of the south. And then towards the very close of Ladislas' sixteen years reign the Cossacks of the southeastern areas broke out in open revolt.

The story of the social formation of the peoples living in that area stretching southward from Kiev to the Black Sea, known today as the Ukraine, supplies the information necessary for the understanding of the reasons which initiated the Cossack rebellion. It seems that in the thirteenth century this territory was a barren land without inhabitants, whose stronghold was at Crimea. Since the days of Algirdas, when it became the possession of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and after 1569, when it was seized by Poland, serious attempts were made at colonization. Both the Lithuanian Grand Dukes and the rulers of the later Polish-Lithuanian Republic repeatedly bestowed various grants of this land upon the different boyars. In turn, as an inducement, peasants and serfs were offered more comfortable living conditions than they could obtain elsewhere, provided they were willing to take up residence in these southeastern regions. Consequently, for long periods these people remained as free-men, and only at later dates were they required to acknowledge their serfdom. Naturally, this threatened loss of freedom was not to the liking of the settlers.  p139 They regarded the boyars as enemies of liberty. Likewise the attempts to bring about the Church union of the Orthodox and the Catholics merely intensified their antipathy towards the landlords, who then seemed to play the role of religious oppressors. Und these conditions and in face of such existing hatreds, circumstances were almost always ideal for rebellions; these uprisings were usually super­vised and conducted under the leader­ship of another distinct heterogeneous social grouping, which had settled still further towards the southeast and were known as the Cossacks.

Since colonization had progressed rather slowly, even as late as the seventeenth century, the lower Dnieper (particularly the area east of the river) had remained uninhabited. As a result, escaped serfs and adventurers of all kinds took refuge in these parts. This cross-section of humanity bore the name of Cossacks, a word derived from Tatar sources, meaning wanderers. They lived on the booty acquired during raids and other like expeditions against the Tatars, against the strongholds of the Porte on the western shores of the Black Sea, against Kiev and other settlements. At times, they seemed to consider themselves the creators of an outpost of civilization for the defense of Christianity against the Mongols and the Turks.

Since these Cossacks did present a splendid opportunity for the organization of a border army, various efforts were made to bring them under Lithuanian and, after the Union of Lublin, under Polish control. Sigismund Augustus and Stephen Bathory sought to organize disciplined and salaried military regiments from the Cossack man­power. Sigismund Vasa followed the plans of his predecessors and even attempted to reduce those not listed for military service to the status of serfs. And although the Cossacks were employed in the wars against Muscovy and Sweden, nevertheless, their benefits to the Polish-Lithuanian Republic were always overshadowed by their uncertain loyalty, their random attacks on the Tatars and Turks, as well as by the ever increasing frequency of their revolts, which gradually also won the participation of all the serfs dissatisfied with their landlords and their positions. For their own protection the boyars quite often maintained  p140 armed troops on their estates. But even these required the assistance of the armies of the Republic.

Several Cossack uprisings had taken place during the reign of Ladislas. After the revolt of 1637‑8, only some 6,000 enrolled Cossacks were retained. But in the last year of Ladislas' rule, the most serious of all disturbances took place. There is hardly any doubt that it inaugurated a separatist movement, of which the modern Ukrainian plea for independence is but an echo, for the majority of the inhabitants of these southeastern areas were Ruthenians, and not Russians in the sense that this word is commonly used today.

It seems that Bogdan Chmielnicki, an official in the registered Cossack army, had been deprived of his wife by a Polish boyar and had suffered other indignities at his hands. Having failed to obtain justice from the King and the Diet, he proceeded to incite and prepare the Cossacks and numbers of otherwise peaceful serfs for a revolution. With these forces he then inflicted two successive crushing defeats at Zheltnaya Vodui⁠a and Kruta Balka, west of the Dnieper, upon the Polish armies and captured the two Polish Hetmen. Ladislas died at Merkine in Lithuania. The pre-election Diet called the boyars to arms. And momentarily, the advance was withheld at Lwow (Lemberg) as Chmielnicki forwarded to Warsaw a compilation of his demands.

At this critical point in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ladislas' brother, John Casimir, was summoned from France, where he had become cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, to ascend the throne of the dual republic. Upon the advice and urging of the Polish Chancellor, Ossolinski, John Casimir showed himself willing to assume a conciliatory attitude toward Chmielnicki and to make necessary compromises. The latter, however, continued to raid Podolia and Volhynia and even captured Kiev. The negotiations at Pereyaslav failed because of the Cossack's extensive demands. But after the courageous defense of Zbaraz, attempted by the Poles, an agreement was formed in 1649; Chmielnicki was recognized as the Grand Hetman of the southeastern areas (Ukraine); and a promise was given by the Polish-Lithuanian Republic that the eastern palatinates of Lithuania  p141 would be placed under the super­vision of boyars drawn from the Orthodox gentry, the overwhelming majority of whom were Ruthenians. For almost two years Chmielnicki seemed to be triumphant and reigned from his capital at Czheryn like a semi-independent prince.

The desire of the Cossack rebel to establish his own son in Moldavia, thereby threatening to endanger Polish interests in that country, led to the resumption of hostilities in 1651. But that same year, having allied himself with the Turkish Sultan, Chmielnicki with his Tatar, Cossack and Turkish armies suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Polish-Lithuanian forces, led by Stephen Czarniecki. The following year, Chmielnicki, apparently no longer being interested simply in the defense of the rights of the Cossack and Orthodox elements of the southern areas (palatinates of Kiev and Bratslav), but dreaming rather of an independent Ukrainian state, entered into negotiations with the Tsar Alexis, the second Romanov, reigning in Moscow (1645‑76). And in 1654, he officially pledged his allegiance to the Tsar and committed the Ukraine under the suzerainty of Muscovy, obtaining at the same time a promise of wide autonomy, and for himself, the status of a privileged official. Alexis then sanctioned the invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic; the Cossacks, assisted by reenforcements from Moscow, renewed the war which had started in 1648. Muscovite troops attacked the eastern palatinate of Lithuania, Smolensk. Resistance proved futile, all the more so because of the internal strife existing between Jonusas Radvila, the Palatine of Vilnius and Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and Vincent Gansiauskas, the Field-Hetman of Lithuania. Smolensk withstood a siege of four months and then surrendered. In rapid order Vitebsk, Polock, Mogilev, and Mozyr fell. And by May, 1655, the line between the two opposing forces was drawn by the river Berezina, the Lithuanian armies being encamped at Minsk.

In the meanwhile, many other events of tremendous importance were occurring; they prepared for the complete desolation which was to sweep not only over Lithuania but also over her political partner, Poland.

 p142  4. The Muscovite and Swedish Invasion

Jonusas Radvila, son of Christopher Radvila II, was in this period the dominating personality in the affairs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.⁠1 Unfortunately, just as his uncle and namesake had fallen into the disfavor of Sigismund Vasa, so also was he at odds with the last of the Vasas, John Casimir. The later sought to suppress Radvila's influence by delaying or refusing to grant him appointments to important positions. On the occasion when the King was compelled by force of public opinion to bestow upon the magnate the office of Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Casimir protested violently to the Diet and then did not hesitate to choose his favorite, Vincent Gansiauskas, as the Lithuanian Field Hetman, who since 1652 was also the Lithuanian Treasurer. Contrary to existing traditions and laws, John Casimir sought to commit to his appointee certain duties, such as organizing new divisions for the army, which had always belonged to the Grand Hetman. To achieve this purpose, papers were drawn up increasing the powers of the Field Hetman and were presented to the Chancellor for the State seal. But Albert Radvila, Jonusas' uncle and Lithuanian Chancellor, refused to cooperate. The King finally obtained the necessary seal by appealing to the Vice-Chancellor, Casimir Sapiega, rival of the Radvilas. The breach existing between the King and Radvila widened all the more, when John Casimir instructed the boyars to gather at the Field Hetman's camp for mobilization rather than at Radvila's. He was quickly compelled to retract his orders and was thereby compromised.

While Jonusas Radvila was still campaigning for a Convocation of the Lithuanian gentry, to discuss the defense of the Grand Duchy against Muscovy, John Casimir himself decreed to come to Gardinas in August, 1654, to confer with the senators alone. Nine senators attended the session. A temporary modus vivendi between the two Hetmen was arranged. But since the majority of  p143 the Lithuanian senators were in favor of Radvila, early the following year Casimir was compelled to issue a summons for the Convocation of Lithuania at Vilnius on May 10th. In the meantime, a similar demand came from the Polish magnate for a Diet in view of the threatening war with Sweden. Consequently, a General Diet of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic was called together at Warsaw on May 19th to satisfy both appeals.

During the subsequent deliberations three Muscovite armies, one assisted by a delegation of Cossacks, began to advance on Vilnius. Although the Diet had decreed to increase the military strength of the Commonwealth and had accepted the imposition of heavy taxes, nevertheless before any changes could be made, the Tsar's forces had reached the vicinity of the Lithuanian capital. While Radvila conferred with the senators and boyars at Vilnius, seeking means to protect the city and while Gansiauskas remained at Warsaw, Sweden declared war on Poland-Lithuania.

John Casimir, like his two Vasa predecessors, had refused to renounce his claims to the Swedish throne. Several efforts had been made after the truce of 1635 to produce a final peace treaty. But John Casimir rejected the proposal of the Swedish Chancellor, Oxenstierna, in 1648. The negotiations at Lübeck likewise failed (1651‑3) because the former not only insisted upon the restoration of Livonia to the Republic, but also demanded personal compensations before he would relinquish his claims to the Swedish throne. Finally, when Queen Christina abdicated in 1654, and was succeeded by Charles X (1654‑1660) (son of Charles Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrucken, and the sister of Gustavus Adolphus), John Casimir sent a formal protest to the Swedes for transferring the crown from the Vasa family to the Palatinate of Zweibrucken.

As the situation became increasingly more critical, both the Lithuanian and Polish senators were quite anxious to reach a peaceful settlement with Sweden. They urged John Casimir to send a delegation to Stockholm for this purpose. Jonusas Radvila even advocated an alliance with Sweden against Muscovy. Through James, the prince of Courland, he had even established contacts with Swedish representatives at Riga and Stockholm. From Gardinas,  p144 in 1654, the senators had compelled John Casimir to send a delegate to Sweden. But this ambassador was empowered only to make the same demands which had been rejected previously. And one of the first acts of the Diet of Warsaw in 1655 was to commission John Leszczynski and Alexander Narusevicius, representing Poland and Lithuania respectively, to sail for Stockholm and seek an agreement with Charles X. Their delayed mission was un­success­ful. Sweden was prepared. The exiled Polish Vice-Chancellor, Radziejowski, had approved such preparations. Charles X refused to consider any proposals. Furthermore, this occasion provided Sweden with an excellent opportunity to divert to other lands, masses of soldiers conscripted during her previous engagements.

The Swedish war with the Polish-Lithuanian Republic was resumed when Lewenhaupt occupied Daugavpils on July 9th, and Wittenberg crossed the Polish frontier from Pomerania on July 21st, assisted by Palatine Opalinski, who also was at odds with John Casimir. Four days later the Polish szlachta surrendered in Great Poland, and acknowledged Charles X as the new sovereign. Meanwhile, Magnus de la Gardie, governor of Livonia, and Skytte, governor of Estonia, received orders to gain control of Courland and Livonia.

At this moment, the Tsar's forces were on the outskirts of Vilnius. Poland had recalled the few regiments of troops it had dispatched to Lithuania. Most of the senators had abandoned the capital. Radvila's small army, demanding pay arrears, threatened to mutiny. Magnus de la Gardie suggested to the magnates Radvila, Tiskevicius and Sapiega that friendly relations be established between Lithuania and Sweden. Thereupon Jonusas Radvila, Boguslas Radvila and Bishop Tiskevicius sent a request to la Gardie for aid in the defense of Vilnius. Negotiations achieved no results, because la Gardie rejected all conditions proposed by Radvila, who offered to recognize Charles X as Grand Duke of Lithuania and to preserve Lithuanian neutrality in Sweden's war with Poland.

But on August 8th, Radvila was compelled to abandon Vilnius and retire with the treasury to Kedainiai as the Muscovites seized  p145 the Lithuanian capital without a battle. Two days later, the Tsar entered Vilnius. That same day the two Radvilas, through their representative, submitted to la Gardie, who promised protection for the still unoccupied areas of Lithuania. One week later at Kedainiai Jonusas Radvila (Boguslas had fled to Podlachia), Gansiauskas, and some four hundred boyars signed a pact with the Swedes at la Gardie's demand. According to this treaty Lithuania was to remain neutral in the Swedish war against Poland; she was to be occupied by the Swedish armies; and Charles X was recognized as her Grand Duke with the reservation that were Lithuania to remain under Swedish rule after the war, she would not be incorporated with Sweden, but would exist as an autonomous unit. Plans subsequently concocted by Radvila to summon a Diet in Lithuania, to form general confederations for the recovery of Vilnius with the assistance of the Swedes, were ignored. And in September, the boyars of Lithuania in the palatinates of Trakai and Samogitia, which remained free of Muscovite occupation, were summoned to Kedainiai. Here, taking advantage of the antagonism shown by the Samogitians towards Radvila, Skytte and la Gardie formulated a new agreement between Sweden and the assembled representatives of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy; this formed the union of Lithuania with Sweden under a common ruler and allowed the Swedes to employ the Lithuanian military forces against the Poles. Over eleven hundred members of the Lithuanian gentry were present at these negotiations and signed this new document. Jonusas Radvila did so quite unwillingly; he objected because the administration of state affairs was to be left to a Swedish governor.

Soon it became evident that the Swedes had no other interest than to treat Lithuania as an occupied country. The efforts of Jonusas Radvila to win better terms from the Swedes continued until his very death, the last day of the year 1655. In the meanwhile, September had witnessed the fall of Warsaw. John Casimir had fled into Silesia. During the following month, Cracow was taken and Little Poland occupied. In January of 1656 by the treaty of Koenigsberg, Frederick William acknowledged the suzerainty of Charles X, promising to assist the Swedish armies by  p146 means of reenforcements and custom dues. Momentarily, the annihilation of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic seemed to be complete as the Swedes overran western Lithuania and Poland, while the Muscovites controlled the eastern areas of the Grand Duchy, and the Cossacks dominated the southeastern portions of Poland.

A national reaction, however, had begun under the leader­ship of Paul Sapiega, Palatine of Lithuania's captured Vitebsk, towards the end of the year 1655. (He had massed his forces at Brest.) This uprising gained further impetus, when the Polish nobles and gentry began to form confederations after the success­ful defense of Czestochowa in December. Since la Gardie had departed for Poland with the main body of his troops in November, a partisan war ensued in Lithuania where small groups of Swedish soldiers were systematically destroyed. Gansiauskas and numbers of Radvila's forces (even before his death) had joined Paul Sapiega, around whom also gathered the refugee boyars from the territories seized by Moscow.

In 1656, John Casimir returned to Poland at Lwow. In June, Warsaw was recovered. That same year, a truce between Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy was formed and Tsar Alexis attacked the Swedish-held Livonian provinces. In an effort to retain the loyalty of the Elector of East Prussia, Charles X by the treaty of Labiau in November bestowed upon Frederick William full sovereignty over Prussia from Memel to the Vistula. The following month he forged an alliance with Rakoczy of Transylvania. In the meantime, John Casimir had allied himself with Austria, receiving a guarantee of assistance for the Republic. And in June, 1657, Denmark declared war on Sweden.

It is then that Charles X concentrated his energies chiefly on the subjection of Denmark and compelled that country to sign the treaty of Roeskilde in February, 1658. Meanwhile, Frederick William, under pressure from the Habsburgs, abandoned Charles and promised his alliance to John Casimir. But by the treaty of Wehlau, 1657, Poland was forced to abandon her suzerainty over East Prussia and recognize Frederick William as the independent sovereign of that country.

In August, 1658, Charles X was again at war with Denmark.  p147 Opposed by the forces of the Danes, Austrians, Prussians, Lithuanians and Poles, as well as distrusted by the French, English and Dutch, the hopes of Charles X were doomed to failure by this general league. Before his peace negotiations could bear fruit, Charles X died in February 1660.

Two months later, the treaty of Oliva was concluded between Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Republic; West Prussia returned to the jurisdiction of Poland; Frederick William's sovereignty in East Prussia was confirmed by Emperor Leopold and John Casimir; Livonia, with the exception of Latgale, remained in Swedish possession; and John Casimir relinquished the Vasa claims to the Swedish throne.

The difficulties of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic in the East, however, had not come to an end. Bogdan Chmielnicki had died in 1657. The following year, his successor, John Wyhowski, sought reconciliation with John Casimir through the Union of Hadiacz. As a result of this act, by which Wyhowski attempted to withdraw the Ukraine (palatinates of Kiev, Bratslav and Chernigov) from Muscovite suzerainty and to return to the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, war with Moscow was resumed, ending the truce of 1656.

The Lithuanian Field Hetman, Gansiauskas, suffered a crushing defeat near Vilnius. Bogdan's son, George Chmielnicki, abandoned the pact of 1685, and pledged his loyalty to the Tsar. In spite of several victories the Poles were unable to suppress Cossack resistance. After repelling a Muscovite attack in 1660, the Lithuanian Hetman Sapiega succeeded in recovering Vilnius, Gardinas and Mogilev in 1661. That same year the Tsar, at Kardis, surrendered his Livonian conquests to Sweden. Nevertheless, internal strife prevented the Polish-Lithuanian Republic from making any appreciable advance in its struggle against Muscovy. The peace conferences with Moscow in 1664 came to naught. Large numbers of both Polish and Lithuanian forces had banded themselves into confederations threatening to mutiny, unless pay arrears were made good. Lubomirski inaugurated a rebellion against the King of Poland. The Field Hetman of Lithuania, Gansiauskas, was slain by the Lithuanian confederates. Finally, in 1667, Muscovy  p148 and the Polish-Lithuanian Republic concluded the treaty of Andrussovo. Alexis surrendered to Lithuania the areas of Polock, Vitebsk and Starodub, which he had occupied, but retained Smolensk and portions of the Vitebsk palatinate. Poland was compelled to cede Kiev and the Ukraine east of the Dnieper. (These were the easternmost areas Poland had acquired at Lublin in 1569.) And since the Tsar had proclaimed himself defender of the Orthodox Christians in Poland-Lithuania the treaty also contained a clause, which granted a mutual guarantee for the protection of the Orthodox within the Republic and the Catholics in the Muscovite realms. Later, this pretext served as a convenient stepping stone for the Tsar's intervention in Polish-Lithuanian affairs.

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The Author's Note:

1 From 1646 he held the positions of senator and minister, being the Elder of Samogitia and Field Hetman of the armed forces. In 1653 he became Palatine of Vilnius, and the following year Grand Hetman of Lithuania.

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Thayer's Note:

a Sic. "Zheltnaya Vodui" is not Lithuanian or Polish, nor is it Ukrainian or Russian; it's an ungrammatical garble of the actual name of the place, and furthermore betraying — as does much of this confused narrative of the Khmelnitsky revolt — its source in Russian propaganda. Properly, a plural term meaning "Yellow Waters", in Ukrainian Zhovti Vody (Жовті Води); in Russian Zholtye Vody (Жёлтые Воды). The Russian singular would be Zholtaya Voda; the ending "-aya" is not Ukrainian. Here our author has stuck a Russian singular adjective (to boot, badly formed since there should be no -n- in it), badly transcribed (the apparent e in the Russian is in fact pronounced o) onto a Ukrainian/Russian plural noun. . . .

It's a pity that in this account Fr. Chase, as acutely aware of Russian propaganda and imperialism as any historian of Lithuania! has thruout this chapter pretty much thrown care and accuracy to the winds.

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