Zaporozhian Sech in the Second Half of 1680: From the Death of Koshevoi Ataman Ivan Serkoto the Treaty of Bakhchysarai of 1681

Abstract

The military and political position of the Zaporozhian Sech — the centre of lands which were controlled and exploited by the local Cossack community on the Low Dnepr — in the second half of the 1670s still remains unstudied despite the fact that this period played a key-role in the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Three powers of Eastern Europe — the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and the Ottoman Empire — had been clashing over the protection of Sech at the time. While Poland was keeping personal ties with Koshevoy Ataman Ivan Serko and the Ottoman Empire and its vassal state, the Crimean Khanate was building fortresses on the Low Dnepr that completely blocked the entry to the Black Sea for the Cossacks’ boats, so the relationship between the Russian government and Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Samoylovich, protected by Moscow, was impaired. The main reason for that was the independence policy of Ivan Serko, who kept relations with Poland and Crimea and hated Samoylovich. His death opened some new possibilities for the Sech to stabilise its relations with the Tsar and the Hetman under conditions of limited military potential due to new Ottoman fortifications. Zaporozhian Cossacks sent envoys to Moscow, who were received with generosity and friendliness. Using an aspiration of the Sech to rebuild relations and to get the Thar’s zhalovanje (emolument), the Russian government and Hetman Samoylovich tried to strengthen their control over the Sech by forcing Zaporozhian Cossacks to take an oath of allegiance. It was a very important task on the eve of the final stage of the Russian-Crimean peaceful negotiations in Bakhchysarai.