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[[File:166px-BChmielnicki.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] led the famous revolt against the Polish Commonwealth in 1648-1654]]

[[File:166px-BChmielnicki.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] led the famous revolt against the Polish Commonwealth in 1648-1654]]

Peasant refugees from Polish landlord rule escaped to the steppes of Ukraine in the 15th and 16th centuries, where they became frontiersmen called [[Cossacks]].  Their main center was Zaporizhska Sich, a wild town on the lower [[Dnieper]] River. Outlaws and frontiersmen, fighters and pioneers, the Cossacks seized the Ukrainian imagination.  They ranged the steppe in covered wagons, pulling them into tight squares to face a Tatar attack.  Urged on by Polish subsidies, they launched lucrative raids on the ports of Poland's enemy Turkey, using sixty-foot‐long double-ruddered galleys.  The men boasted splendid moustaches, red boots and wide baggy trousers as they danced, sang and drank horilka in heroic quantities.<ref>Reid (2000) p. 30</ref>  Some Cossacks aligned with Poland; others led rebellions against the Poles in 1591, 1595, 1625, 1635 and 1637.

Peasant refugees from Polish landlord rule escaped to the steppes of Ukraine in the 15th and 16th centuries, where they became frontiersmen called [[Cossacks]].  Their main center was Zaporizhska Sich, a wild town on the lower [[Dnieper]] River. Outlaws and frontiersmen, fighters and pioneers, the Cossacks seized the Ukrainian imagination.  They ranged the steppe in covered wagons, pulling them into tight squares to face a Tatar attack.  Urged on by Polish subsidies, they launched lucrative raids on the ports of Poland's enemy Turkey, using sixty-foot‐long double-ruddered galleys.  The men boasted splendid moustaches, red boots and wide baggy trousers as they danced, sang and drank horilka in heroic quantities.<ref>Reid (2000) p. 30</ref>  Some Cossacks aligned with Poland; others led rebellions against the Poles in 1591, 1595, 1625, 1635 and 1637.

The rebellions climaxed in 1648-1654 in a popular uprising, accompanied by widespread pogroms against Jews, led by the Cossack hetman (general) [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] (1595-1657).<ref>He is called Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Russian and Bogdan Chmielnicki in Polish.</ref> Representatives of the Cossack Hetmanate and Czar Alexis signed the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654, which led to the birth of Ukraine as it first became based in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, but was later given more territory. Khmelnytsky's victory over Poland led to a Cossack "state," the hetmanate.<ref>The Cossacks formed a military regime but most historians say the hetmanate was not a fully formed state, as it lacked borders, stable laws, an administrative apparatus or an ethnic population base. Apart from Russia it did not seek diplomatic recognition through the exchange of ambassadors.</ref> As the creator of the first quasi-independent Cossack state in the 16th century, Khmelnitsky became immortalized in Ukrainian national sentiment. In the Communist era Moscow bolstered his status.  The exploits of Khmelnitsky and the Cossacks became the focus of numerous ceremonial acts, exhibitions and dedications.  Since 1991, however, Ukrainian scholars are more divided over the issue of whether he sold out the national interest to Russia.<ref>Serhii Plokhy, "The Ghosts of Pereyaslav: Russo-Ukrainian Historical Debates in the Post-soviet Era." ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 2001 53(3): 489-505. Fulltext: [http://www.jstor.org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/view/09668136/ap030066/03a00050/0 in Jstor]; Zenon E. Kohut, "In Search of Early Modern Ukrainian Statehood: Post-Soviet Studies of the Cossack Hetmanate." ''Journal of Ukrainian Studies'' 1999 24(2): 101-112. Issn: 0228-1635 not online</ref>

The rebellions climaxed in 1648-1654 in a popular uprising, accompanied by widespread pogroms against Jews, led by the Cossack hetman (general) [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] (1595-1657).<ref>He is called Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Russian and Bogdan Chmielnicki in Polish.</ref> Representatives of the Cossack Hetmanate and Czar Alexis signed the Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654, which led to the birth of Ukraine as it first became based in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, but was later given more territory. Khmelnytsky's victory over Poland led to a Cossack "state," the hetmanate.<ref>The Cossacks formed a military regime but most historians say the hetmanate was not a fully formed state, as it lacked borders, stable laws, an administrative apparatus or an ethnic population base. Apart from Russia it did not seek diplomatic recognition through the exchange of ambassadors.</ref> As the creator of the first quasi-independent Cossack state in the 16th century, Khmelnitsky became immortalized in Ukrainian national sentiment. In the Communist era Moscow bolstered his status.  The exploits of Khmelnitsky and the Cossacks became the focus of numerous ceremonial acts, exhibitions and dedications.  Since 1991, however, Ukrainian scholars are more divided over the issue of whether he sold out the national interest to Russia.<ref>Serhii Plokhy, "The Ghosts of Pereyaslav: Russo-Ukrainian Historical Debates in the Post-soviet Era." ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 2001 53(3): 489-505. Fulltext: [http://www.jstor.org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/view/09668136/ap030066/03a00050/0 in Jstor]; Zenon E. Kohut, "In Search of Early Modern Ukrainian Statehood: Post-Soviet Studies of the Cossack Hetmanate." ''Journal of Ukrainian Studies'' 1999 24(2): 101-112. Issn: 0228-1635 not online</ref>