During the 17th century, Europe was shaken by religious, social and economic movements and by wars of national liberation. Britain's Oliver Cromwell and Ukraine's Bohdan Khmelnitsky represented Europe's west and east at this time.
Encyclopedic sources reflect that Cromwell, lord protector of Britain, headed a bourgeois revolution that included two exhausting wars between 1640 and 1660 that resulted in the downfall of absolutism.
Khmelnitsky, hetman of the Cossack Republic, scored brilliant victories in a war between 1648 and 1654 that "threw Poland from the summit of its glory," according to poet and historian Ivan Franko. But the war also pushed Ukraine into Russia's embrace, which, according to historian Valentin Krisachenko, "adopted the geopolitical mission of Eurasian integration from the Tatar-Mongols".
For 350 years, Ukrainian Russophiles who approve of Russia's "geopolitical mission" have addressed Khmelnitsky as their "referee" while searching for the hetman's fatal mistake.
In Ukraine: Seen by the West, historian Dmitry Nalivayko highlights similarities between the events which occurred in England and Ukraine during this period. European newspapers of the time wrote a lot about Cromwell and Khmelnitsky, describing both leaders as "ambitious, courageous and impetuous". Writers and playwrights dedicated works to these "greatest mutineers of the century".
What makes the English Revolution and the Cossack War similar is their religious motivation. Nalivayko says the lord protector harbored sympathy for Ukraine's war against Poland, associating the struggle with the anti-Catholic European front.
In England, Cromwell was trying to impose moderate Puritanism (known as Presbyterianism) as a state religion. This led to a split in society and eventually to the restoration of the Anglican Church and monarchy.
Vitaly Kvitka says the religious factor played a dubious role in Ukraine. The peasant divisions fought against feudal oppression and Catholic expansion, which doubled the rebellion's energy. On the other hand, the loyalty of the people to the Orthodox Church almost deprived Hetman Khmelnitsky of diplomatic maneuverability. A tactical treaty with Catholic Poland, Protestant Sweden, or Islamic Turkey could have evoked mass resentment. The Ukrainian nation had no alternative but to unite with Orthodox Russia.
Khmelnitsky could not ignore the social preferences. He could not disagree with the Cossack leaders. The hetman was brought up and educated according to the traditions of the Polish state, where the king was elected and the right to make important decisions belonged to the nobility. According to historians, the hetman's doubts explain the multi-vector simultaneous negotiations in which Khmelnitsky engaged with different countries.
Unlike Khmelnitsky, Cromwell was never indecisive. Encyclopedic sources relate that he mercilessly defeated a rebellions lead by the supporters of the dethroned king and the demonstrations of his allies in parliament, forces that demanded equal democratic rights for all classes of society.
Cromwell was an aggressive anti-absolutist, which led to the execution of King Charles I in 1649, a death that was to have great impact on all European dynasties. This happened in England, says historian Evgeny Zarudny, a country whose ancient legal traditions are based on precedent.
The search for a precedent, the historian writes, could have intensified Cromwell's attention to what was happening elsewhere in Europe, where the same kind of revolutionary leader was inciting people to rebel against their king. Historians quote the introduction to a letter Cromwell allegedly wrote in which he calls Khmelnitsky the divine generalissimo of the Zaporizhyan Cossacks, the defender of the ancient Greek religion, and the eliminator of the Polish nobles and the Roman clergy.
Nevertheless, Cromwell did not find an adequate precedent in Eastern Europe. The invincible Khmelnitsky, who could speak with Poland's king on almost equal terms, started to give up his political positions during negotiations with the absolutist Russian Empire.
Author Sergey Plachinda writes that Russian Tsar Alexey, in correspondence with Khmelnitsky, arrogantly addressed the latter as "Little Hetman". Khmelnitsky, in his replies, enumerated all titles of the Russian sovereign.
Khmelnitsky demonstrated weakness, Plachinda asserts, when he submitted to the Pereyaslov Treaty, which compromised Ukraine's sovereignty in relation with Russia.
This request has bothered Ukrainian nationalists for centuries. They hold that sovereignty cannot be requested, and claim that Khmelnitsky was the first leader among many weak Ukrainian leaders who too often looked to Russia for guidance.
Pressed by heavy burdens of state, Khmelnitsky and Cromwell died within one year of each other, in 1657 and 1658. They were both still in their prime, having barely turned 60. Neither managed to achieve much while heading their respective governments.
Similarities between the two leaders became even more apparent after their deaths, in the form of political revenge. The crowned Polish Hetman Stefan Charnetsky and the heir to the restored British throne, Charles II Stuart, desecrated the corpses of Khmelnitsky and Cromwell, according to historian Zarudny.
Cromwell entered history as the initiator of irreversible democratic changes in Great Britain. After his death, society managed to reach a compromise between the bourgeoisie and the gentry, creating government headed by a king with limited power.
Bohdan Khmelnitsky is the only leader in Ukrainian history, notes author Kvitka, who used his charisma to unite people from across Ukraine. A decade after his death, says historian Valentin Krisachenko, Russia broke its promise to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and delivered a fatal blow, splitting the country in two. Under the Andrusovsky Treaty signed with Rich Pospolyta, right-bank Ukraine was declared part of Poland, while left-bank Ukraine was under Moscow's rule. This division still influences the balance of political power in Ukraine.
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