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The Ruin

The period of Hetmanate history known as "the Ruin ", lasting from 1657 to 1687, was marked by constant civil wars throughout the state. After Bohdan Khmelnytsky died in 1657, his sixteen-year-old son Yurii Khmelnytsky was elected as successor. Bohdan's son was not only too young and inexperienced, but also clearly lacked the charisma and leadership qualities of his father.

In response, Ivan Vyhovsky, the general scribe (Ukrainian: писар, romanized: pysar) of the Hetmanate and an adviser to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, was elected hetman in 1657 by the Starshyna council. His election caused widespread discontent among other regiments and the Zaporizhian Host, who sent runners to Moscow with complaints. As a result, new elections were called that same year at which Vyhovsky was reelected at the General Military Council. This election was also confirmed by Russian authorities who were informed according to the Pereiaslav treaty. Moscow continued to accept runners from the regions of Cossack Hetmanate completely disregarding the authority of hetman and spreading rumors that in truth Russia did not support the candidacy of Vyhovsky. Vyhovsky, seeing the situation turning out of his control, went on to extinguish the revolt led by the Zaporozhian Kish otaman Yakiv Barabash and Poltava Colonel Martyn Pushkar. In the spring of 1658 Vyhovsky crossed Dnieper and confronted mutineers near Poltava with the help of Tatars. During the battle Pushkar was killed and replaced with a new colonel, while the leaders of the uprising were strictly repressed.

After this, Vyhovsky and General Starshyna considered the relationship with Russia to be broken. The newly elected Metropolitan Dionisi Balaban was transferred to Chyhyryn, away from Kyiv. A manifest nullifying the union with Russia was sent throughout Europe, mainly because it was conducting friendly relationships with Poland and supporting internal opposition within the Hetmanate. Negotiations with Sweden had frozen, while he had military support from the Crimean Khanate, so Vyhovsky decided to renegotiate with Poland, with whom talks continued for quite some time.

On September 16, 1658 in Hadiach, an official document was signed between representatives of the Cossack Hetmanate and Poland. Under the conditions of the treaty, Ukraine would become a third and autonomous component of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the ultimate sovereignty of the King of Poland but with its own military, courts, and treasury. But the treaty, although ratified by the Diet in May 1659, was never implemented because it was unpopular among the lower classes of the Ruthenian society, where more rebellions occurred. Eventually Vyhovsky surrendered the office of hetman and fled to Poland. The newly re-installed Yurii Khmelnytsky signed the newly composed Pereiaslav Articles that were increasingly unfavorable for the Hetmanate and later led to introduction of serfdom rights.

In 1667, the Russo-Polish war ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo, which split the Cossack Hetmanate along the Dnieper River: Left-bank Ukraine enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Tsardom of Russia, while Right-bank Ukraine remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was temporarily occupied by the Ottoman Empire in the period of 1672-1699 (see the Treaty of Buchach and the Treaty of Karlowitz). For a short time, Petro Doroshenko became the hetman of both banks. After treason by Demian Mnohohrishny and a new Polish offensive, Dorosenko concluded an alliance with the Ottomans, who granted him Ukraine, while the hetman agreed to support Ottoman military action with his army. "By 1669 the Porte issued a patent (berat, nişan) granting Doroshenko all of Cossack Ukraine as an Ottoman sancak or province". This move sharply reduced his popularity among the Ukrainians and commoners, giving rise to the emergence of two self-proclaimed Right-bank hetmans, Petro Sukhovii and the pro-Polish Mykhailo Khanenko. Direct armed support of the anti-Doroshenko forces by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forced Sultan Mehmed IV to intervene in the conflict. In 1672, Ottoman troops captured Podillia, the Bratslav region, and the southern Kyiv region and forced the Poles to sign the Treaty of Buchach. Doroshenko restored his power, but due to Tatar raids and violent islamization, the Ukrainian population of the Right-bank began to flee to the Left-bank of the Dnieper, Sloboda Ukraine, Galicia and Volhynia. In 1674, Samoilovych's Left-bank Cossacks, together with the Russian army, invaded the Right-bank, and in 1676, deprived of support, Doroshenko capitulated, surrendering the hetman's capital of Chyhyryn with kleinods. These events unleashed the Russo-Turkish War, as a result of which the Ottoman-Tatar army completely destroyed the Cossack capital Chyhyryn. In order to deprive the enemy of support, the Left-bank hetman government forcibly removed the entire population of the Dnieper region to the Left-bank. The war ended with the conclusion of the Bakhchysarai Peace in 1681. According to this treaty, the Russo-Ottoman border was established along the Dnieper; the Dnieper-Buh confluence had to be uninhabited for 20 years. After the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth concluded the Treaty of Perpetual Peace in 1686, which also established the division of the Hetmanate between them. On the Left-bank, Samoilovych was considered to be the culprit of the disintegration of the Cossack state between the Tsardom of Russia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. After the unsuccessful Crimean campaign of 1687, he was denounced, arrested and exiled to Siberia. At the same time, on the Right-bank, the Poles abolished the Cossack self-government and the regimental system in 1699. As a result, the Hetmanate continued to exist only on the Left-bank of the Dnieper.