Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Bohdan Khmelnytsky was a Cossack hetman who led the uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth beginning in 1648. His victories created the Cossack Hetmanate, drew in Crimean Tatar and Muscovite power, and unleashed a prolonged conflict marked by social revolt, religious violence and mass suffering.

In Henryk Sienkiewicz’s With Fire and Sword, in 1648 the Polish officer Jan Skrzetuski returns from a mission in the southern borderlands and unknowingly saves Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who is preparing a Cossack revolt against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In Henryk Sienkiewicz’s With Fire and Sword, Book III, Polish forces withdraw into the fortified camp at Zbarazh as Khmelnytsky and his Tatar allies surround them with a much larger army. Other novels featuring Bohdan Khmelnytsky include Henryk Sienkiewicz’s With Fire and Sword, Book II.