Khmelnytsky Uprising

Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian Cossacks in revolt against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1648, forming an alliance with the Crimean Khanate. Early victories destroyed major Commonwealth armies and expanded a rebellion rooted in disputes over Cossack status, noble landholding, religion and political authority.

The war involved Cossack, Polish–Lithuanian, Crimean Tatar and peasant forces and produced sieges, raids, reprisals and large-scale displacement. Polish nobles, Catholic clergy, Jewish communities, Orthodox populations and other civilians suffered severe violence, although experiences and allegiances varied across the region.

The uprising created the Cossack Hetmanate and drew Muscovy into the conflict after the Pereiaslav agreement. It is the setting of With Fire and Sword and supports other fiction about Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, the siege of Zbarazh and the contested borderlands of the Commonwealth.