The Chigirin campaign of 1674: An unsuccessful attempt to establish Russian control over the Right-Bank Ukraine

Abstract

The article dwells upon the failed attempt of the Russian government to establish control over the Right-Bank Ukraine in the summer of 1674. At the Pereyaslav Rada on March, 17, 1674, the Cossacks leaders of the Right-Bank Ukraine and the Polish hetman M. Chanenko took the oath to Tzar and elected I. Samoylovich as a hetman “of the both sides of Dnepr”. From the legal side it resulted in establishing Russian governance over the whole Ukraine. The displaced hetman P. D. Doroshenko did not agree with this decision and continued the resistance with the support of the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars. It made the Russian government send an army headed by Prince G. G. Romodanovski to establish Russian control over the Right-Bank Ukraine by force. He besieged Doroshenko in his capital Chigirin in the end of July, 1674. When the Sultan Mehmed IV got news about the Russian invasion, he canceled his campaign against the Poles and sent his troops to Kiev and Chigirin. The approaching of the Crimean Tatars forced Romodanovski to lift the siege of Chigirin and to retreat to the left bank of Dnepr. After ensuring the safety of Doroshenko, the Turks plundered the Right-Bank Ukraine. As a result, by September, 1674, only the eastern parts of the Right-Bank Ukraine (along Dnepr) remained under Russian control, while the West and the South were controlled by P. D. Doroshenko.