The Heavy Burden Of Reconciliation

Adam Kysil (1600-1653) was not simply a great Ukrainian, a diplomat, and a politician. In the seventeenth century he was the only representative of the Orthodox gentry to become a senator in the Rzeczpospolita. It fell to this Volhynian magnate to resolve the painful problem of religious disputes between Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers. Later, during the Cossack and peasant uprisings, he shouldered an even heavier burden — negotiating between the Polish King Jan Kazimierz and Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The destinies of Ukraine and Poland, and the course of history in general, depended on the judicious steps taken by Adam Kysil. Yet the diplomatic mission of this Ukrainian titan, who trod a fine line between the two warring sides, has not been given its rightful due.

In the past decade many have equated Adam Kysil with Yury Nemyrych, accentuating the inner contradictions of these two spiritual sons of the Ukrainian land. Of course, it is easier to look for contradictions than find totality. Yet both consistently strove to find the middle ground under any conditions, when not only the country’s destiny, but also thousands of human lives were at stake. It was no accident that Yury Nemyrych, an extraordinary personality and Ukrainian statesman from the era of Ivan Vyhovsky, continued Kysil’s policy, because he understood that much could be achieved for the good of Ukraine through a compromise between the hetman and the Polish king.

DEFENDER OF ORTHODOXY

Adam Kysil was born into a family of Volhynian noblemen, who owned the village of Nyzkynychi (now in Ivanychivsk district, Volyn oblast). He was educated at the prestigious Zamostia Academy founded by Crown Chancellor Jan Zamojski. His command of several foreign languages, good knowledge of history, and oratorical skills would later help Adam in his career. Following in the footsteps of his forebears, after completing his schooling Adam enrolled in full-time military service, which lasted one decade. A brave officer, he fought in many battles and distinguished himself in the battle of Khotyn. The death of his father changed the life journey of the young officer, and he returned home to his native Nyzkynychi. A highly educated man, Adam Kysil represented the population of Volyn in the Sejm legislatures in Lutsk and Zhytomyr. In 1630 the gentry of the Volhynian province entrusted him with the protection of their interests in the Polish Sejm. From that moment Adam Kysil became the champion of Orthodoxy. He authored projects, which he presented, together with the Orthodox envoys Lavrentiy Drevynsky and Mykhailo Kropyvnytsky, to the Polish King Wladyslaw IV and representatives of the Uniate Church.

In 1623 Adam Kysil succeeded in restoring St. Sophia Cathedral, which had been seized by the Uniates, to the Kyiv metropolitanate. After this he spent several years resolving disputes between Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers, especially during handovers of church property. By the grace of the king, in 1633 Adam Kysil became under-treasurer of Chernihiv, which gave him ownership of the towns of Kobyshcha and Kozary, as well as Nosiv County. In his official capacity Adam Kysil resolved disputes relating to borders of land holdings.

The year 1637 saw a Cossack uprising led by Pavliuk. The infamous battle of Kumeiky overwhelmed Adam Kysil. From Michal Potocki’s camp he watched the advancing Cossacks and wept, “So admirable is this flock of people, and strong is their spirit. I wish all of this were against the enemy of the Holy Cross, not against the king, the Rzeczpospolita, and their homeland.” Adam Kysil managed to save the lives of many insurgents, but did not consider this first act of peacemaking successful. After all, he had failed to save Pavliuk’s life, contrary to his promise to the Cossack chieftains that the organizers of the uprising would be spared if they surrendered. Adam Kysil would forever live with the feeling of resentment at the treacherous act of the king, who, under pressure from the Sejm, ordered the execution of the leader of the uprising.

During the years of Poland’s so-called “Golden Peace,” which lasted until the Khmelntysky era, Adam Kysil was a member of a commission appointed to secure the Polish- Muscovite border under the terms of the Polianovka Peace Treaty. Progress was made in this direction primarily owing to Adam Kysil, who was later appointed castellan of Kyiv in 1646. It was none other than Adam Kysil whom Warsaw dispatched as an envoy to Moscow to form a union of Christian nations in a war against the Turks. Adam Kysil did everything possible to further Polish-Muscovite relations, and even though the joint Polish-Muscovite campaign against the Turks never materialized, diplomatic relations between the two countries reached an unprecedented level. In 1648 the king appointed Adam Kysil governor of Bratslav province for his significant accomplishments.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES

A year before the uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Adam Kysil, speaking in the Senate of Poland, predicted the Cossack threat, “We are dealing not with ancient Rus’ with its bows and spears, but with a cruel, fiery army, which outnumbers us in a ratio of one Polish head to a thousand peasant heads, all with firearms.” In the spring of 1648 Adam Kysil repeatedly requested Potocki to pay proper attention to the demands of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who complained that even their colonels had been turned into servants of county governors and therefore could not address the Cossacks’ grievances. When the Rzeczpospolita was without a king in the summer of 1648, Chancellor Jerzy Ossolinski realized the real threat to the Crown and placed all his hopes on Adam Kysil, whom circumstances had forced to leave Kyiv and settle in the Volhynian town of Hoshcha. Adam Kysil was directed to start negotiations with Moscow and convince its leaders to join Poland in its campaign against the Crimea in order to defeat the powerful ally of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. At the same time Kysil was supposed to launch talks with Bohdan Khmelnytsky and convince him not to spill Christian blood and to withdraw from the union with the pagans. Adam Kysil was faced with the dilemma of having either to deprive the Cossacks of their Tatar ally and then punish the rebels, or appease the Cossacks with some sort of treaty and later “send them into the sea,” i.e., force the Cossacks to fight against Turkey in the interests of Poland, thereby avoiding a war in the borders of the Rzeczpospolita. Subsequent steps taken by Adam Kysil are proof that he opted for the second plan.

With the Sejm’s approval, King Jan Kazimierz sent Bohdan Khmelnytsky a letter recognizing him as the Hetman of the Zaporozhian Sich, and informing him that, with the goal of resolving the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, he was dispatching envoys representing a special governmental commission headed by Adam Kysil. On February 19, 1649 the envoys arrived in Pereyaslav for negotiations with Bohdan Khmelnytsky, where passions never before encountered in the Rzeczpospolita ran high. Over mocking remarks from the hetman’s entourage, Adam Kysil gave a fiery speech addressed to the Polish king and the Ukrainian hetman, and presented Bohdan Khmelnytsky with the hetman’s mace.

The negotiations dragged on for several days. Seeing how agitated Bohdan Khmelnytsky was, Adam Kysil tried to persuade his envoys not to demand excessive concessions from the hetman. During the banquet Khmelnytsky warned there would be no peace. Yet the envoys expected that the hetman would rethink his bellicose plans once he sobered up. However, on the following day Bohdan Khmelnytsky in fact declared war: “I have already sent messengers to the regiments, ordering them to prepare horses and be ready to set out without carts or artillery: all of this I will take from the Poles! As for those Cossacks who take even a single cart to war, I will have their heads cut off. I will not take anything, perhaps only saddlebags.” In this tense atmosphere Adam Kysil managed to talk Khmelnytsky into serious and levelheaded negotiations, ordering the Polish forces to refrain from clashing with the insurgents. However, advance Polish units captured the town of Bar in Podillia, and threatened to disrupt the talks. Adam Kysil was aggrieved by the Poles’ rashness, which disrupted his understanding with Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who was about to release Polish prisoners of war, but refused to keep his word after learning that the Poles had engaged in hostilities.

It was dangerous for the envoys to remain in Pereyaslav. Although the Cossacks did not maltreat the envoys, the latters’ servants felt the brunt of Cossack anger. It took an immense effort of will on the part of the civilized Adam Kysil to talk the adamant hetman into accepting a truce. The hetman’s requests were quite modest and concerned Kyiv province only. He demanded that the union be revoked in this province; that an Orthodox metropolitan be given a seat in the senate; that the governor and castellan of Kyiv be Orthodox; that Jesuits be banned from the province; and that Prince Jarema Wisniowiecki be stripped of the title of Crown Hetman for inciting war.

These demands were to be met before the Orthodox holiday of the Holy Trinity, after which time negotiations would resume. Khmelnytsky promised the Poles that he would order the prisoners’ release in return for Czaplinski. During the Pereyaslav talks the parties agreed on a borderline along the Prypyat and Horyn rivers and the town of Kamyanets-Podilsky.

ADVISER TO THE KING AND THE HETMAN

Adam Kysil decided not to inform the senators about the results of his talks; otherwise war would have been inevitable. Alone, in the presence of the chancellor and vice chancellor, Kysil spoke to the king. Kysil’s message to the Poles was unequivocal: Bohdan Khmelnytsky could not hold back the insurgents. The threat of an imminent civil war undermined Kysil’s health, and he took a long time to recover in Hoshcha, while the envoy Smiarnowski continued the talks with Khmelnytsky.

As we know, the Pereyaslav agreement was never implemented. However, the Polish king did enact one of its clauses by appointing an Orthodox believer, Adam Kysil, as governor of Kyiv. The fulfillment of the Zboriv agreement also placed a heavy burden on the new governor’s shoulders. He became the official negotiator between the government of the Rzeczpospolita and the Cossack Host, and a representative of the supreme Polish authority on Cossack territory. Khmelnytsky repeatedly sought advice from Adam Kysil at his Kyiv castle. There was complete understanding between the hetman and the envoys until the end of 1650, even though tensions persisted. The Polish gentry returned to their estates and severely punished peasant insurgents. Rebellions against Khmelnytsky erupted. In this complex situation Adam Kysil proved a capable adviser to both the Polish king and the Cossack hetman. In late 1649 Khmelnytsky planned to march against those commoners who had revolted against the truce with the Polish gentry. But Adam Kysil talked the hetman out of this, declaring that this would “result in a war, a war for faith, and recent horrible events are proof of where this could lead.” At the same time, Adam Kysil warned the King Jan Kazimierz of Poland that Bohdan Khmelnytsky was in league with the Horde, that the Ukrainian commoners hated the Polish gentry and were ready for war at any moment. It was Kysil who warned the king about the grave consequences that would ensue if the Zaporozhian Host fell under the protectorate of Moscow. That same year, 1650, Senator Kysil requested Jan Kazimierz to force the gentry to stop persecuting the Cossacks and peasants. As an afterthought, he added, “Here I risk my life, shouldering all the brunt; so let the nobles on the home front have mercy on me, that is, let them not take away from the peasants everything that they possess.”

To be continued in the next issue