Aleksey, not Peter

Last week's "Journalist's Notebook" contained a factual mistake, which was pointed out by a loyal reader of The Weekly, R.L. Chomiak.

The events surrounding the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1654 concern a fateful alliance of the hetman state under Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Muscovy's Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovych, not Peter the Great as erroneously stated in last week's column.

According to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, the treaty was negotiated between Hetman Khmelnytsky and his General Military Council on one side and Muscovite envoys led by Vasiliy Buturlin on the other.

The encyclopedia notes that the treaty consisted of two main documents, including the tsar's patent to the Zaporizhzhian Host and 11 articles concerning military, political and technical details. The original documents have not been preserved, but translations and drafts of the tsar's patents have survived.

Orest Subtelny, in his book, "Ukraine: A History," points out that the interpretation of the treaty has been the subject of frequent debate among scholars and notes that at least five major interpretations of the Pereyaslav agreement do exist. What is clear, however, is that a radical restructuring of political alliances in the region was an immediate result of the agreement.

- Marta Kolomayets

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 17, 1996, No. 11, Vol. LXIV

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