UKRAINIAN COSSACKS IN THE BATTLE OF TSETSORA AND THE KHOTYN WAR IN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF JÓZEF SZUJSKI

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze and highlight the views of the prominent Polish historian, one of the founders of the Krakow historical school, Jozef Szujski, on the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks at the beginning of the seventeenth century, expressed in the second volume of «The History of Poland in Recent Studies», published in 1862, as well the perception of Tsetsora and Khotyn events, published in an article under the same name, printed in 1877. The main task of the author is to determine how Jozef Szujski estimated the importance of the Ukrainian Cossacks for the historical development of the Commonwealth at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and how he assessed and described the events under Tsetsora in 1620 and Khotin in 1621, which place was assigned to the Ukrainian Cossacks and their prominent representative – Hetman P. Konashevich-Sagaidachny. The methodology of the research is based on the general scientific principles of systematicity, reliability, historicism, logic. Biographical, comparative-historical, and comparative-textual methods were used for profound analysis of the scholar's scientific work. The scientific novelty of the research is that for the first time the scientific work of the outstanding representative of the Krakow School of History, Jozef Szujski, was analyzed for the first time through the prism of his views on the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks from 1619 to 1621 and in the general context of the history of the Commonwealth. The specificity of the Cossack perception as well as its reflection in the synthetic and specialized work of the scientist is highlighted. Conclusions. The analysis of «History of Poland ...» suggests that Jozef Szujski concentrated, first of all, on the socio-political side of historical events, which is characteristic of the Krakow historical school, but, unlike M. Bobzhinsky, he devoted considerable attention to military aspects of history and the Commonwealth. It was important for the historian to comprehensively describe the history of his own state through the prism of international relations, internal social-political processes and military actions as the agents of these processes. On the one hand, the Cossacks received a negative assessment due to unlawful, unauthorized military actions that damaged diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire in a difficult time for the Commonwealth. On the other hand, the historian noted the assistance of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the defense of the Commonwealth, although he emphasized on the negative features and the disastrous consequences of their assistance to the state, which is particularly clearly reflected in the course of the battle at Khotyn. An analysis of the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the events of the Tsetsora battle and Khotyn War in the brochure under the same name makes it possible to state that Jozef Szujski paid much less attention to this issue, comparing it with the «History of Poland ...», his statements were more carefull, without expressing controversial remarks regarding their role and significance in the battle, he added new small details related to the Cossack subject and made new judgments. However, information on Cossack topics in general, unfortunately, is not enough. One can assume that the interpretation of events by Jozef Szujski changed, first of all, given the patriotic and educational purpose of this work, the new socio-political processes in the Krakow historical environment, and the final departure of the historian from the romantic views of J. Levelel, which took place in the 70-ies of the 19th century.