O listach Bohdana Chmielnickiego

Abstract

The study deals with several hundred letters of Bohdan Chmielnicki from the years 1648-1657. They come from the most active period of the Hetman of the Zaporozhye army and they both testify to his excellent diplomatic sense as the chief of Zaporozhye, and they arc a source enabling researchers to reconstruct his outlook on life, system of values, manner of exercising power and conducting foreign affairs. The preserved letters are in Polish, Russian and Latin. The exchange with Polish officials was conducted exclusively in Polish, which clearly indicates the Cossack’s close links with Polish culture. Although the letters are not markedly artistic in their style, they expose Chmielnicki as the author conversant with the convention of ars epistolandi. Thus paradoxically, the Polish language of majority of the great chiefs letters allows for their author’s inclusion in the group of Old Polish authors.