Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, Republic of Three Nations) was a proposed European state in the 17th century that would have replaced the existing Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it was never actually formed.

Republic of Three Nations according to the 1658 proposal
19th-century design for a coat of arms of a proposed Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth, which never came into being. It consisted of the Polish White Eagle, the Lithuanian Pahonia and the Ruthenian Archangel Michael

The establishment of the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia was considered at various times, particularly during the 1648 Cossack insurrection, against Polish rule in the primarily-ethnically Ukrainian territories (see Khmelnytsky Uprising). Such a Ruthenian duchy, as proposed in the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach, would have been a full-fledged member of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which would thereby have become a tripartite Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth. In May 1659, the Polish Diet (Sejm) ratified the treaty with an amended text.[1] The plan, as envisioned by Yuri Nemyrych, would have ennobled a portion of the Cossacks, which would then run the Grand Principality of Rus' (1658). Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky could not get enough Cossacks agree to keeping the Uniate Church, which the Catholic church refused to liquidate, but many Cossacks were strongly against the idea.[2]

The idea of a Ruthenian Duchy within the Commonwealth was completely abandoned.[3] The Canadian historian Paul Robert Magosci believes that happened because of the divisions among the Cossacks and because of the Russian invasion.[4] However, those events were much earlier than the signing of the Treaty of Hadiach. The Russian historian Tairova-Yakovleva regards the resistance of Polish society and papal pressure as the reasons for the failure in ratification.

The idea of a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth revived during the January Uprising when a patriotic demonstration took place at Horodło in 1861. The so-called Second Union of Horodło was announced there by the szlachta of Congress Poland of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania of Volhynia and of Podolia. The New Commonwealth, based on the Second Union of Horodło, was to be based on the three nations, and its proposed coat of arms included the Polish eagle, the Lithuanian Pahonia, and the patron saint of Ruthenia, the Archangel Michael.

See also

References
  1. Władysław Konopczyński (1936). Dzieje Polski nowożytnej (A History of Modern Poland. Second edition, Warsaw 1986, p.27). ISBN 83-211-0730-3 : W izbach dużo było narzekania na to, że nowy układ łamie unię lubelską (...) Ostatecznie nad tymi rozczeniami, jak i nad protestem nuncjusza [Piotra Vidoniego] oraz biskupów, sejm przeszedł do porządku dziennego. 12 maja, w dzień Wniebowstąpienia, król, prymas i senat zaprzysięgli ugodę.
  2. Snyder, Timothy (2004-07-11). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Yale University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-300-10586-5.
  3. Т.Г. Таирова-Яковлева, Иван Выговский // Единорогъ. Материалы по военной истории Восточной Европы эпохи Средних веков и Раннего Нового времени, вып.1, М., 2009: Под влиянием польской общественности и сильного диктата Ватикана сейм в мае 1659 г. принял Гадячский договор в более чем урезанном виде. Идея Княжества Руського вообще была уничтожена, равно как и положение о сохранении союза с Москвой. Отменялась и ликвидация унии, равно как и целый ряд других позитивных статей.
  4. Paul Robert Magocsi (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp.221-225. ISBN 0-8020-0830-5
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