HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

218 Α. Β. PERNALresponsible for almost every heinous act within the boundaries of thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moreover, they believed that this"Zaporozhian Machiavelli" 2intended to tear to shreds the sociopoliticalfabric not only of the Polish-Lithuanian state, but also ofEurope as a whole. They pointed out that his evil example was beingfollowed by another rebel — Oliver Cromwell. 3These two extreme positions persisted in Ukrainian, Polish, andRussian historiography for over two and a half centuries after Khmel'-nyts'kyi's death. Only after reason and objective scholarship overcamepassion and hyper-nationalism 4 did his countenance change considerably,revealing an individual who possessed exceptional diplomatic,military, and political talents, as well as a leader who played a decisiverole in the history of Eastern Europe.In their search for truth historians require a solid base of sources.They regard the publication of properly edited primary sources as amatter of great importance. Thus, in 1961 historians and other scholarswhose interests center on the seventeenth-century Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth, Russia, and the Ukraine were elated over a newpublication containing primary sources on the activities of BohdanKhmel'nyts'kyi.The documents in this source book are arranged chronologically andcover the last ten years of Khmel'nyts'kyi's life. They comprise diversifiedmaterial: official correspondence, instructions to envoys, manifestoes(universaly), orders to military units, petitions, and the like.Before the book appeared in print, most of the documents werescattered in some one hundred publications, and the remainder layburied in the manuscript collections of archives and libraries of severalEuropean countries. The difficult tasks of locating, classifying, translating(into Ukrainian), and editing the material were undertaken bycego własnością Ludwika hr. Morsztyna (vol. 2 of Zabytki z dziejów, oświaty isztuk pięknych; hereafter cited as Księga pamiętnicza), ed. Antoni ZygmuntHelcel (Cracow, 1864), p. 377.2Teodor Michał Obuchowicz, chamberlain of Mazyr, to unnamed, Taikury25 May 1649: ibid., p. 396.3Instructions to Medeksza, camp near Średnik, 1 August 1657: Stefan FranciszekMedeksza, Stefana Franciszka z Prószcza Medekszy, sekretarza Jana Kazimierza,sędziego ziemskiego koweńskiego, księga pamiętnicza wydarzeń zaszłychna Litwie 1654-1668 (vol. 3 of Scriptores Rerum Polonicarum), ed. WładysławSeredyński (Cracow, 1875), p. 158.4Due in large measure to the work of Ludwik Kubala (1838-1918) and MykhailoHrushevs'kyi (1866-1934).