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LETTERS OF BOHDAN KHMEL'NYTS'KYI 221My work in Polish collections has yielded six hitherto unpublishedletters by Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi which provide new evidence anddata about the diplomatic intercourse between the Ukraine and thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 15(Only one, document 3, pp.225-226, was mentioned by Mytsyk.) This correspondence is veryvaluable because the diplomatic contacts in 1656-1657 have beeninadequately recorded and analyzed by both Ukrainian and Polishhistorians.The letters, all of which bear the signature of Bohdan Khmel'-nyts'kyi, are divisable into three types: two original autograph letters(nos. 5 and 6); one nineteenth-century copy of an original autographletter (no. 1); and three seventeenth-century copies (nos. 2, 3, and 4),which appear to be copies of copies rather than of the original letters.The texts of these six letters have been prepared in accordance withan Instruction 16of the Institute of History (Polish Academy of Sciences),which gives rules for the publication of historical sourcematerial in the Polish language for the period from 1500 to 1850.Brandon UniversityLETTERS OF BOHDAN KHMEL'NYTS'KYI*1. Letter to the Crown Hetmans and the CommissionersChyhyryn, 5 February 1656 [o.s.]While expressing anguish over the catastrophes encountered by his "Fatherland,"Khmel'nyts'kyi emphasizes that this woeful state of affairs has been caused not by theCossacks, but by certain prominent individuals who, blinded by hate, spared noeffort "to extirpate poor Ukraine, which was always a shield for the Polish Crown."15I wish to thank Professors Frank E. Sysyn (Harvard University), BohdanStruminsky (Harvard University), and Adam Kersten (Maria Curie-SkłodowskaUniversity of Lublin) for their help in preparing this source article for publication.16Kazimierz Lepszy, ed., Instrukcja wydawnicza dla źródeł historycznych odXVI do połowy XIX wieku (Wrocław, 1953).* See the appendix of abbreviations, p. 230.