What If Hmyelnitzki Fails?

Dirk

Banned
So I've really been getting into the great novel With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz, and I thought, what if Hmyelnitzki's Uprising fails, or doesn't even get off the ground?

This can happen due to a number of reasons. Hmyelnitzki himself, a genius general and leader of men, could simply die, or never exist; though the social and cultural conditions in the Ukraine would still be ripe for rebellion, it would simply be "more of the same", with Commonwealth armies utterly devastating Cossack forces as soon as they got near Cherkasy.

Another POD is Hetman Stefan Potocki falling back at Zhovti Vody and waiting for the tens of thousands of men commanded by his father the Grand Hetman, and for the extensive forces of the great landlords most affected (the legendary Jeremi Wisniowiecki comes to mind). These great lords and the amount of ethnic Poles in the army would then possibly keep the greater part of the Commonwealth Cossacks in check (preventing them from deserting to Hmyelnitzki and swelling his ranks), and then this army together could squash the rebellion like a beetle. Much can be made propaganda-wise of Hmyelnitzki's invitation to the (Muslim) Tatars to join him and take Christian slaves as payment for his aid.
 
So I've really been getting into the great novel With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz, and I thought, what if Hmyelnitzki's Uprising fails, or doesn't even get off the ground?

This can happen due to a number of reasons. Hmyelnitzki himself, a genius general and leader of men, could simply die, or never exist; though the social and cultural conditions in the Ukraine would still be ripe for rebellion, it would simply be "more of the same", with Commonwealth armies utterly devastating Cossack forces as soon as they got near Cherkasy.

Another POD is Hetman Stefan Potocki falling back at Zhovti Vody and waiting for the tens of thousands of men commanded by his father the Grand Hetman, and for the extensive forces of the great landlords most affected (the legendary Jeremi Wisniowiecki comes to mind). These great lords and the amount of ethnic Poles in the army would then possibly keep the greater part of the Commonwealth Cossacks in check (preventing them from deserting to Hmyelnitzki and swelling his ranks), and then this army together could squash the rebellion like a beetle. Much can be made propaganda-wise of Hmyelnitzki's invitation to the (Muslim) Tatars to join him and take Christian slaves as payment for his aid.

If it fails, it might butterfly the Jewish pogroms associated with it. As much as a quarter of the Jewish population of the region were killed. Roman Catholics were also specifically targeted.
 
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