Paper highlights Peace Treaty of Zboriv (10/05/97)

Paper highlights Peace Treaty of Zboriv

AKRON, Ohio - When the Thirty Years War was winding down in 1648, in Ukraine the Kozaks rebelled and rose up against the Kingdom of Poland. This insurrection was an extraordinary event that had no parallel in the rest of Europe at that time, except in Holland against Spain (1568-1648), although it was not on the same level and took place under different circumstances.

The Kozak insurrection aroused a great deal of interest in Europe. It was somewhat of a sensation, especially since the Kozaks together with the "infidel" Moslem, Christian enemy No. 1, were fighting against the Christian king of Poland. This insurrection was reported in the contemporary European press. For the most part it was reported in Germany, where the press was very well organized and informed about events in Ukraine in 1648-1649 by the German officers in the Polish service.

The German newspapers had correspondents who regularly reported from cities such as Danzig (Gdansk), Koenigsberg, Lviv (Lemberg), Stettin (Szczecin) and Warsaw. In general, the German newspapers, being well informed, were used as a source of information for many contemporary foreign newspapers and magazines. It was practice at that time for publishers to simply copy the news from other publications.

The Kozak insurrection was also reported in England. Of course, the 17th century newspaper cannot be compared with the newspaper of today. The form of the newspaper of that time reminds us more of a book than of a modern newspaper. The newspapers were licensed and appeared with such notices as "by order," "by authority," "cum privilegio," "with license." Furthermore, the English press was under severe censorship, which was even more increased in the time of King Charles I (1625-1649). No wonder that the English newspapers of the time, according to Lord Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859), omitted domestic affairs, except for some unimportant events at home, preferring to publish news about foreign affairs. This was another reason why such London newspapers as The Public Intelligencer, The Mercurius Politicus, The Moderate Intelligencer and A Briefe Relation of Some Affaires reported regularly about the Kozak revolt in the Kingdom of Poland.

Concerning this Kozak insurrection under the leadership of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Dr. Theodore Mackiw, professor-emeritus of the University of Akron gave a paper "Peace Treaty of Zboriv in the English Press of 1649" on May 12, at the East European Section of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, Poland.

For more information about this paper, please write to: Theodore Mackiw, Professor Emeritus, The University of Akron, Department of Modern Languages, Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, Akron, OH, 44325-1907.

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