Great Cossack Uprising

By: Chmiel, Chris

Great Cossack Uprising

Introduction to the story

At the tender age of sixteen, Zygmunt Klementz convinces his father to take him, as part of a banner of hussars, to the wars. An uprising has occurred in a remote part of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. Zygmunt is part of the small Royal Army sent to defeat the rebels, restore order and bring peace to the region.
There had been several uprisings by Cossacks in the past and they had been easily crushed.
This uprising has been instigated by a Cossack named Bohdan Chmielnicki, branded an outlaw by the southern Polish magnates and a price has been placed on his head.
Bohdan had fought side by side with Zygmunt's father in the Polish Royal Army against the Muscowites, the Crimean Tartars and the Ottomans. Bohdan endured capture by the Ottomans and spent several years in captivity awaiting ransom. He served his country faithfully as was expected of the landed gentry.
Returning to his home, Bohdan finds he has no option but to rebel against the injustices inflicted upon him and his fellow Cossacks by the magnate Aleksander Koniecpolski and others. He appeals to the king for justice and the king rules in his favour. But the lawless magnates ignore the ruling and the persecutions continued.
Bohdan is determined to unite the Cossacks against their oppressors and throw off the yoke of servitude. With the assistance of the Crimean Tartars he is about to launch the Great Cossack Uprising, the likes of which the Commonwealth has never seen before.
Zygmunt finds himself as part of a small army, shrunken by treachery and desertions, fighting for his very life against a much more numerous foe determined to gain their freedom and create their own state, their own Ukraina.
The story follows the ongoing struggles of the Cossacks in the mid seventeenth century to become a third state in a possible expanded Commonwealth of Three Nations, or failing that, a state, independent of the Commonwealth, but as a fiefdom of either Muscowy or the Ottoman Empire.

Genre
I classify this story as historical faction genre rather than the more conventional historical fiction. The events as depicted in the story are based on written historical event and the characters were the people involved in those events. I have tried to depicted the characters as closely as I can to their historic persona.

Audience
This story, and the subsequent ones in the series, are likely to appeal to: Historical Fiction and Faction enthusiastsAction, drama and warfare readersHistory, including Central European, buffsPolish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian diaspora who enjoy stories of the land of the forebearsAnyone who is interested in the political, social and freedom struggle of people seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DHX58ZLZ
• ISBN13: 9798336229912
• Release Date: September 2024
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 552 Pages
• Weight: 1.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"