Bohdan Khmelnytsky, hetman of Ukraine (died 1657)

Zynoviy Bohdan Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky of the Abdank coat of arms was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Zaporozhian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereiaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian protection. Khmelnytsky was compared to his contemporary, Oliver Cromwell. During the uprising, the Cossacks under his leadership massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews, one of the most traumatic events in Polish and Jewish history.