Class 11. Ottoman Retreat, Ukrainian Populism (3)
And one of the problems was that the Austrians
could not tell the difference between the Poles
and the Crimean Tatars.
They literally could not tell the difference.
And so, because in dress and attire and also in tactics,
they were very similar.
And the Crimean Tatars, of course, oh, I didn't say this,
but the Crimean Tatars were there in 1683
on the Ottoman side, right?
On the Ottoman side.
So these Poles, Pol Lithuanians and Crimean Tatars,
who've been fighting on their own border for a long time,
are now fighting in somebody else's border.
Like if you imagine Crimean Tatars, 10,000 of them
in and around Vienna, fighting the Polish army
coming down from the mountain, right?
And the Viennese cannot tell the Poles,
cannot tell the Lithuanians from the Crimean Tatars, right?
Because of the hairstyles, because of the scimitars, right?
Because of the calvary, they cannot tell the difference.
And so the decision that was made was that the Poles
are going to put a bit of straw in their helmets.
You know, the way modern armies will have a color
on their sleeves or whatever.
Like the Ukrainians and the Russians today,
the Poles will put a bit of straw in their helmets,
so that the Austrians could tell who they were.
So it's an anecdote, it's funny,
but it reveals something which is deeply true,
which is that this long, centuries long encounter
between the Lithuanians and the Tatars,
and then the Poles and Lithuanians and the Tatars,
mark them just as it marks the Cossacks, right?
The Viennese, of course couldn't tell the Cossacks
from the Tatars, right?
That goes without saying,
because the interaction between
the Cossacks and the Tatars
has been even more intimate for even longer,
because the Cossacks are precisely the people
who found that free spot between Polish Lithuanian power
and the Crimean Tatars and lived in that spot,
lived in it geographically, lived in it culturally.
Okay, so the 1683 victory is most important for us
because it leads to 1699.
If we're off in central European history,
1683 is the moment when the Austrians turn the tables
on the Ottomans.
And not only do they defend themselves in Vienna,
but between 1683 and 1699,
they fight their way southward through the Balkans,
and they establish themselves as a land power
in the Balkans, which is the beginning of the story,
which will eventually lead to the First World War,
different class.
But for our point of view,
when the Ottomans have to sign a peace tree in 1699,
which by the way is the first time they have to sign
a peace treaty as a defeated power,
when they have to sign a peace treaty in 1699,
that changes the balance of power
in our part of the world, right?
The Ottomans have been defeated,
their armies have been defeated in Southern Europe.
The treaty which is signed
is the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz,
that's the time when the Ottomans sign a treaty
as a defeated power.
Hugely important turning point in the balance of power,
because as I said, the Crimean Tatars
they're now basically hitched to the Ottomans.
They're hitched to the Ottomans at a moment
when the Ottomans then lose this big important war.
And Ottoman power has been driven southward, okay?
Now that changes everything.
That changes everything for the Russians
as we're gonna see in a moment.
Okay, now, before I get to the Russians,
we've gotta briefly talk about Cossacks,
the Ukrainian Cossack state.
So the Ukrainian Cossack state
gets blurred out of Polish history,
gets blurred out of Russian history.
We have 1648, which everyone is keen to treat as a violent,
you know, moment of violent rebellion,
which of course it was,
but that's not the only thing that it was,
it was also the construction of a new political order
in which the governing elite has been driven away
or physically eliminated or discredited, right?
So it's also something like a revolution
in which a new class emerges to control territory,
which are the Cossacks and the Cossack officers.
Now, these Cossacks and Cossack officers, however,
are not in the position after 1648
to rule territory themselves.
They are constantly forced to align with the Russians
as in 1648, sometimes still with the Poles,
sometimes with the Ottomans,
which is why this lecture is called "The Triangle".
There is something like Ukrainian statehood,
it's called the Hetmanate, after the Hetman.
But the Hetmanate is constantly bending and turning
and being turned against itself, right?
So you have right bank Hetmans, you have left bank Hetmans,
you have Hetmans who are trying to rule both
the right wing and the left wing.
You have a Hetman called Doroshenko,
who I hope I put on the list, tell me if I didn't.
But Doroshenko in 1669 becomes a vessel of the Ottomans
in order to try to unite the right bank
and the left bank where the right bank is controlled by
the Russians, the left bank is controlled by the Poles.
So if you're a Hetman, your great project
is to bring these things together
and then ideally to shove everybody else out.
But that they're not able to do.
So, okay, this is another date and treaty.
So I'm gonna tell you right off,
if you're paying attention, you're right here with me,
these dates and these treaties are gonna be on the exam,
all right?
They're gonna be on the exam,
know the dates of the treaties.
So the Treaty of Andrusova, 1667,
that is when the Poles and the Russians,
lots of inspired note taking now.
That's when the Poles and the Russians divide Ukraine,
left bank and right bank, 1667 Treaty of Andrusova.
Which means that now you have Hetmans,
you have leaders of the Cossacks on both sides, right?
And of course, if you're on one side,
your greatest aspiration is to be also on the other side.
And then your next aspiration
is then to get clear of whoever was sponsoring you,
whether that's the Russians or the Poles or the Ottomans.
That's the triangle.
You wanna bring it all together.
And then you wanna drive out whoever sponsored you.
They don't manage to do this, but that's the pattern.
So 1672, Doroshenko helps the Ottomans
to defeat the Poles in Podolia, okay?
Podolia is this region in South Western Ukraine.
And then after that happens,
so the Ottomans then control Podolia, which I'm gonna,
you guys write down Podolia, please, just like it sounds.
They control Podolia and then at the end of the 1670s,
the Ottomans make peace with Poland.
In 1681, you're gonna see how this fits together,
in 1681, the Ottomans make peace with the Russians, okay?
So now the Ottomans are at peace with the Poles
and the Russians, it's 1681, what do they then do?
They make their big move northwards to Vienna
and fail, right?
So important.
Their move is to go to Vienna and they fail.
Okay and so then everything turns around.
After 1683, the Ottomans are driven south.
The Crimeans have been defeated.
The Crimean Khan, by the way,
takes personal responsibility for the defeat and retires.
And in 1699, the Poles take Podolia back.
The Poles take Podolia back.
And the reason why,
there are many reasons why we're concerned about this,
but one of the reasons why we're so interested in Podolia
is because of the way that Brooklyn looks like now,
so have you heard of the Hasidism, right?
So it's a version of Jewish orthodoxy.
It's present on Yale's campus.
You don't have to look too hard to find it.
So, okay, I gotta stop myself, that was a tangent.
See, in the 18th century, you have no time for tangents.
That's what the 18th century is like.
So no tangents, but Hasidism,
which is a version of Orthodox Judaism,
which is still let's say thriving.
It's one of the reasons why Yiddish still exists
as a language is created in Podolia
after the Poles come back.
And the reason why,
I'll tell you what Hasidism is in a moment very briefly,
but the reason why it arises
is that it's in this territory which has shifted
from Muslim Ottoman control back and forth to
Polish Christian control.
And this whole Polish system of coming in
with the aristocracy and the serfdom,
and then going back out with the aristocracy
and the serfdom,
then coming back in with the aristocracy and the serfdom,
is very disruptive for the Ukrainians who rebel against it.
And in this whole boiling atmosphere in Podolia
is what gives rise to Hasidism.
Where Hasidism is created by someone who's called the Besht.
Besht means the Ba'al Shem Tov, the Master of the Good Word.
Very briefly, the idea of Hasidism is to give to Judaism
a kind of a more earthly and more corporeal component
where joy and direct contact with the mystic
are more important.
It's also a movement which has to do with the printing press
and access to the book by people who are not necessarily
completely literate.
Which let's admit, like not everybody is completely,
you know, there's a funny moment, right?
'Cause the printing press runs ahead of literacy
by several hundred years, right?
Kind of like the internet now, you know, like
the technology is way out ahead of what people,
it's a good analogy actually.
Because what people did with books
when they're first published, they did things like,
oh look, I know that letter.
Maybe it stands for something.
And that's kabbala.
That's one way of reading the Bible, right?
Is you don't, like, you take various combinations of letters
and you say, okay there's a hidden meaning
in this biblical verse, right?
That's a way of interpreting the Bible,
a much more accessible way,
which is associated with Hasidism precisely.
So it also has to do with printing press
at a time of limited literacy.
So the reason why I mention this is because
it's the next step in the history of Jews in Ukraine,
Hasidism.
And Hasidism is also a version of Orthodox Judaism,
which is going to break out of Podolia and into Ukraine
and into Poland and eventually into North America.
Okay, so no time for tangents.
There was time for a parenthesis on the Hassids.
Now I'm closing that parenthesis
and we're getting back to where we need to be,
which is Russia.
Okay, so now let's think about all this
from the point of view of Russia.
What the Russians are able to do,
what the new Russian empire, as it's called from 1721.
And by the way, Russian Empire is a conscious
rebranding exercise, right?
It's called Russia because of Russ,
not the other way around, right?
I mean, I realize you're history students,
so you know that like chronology is very important.
So Russia is called Russia because it's named after Russ.
Russ was not called Russ because it was named after Russia.
And once you get that straight,
a lot of other things fall into place.
Okay, so in the 18th century, Russia makes its move
back into Europe with tremendous success
under two great rulers, Peter and Catherine.
So how does this happen?
The Ottomans are down, right?
They're defeated and they're in the south.
Between 1683 and 1699, they're being driven southward
and Russia takes advantage of this by going north,
going to the Baltic again.
We saw how Ivan the Terrible
foundered on the shores of the Baltic,
he starts the Livonian wars,
which he basically loses the Livonian wars,
bring the Poles and Lithuanians closer together,
Union of Lublin, all of that.
And then there's terror inside the Muscovite state.
This time, the move to the Baltic succeeds.
The great northern war that begins in 1700,
which is only one year after 1699, by no coincidence,
the Great Northern War which begins in 1700,
it turns out to be a Russian victory.
But this great northern war turns out to be Russian victory,