Cossack Rada

Last Rada on Sich, Viktor Kovaliov, the mid 19th century

Cossack Rada (Ukrainian: козацька рада, romanized: kozatska rada) or General Military Council was a general Cossack assembly (council) often military in nature.

Originally established at the Zaporizhian Sich, the rada (council) was an institution of Cossack administration in Ukraine from the 16th to the 18th century. With the establishment of the Hetman state in 1648, it was officially known as the General Military Council until 1750.

One of the most famous of those councils was the Chorna rada of 1663, described in the novel Black Council by Panteleimon Kulish. At that council the Hetmanate faction of Khmelnytsky were deposed from the government and replaced by Ivan Briukhovetsky, the first hetman who became the Russian boyar.

List of General Cossack Councils

• 1648 (Sich): election of Bohdan Khmelnytsky as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host
• 1654 (Pereiaslav): adaptation of the Treaty of Pereiaslav
• 1657 (Korsun): adaptation of the Treaty of Korsun, confirmation of Ivan Vyhovsky as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host
• 1659 (Hermanivka)
• 1663 (Nizhyn): election of Ivan Bryukhovetsky as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host
• 1669 (Korsun)
• 1669 (Hlukhiv)
• 1669 (Uman), council of the three regiments
• 1684 (Mohyliv-Podilskyi)

See also

• Black Council
• Sich Rada

External links

• Cossack Council Archived 2008-12-30 at the Wayback Machine at the Dictionary on the History of Ukraine
• General Military Council at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine