Editing Bohdan Khmelnytsky (section)

==Final years==
As a result of the 1654 [[Treaty of Pereiaslav]], the geopolitical map of the region changed. Russia entered the scene, and the Cossacks' former allies, the Tatars, had switched sides and gone over to the Polish side, initiating warfare against Khmelnytsky and his forces. [[Tatar invasions|Tatar raids]] depopulated whole areas of Sich. Cossacks, aided by the Tsar's army, took revenge on Polish possessions in [[Belarus]], and in the spring of 1654, the Cossacks drove the Poles from much of the country. Sweden entered the mêlée. Old adversaries of both Poland and Russia, they occupied a share of Lithuania before the Russians could get there.

The occupation displeased Russia because the tsar sought to take over the Swedish Baltic provinces. In 1656, with the Commonwealth increasingly war-torn but also increasingly hostile and successful against the Swedes, the ruler of [[Transylvania]], [[George II Rákóczi]], also joined in. [[Charles X of Sweden]] had solicited his help because of the massive Polish popular opposition and resistance against the Swedes. Under blows from all sides, the Commonwealth barely survived.

[[File:Subotiv Ukraine.png|thumb|left|Church of [[Subotiv]], [[Ukraine]], where Khmelnytsky was buried]]
Russia attacked Sweden in July 1656, while its forces were deeply involved in Poland. That war ended in status quo two years later, but it complicated matters for Khmelnytsky, as his ally was now fighting his overlord. In addition to diplomatic tensions between the tsar and Khmelnytsky, a number of other disagreements between the two surfaced. In particular, they concerned Russian officials' interference in the finances of the [[Cossack Hetmanate]] and in the newly captured Belarus. The tsar concluded a separate treaty with the Poles in [[Vilnius]] in 1656. The Hetman's emissaries were not even allowed to attend the negotiations.

Khmelnytsky wrote an irate letter to the tsar accusing him of breaking the Pereiaslav agreement. He compared the Swedes to the tsar and said that the former were more honourable and trustworthy than the Russians.<ref name = "Subtelny" />

In Poland, the Cossack army and Transylvanian allies suffered a number of setbacks. As a result, Khmelnytsky had to deal with a Cossack rebellion on the home front. Troubling news also came from Crimea, as Tatars, in alliance with Poland, were preparing for a new [[invasion]] of Ukraine. Though already ill, Khmelnytsky continued to conduct diplomatic activity, at one point even receiving the tsar's envoys from his bed.<ref name="SS591">V. A. Smoliy, V. S. Stepankov. ''Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Sotsialno-politychnyi portret.'' page 591. Lebid. Kyiv. 1995.</ref>
[[File:Monument dedicated to Bogdan Khmelnytsky.jpg|thumb|Monument dedicated to Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv, Ukraine. The authors are [[Boris Krylov]] and Oles Sydoruk.]]
On 22 July, he suffered a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] and became paralysed after his audience with the Kiev Colonel Zhdanovich. His expedition to [[Halychyna]] had failed because of mutiny within his army.<ref>[[Mykhailo Hrushevsky|Hrushevsky, M.]] ''Illustrated History of Ukraine''. "BAO". Donetsk, 2003. {{ISBN|966-548-571-7}} page 330</ref> Less than a week later, Bohdan Khmelnytsky died at 5 a.m. on 27 July 1657. His funeral was held on 23 August, and his body was taken from his capital, Chyhyryn, to his estate, at Subotiv, for burial in his ancestral church. In 1664 a Polish hetman [[Stefan Czarniecki]] recaptured Subotiv and, according to some Ukrainian historians, ordered the bodies of the hetman and his son, [[Tymofiy Khmelnytsky|Tymish]], to be exhumed and desecrated, while others claim that is not the case.<ref>Some Ukrainian historians dispute that his grave was desecrated. In 1973, an expedition investigated the site of the church and discovered remains of people, not found before.</ref>