The Batoh (Batih) massacre (Polish: ''Rzeź polskich jeńców pod Batohem'') was a

mass execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

captives after the Battle of Batih on near Ladyzhyn (now in Ukraine). It was carried out by

Ukrainian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...

under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Initially the captured Polish soldiers belonged to the Cossacks' allies, the

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

. After the battle, the Cossacks paid the Tatars for possession of the prisoners, and promptly slaughtered the Polish captives to avenge Khmelnystsky's defeat at

Berestechko Berestechko ( uk, Берестечко) is a town in Lutsk Raion, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. It is located on the Styr River. Population: History Berestechko received Magdeburg rights in 1547. Around the same era, Socinian communities were activ ...

in June 1651. According to Jasienica, it was the Cossack colonels Ivan Zolotaryenko and Ivan Vysochin who bought them from the Tatars. According to Widacka, Cossack's commander Khmelnystsky himself contributed 50,000 thalers for that purpose. According to Gruševskij, Pasicznyk, Duda and Sikora, the decision to execute the prisoners was made by Khmelnytsky himself. Afterward, between 3,000 and 5,000 elite Polish soldiers and officers, including 3,500 members of '' szlachta'', were tied up and massacred in two days of methodical beheadings and disembowelments. Zolotaryenko supervised the executions yelling "Revenge for Berestechko!", a reference to an earlier Cossack defeat at the hands of the Poles in the

Battle of Berestechko The Battle of Berestechko ( pl, Bitwa pod Beresteczkiem; uk, Берестецька битва, Битва під Берестечком) was fought between the Ukrainian Cossacks, led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, aided by their Crimean Ta ...

. The number of survivors of the

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

is unknown. "Bitwa pod Batohem" at Kurier Galicyjski.com
4 June 2012 The methodical executions were so barbaric that even the Crimean leaders were horrified, not to mention international observers such as German historian

Hiob Ludolf Hiob or Job Ludolf ( la, Iobus Ludolfus or '; 15 June 1624– 8 April 1704), also known as Job Leutholf, was a German orientalist, born at Erfurt. Edward Ullendorff rates Ludolf as having "the most illustrious name in Ethiopic scholarship". L ...

(president of the Collegium Imperiale Historicum), who illustrated the murder in his nominal ''Allgemeine Schau-Bühne der Welt'' published in 1713 in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Only a few Poles survived, hidden by Tatar supporters, including Krzysztof Grodzicki and probably

Stefan Czarniecki Stefan Czarniecki (Polish: of the Łodzia coat of arms, 1599 – 16 February 1665) was a Polish nobleman, general and military commander. In his career, he rose from a petty nobleman to a magnate holding one of the highest offices in the Com ...

(whether Czarniecki was one of the captured is unclear). The crime committed against so many disarmed prisoners had severe and long-lasting consequences for the history of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

and for

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In the short term, it led the Polish-Lithuanian

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

of 1652 to approve taxes for the purposes of raising new armies.

References

Bibliography

* Wojciech Jacek Długołęcki: ''Batoh 1652. Warszawa'': Bellona, 2008, seria: HB. . * Tomasz Ciesielski: ''Od Batohu do Żwańca. Wojna na Ukrainie i w księstwach naddunajskich 1652-1653''. Warszawa: „Inforteditions”, 2008. . {{coord missing, Ukraine Khmelnytsky Uprising Anti-Polish sentiment in Europe 1650s in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Poland–Ukraine military relations Massacres in Ukraine Military scandals 1652 in Europe Massacres in 1652