The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was still unable to negotiate peace and satisfy Dmitri's demands. Dmitri, like me, had strong allegiance to the Orthodox faith, but Feliks and Toris were Roman Catholic and their policies towards the Orthodox shifted from tolerance to suppression. Eventually, the Polish king refused Dmitri's demand to expand the Cossack Registry and it was the last straw.
In the meantime, Dmitri was excited about his new state – the Cossack Hetmanate, founded by his new boss. He created a simple system where he could freely elect his bosses. His state was still very militaristic and thuggish in nature, but he considered it romantic.
"This is called democracy, Ivan, I feel like a pioneer!" yells Dmitri, swinging his sable back and forth, his blue eyes bright with excitement.
"You look more like a hooligan to me," I noted and I bet Feliks would have agreed with me on that, "but whatever you say. It's pretty remarkable that you are doing this all by yourself."
"You are simply jealous, you little brawny autocrat!" He sneered. "This is just the beginning."
With Sadik's help, his army's last military escapades were largely successful, which greatly weakened the union of Feliks and Toris. Dmitri was in preparations for his victory march.
"Hayda na Kiev!"[i] he yells again, raising a cloud of dust as he gallops on his horse.
Dmitri and his troops entered Kiev on Christmas 1648. Everyone hailed his boss as the liberator from the Polish captivity. He made it clear to Feliks that his state now stretched all the way to Lviv, Chelm and Halych. This was a period of Dmitri's glory, something he will continue to dream about centuries later. It was the first and possibly the last time he felt so marvelous.
But I knew Feliks was not going to give up so easily. He negotiated with Sadik behind Dmitri's back, when they later fought at Zbarazh, and brought the khan to the Polish side. Things were not going so smooth anymore. Feliks forced Dmitri to negotiate peace and they signed the treaty in Zboriv, which was not exactly what Dmitri had hoped for.
The chain of his misfortunes continued when Dmitri and Sadik were defeated in the battle of Beresteczko. Sneaky Feliks jumped out of nowhere and hit Sadik right on the head. The later panicked and fled the battlefield, leaving Dmitri on his own.
"Where are you going? Come back!" called out Dmitri seeing Sadik dashing off on his horse. "Are you no longer on my side?!.." he cried in disbelief. His face and arms were covered in blood and dirt, his shirt was long gone and his hip was pierced by an arrow. It was raining again, everything was in mud and it smelled like smoke and blood. He could hear the clatter of metal, explosions and screams. All that he had was the sable in his hand, also covered in blood. "I can't lose, I can't lose," he repeated his mantra as he fought, even though he knew he was surrounded and outnumbered and that he must retreat.
Sadik was not the only one who betrayed Dmitri at that point; I was indirectly guilty as well. I used my connections to negotiate with Feliks and facilitated the creation of the Russian-Polish alliance against Dmitri's Cossacks so that Dmitri was left without the support of his Crimean allies. This was probably another reason for Dmitri to come to me later and seek my protection.
"I never suspected you would simply sit there and watch your brother struggling," said Feliks with a grin on his face, "I thought you and him were close."
"We are. But he became too powerful, even for you Feliks. After all, my interests are also at stake here."
"You are so rational, Ivan. I almost admire you. I must confess, I am a little afraid of you now."
"And you should be." I replied with a smile.
It was 1654, we were in Pereyaslav. Dmitri and a few other Cossacks came to negotiate a new treaty with me.
He wore his usual old clothes, nothing fancy. He skeptically studied my long overcoat with golden embellishments.
"I see you are doing well," Dmitry passed his verdict.
"And you look fairly beat up," I remarked. "I promise to you, as soon as you come under my protectorate, it will get better."
"We'll see."
We finalized the treaty later in Moscow and the Zaporizhian Sich became a suzerainty of Muscovy. For many years to come my big brother will greatly regret this decision. "I have lost my independence to you on that day," he would declare years later. "But I thought I was choosing the lesser of the two evils".
But then I thought (and still continue to think) that he made the right choice. He did not fall entirely under my control and still retained most of his liberties. Well, he did initially. I was able to appreciate that his idea of a state was not that bad, but it was not something that suited my picture of the perfect family. Dmitri lived in the present, while I liked to plan ahead. I suspected that Dmitri would not be able to sustain this shaky realm of his for too long.
In the beginning, I thought that the Pereyaslav treaty will stop the madness that was evolving, but the chaos persisted with the Russo-Polish war. Feliks calculated his chances and decided to show to Dmitri that he was not entirely unreasonable. He offered him to sign another treaty and they met up in Hadiach.
Two blond heads bent down studying the old battered map. The shorter man pointed his finger to some markings and spoke in smug voice:
"How about this: here will be the new Duchy of Ruthenia, which will include your beloved Kiev. And your boss can rule there as he pleases, as long as he is confirmed by my king, of course."
"Hmm… not sure about that."
"Fine. I will admit your heretic priests to my Senate," continued Feliks.
"Still not sure…" Dmitri spoke wistfully, stroking his mustache.
"I will give your Cossack leaders noble titles."
"Really?... uh, what else?"
"I will enroll 20,000 of your Cossacks to the Registry!" that was the last concession Feliks wanted to make.
"40,000." insisted Dmitri.
"30,000!"
"Deal," Dmitri liked to bargain.
"But no other troops are allowed without given consent, do hear me? And also, you must return the land you confiscated from my szlachta."
"Now that is uncalled for. What's done is done," Dmitri shook his head.
"I'm being already very generous with you, don't you think? And I will totally forgive you all the past crimes you've committed against me."
"Those weren't crimes. I was fighting for my own rights!"
"Whatever. So will you sign this treaty or not?"
All possible demands and compromises were on the table and Dmitri had to decide.
"This is still too little, too late Feliks," he said, "… but I will sign."
They put their signatures and sealed the new arrangement. I think that if the Hadiach Treaty was executed as both of them hoped, everything would have been different and Dmitri would have continued his existence in confederation with Feliks and Toris. Which meant I would have been precluded from seeing him often and perhaps we would have become strangers to each other eventually. I hated the idea of losing my connection to him. He was my brother and I felt that I was the only one who genuinely cared about him. Even then, I believed that we were destined to live together and this treaty represented a threat to my ideals. So I used all my powers to bring Dmitri under my sphere of influence.
But at that time, Feliks continued to hold his paws on the Right-bank Ukraine, while the Left-bank was now part of my Tsardom.[ii]
"Great. You and Feliks simply split me up in half. Well played, Ivan. Well played." The steppe was quiet at night, even crickets were asleep it seemed. The wind died out and only slight crackle of firewood disrupted the silence. Dmitri was smoking his pipe, thinking.
"It's not too late, you can go back to Feliks and form a wholesome union with him again," I said.
"No, even though Feliks has made some compromises lately, I don't think he is being entirely sincere. I still don't trust him."
"Do you trust me then?" I asked.
"I… maybe. You are my brother after all, so I trust you more. That's why I want you to be more assertive with Feliks."
"Like how? Do you want me to simply go to his house and knock him over?" I suggested jokingly.
"No, but you could at least try. I suppose you don't hate the Commonwealth as much as I do, but don't you want to get our lands back? They still got Nicolai, you know," he puffed out a cloud of smoke.
"And you still remain the same scheming git as before: do you expect me to go there, seize all the former Kievan Rus principalities and serve them to you on a plate?"
"That would have been nice. But isn't it exactly the same thing you'd expect from me? Further, I know that once you establish yourself on those lands, you will never give the Kievan Rus heritage to me. But you see, I'm not the greedy type, all I want is recognition," he pretended to be modest again.
"Dmitri, I cannot wage wars non-stop – that is you prerogative. You always get yourself in trouble; and this time, just look what you got yourself into."
"…right into the arms of my dear brother," he smiled. "You know, I still can't figure out whether you are the angel and or the devil himself."
"I'm a bit of both."
[i] "Lets go to Kiev!" (Ukr).
[ii] the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547.