Chernaia Rada

Chernaia Rada 

a Ukrainian all-cossack rada (council) that met near the city of Nezhin on June 17–18 (27–28), 1663.

The Chernaia Rada was convoked in order to elect a hetmán of the Left-bank Ukraine after the Polish henchman P. Teteria had been elected hetmán of the Right-bank Ukraine. The name of the rada derives from the participation in it of not only cossacks but also the chern’ (peasants and urban lower classes). The starshina (cossack officials) nominated V. N. Zolotarenko and Ia. S. Somko for the position of hetmán, but the rank-and-file Zaporozh’e cossacks and the representatives of the peasants and urban poor elected I. M. Briukhovetskii. He was supported by the tsarist government and had made demagogic promises to lower taxes and to limit the seizure of land by the starshina.

The people’s dissatisfaction with the starshina during the elections culminated in the destruction of houses owned by merchants and members of the starshina in Nezhin and Pereiaslav. The new starshina leadership headed by Briukhovetskii, however, continued to oppress the popular masses. Popular uprisings resulted in the Left-bank Ukraine in 1666 and 1668 against the starshina and tsarist voevody (military governors).