One of the chief events of his reign was the incorporation of the Ukraine and the country of the Cossacks with Russia. This addition to his dominions came about indirectly through the condition of anarchy which existed in Poland. A long struggle had been going on for the possession of South Russia, between the Khan of the Crimea, the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Poland, with the result that the region was in constant distress and turmoil over the warring forces.
Finally the Christians appealed to the Czar as the head of the Orthodox Church and he, finding an excuse to break the peace with Poland, in 1654, solemnly announced that he had decided to march in person against his enemy. He commanded that in this campaign no occasion should be given for the generals to dispute for precedence. He conducted the war with such humanity, and so well timed the deliverance, that these circumstances greatly contributed to Muscovite success.
Many towns of White Russia opened their gates to him, Smolensk alone resisting, but at the end of five weeks made an easy capitulation. Wilna, Grodno and Kodno fell successively, and the Muscovites invaded Southern Poland and took Lublin.
All the East resounded with the Russian victories, and Wallachia and Moldavia implored Alexis to take them under his protection. Poland was pressed on every hand, and Charles X, King of Sweden, arrived and captured Posen, Warsaw and Krakow.
The Swedish monarch, swelled with ambition, even threatened the Russian conquests and claimed Lithuania. The Czar feared that he had only shaken Poland to strengthen Sweden, and hastened to negotiate with the Poles who promised to elect him after the death of their present king. Then he turned his arms against Sweden and attacked the Baltic provinces. After some preliminary successes, however, the campaign languished, and Alexis made a truce which finally resulted in the peace of Cardis in 1651, by means of which Russia abandoned Livonia.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
