Cossack Hetmanate - Name

Name

The official name of the Cossack Hetmanate was Zaporizhian Host (Ukrainian: Військо Запорозьке, Viys’kо Zaporoz’kе). Its inhabitants referred to it in Ukrainian as "Ukraine" or "Vkraine". In Russian diplomatic correspondence it was called Little Russia (Ukrainian: Малоросія, Malorosia); in Polish, Ottoman, and Arab sources - as Ukraine or Cossakia. The historiographic term Hetmanate (Ukrainian: Гетьманщина, Het’manshchyna) was coined in the late 19th century.

The founder of the state Khmelnytsky declared himself as the ruler of the Rus' state to the Polish representative Adam Kysil in February 1649. He also called the Hetmanate as the Russian state (Ukrainian: Государство Російське, Hosudarstvo Rosiyske) in his letter to the Tsar on February 17, 1654. His contemporary Metropolitan Sylvestr Kosiv recognized him as the leader and the commander of our land. In his letter to C. Şerban (1657) he referred to himself as Clementiae divinae Generalis Dux Exercituum Zaporoviensium.