Talk:Battle of Konotop/proposals

Setting up a page to discuss proposals, so we can leave the main page alone (it may be protected soon anyway). Lets just assume that reverts are always counterproductive. If someone changes something to a proposal text you don't agree with, don't revert it, but change it in a way that gives a little to both sides. It may go back and forth a few times, but at least it will be heading in the direction of consensus.

Aftermath and significance
When Trubetskoy's troops arrived in Putivl, the the news of the battle reached Moscow. Sergey Solovyov states that the event was a slaughter for Moscows cavalry. The unexpectedness of the loss, led to fear amongst the populous, and rumors spread about the Tsar plannig to flee.

No cleanup on the rest (yet):

However, the Russian tsar did not have to worry; the Ukrainian civil war of the Ruin period accomplished what Trubetskoy and his troops could not. Had only hetman Vyhovsky and his allies been able to capture a few of Ukrainian towns held by his opponents, when the first bad news arrived: Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host led by Ivan Sirko attacked Crimean outposts in the south, and Khan Giray was forced to leave him for his country. The authority of Vyhovsky was low after the bloody battle against the Russians. A few cities rebelled against him immediately: Lokhvytsia, Hadyach, Poltava, Romny. It was only 2 months after the battle when the citizens of Nizhyn gave a ceremonial welcome to Trubetskoy and swear an oath of allegiance to the Russian tsar. The same month the Ukrainian citizens and cossacks regiments in Kiev, Pereyaslav, Chernihiv swore an oath to the tsar as well. In September the cossacks on their counsil hacked to death both Ukrainian delegates who signed the Hadyach treaty and thus started the war with Russia.

Thus Vyhovsky was left to deal with the growing opposition to his rule. By the end of the year he was forced to resign and to flee to Poland where he was later executed by the Poles in 1664. His defeat is largely attributed to his alliance with the very unpopular Poles and his inability to seek support among all the strata of the Ukrainian population and not just among the rich Cossack elite, who were willing to betray him at every opportunity either to Moscow or Warsaw. The civil war raged on and the victors of the Konotop battle were soon forgotten.

Together with a number of other battles between East Slavs, such as Battle of Orsha, the Konotop battle was with a few exceptions an abandoned topic in Russian Imperial and in Soviet historiography. This attitude towards this event is explained by the fact that it dispelled some Russian propaganda positions about the unity of East Slavs, in particular the ones about "eternal friendship of Russian and Ukrainian peoples" and about "natural desire of Ukrainians for union with Russia". For all the skill and the bravery of the Cossacks — especially those defending Konotop — it still remains a bitter victory. A victory that did not have any significant impact on the course of Ukrainian history, where fratricidal war of the Ruin and personal ambitions of treacherous hetmans prevailed. As such, the Konotop battle remains a classic example of the battle won and a war lost.