0 listach Bohdana Chmielnickiego.

The study deals with several hundred letters of Bohdan Chmielnicki from the years1648-1657. They come from the most active period of the Hetman of the Zaporozhye armyand they both testify to his excellent diplomatic sense as the chief of Zaporozhye, and they area source enabling researchers to reconstruct his Outlook on life, system of values, manner ofexercising power and conducting foreign atfairs.The preserved letters are in Polish, Russian and Latin. The exchange with Polish officialswas conducted exclusively in Polish, which clearly indicates the Cossack s close links withPolish culture. Although the letters are not markedly artistic in their style, they exposeChmielnicki as the author conversant with the convention of ars epistolandi. Thus paradoxically,the Polish language of majority of the great chief s letters allows for their author s inclusionin the group of Old Polish authors.