Eternal Peace of 1686

Eternal Peace of 1686. A peace treaty between Muscovy and Poland signed in Moscow on 16 May 1686 that confirmed the division of Ukraine set out in the Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667. Left-Bank Ukraine with Kyiv (for a compensation of 146,000 rubles) and the territories of the Zaporozhian Cossacks were to come under Russian control, while Right-Bank Ukraine was to come under Polish control. The Bratslav region and the southern Kyiv region were to remain an unpopulated neutral zone. Both states promised not to sign a separate peace treaty with Turkey. The Eternal Peace guaranteed religious freedom for the Orthodox population of the Polish Commonwealth and recognized Moscovy's right to protect the Orthodox. On signing the treaty, Muscovy became an ally in the anti-Turkish coalition known as the Holy League, which included Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, and Venice.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]