The novel sets out in chronological order the stages of the struggle of the Zaporozhye Cossacks and the South Russian people against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the center of the novel is the figure of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, an outstanding military leader and statesman, as well as his closest associates, whose names are undeservedly forgotten. Due to the scarcity of chronicle sources, some events of the novel are reconstructed and there is an element of fantasy in their description. The author brings to the attention of readers the first volume of this work. The first volume of the novel “The Legend of the Hetman” was published by the Canadian publishing house Altaspera publishing in March 2013. But since the Russian reader is unlikely to have the opportunity to familiarize himself with it, I leave its electronic version in Samizdat for those who are interested in this topic.