At the beginning of the XVII century, events take place preceding the liberation struggle led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. A young boy Pavlo Pokhylenko leaves his native Kaniv to join the Zaporizhian Sich (camp and cossack army) to fight for freedom and the Orthodox faith.

In the XIth century Kyivan Rus' (Ukraine-Rus') reached its zenith under the reign of Yaroslav. He established enduring ties with many of the ruling European dynasties, strengthened the borders of Rus' and tried to free it from the influence of the Byzantine Empire. Since 988 the church of Rus' had been autonomous, apart from the right of Constantinople to appoint the Metropolitan.