The idea of creating a monument arose in society at the initiative of historian and professor of Kyiv University Mykola Kostomarov in the 1840s. After receiving permission from the imperial government in 1860, a committee was formed under the leadership of Mykhailo Yuzefovych, a university professor and head of the Kyiv Archeographic Commission. The first project of the monument, developed by the famous sculptor Mykhailo Mykeshin, was quite dramatic: Bohdan Khmelnytsky's horse was throwing a Polish nobleman, a Jewish tenant, and a Jesuit off a cliff, while a Little Russian, a Chervonoros, a Belarusian, and a Great Russian listened to the song of a blind kobzar. The bas-reliefs of the pedestal depicted the battle near Zbarazh, the Pereiaslav Council, and the entry of the Cossack army led by Khmelnytsky into Kyiv.

In 1870, fundraising began through a nationwide subscription. Due to the small amount raised (only 37 thousand rubles) and the doubts of Governor-General Alexander Dondyuk-Korsakov about the appropriateness of an anti-Polish and anti-Jewish monument, the committee decided to cut the project's budget, leaving only the central figure of the hetman. In 1877, a plaster model was ready, and in 1879, the statue was cast at the St. Petersburg Berd factory (Mykeshin's project in metal was realized by P. Velionsky and A. Ober), for which the Naval Ministry donated 1600 poods (25.6 tons) of scrap metal. The portrait features and clothing details of Khmelnytsky were reproduced with the help of consultations from Volodymyr Antonovych.

The following year, the statue was transported to Kyiv, where it stood for several years in the courtyard of the House of Presence, as there were not enough funds for the pedestal provided in the project. Only in 1885 did Volodymyr Nikolaev develop a more economical pedestal project and bring it to life. The stones for the pedestal were provided by the Kyiv fortress administration. Nikolaev himself worked for free and used the saved funds to design a fence with lanterns.

According to urban legend, when the monument was installed, it turned out that the horse was facing away from the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Therefore, the pedestal was turned, and the hetman's mace, which was supposed to threaten Poland, ended up pointing towards Sweden. Contrary to another legend, Bohdan never pointed towards Moscow. The only reminders of the monument's Moscow orientation were the plates with inscriptions on the pedestal: 'We wish to be under the eastern, Orthodox tsar' and 'To Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the united indivisible Russia.' In 1919 and 1924, they were replaced with 'Bohdan Khmelnytsky. 1888.' This inscription has remained to this day.