Modern Ukraine occupies the territories of a number of principalities into which Kievan Rus fell apart in the 12th century - Kiev, Volyn, Galitsky, Pereyaslavsky, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky, as well as part of the Polovetsky Wild Field.
The name "Ukraine" appears in written sources at the end of the 12th century and is applied to the outskirts of a number of the named principalities bordering the Wild Field. In the XIV century, their lands became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also became "Ukrainian" in relation to it (and after the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1569 - in relation to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Chronicles of the 15th-16th centuries know "Ukrainians" not only in present-day Ukraine. There were, for example, Ryazan Ukraine, Pskov Ukraine, etc.
For a long time the words "Ukraine", "Ukrainian" had not ethnic, but purely geographical meaning. The Orthodox inhabitants of Ukraine continued to call themselves Rusyns at least until the 18th century, and in Western Ukraine - until the beginning of the 20th century. In the treaty of Hetman Vyhovsky with Poland in 1658, according to which Ukraine became an independent state in the union with the Commonwealth, the Ukrainian state was officially called the "Russian Ukrainian Hetmanate".
In the 14th century, in Byzantium, the term "Little Russia" arose, with which the patriarchs of Constantinople designated a new metropolitanate with the center in Galich, created for the Orthodox in the lands of present-day Ukraine, to distinguish it from the Moscow metropolis. The name "Little Russia" is used from time to time in their title by the last independent Galician princes ("kings of Russia" or "Little Russia"). Subsequently, the opposition of Little and Great Russia received a political justification: the first was under the rule of Poland and Lithuania, and the second was independent. However, these names came from the fact that Little Russia was the historical core of Kievan Rus, and Great Russia was the territory of the later settlement of the ancient Russian people (cf. in antiquity: Little Greece - Greece itself, Great Greece - southern Italy and Sicily).
The name "Little Russia" (in the Russian Empire - Little Russia) for present-day Ukraine was also adopted by the tsars. At the same time, the inhabitants of Ukraine themselves have never called themselves Little Russians. This was the definition given to him by the Russian administration. They got along with two self-names - Rusyns and Ukrainians (over time, they began to give preference to the second), although in the 19th century the government actively instilled the opinion that they were part of a single Russian people.
There was another name for some Ukrainians - Cherkasy. There are conflicting hypotheses about its origin. It did not apply to all Ukrainians, but only to the Cossacks. The first information about the Ukrainian Cossacks dates back to the end of the 15th century. These were free people who did not obey their masters and settled in the territories of the Wild Field. The Cherkasy raided the Tatars' encampments in the steppe, and they themselves were sometimes attacked from their side. But the steppe freemen attracted more and more people from the estates of the Polish and Lithuanian lords to the ranks of the Cossacks. Not any Cossacks were called Cherkas, but only Dnieper ones (at the same time Ryazan Cossacks were known, and in the 16th century - Don, Terek, etc.).
Ukrainian historiography made the Cossacks the basis of the national myth. However, in fact, the Cossacks for a long time did not care who to rob. The Crimean Khanate and the cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where Orthodox Ukrainians lived were subjected to their invasions in the 16th century. Only from the beginning of the 17th century in the movement of the Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began to appear glimpses of aspirations for independence for the whole of Ukraine.
Cossacks often and willingly made peace with the Polish kings, if they provided them with more privileges. The bulk of the Polish-Lithuanian troops that flooded the Moscow state in the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century were Cherkasy. Poland sought to put the Cossacks under its control and included some of the Cossacks in the so-called. register, which was paid a salary for service on the border with the lands of the Crimean Tatars. At the same time, most of the Cossacks were outlawed, which did not stop those who wanted to "Cossack" in the independent military republic founded in the Zaporozhye Sich.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who raised the Cossacks in the middle of the 17th century to the war of liberation, was not up to the level of his historical task. He relied more on an agreement with the king than on the Ukrainian peasantry, which was ready to oppose the Polish lords, but did not wait for support from the Khmelnytsky Cossacks. As a result, Bogdan was unable to retain most of the Ukrainian lands and asked for patronage from the Moscow Tsar.
The difference in the political concepts of the two parts of Rus was revealed immediately, as soon as the Moscow government took Khmelnitsky (1653) under its authority. The Cossacks understood the alliance with Moscow as a bilateral alliance, in which Ukraine not only retains its governing bodies, finances and troops, but also freedom of external relations, and Moscow has no right to appoint its governors and governors in Ukraine. In addition, the Cossacks insisted that the tsar personally swear allegiance to the execution of the treaty, as Khmelnitsky swore allegiance to the tsar.
But the boyars replied that they do not have it so that the king swears to someone. They considered Khmelnytsky's step only as a transition to submission to the autocrat, and some of the autonomous rights left to Ukraine as a mercy bestowed on her. Thereafter, taking advantage of the war with Poland, Moscow appointed its voivods to the main cities of Ukraine, who began to carry out court proceedings and reprisals, and placed garrisons there. This cooled the zeal of the Cossacks for the same faith in Moscow. Already Bogdan Khmelnitsky himself actually deviated from Moscow, establishing relations with Sweden and Crimea against both Poland and Russia. Under his successors, the betrayal of a part of the Cossack elite to Moscow became obvious.
For many years, Ukraine became the arena of the struggle between Russia and Poland, as well as the Cossacks themselves, who supported one side or the other. This time was named Ruin in the history of Ukraine. Finally, in 1667, an armistice was signed between Russia and Poland, according to which the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kiev withdrew to Russia.
In the era of the Ruins, hundreds of thousands of people fled from the Right Bank Ukraine to the Russian bank of the Dnieper. Right-bank Ukraine, which remained behind Poland, lost any shadow of autonomy. Things were different in the Left-Bank Ukraine. The Little Russian hetmanship was autonomous within Russia until Mazepa's betrayal in 1708. They had their own laws and courts (the cities retained self-government according to Magdeburg law), the hetmanate had its own treasury and departments. In peacetime, the tsars had no right to send Cossacks to serve outside Ukraine.
In 1727, the government of the Dolgoruky princes under the young Tsar Peter II restored the hetmanship, but in 1737, during the Bironovschina period, it was abolished again. The hetmanate was revived again by Elizaveta Petrovna in 1750, and in 1764 Catherine II finally liquidated it.
Ukrainians, like Russians and Belarusians, belong to the Eastern Slavs. The Ukrainians include the Carpathian (Boyko, Hutsuls, Lemkos) and Polissian (Litvin, Polishchuk) ethnographic groups. The formation of the Ukrainian people took place in the XII-XV centuries on the basis of a part of the population that had previously been part of Kievan Rus.
During the period of political fragmentation due to the existing local peculiarities of language, culture and life, conditions were created for the formation of three East Slavic peoples (Ukrainians and Russians). The main historical centers of the formation of the Ukrainian nationality were Kiev region, Pereyaslav region, Chernigov region. In addition to the constant raids of the Mongol-Tatars, which lasted until the 15th century, from the 13th century the Ukrainians were subjected to the Hungarian, Polish and Moldavian invasions. However, constant resistance to the conquerors contributed to the unification of the Ukrainians. Not the last role in the formation of the Ukrainian state belongs to the Cossacks, who formed the Zaporozhye Sich, which became a political stronghold of the Ukrainians.
In the 16th century, the ancient Ukrainian language was formed. The modern Ukrainian literary language was formed at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries.
In the 17th century, as a result of the liberation war under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Hetmanate was formed, which in 1654 became part of Russia as an autonomous state. Historians consider this event a prerequisite for the unification of Ukrainian lands.
Although the word "Ukraine" was known back in the XII century, it was used then only to designate the "extreme" southern and southwestern parts of the Old Russian lands. Until the end of the century before last, the inhabitants of modern Ukraine were called Little Russians and were considered one of the ethnographic groups of Russians.
The traditional occupation of the Ukrainians, which determined their place of residence (fertile southern lands), was agriculture. They grew rye, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, oats, hemp, flax, corn, tobacco, sunflowers, potatoes, cucumbers, beets, turnips, onions and other crops.
Agriculture, as usual, was accompanied by cattle breeding (cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, poultry). Beekeeping and fishing were developed less significantly. Along with this, various trades and crafts were widespread - weaving, glass production, pottery, woodworking, tanning and others.
The national dwelling of Ukrainians: huts (huts), adobe or log cabins, whitewashed inside and out, were quite close to the Russians. The roof was usually made of four-pitched thatched, as well as of reeds or shingles. In a number of areas, until the beginning of the last century, the dwelling remained chicken or semi-chicken. The interior was of the same type even in different districts: at the entrance to the right or to the left in the corner there was a stove, with its mouth turned to the long side of the house. Diagonally from it in the other corner (front), painted with embroidered towels, flowers, icons hung, there was a dining table. There were seating benches along the walls. The stove was adjoined by a sleeping floor. The peasant, depending on the wealth of the owner, consisted of one or several outbuildings. Wealthy Ukrainians lived in brick or stone houses, with several rooms with a porch or veranda.
The culture of Russians and Ukrainians has a lot in common. Often foreigners cannot tell them apart. If you remember that for many centuries these two peoples were actually one whole, there is little surprising in this.
Women's traditional clothes of Ukrainians consist of an embroidered shirt and unstitched clothes: jersey, spare tires, plakhta. Girls usually let go of long hair, which they braided into braids, laying them around their heads and decorating them with ribbons and flowers. Women wore various caps, and later, headscarves. The men's suit consisted of a shirt tucked into wide trousers (harem pants), sleeveless jackets and a belt. The headdress was straw hats in summer, and caps in winter. The most common footwear was rawhide postols, and in Polesie - lychaks (bast shoes), among the wealthy - boots. In the autumn-winter period, both men and women wore a suite and an opancha - varieties of a caftan.
In view of their occupation, the basis of the nutrition of the Ukrainians was vegetable and flour food. National Ukrainian dishes: borsch, soup with dumplings, dumplings with cherries, cottage cheese and potatoes, cereals (especially millet and buckwheat), donuts with garlic. Meat was available to the peasantry only on holidays, but lard was often used. Traditional drinks drinks: varenukha, sirivets, various liqueurs and vodka with pepper (vodka).
Various songs have always been and remain the most striking feature of the national folk art of Ukrainians. There are still well preserved (especially in the countryside) ancient traditions and rituals. As well as in Russia, in some places they continue to celebrate semi-pagan holidays: Shrovetide, Ivan Kupala and others.
They speak the Ukrainian language of the Slavic group, in which several dialects are distinguished: northern, southwestern and southeastern. Writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
Believers Ukrainians are mostly Orthodox. In Western Ukraine, there are also. There is Protestantism in the form of Pentecostalism, Baptism, Adventism.
The people living "against the sun, head to the Chumak cart, feet to the blue sea," as the old song says. Whitewashed huts surrounded by gardens, beautiful stove tiles and pottery, bright, cheerful fairs - all these are recognizable signs of the rich traditional culture of Ukrainians ...
Resettlement and formation of ethnos
Group of girls and married women in festive outfits
In the south-west of Eastern Europe "against the sun, head to the Chumak cart (Big Dipper), feet to the blue sea," - as the people sang, - the ancient Slavic land of Ukraine is located.
The origin of the name in the meaning of "edge, extreme" goes back to the time of the existence of the ancient Russian state - Kievan Rus. So in the XII-XIII centuries. called it the southern and southwestern lands - the right-bank Dnieper region: Kiev region, Pereyaslav region, Chernigov-Severshchina, which became the center of the formation of the Ukrainian nationality. Subsequently, the name Ukraine was assigned to the entire ethnic territory.
Main occupation
The main occupation of the Ukrainians, agriculture, regulated the way of life of the peasant family and the community as a whole. Grain and products made from it (porridge, kutia, loaf) were present as attributes in almost all rites of the calendar cycle and rituals associated with the human life cycle. Bread among Ukrainians, as well as among many other nations, was a symbol of hospitality. There was always bread and salt on the table in the hut. Eyewitnesses noted that the Ukrainians received the guests cordially and affectionately, sparing nothing for the dear guest. In the mountainous regions of the Carpathians, cattle breeding prevailed.
Settlements and dwellings
Villages of Ukrainians were located near rivers, occupying lands that were not suitable for arable land. Farmstead settlements were built in the steppe regions.
"Towel" is a towel. End of the 19th century. Kharkiv province, Zmeevsky district
The main dwelling of the Ukrainians was an adobe whitewashed hut with a high hipped roof covered with thatch or reeds, the edges of which protruded significantly above the walls, protecting the inhabitants of the hut from the cold in winter and from the heat in summer. For additional insulation in winter, the walls of the hut were covered with straw. The clean, whitewashed huts were almost always surrounded by gardens, and a light fence and non-deaf gates made of poles made it possible to see the courtyard and its inhabitants.
The hostess and her daughters whitened the hut after each shower, and also three times during the year: for Easter, Trinity and the Intercession.
The inner space of the hut
Painted stove and painted on the wall near the stove
The stove occupied almost a quarter of the hut and was located in the left corner of the entrance. This corner was called "baking", and the empty space under the oven - "pidpichcha" - was used to store fuel or a crate for chickens - "heap" was placed there.
Opposite the stove corner there was a red corner - "pokuttya". Here, on the shelves - the gods, there were icons that were called blessed, as they were used to bless the owner, mistress and their sons before the wedding. The icons were covered with patterned towels - "gods".
The corner to the right of the doors, called "blind", had an exclusively economic purpose. The space above the door and the upper part of the blind corner was occupied by a shelf - "polysya", on which there were spare pots, turned upside down. Closer to the corner, numerous female ornaments were kept in pottery. Below there were shelves with the best tableware set in a conspicuous place: painted glazed earthen and wooden bowls, spoons, plates and flasks.
Hutsul ceramics
Ceramic kandiyki bowls. Poltava lips, Zenkovsky u., M. Opashnya.
The natural and geographical conditions of the Carpathian region predetermined the uniqueness of the culture of its population, known as the Rusyns, or Hutsuls. Despite the fact that this group of the Ukrainian people lived in isolation from it due to territorial and political alienation, it did not lose its cultural and historical unity with its ethnic group. The Hutsul region was famous for its ceramic products.
A stove made a special impression on those entering the Hutsul hut, the inner part of the chimney of which - the fireplace - was lined with tiles - "cribs". The fireplace consists of two or three tiers of tiles, closed in the upper and lower parts by rows of narrow cornices. The upper edge of the fireplace was completed by two or three pediments - they "hid" and "bumps" at an angle. The tiles depicted scenes from the life of the Hutsuls, churches, crosses, faces of saints, the Austrian coat of arms, flowers.
Vessel. Eastern Galicia, with. Pistin. End of the 19th century. Ukrainians - Hutsuls
The decoration of the stove fireplace was in tune with the "mysnik" - a cabinet of three or four shelves, which was placed in the partition between the door to the hut and the side wall, and the "namysnik" - a shelf above the door, where the earthenware stood: "gleki" ("dzbanki"), "Chersaki" (pots), bathhouses, vessels for drinks - rolls, "pleskanki", bowls, etc. The most elegant bowls, serving exclusively for interior decoration, were placed on a "fake", which for the same reason was decorated with carvings and scorched patterns.
Earthenware attracted attention with the perfection of forms, variety of decor and colors - brown, yellow and green. All products were covered with glaze, which glittered, creating an atmosphere of festivity and elegance in the hut even on cloudy days.
Potters-Hutsuls from Kosovo and Pistynia were engaged in the production of ceramics. The most famous of them: I. Baranbk, O. Bakhmatyuk, P. Tsvilyk, P. Koshak. As a rule, they were all hereditary potters who embodied in their products not only the best achievements of their predecessors, but, of course, revealed their individuality.
Despite the fact that the main occupations of the Hutsuls were cattle breeding and, first of all, sheep breeding, as well as logging and rafting of timber, many of them were also engaged in trades, especially those that lived in townships and did not have either land or livestock. For a Hutsul girl, there was nothing more honorable than marrying a craftsman.
Ukrainian fair
Fair in the village of Yankovtsi. Poltava province, Lubensky district. Ukrainians.
Fairs were held in most Ukrainian villages on major temple holidays. The busiest of them took place in the fall, after the harvest. The celebration was located on the temple square or on the pasture outside the village.
The peasant fair was a kind of "club" where social contacts and acquaintances were maintained. The rows of fairgrounds were arranged in a strict sequence: in one row they sold pottery, factory utensils and icons, grocery and tea shops were also located here; in the other row - manufactory, haberdashery, caps, women's scarves, footwear; in the next - wood products - wheels, arcs, chests, etc .; in the latter - with tar and fish.
Separately located places where livestock and horses were sold. Here the Gypsies acted as intermediaries. After a successful sale and purchase, it was common to drink the maharych: "The beggars changed with crutches, and even then the maharych drank for three days," so the people said.
At fairs, people were amused by wandering gymnasts or comedians, but more often performers of folk songs to the accompaniment of a lyre or blind musicians playing the harmonium. The trade lasted three or four hours, then everything was removed, and by evening there was no trace of the motley noisy crowd and crowd, except for the fairground litter. The big fair lasted two or three days.
In the XIV century, the territory of Southern Russia came under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland and Hungary. Crimea, formerly under the influence of Byzantium and Rus, fell into the hands of the Tatars. In the XVI-XVII centuries, a confrontation for the Ukrainian lands unfolded between the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Turkish-Tatar forces. The conquest by Moscow in 1500-1503 of the northern principalities belonging to Lithuania with the center in Chernigov increased the gravitation of a part of the Orthodox Ukrainian population to Muscovy.
Since the time of the Union of Lublin (1569), Ukraine was almost entirely under the administrative subordination of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At the same time, significant differences remained between Galicia, located in the west of Ukraine, which already belonged to Poland in the XIV century, and the regions in the east and south, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but to a greater extent retained their originality, and above all, adherence to Orthodoxy. While the nobility gradually incorporated into the ranks of the nobility of the Kingdom of Poland and converted to Catholicism, the peasant population everywhere retained their Orthodox faith and language. Part of the peasantry was enslaved. Significant changes took place among the urban population, which was partially supplanted by Poles, Germans, Jews and Armenians. The European Reformation, which was defeated in the Polish-Lithuanian state, also left its mark on the political history of Ukraine. The Catholic elite tried to solve the problem of the Orthodox population with the help of the Brest Union of 1596, which subordinated the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to the Pope. As a result, the Uniate Church emerged, which also has a number of differences from Orthodoxy in ritual. Along with Uniatism and Catholicism, Orthodoxy is preserved. The Kiev Collegium (higher religious educational institution) becomes the center of the revival of Ukrainian culture.
The growing oppression of the gentry forced the Ukrainian peasant masses to flee to the south and southeast of the region. In the lower reaches of the Dnieper, beyond the Dnieper rapids, at the beginning of the 16th century, a Cossack community arose, which was relatively dependent on the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom. In its socio-political organization, this community was similar to the formations of the Russian Cossacks on the Don, Volga, Yaik and Terek; Between the military organization of the Dnieper Cossacks - the Zaporozhye Sich (emerged in 1556) - and the Russian Cossack formations there were brotherhood-in-arms relations, and all of them, including the Zaporozhye Sich, were the most important political and military factor on the border with the Steppe. It was this Ukrainian Cossack society that played a decisive role in the political development of Ukraine in the middle of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, under the leadership of Hetman Sahaidachny (hetmanship with interruptions in 1605-1622), the Sich turned into a powerful military-political center, acting as a whole in the mainstream of Polish politics. The Sich was a republic headed by the hetman, who relied on the Cossack foreman (the upper echelons opposing the "rabble").
In the 16th-17th centuries, the Cossacks responded to the desire of the Poles to establish fuller control over the Sich with a series of powerful uprisings against the gentry and the Catholic clergy. In 1648, the uprising was led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. As a result of several successful campaigns, B. Khmelnitsky's army managed to extend the influence of the Zaporizhzhya Sich to most of Ukraine. However, the emerging Ukrainian state formation was weak and could not stand alone against Poland. Before B. Khmelnitsky and the officers of the highest Cossack steep, the question arose of choosing allies. B. Khmelnitsky's initial stake on the Crimean Khanate (1648) did not materialize, since the Crimean Tatars were inclined to separate negotiations with the Poles.
An alliance with the Moscow state after several years of hesitation of Tsar Alexei (unwillingness to enter into a new conflict with the Commonwealth) was concluded in 1654 in Pereyaslavl (Pereyaslavl Rada). The Cossack army, as the main military-political institution of Ukraine, was guaranteed its privileges, its own law and legal proceedings, self-government with free elections for the hetman, and limited foreign policy activities. The privileges and rights of self-government were guaranteed to the Ukrainian nobility, the metropolitan and the cities of Ukraine, who had sworn allegiance to the Russian tsar.
The war between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian state, which began in 1654, had a generally negative effect on the alliance of the Dnieper Cossacks with the Russian tsar. Under the conditions of the armistice between Moscow and the Polish-Lithuanian state, B. Khmelnitsky went to a rapprochement with Sweden, Brandenburg and Transylvania, which entered into an armed struggle with the Poles. At the same time, the role of the Cossacks of B. Khmelnitsky was very significant. So, at the beginning of 1657, the 30-thousandth army of the Kiev foreman Zhdanovich, joining with the army of the Transylvanian prince Gyorgy II Rakoczi, reached Warsaw. However, it was not possible to consolidate this success.
In the middle of the 17th century, a fierce struggle for the territory of the Sich unfolded between Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. In this struggle, the hetmans occupied various positions, sometimes acting independently. Hetman I. Vyhovsky (1657-1659) entered into an alliance with Sweden, which dominated Poland at that time (anticipating Mazepa's policy). Having won a victory over the pro-Russian forces near Poltava in 1658, Vyhovsky concluded the Godyach peace with Poland, which assumed the return of Ukraine to the rule of the Polish king as the Grand Duchy of Russia. At Konotop, Vygovsky's troops in 1659 defeated the troops of the Muscovy and its allies. However, the next Rada supported the pro-Russian Y. Khmelnitsky (1659-1663), who replaced Vygovsky and signed a new Pereyaslavl treaty with Russia. Under this agreement, Ukraine became an autonomous part of the Muscovy.
However, after failures in the war with Poland in 1660, the Slobodischensky Treaty of 1660 was concluded, which turned Ukraine into an autonomous part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Left-bank Ukraine did not recognize the agreement and swore allegiance to the tsar. Not wanting to continue the civil war, Yu. Khmelnitsky took monastic vows, and P. Teterya (1663-1665) was elected hetman of the Right Bank, and I. Bryukhovetsky (1663-1668), who was replaced by D. Mnogreshny (1669-1672), on the Left Bank. years).
The uprising of 1648-1654 and the period of turmoil that followed ("Ruin") is sometimes interpreted in historiography as an early bourgeois or national revolution (by analogy with other revolutions of the 16th-17th centuries).
The Andrusov truce between Moscow and the Poles (1667) institutionalized the split of Ukraine: the regions on the left bank of the Dnieper were ceded to the Moscow state, and the right-bank ones again fell under the political and administrative control of the Poles. This division, as well as the protectorate of both powers established over the Zaporizhzhya Sich under the Andrusov Treaty, caused numerous uprisings of the Cossacks, who unsuccessfully tried to achieve the unification of both parts of Ukraine.
In the 1660s-1670s, a fierce civil war was going on in Ukraine, in which Poland, Russia, and then the Ottoman Empire took part, under whose patronage the right-bank hetman P. Doroshenko (1665-1676) passed over. This struggle ravaged the Right Bank, caused great damage to the left bank and ended with the partition of Ukraine under the Treaty of Bakhchisarai in 1681 between Russia and Turkey and the Crimean Khanate and the "Eternal Peace" between Russia and Poland in 1686. The territories of the three states converged in the area of Kiev, which remained with Russia and the hetman Ukraine that was part of it (hetman I. Samoilovich, 1672-1687).
Ukraine was divided into a number of territories:
1) the left-bank Hetmanate, which retained significant autonomy within Russia;
2) Zaporizhzhya Sich, which retained autonomy in relation to the hetman;
3) the right-bank Hetmanate, which retained autonomy as part of the Commonwealth (by the 1680s, it was actually divided between Poland and Turkey);
4) Galicia, integrated into the Kingdom of Poland from the end of the XIV century;
5) Hungarian Carpathian Ukraine;
6) Bukovina and Podillia, which belonged to the Ottoman Empire (until 1699);
7) areas of the Steppe and neutral territories cleared of the Ukrainian population, up to the Kiev region;
8) Sloboda Ukraine - the eastern regions of the left-bank Hetmanate, whose regiments were directly subordinate to the Moscow governors in Belgorod.
The institutions of Moscow control over the left-bank Hetmanship and Slobodskaya Ukraine, which retained significant autonomy, were: the Little Russian Order, established in 1663, and small Russian garrisons in certain Ukrainian cities. There was a customs border between the Hetmanate and the Moscow state (in the pre-Petrine period).
A more rigid institutional consolidation of the Left Bank and Slobodskaya Ukraine, and then part of the Right Bank Ukraine, took place during the reign of Peter I. In 1708, the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa entered into an alliance with Peter's military and political opponent, King Charles XII of Sweden. In response, the Russian army burned the hetman capital Baturyn. The victory of Peter I over the Swedes near Poltava (1709) meant a significant limitation of the broad political autonomy of Ukraine. Institutionally, this was expressed in the expansion of the administrative and legal competence of the Little Russian Collegium, which managed affairs in Ukraine, the elimination of the customs border, the growth of economic withdrawals of surplus product from Ukrainian territories for the needs of the expanding Russian Empire.
The stabilization of the institution of hetmanship under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was replaced by a sharp policy of centralization during the reign of Catherine I. In 1765, Sloboda Ukraine became an ordinary province of the Russian Empire. In 1764, the institution of the hetmanship was liquidated, and in the early 1780s the Russian system of administration and tax collection was introduced. In 1775, Russian troops destroyed the Zaporozhye Sich, part of the Zaporozhye Cossacks moved to the Kuban, and part of the Cossacks in the more northern regions passed into the category of state peasants. Simultaneously with the distribution of land to Russian landowners, part of the Cossack elite was included in the Russian nobility. The territory of Ukraine became known as Little Russia. In 1783, the Crimean Khanate was annexed to Russia.
As a result of the three partitions of the Commonwealth (1772, 1793 and 1795), almost the entire territory of Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire. Galicia, Transcarpathia and Bukovina became parts of the Austrian Empire.
She has suffered more than once in the throes of political self-determination. In the middle of the 17th century, like today, she rushed between the West and the East, constantly changing the vector of development. It would be nice to remind what this policy cost the state and people of Ukraine. So, Ukraine, XVII century.
Why did Khmelnitsky need an alliance with Moscow?
In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnitsky defeated the Polish troops sent against him three times: under Zheltye Vody, near Korsun and near Piliavtsy. As the war flared up and military victories became more and more significant, the ultimate goal of the struggle also changed. Having started the war by demanding limited Cossack autonomy in the Naddniprovschina, Khmelnytsky had already fought for the liberation of the entire Ukrainian people from Polish captivity, and the dreams of creating an independent Ukrainian state on the territory liberated from the Poles no longer seemed like something unrealizable.
The defeat at Berestechko in 1651 sobered Khmelnytsky a little. He realized that Ukraine is still weak, and alone in the war with Poland, he may not resist. The hetman began to look for an ally, or rather, a patron. The choice of Moscow as the "elder brother" was not at all predetermined. Khmelnytsky, together with the foremen, seriously considered options to become an ally of the Crimean Khan, a vassal of the Turkish Sultan, or return to the Commonwealth as a confederative component of the common state. The choice, as we already know, was made in favor of the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Did Moscow need Ukraine?
Unlike the current situation, Moscow did not at all seek to lure Ukraine into its arms. Adopting Ukrainian separatists into citizenship meant an automatic declaration of war on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And Poland of the 17th century is a large European state by those standards, which included huge territories that are now part of the Baltic republics, Belarus and Ukraine. Poland exerted influence on European politics: less than 50 years later, its zholneers took Moscow and placed their protege on the throne in the Kremlin.
And the Muscovy of the 17th century is not the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. The Baltic States, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia are still foreign territories, and a horse has not been rolled in the annexed Siberia. People are still alive who remember the nightmare of the Time of Troubles, when the very existence of Russia as an independent state was at stake. In general, the war promised to be long, with an unclear outcome.
In addition, Moscow fought with Sweden for access to the Baltic and relied on Poland as a future ally. In short, apart from a headache, taking Ukraine under one’s hand did not promise the Moscow tsar absolutely nothing. Khmelnitsky sent the first letter with a request to accept Ukraine into citizenship to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1648, but for 6 years the tsar and boyars refused all letters of the Ukrainian hetman. The Zemsky Sobor, convened in 1651 to make a decision, spoke out, as they would say today, for the territorial integrity of the Polish state.
The situation is changing
After the victory at Berestechko, the Poles launched a punitive campaign against Ukraine. The Crimeans took the side of the Polish crown. The villages were burning, the Poles executed the participants of the recent battles, the Tatars collected full for sale. In the devastated Ukraine, famine began. The Moscow tsar canceled customs duties on grain exported to Ukraine, but this did not save the situation. The villagers who survived the Polish executions, Tatar raids and famine left in droves to Muscovy and Moldavia. Volyn, Galicia, Bratslav region lost up to 40% of their population. Khmelnitsky's ambassadors again went to Moscow with requests for help and protection.
At the hand of the Moscow tsar
In such a situation, on October 1, 1653, the Zemsky Sobor made a fateful decision for Ukraine to accept her as citizenship, and on October 23 declared war on Poland. By the end of 1655, by joint efforts, all of Ukraine and Galician Rus were liberated from the Poles (which the Galicians cannot forgive Russia to this day).
Taken under the sovereign's hand, Ukraine was not occupied or simply annexed. The state retained its administrative structure, its independent legal proceedings from Moscow, the election of the hetman, colonels, foremen and city administration, the Ukrainian gentry and laity retained all property, privileges and liberties granted to them by the Polish authorities. In practice, Ukraine was part of the Moscow state as an autonomous entity. A strict ban was imposed only on foreign policy activities.
Parade of ambitions
In 1657, Bohdan Khmelnytsky died, leaving to his successors a state of enormous size with a certain degree of independence, protected from external intervention by the Ukrainian-Moscow treaty. And what did the gentlemen-colonels do? That's right, the division of power. The hetman Ivan Vygovskaya, elected at the Chigirinskaya Rada in 1657, enjoyed support on the right bank, but did not have any support among the population of the left bank. The reason for the dislike was the pro-Western orientation of the newly elected hetman. (Oh, how familiar it is!) An uprising broke out on the left bank; the leaders were the chieftain of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, Yakov Barabash, and the Poltava colonel, Martin Pushkar.
Problematic Ukraine
To cope with the opposition, Vygovskaya called for help ... from the Crimean Tatars! After the suppression of the rebellion, the Krymchaks began to rush all over Ukraine, collecting prisoners for the slave market in the Cafe (Feodosia). The hetman's rating dropped to zero. The foremen and colonels offended by Vygovsky often came to Moscow in search of the truth, bringing with them, from which the tsar and the boyars were dizzy: taxes are not collected, 60,000 gold pieces that Moscow sent to maintain the registered Cossacks disappeared into unknown places (does it remind you of anything?) , the hetman cuts off the heads of obstinate colonels and centurions.
Treason
To restore order, the tsar sent an expeditionary corps to Ukraine under the command of Prince Trubetskoy, which was defeated near Konotop by the united Ukrainian-Tatar army. Together with the news of the defeat, the news of Vygovsky's open betrayal comes to Moscow. The hetman signed an agreement with Poland, according to which Ukraine returns to the fold of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and in return it provides an army for the war with Moscow and strengthening the position of the Ukrainian hetman. (Gadyach Treaty of 1658) The news that Vygovskaya had also sworn allegiance to the Crimean Khan in Moscow did not surprise anyone.
New hetman, new treaty
The treaty concluded by Vyhovsky did not find support among the people (the memory of the Polish order was still fresh), the suppressed rebellion flared up with renewed vigor. The last supporters are leaving the Hetman. Under pressure from the "foreman" (the ruling elite), he renounces the mace. To extinguish the flames of the civil war, the son of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, Yuri, is elected hetman, hoping that everyone will follow the son of the national hero. Yuriy Khmelnitsky goes to Moscow to ask for help for the bloodless civil war in Ukraine.
In Moscow, the delegation was greeted without enthusiasm. The betrayal of the hetman and the colonels, who swore allegiance to the tsar, and the death of the troops, specifically spoiled the atmosphere at the negotiations. Under the terms of the new treaty, the autonomy of Ukraine was curtailed, in order to control the situation in large cities, military garrisons from Moscow archers were deployed.
New treason
In 1660, a detachment under the command of the boyar Sheremetev set out from Kiev. (Russia, having declared war on Poland in 1654, still could not end it.) Yuri Khmelnitsky with his army is in a hurry to help, but in a hurry so that he does not have time to go anywhere. Near Slobodische, he stumbles upon the Polish crown army, from which he suffers a defeat and ... concludes a new treaty with the Poles. Ukraine returns to Poland (however, there is no longer any talk of autonomy) and undertakes to send an army for the war with Russia.
Not wishing to lie down under Poland, the left bank chooses its hetman, Yakov Somka, who raises the Cossack regiments for the war against Yuri Khmelnitsky and sends ambassadors to Moscow with requests for help.
Ruina (Ukrainian) - complete collapse, devastation
You can go on and on. But the picture will repeat itself endlessly: more than once colonels will revolt for the right to possess the hetman's mace, and more than once they will run from one camp to another. The right bank and the left bank, choosing their hetmans, will endlessly fight against each other. This period entered the history of Ukraine as "Ruina". (Very eloquent!) When signing new treaties (with Poland, Crimea or Russia), the hetmans each time paid for military support with political, economic and territorial concessions. In the end, only one memory remained of the former "independence".
After the betrayal of Hetman Mazepa, Peter destroyed the last remnants of Ukraine's independence, and the hetmanate itself was abolished in 1781, when the general provision on the provinces was extended to Little Russia. This is how the attempts of the Ukrainian elite to sit on two chairs at the same time (or alternately) ended ingloriously. The chairs moved apart, Ukraine fell and broke into several rank-and-file Russian provinces.
Problem of choice
It is fair to say that for the Ukrainian people the problem of choosing between the West and the East has never existed. Enthusiastically accepting every step of rapprochement with Russia, the villagers and ordinary Cossacks have always sharply negatively met all the attempts of their priests to defect to the camp of her enemies. Neither Vygovskaya, nor Yuri Khmelnitsky, nor Mazepa were able to gather under their banners a truly people's army, like Bohdan Khmelnitsky.
Will history repeat itself?
According to knowledgeable people, history repeats itself all the time, and there is nothing under the sun that did not exist before. The current situation in Ukraine painfully resembles the events of more than three hundred years ago, when the country, like today, faced a difficult choice between the West and the East. To predict how everything could end, it is enough to remember how everything ended 350 years ago. Will the current Ukrainian elite have enough wisdom not to plunge the country, like its predecessors, into chaos and anarchy, followed by a complete loss of independence?
Slipy kazav: "Pobachim".