Ukrainians in the 17th century. Ukraine. Economy and material culture of Ukrainians. The main branches of the economy and occupations of the population. Traditions and customs in Ukraine

In the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries. Ukraine remained mainly agrarian, and the rural population, which constituted the vast majority, was engaged in arable farming, animal husbandry, and gardening.

During the 19th century the process of dispossession of land is intensifying, not only in connection with the seizure of arable land and meadows by landowners, but also as a result of the increased social stratification of state and serf peasants. On the eve of the reform of 1861 on the Left Bank Ukraine in use, the peasants had only 38%, and in the steppe regions 15% of cultivated land. The situation was similar in other areas.

In the XIX - early XX centuries. in most regions of Ukraine, the main system of agriculture was three-field, as well as fallow land, known to the Eastern Slavs since the time of Kievan Rus. The fire-slash and two-field systems developed in the past, until the 19th century, were almost never used due to their low efficiency and labor intensity.

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Fertilization of fields with manure was widespread. There were no firm rules for the application of the crop rotation system. The order of sowing in different parts of the field and the choice of crops were determined by the owner of the field or the tenant.

In the southern regions of Ukraine, where at the end of the XIX century. there were significant areas of virgin and foredowy lands, immediately after the raising of virgin lands, three fields were rarely used. The same crops were sown here for a long time.

By tradition, most of the arable land was sown with winter and spring rye - the main cereal crops on the territory of Ukraine since ancient times. Wheat was not sown everywhere and it was mainly for sale. Before the revolution Ukraine wheat varieties were widespread: spring - "poltavka", winter - "banatka", "bitter ice". Wheat has long occupied the main place among grain crops in the southern steppe regions, in Transcarpathia and partly in the forest-steppe zone, on rich black soil. In the Sloboda and Poltava regions, mainly spring wheat was sown, in the Kiev region, Podolia and Volyn - winter wheat. Barley was also sown, especially in the south of Ukraine, buckwheat, millet, peas, beans, flax, and hemp. Volhynia was famous for its hops.

At the end of the 17th century on Ukraine corn appears mainly in the south, which, however, did not become widespread in the pre-revolutionary period. From the end of the 18th century potatoes and sunflowers are grown.

Of the vegetable crops, the most common were beets, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, garlic, parsley and melons. One of the characteristic features of the Ukrainian village, which was noted by many travelers as early as the 16th-17th centuries, was the abundance of orchards (apple, pear, plum, cherry). Gardens were grown mainly on estates. Folk methods of grafting the best varieties were widely used: breeding young trees "from a stump", jigging previously sprinkled branches, etc. In poor peasant households, due to lack of land, the garden was often simultaneously a meadow, hayfield and vegetable garden.

Livestock occupied an important place in Ukrainian agriculture. They bred mainly cows of the red steppe breed, Kholmogorka, Yaroslavl, etc. They also raised thoroughbred horses: steppe Ukrainian, Russian trotter, Oryol, etc. Long since Ukraine sheep breeding was developed. Among the many breeds of sheep, preference was given to Reshetilovskaya (black) and Sokolskaya (gray). They also bred pigs, goats, poultry, and were engaged in beekeeping. The bees were kept in hives-hollows, "straw", "hut". By the end of the XIX century. frame hives appear.

Fishing was developed in many regions of Ukraine, mainly river fishing. Fish were caught with wicker tops, as well as nets, yaters, landing nets, saks, lines, etc.

Hunting of great importance in the economy Ukrainians Did not have. The hunting tools were the same as those of the Russians and Belarusians. "Snare" and "overhangs" were used - nets for catching birds and small animals, and firearms were also used. In the forests of the Carpathians and Polissia, deer, roe deer, wild pigs, and wolves were hunted.

In the most difficult socio-economic conditions of feudal, and later capitalist oppression, the peasantry of Ukraine developed and improved tools of labor, created various methods of tillage, enriched agriculture with new varieties and types of field, garden and horticultural crops, developed animal husbandry.

The economic and cultural exchange between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Left Bank and the Right Bank, was noticeably facilitated by the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. For the economy of Ukraine, wide opportunities have opened up for the use of the achievements of Russian agricultural culture, in particular, the cultivation of new vegetable crops and cultivated herbs.

Ethnocultural ties in the field of agriculture had the character of mutual influences. So, wheat "Poltava" was the original variety "Saratov", at the same time, the method of extracting oil from sunflower seeds Ukrainians adopted from the Russians; on Ukraine horses and cattle brought from Russian and Belarusian provinces were bred.

On Ukraine Since ancient times, three types of draft arable implements have been known: a plow, a ralo and a plow. Most regions of Ukraine are characterized by fertile, but difficult to cultivate soils. The most common arable implement here has long been a plow and a scarf.

Ralo is one of the oldest arable implements. Iron spikes have been discovered by archaeologists on the territory of modern Ukraine in the settlements of the first centuries of our era. If we take into account that for some types of rales, common in the past on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, the narl was made of hard wood species fired for strength, then it is likely that the rales could have appeared much earlier. In the process of evolution from the simplest forms to more complex ones, the ralo acquired some specific design features. Rala variants that existed on Ukraine in the 18th-19th centuries, are reduced to two main varieties: single-toothed and multi-toothed. Single-tooth was made without a runner and with a runner. The ralo with a runner differed from the useless one in the position of the rake, its shape, and the way it was connected to the ridge ("stem"). In the first case, the rake was hammered into the bed, and in the second case, the rake was driven into a hole in the handle, which was integral with the rake. There were also widespread types of ral, transitional between the skid and non-skid. Single-tooth ralom in the 19th century. plowed, as a rule, soft soil, fallow for winter crops, land for chestnut, buckwheat, potatoes, millet, hemp. The draft force was a pair of oxen “oxen ralo”, or one ox, which was harnessed to the yoke “bovkun”, as well as a pair of horses “kinske ralo”, harnessed to a helmet “up to the shtelvag with orchiks”. Harnessed one horse

with a clamp or an arc. In the poor farms, the plow, requiring less draft power, was the main infantry weapon. In prosperous farms, a more productive multi-toothed ralo was used as a cultivator for re-cultivation of the soil. Depending on the draft force, this scarlet was made large (oxen) or smaller (horse). According to the design features, there were three main types of multi-toothed rales: a rake-like one with a rectangular wound and a harrow-shaped one. The rake-like ralo resembled a rake in shape, although it differed from them in size, the number of teeth-pegs (from 2 to 20) and their shape. The triangular-framed ralo was genetically related to the rake-like ralo, representing its later type. The oldest type of harrow-like ral was structurally similar to the harrow-smyk. It was formed, obviously, on the basis of a bespolozhny ral and harrow.

Each ethnographic zone of Ukraine had its own versions of the ral. In the southern and western regions of Polissya and the Forest-Steppe, there were the most ancient types of a single-toothed and multi-toothed rales with a rectangular frame; on Podolny - single-toothed with a snake, similar to the ral of the Moldavians, southern and western Slavs. The territory of Ukraine was the area of ​​distribution of predominantly non-toothed types of rales (rake-like with a triangular frame). On the Left Bank and Slobozhanschyan there were different types of both single-toothed and multi-toothed rales. In the north of Polissya and in some areas of central Ukraine plows were plowed (Lithuanian, Ukrainian, odnokonkha, paro-konka, etc.). D.K. Zelenin pointed out the inaccuracy of the name of the plow "Lithuanian", since this plow is not typical for Lithuanians, suggested calling this plow "Polesskaya".

The second most important arable tool Ukrainians bnl a wooden plow with an iron plowshare and a slat.

Before the revolution Ukraine Three types of plows were mainly used: traditional wooden plows on a wheeled limber with an iron plowshare and an iron share, various modifications of the traditional plow and factory ones. The latter became widespread from the end of the 19th century. All the variety of variants of the traditional plow Ukrainian ethnographers reduce to two types: with fixed and mobile police. The second of them was less common, only in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians. The plows were of different sizes and, depending on this, they were harnessed from 2 to 4 pairs of oxen. The heavier ones were plowed in the steppe regions, and the lighter ones were used in the forest-steppe zone and in the southern regions of Polissya. At the junction of zones, a plow and a plow were used.

Existed on Ukraine at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Traditionally, plows are divided into two "types" according to their design features: I) a frontless plow with a non-adjustable police, in which there was no ridge, and the rassokha (a piece of wood with a fork at the end that served to put on openers) was hammered with its rear end into the hole of the transverse roller; 2) front plow - rassokha was hammered from below into a hole on the bed. Each of these types of plow had a number of names. The first type was called Moscow, one-sided, die, etc. land was produced only on one side. The peasants often called her a stag plow or a steamy plow. Sokha-stag or Polissya was common on the right-bank Ukrainian Polissya. For the Left Bank, sokhvodnostorovka is more typical. Both types of plow were two-pronged.

In each of these types of cox, a number of options can be distinguished. On the Left Bank and Slobozhanshchina, in the area where the landowners introduced the plow forcibly, the peasants made a number of changes to its design, borrowing some details from the plow. As a result, transitional forms and variants from the plow to the plow arose.

Simultaneously with draft Ukrainian the peasantry also used a variety of hand tools for working the land - a hoe; sapu, spade, etc. In the ХУ1-Х1Х centuries. these implements were mainly used for cultivating garden plots.

The traditional way of sowing Ukrainians like other agricultural peoples of Eastern and Central Europe, there was sowing by hand. In most of the territory of Ukraine, field crops were sown from a bag ("siva"). In Polissya, in some areas of the Forest-Steppe, Left Bank Ukrainians like the Russians and Belarusians, they sowed from special seeders - boxes made of wood, bark, vines or straw ("sіvanki", "sіyanika", "sennik"). In Bukovina, a wooden bucket with a long bow ("skokets") was used for this purpose.

Garden and tilled crops were planted in furrows or in small holes, throwing seeds into them or planting seedlings. This was usually done by women.

The harrow played a significant role in cultivating the land. The hog was used for loosening arable land, clearing the soil of weeds before sowing ("fast"), and covering seeds after sowing (dragging). On Ukraine they made mainly trapezoidal harrows with a straight or rounded front bar. In poor households, right up to the revolution, they used a harrow harrow ("gillyaka") - a tree that was dragged with a butt forward, and a "top" - the top of a tree with chopped branches. In some regions of the South of Ukraine and Transcarpathia, thorn branches tied to sticks or connected together were used as a harrow. In the north of Ukraine, a harrow was used from vines tied with "balls" in the form of a frame ("lozovatka"). Wooden stakes ("chopi") were inserted at the place of dressing. In Polissya, even stakes were not always driven into a squared hog, but tied with a vine. More perfect was the bar harrow, which was made in the form of a frame with a bar with wooden nails hammered into them. This type of harrow, known to the Slavs since the time of Ancient Rus', in the XIX century. was most common in Ukraine. When harrowing Ukrainians, unlike the Western Slavs, the squared boar was usually hooked at an angle forward, which reduced the load on the horse and provided a wider grip. While harrowing with several harrows at the same time, various methods of their fastening were used: with a one-horse team (Left Bank and Eastern Woodland) - with a "key", on the Right Bank - in a row, angle forward.

The main tool for harvesting cereals Ukrainians, like other European peoples, there was a sickle. In the 19th century rye, wheat, barley, and less often millet were harvested with sickles, the rest of the cereals were harvested mainly with a scythe equipped with "horns" attached to the scythe with teeth in the form of a rake. The hay was cut without rakes. At the end of the XIX century. the "Lithuanian" scythe is becoming more and more widespread, although the sickle still existed for a long time in a number of areas, especially in Polissya and the Forest-Steppe, for forging reeds and some grains. from a short braid. On Ukraine three ways of home-made adaptations to braids were recorded: a braid with horns, "on a hook" and "on a bow".

Everywhere in agriculture, a variety of rakes, pitchforks, mach, sohar, mushrooms, and bitches were used.

Beveled bread - rye, wheat, barley, as well as buckwheat, millet, oats on Ukraine knitted in sheaves. Wet straw was used for the oars. The sheaf was, as it were, a measure of prosperity. Sheaves were paid to the poor for their work in the field. Sheaves were folded into piles of 10, 30 or more sheaves, mostly in a cross. Legumes were not tied into sheaves. Dried up in the field, the sheaves were delivered to clay compacted currents. The first threshing among the poor peasants was especially long-awaited for the starving family.

The main threshing tool Ukrainians, like most European peoples, there was a flail ("tsіp"). In different regions of Ukraine, its size and the name of individual parts were different. Derzhak, for example, was called in Transcarpathia "handbrake", "held", the scourge was called "bichuk" - in Sumy and Chernihiv regions, "bilen in Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, "biyas", "cypets" - in Transcarpathia, "b" yah - in Volhynia, etc.

Most common on Ukraine in the 18th and 19th centuries there was a flail with a belt connection (capitsi, tie). The chapel was attached to the whip, as a rule, motionless, the rib on the handle moved around the "knot". In the South of Ukraine, threshing was used more often with a wooden or stone rink ("garman") with longitudinal ribs, which was dragged by horses. In the South, threshing was also used with a rut ~ with the feet of domestic animals and a threshing board ("devil", "dean").

When winnowing, the grain was usually tossed with a shovel in the wind.

In winter, they winnowed on ice so that the grain was clean. They grinded bread on manual millstones (the poorest peasantry) or in mills. In the 19th century, on Ukraine mainly rod windmills with 1, 6 or 8 wings ("ramen") were distributed, and on the rivers water ("mlini"). At the end of the XIX century. steam mills appear in wealthy peasants.

In the same period, first of all, among the wealthy peasants and partly the middle peasants, other factory-made agricultural equipment appeared: cultivators, horse threshers, seeders, winnowing machines, etc. At the same time, the modification and improvement of agricultural tools and machines took place in close connection with the development of traditional tools and the use of centuries-old folk experience. An example of folk processing of factory plows is the so-called "frontless" Polissya plow. It had a wooden straight or curved beam, a wooden or iron sole, and a triangular iron plowshare.

Of the factory plows, the most acceptable among the peasants were the plows of Vrzhesinsky and Vasilchikov, the cultural L I, of the Ryazan society. Gene, "OKS" and others. The choice of plow largely depended on the quality of the soil. For example, the plowing of fat chernozems was carried out with great effect with heavy plows. Spread to Ukraine at the end of the 19th century. factory cultivators (extirpators, grubbers, etc.), expensive and inaccessible to the broad peasant masses, contributed to the improvement of the traditional multi-toothed ral. Made in workshops and rural forges, cultivators designed on the basis of the ral were in great demand.

In the South of Ukraine, purchased cars were distributed to a greater extent. Here (the penetration of capitalism into agriculture was more intense than in other regions of Ukraine, especially in Polesie and the Carpathians, where the remnants of feudal-serf relations were especially strong. However, even here the poor part of the peasantry continued to use largely primitive agricultural implements.

So, in the 19th - early 20th centuries, despite a number of technological innovations, I introduced more advanced agricultural

machines, qualitative changes in agricultural technology, the bulk of the Ukrainian peasantry did not occur, due to the preservation of significant remnants of feudalism - lack of land, working off, heavy taxes and taxes.

After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the nationalization of the land and other socio-economic transformations had a decisive influence on the rise of agricultural production and the development and improvement of agricultural machinery. These processes accelerated after the collectivization of agriculture in the country. Collective farms and state farms became centers for the dissemination of advanced agrotechnical culture and new agricultural technology.

An important role in the socialist transformation of the Ukrainian countryside was played by the workers, who gradually transferred knowledge and experience in mastering technology to the peasantry. Peasant youth actively took up their studies, striving to master the new technology. Among the collective-farm peasantry, the profession of a machine operator becomes especially honorable.

If under capitalism, and even more so in the feudal period, the design of agricultural implements largely depended on the nature of the soil, in our time favorable opportunities have been created for plowing the heaviest soils with modern agricultural machinery. The achievements of Soviet agronomic science have ensured a significant improvement in the quality of soils even in previously unsuitable areas for agriculture.

The collective farm system opened the way to farming based on the achievements of modern science. modern agriculture Ukrainian The SSR is diversified, its successes are determined not only by favorable natural and climatic conditions of the republic, but also by the planned development of the economy. At the same time, the regional aspect of agricultural specialization is preserved. The forest-steppe is an area where beets, winter wheat, rye, and horticultural crops are mainly grown. Poultry farming and semi-fine-fleece sheep breeding are developed here. The southern and central regions specialize in the production of marketable grain (winter wheat, corn). An important role here is played by horticulture, the cultivation of melons, grapes, animal husbandry and cattle breeding. Meat and dairy cattle breeding and pig breeding are developing in Polissya.

This is the main area for growing potatoes and fiber flax. In the regions of the Carpathians, it also specializes in meat and dairy farming and sheep breeding. Horticulture and viticulture are developed in Transcarpathia. Several specialized stud farms Ukrainian The SSR breed horses, which are still used, in small numbers, in agriculture. The most common breeds of horses are trotting, Oryol, Russian trotting, Budenov, Don, heavy trucks, etc.

On Ukraine many farms specialize in the cultivation of industrial crops, raw materials for perfumery. On collective farms and state farms, such a highly profitable branch of the economy as beekeeping continues to develop. In the South, a new branch of the economy for Ukraine is being cultivated - sericulture.

Fishing is well developed, especially in artificial seas - reservoirs. The breeding of fur-bearing animals has been put on an industrial basis. Major measures are being taken to protect the environment and wildlife. On Ukraine a whole network of reserves has been created - Askania-Nova (Kherson region), Khomutovskaya Step (Sumy region). Stone Grave (Zaporozhye region), Chernogorsky (Transcarpathian, Lviv and Ivvno-Frankivsk regions), Veliko-Anadolsky forest, Striletskaya steppe (Donetsk region), Crimean State Reserve named after Kuibyshev, etc. Several arboretums have been created: Alexandria (Kievskaya region), Sofiyivka (Cherkasy region), Koncha-Zaspa (Kiev region), Konotop (Sumy region), Pechenegy (Kiev region), Dikanks (Poltava region), Trostyanets (Chernihiv region) and others.

Ukrainians, as well as Russians and Belarusians, belong to the Eastern Slavs. Ukrainians include Carpathian (Boikos, Hutsuls, Lemkos) and Polissya (Litvins, Polishchuks) 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 features of the language, culture and way of 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, Chernihiv region. In addition to the constant raids of the Mongol-Tatars, which lasted until the 15th century, from the 13th century, Ukrainians were subjected to Hungarian, Polish and Moldavian invasions. However, the constant resistance to the invaders 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 Zaporozhian Sich, which became the 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 XVII century, as a result of the war of liberation, under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 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 as early as the 12th century, it was then used only to refer to 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 considered one of the ethnographic groups of Russians.

The traditional occupation of 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 less developed. Along with this, various trades and crafts were widespread - weaving, glass production, pottery, woodworking, leatherworking and others.

The national dwelling of the 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 straw, as well as reeds or shingles. In a number of areas, until the beginning of the last century, the dwelling remained smoky or semi-smoky. The interior, even in different districts, was of the same type: at the entrance to the right or left in the corner there was a stove, turned by the mouth 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 benches along the walls. The flooring for sleeping was adjacent to the stove. The peasant house consisted, depending on the prosperity of the owner, of one or more outbuildings. Wealthy Ukrainians lived in brick or stone houses, with several rooms with a porch or veranda.

The culture of Russians and Ukrainians has much in common. Often foreigners cannot distinguish them from each other. If we remember that for many centuries these two peoples were actually one, this is not surprising.

Women's traditional clothing of Ukrainians consists of an embroidered shirt and non-sewn clothing: dergi, spares, plakhty. 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, later - scarves. The men's costume consisted of a shirt tucked into wide trousers (harem pants), a sleeveless jacket and a belt. Straw hats were the headdress in summer, caps in winter. The most common shoes were postols made of rawhide, and in Polissya - lychaks (bast shoes), among the wealthy - boots. In the autumn-winter period, both men and women wore a retinue and opancha - varieties of caftan.

The basis of the nutrition of Ukrainians in view of their occupation was vegetable and flour foods. National Ukrainian dishes: borsch, soup with dumplings, dumplings with cherries, cottage cheese and potatoes, cereals (especially millet and buckwheat), donuts with garlic. Meat food was available to the peasantry only on holidays, but lard was often used. Traditional 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 rural areas) ancient traditions and rituals. As well as in Russia, in some places they continue to celebrate semi-pagan holidays: Maslenitsa, 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 Cyrillic.

Believing Ukrainians are mostly Orthodox. In Western Ukraine there are also. There is Protestantism in the form of Pentecostalism, Baptism, Adventism.

More than once suffered the pangs of political self-determination. In the middle of the 17th century, it, like today, rushed between the West and the East, constantly changing the vector of development. It would be nice to recall what such a policy cost the state and people of Ukraine. So, Ukraine, XVII century.

Why did Khmelnitsky need an alliance with Moscow?

In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky defeated the Polish troops sent against him three times: near Zhovti Vody, near Korsun and near Pilyavtsy. 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 Dnieper region, Khmelnytsky had already fought for the liberation of the entire Ukrainian people from Polish captivity, and dreams of creating an independent Ukrainian state on the territory liberated from the Poles no longer seemed unrealizable.

The defeat near Berestechko in 1651 sobered Khmelnitsky a little. He realized that Ukraine was still weak, and alone in the war with Poland it might not survive. Hetman began to look for an ally, or rather, a patron. The choice of Moscow as a "big brother" was not predetermined at all. Khmelnitsky, 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 confederal component of a common state. The choice, as we already know, was made in favor of the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Did Moscow really need Ukraine?

Unlike the current situation, Moscow did not at all seek to lure Ukraine into its arms. To take Ukrainian separatists into citizenship meant an automatic declaration of war on the Commonwealth. And Poland of the 17th century is a large European state by those standards, which included vast territories that are now part of the Baltic republics, Belarus and Ukraine. Poland had an impact on European politics: not even 50 years had passed before its jullners took Moscow and put their protege on the throne in the Kremlin.

And the Moscow kingdom of the 17th century is not the Russian Empire of the beginning of the 20th century. The Baltic States, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia are still foreign territories, and the horse has not yet rolled in 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 counted on Poland as a future ally. In short, besides a headache, taking Ukraine under one's hand promised absolutely nothing to the Muscovite tsar. Khmelnitsky sent the first letter with a request to take Ukraine into citizenship to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1648, but for 6 years the tsar and the boyars refused all letters of the Ukrainian hetman. Convened in 1651 to make a decision, the Zemsky Sobor spoke out, as they would say today, in favor of the territorial integrity of the Polish state.

The situation is changing

After the victory at Berestechko, the Poles went to Ukraine on a punitive campaign. The Crimeans took the side of the Polish crown. Villages were burning, Poles were executing participants in recent battles, Tatars were collecting loads for sale. Famine began in the devastated Ukraine. The Muscovite tsar abolished 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 for Muscovy and Moldavia. Volyn, Galicia, Bratslavshchina lost up to 40% of their population. Khmelnitsky's ambassadors went to Moscow again with requests for help and protection.

Under 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 it as a subject, and on October 23 declared war on Poland. By the end of 1655, by joint efforts, all Ukraine and Galician Rus were liberated from the Poles (which the Galicians cannot forgive Russia to this day).

Ukraine, taken under the sovereign's hand, was not occupied or simply annexed. The state retained its administrative structure, its judicial proceedings independent of Moscow, the election of the hetman, colonels, foremen and city government, the Ukrainian gentry and laity retained all the property, privileges and liberties granted to them by the Polish authorities. In practice, Ukraine was part of the Muscovite state as an autonomous entity. A strict ban was introduced only on foreign policy activities.

parade of ambition

In 1657, Bohdan Khmelnitsky died, leaving to his successors a huge state with a certain degree of independence, protected from external intervention by the Ukrainian-Moscow treaty. And what did the pan-colonels do? That's right, the division of power. Ivan Vygovskoy, elected hetman at the Chigirin Rada in 1657, enjoyed support on the right bank, but had no 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!) An uprising broke out on the left bank, the leaders were the ataman of the Zaporizhzhya Sich Yakov Barabash and the Poltava colonel Martyn Pushkar.

Problematic Ukraine

To cope with the opposition, Vygovskoy called for help ... Crimean Tatars! After the suppression of the rebellion, the Krymchaks began to rush throughout Ukraine, collecting prisoners for the slave market in Cafe (Feodosia). Hetman's rating dropped to zero. In search of the truth, offended by Vygovsky, foremen and colonels often frequented Moscow in search of the truth, bringing with them, from which the tsar and boyars were dizzy: taxes are not collected, 60,000 gold pieces that Moscow sent for the maintenance of registered Cossacks disappeared to no one knows where (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 under the command of Prince Trubetskoy to Ukraine, which was defeated near Konotop by the combined Ukrainian-Tatar army. Along with the news of the defeat, news of Vygovsky's open treason comes to Moscow. The hetman concluded an agreement with Poland, according to which Ukraine returns to the bosom of the Commonwealth, and in return it provides troops for the war with Moscow and strengthening the position of the Ukrainian hetman. (The Gadyach Treaty of 1658) The news that Vygovskoy had also sworn allegiance to the Crimean Khan did not surprise anyone in Moscow.

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 leave the hetman. Under the pressure of the "foreman" (leading elite), he renounces the mace. To put out the flames of the civil war, Bogdan Khmelnytsky's son Yuriy is elected hetman, hoping that everyone will follow the son of a national hero. Yuriy Khmelnytsky goes to Moscow to ask for help for Ukraine, bled white by the civil war.

In Moscow, the delegation was met without enthusiasm. The betrayal of the hetman and colonels who swore allegiance to the tsar, the death of the troops specifically spoiled the atmosphere at the negotiations. According to the terms of the new agreement, the autonomy of Ukraine was curtailed, in order to control the situation in large cities, military garrisons from Moscow archers were stationed.

New betrayal

In 1660, a detachment under the command of the boyar Sheremetev set out from Kyiv. (Russia, having declared war on Poland in 1654, still could not finish it.) Yuri Khmelnitsky with his army hurries to help, but hurries so that he does not have time to go anywhere. Near Slobodishche, he stumbles upon the Polish crown army, from which he is defeated and ... concludes a new agreement with the Poles. Ukraine returns to Poland (however, there is no talk of any autonomy anymore) and undertakes to send an army for the war with Russia.

The Left Bank, which does not want to fall under Poland, chooses its hetman, Yakov Somko, who raises Cossack regiments for the war against Yuri Khmelnitsky and sends ambassadors to Moscow with requests for help.

Ruina (ukr.) - complete collapse, devastation

You can go on and on. But the picture will be endlessly repeated: more than once the colonels will raise riots 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 "Runa". (Very eloquent!) By signing new treaties (with Poland, Crimea or Russia), the hetmans each time paid for their military support with political, economic and territorial concessions. In the end, only memory remained of the former "independence".

After the betrayal of Hetman Mazepa, Peter destroyed the last remnants of Ukraine's independence, and the very dying hetmanate was abolished in 1781, when the general provision on 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 parted, Ukraine fell and broke into several ordinary Russian provinces.

Problem of choice

For the sake of fairness, it should be said 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 always met with a sharp negative reaction to all attempts of their panship to go over to the camp of her enemies. Neither Vygovskoy, nor Yuri Khmelnitsky, nor Mazepa were able to gather a truly popular army under their banners, like Bogdan 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 can 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, which will be followed by a complete loss of independence?

Slipy saying: "Let's go."

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Map 2. Ukraine between Poland and Russia

Poland, after the suppression of the Cossack uprisings of 1637 and 1638 received a ten-year period of calm. The Poles, it would seem, completely subjugated the Ukrainian Cossacks.

Poland flourished. Ukrainian lands, especially those on the left bank of the Dnieper, Seversk land and Poltava, where the land holdings of Polish and Ukrainian magnates loyal to Poland grew rapidly, became the bread bins of the Commonwealth. Access to the Baltic made it possible to expand trade in Ukrainian wheat and cattle, as well as Belarusian timber, tar and potash. This led to the growth of cities such as Warsaw, Vilna, Lvov, Kamenetz and Kyiv. This decade was often called the era of the "golden world". Prosperity, however, was built on shaky foundations, as Polish rule over the Ukrainian people faced conflicts and contradictions of all kinds - political, national, economic, social and religious.

When analyzing Polish policy towards Ukraine and the attitude of Ukrainians towards Polish rule, one should first of all consider the differences in the status of different strata of Ukrainian society. By 1640, there were almost no Ukrainian magnates left, since almost all Ukrainian aristocratic families were converted to the Roman Catholic faith. An outstanding champion of Greek Orthodoxy in Western Rus', Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky died in 1608. His descendants became Catholics. Prince Jeremiah Vishnevetsky converted to Catholicism in 1632. Among the few Greek Orthodox nobles who had at least some political weight, Adam Kisel is best known. But, although he was Russian. Kissel felt like a Pole politically.

An extremely large number of representatives of the petty Ukrainian nobility (gentry) remained Greek Orthodox in faith, but Russian in spirit, although they were loyal to the Polish king and were ready to serve Poland faithfully. In addition, in Ukraine there were a large number of small landowners who did not have the official status of the gentry, but who differed little from it economically and socially. It was from these two groups that the Polish government usually recruited officers and privates into the number of registered (registered) Cossacks.

The Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, organized around their Sich, sometimes took into their ranks representatives of the Russian-Ukrainian nobility, the majority were ordinary people, occasionally townspeople, but mostly peasants who fled the land of the magnates.

Thus, the Cossacks were a link both between the nobility and the townspeople, and between the nobility and the peasants. Most of the Ukrainian people at that time were peasants, whose position both in Ukraine and in Belarus was tantamount to slavery.

As regards religion, the compromise of 1632 greatly strengthened the status of the Greek Orthodox Church in Western Russia. Although the Orthodox did not actually receive all the rights and privileges stipulated in the conditions that were promised to them, the Russian clergy were satisfied with their position. The petty clergy, however, whose social level was closer to the peasantry, were subjected to harassment and insults from the Polish magnates and officials, and it was quite possible to expect that they would take the side of the Cossacks and peasants in any coming unrest.

Indeed, the situation for such unrest in Ukraine is ripe. Dissatisfaction grew both among the peasants and among the Cossacks. A look at the circumstances of the life of the peasants reveals a strange, as it may seem at first glance, situation: corvée was easier on the newly conquered frontier lands than in the northern regions of Ukraine and Belarus. Then why were these peasants from the left bank and the border regions of the right bank of the Dnieper more inclined to rebellion than the rest, whose situation was much more difficult? The reasons were mainly purely psychological. The new settlers in most cases were more energetic and enterprising people than those who lived there permanently. In addition, the very environment in the border lands was different due to the presence of free people - the Cossacks. Any attempt on the part of the estate owners to burden their peasants caused more resentment among the new settlers than in those areas where dependence had existed for a long time. Moreover, in the new lands, on the border of the steppe zone, it was comparatively easier for the offended peasant to flee from his master and join the Cossacks "beyond the [Dnieper] rapids." Peasants from the left bank could even run to the Don Cossacks.

After the uprising of 1638 was suppressed, several divisions of Polish soldiers were stationed in Ukrainian lands as a precaution against possible unrest. The behavior of these soldiers irritated the population as well as the oppression of the masters. Always in need of money due to their profligate lifestyle, landowners often farmed out the sources of income from their lands and various structures on their lands, such as water mills, distilleries, taverns and river ferries, to the Jews, who traditionally provided financial support in Poland and Lithuania. support to kings and nobles and have long been indispensable because of their business enterprise. As a result, for many Ukrainian peasants, Jews began to be identified with the despotic Polish regime. When the revolutionary explosion broke out, the Jews found themselves between two opposing forces (Ukrainians and Poles), their fate was tragic.

Dissatisfied with the fact that only peasants were under their rule, the magnates after 1638 tried to convert Cossacks “excluded from the register” (vyshchiks) into peasants. Registered Cossacks themselves were subject to strict discipline and were subject to harassment by both Polish and their own officers (foremen).

Despite all this, the foundation of Polish rule seemed solid enough. However, latent popular discontent manifested itself in a number of peasant riots in both Western and Eastern Ukraine in 1639 and in subsequent years. These were not yet symptoms of deep-seated indignation in Ukraine. Such riots failed to develop into a general unrest only because of the lack of interaction between the peasants in different areas, as well as between the Cossacks and the peasants.

In 1646, the king of Poland gave the Cossacks a reason for general excitement, although unintentionally. Vladislav IV was an ambitious man and he was annoyed by the rule of the Sejm. He was looking for a suitable opportunity to raise his royal powers and raise the respect for the crown.

Vladislav's lovingly cherished project was the war against Turkey. In these plans, he was supported by Chancellor Jerzy Ossolinski, who was appointed in 1643. In 1645, under pressure from the Turks, Venice asked for help from some European countries, including Poland. Without informing the Sejm about his plans, Vladislav agreed to support Venice in the war against the Turks, but demanded substantial subsidies. He intended to use this money to strengthen the Polish regular army and mobilize the Cossacks. In his military plans, he intended to first attack the vassals of the Turkish Sultan - the Crimean Tatars.

Vladislav had a high opinion of the Cossacks as a fighting force. They supported him even when he, being crown prince, waged war against Moscow in 1617-1618. and again during the capture of Smolensk in 1632-1634. In April 1646, at the invitation of the king, four delegates from the foremen of the registered Cossacks: three captains - Ivan Barabash, Ilya Karaimovich and Ivan Nesterenko But - and the Chigirinsky centurion Bogdan Khmelnitsky - arrived in Warsaw and were received in top secret by the king and chancellor Ossolinsky. Since no minutes of their meeting have been preserved, the exact content of these negotiations is unknown, however, from available sources it can be assumed that Vladislav promised to increase the number of registered Cossacks from one thousand to a much larger number (twelve, or maybe even twenty thousand). It was alleged that the king gave Barabash a decree of similar content, certified by his own seal (and not the seal of the state).

The secret plans of Vladislav and Ossolinsky soon became known to the magnates and caused great indignation. At a meeting in 1646, the Sejm imposed a ban on any increase in the composition of the regular Polish army and began to threaten Ossolinsky with removal from office. Vladislav was forced to abandon this part of his project.

At the next meeting (1647), the Seim turned its attention to Vladislav's interest in the Cossacks and decided to put an end to his military preparations once and for all. It was specially voted that the number of registered Cossacks could not be increased without the approval of the Sejm. Because of these decisions, the senior officers of the registered Cossacks - Barabash and Karaimovich - abandoned attempts to increase the Cossack register to date and decided to keep the whole matter secret. However, it proved impossible for them to stop the spread of rumors and gossip among the ordinary Cossacks, especially because their colleague in the delegation to Vladislav, centurion Bogdan Khmelnitsky, did not want to miss the opportunity to strengthen the Cossack army.