Culture of Ukraine in the 17th century: History of Ukraine. How the newborn Ukraine in the 17th century was looking for its place in Europe and what came of it The territory of Ukrainians in the 17th century

The medieval culture of Ukraine was quite specific. In many ways, it can be said that medieval Ukrainian culture is a vivid example of a “borderline” culture: West and East, civilization and savagery, striving forward and obscurant stagnation of views, frantic religiosity and secular aspirations of ideas are whimsically mixed here. Such a colorful combination, which characterized the culture of Ukraine in the 17th century, has developed due to a number of circumstances.

• By the XIV century, the Ukrainian lands were finally freed from the Tatar-Mongol yoke, that is, much earlier than the "Great Russian" territories. True, it was not fitting for the indigenous inhabitants of the former Kievan Rus to rejoice too much: the country was plundered, the productive forces, namely, rich and educated princes and boyars, were largely destroyed. In addition, a holy place does not happen empty, and the vacant territory was occupied by representatives of more developed neighboring countries - Poland, Lithuania, Hungary. The leading role, apparently, was played by the Lithuanians, who in the ethnographic and cultural sense were a people "younger" than the Eastern Slavs (who even in the lands of Ukraine preferred to call themselves Russians); therefore, the Lithuanians preferred “not to introduce novelty, not to destroy the old”, that is, they did not abolish the habitual Russian way of life and ancient Russian legislation, but, on the contrary, they actively perceived the foundations of Slavic culture and even adopted Orthodoxy. But under the influence of Western neighbors, the Lithuanians adopted European enlightenment, and gradually the economic, political and cultural life of Ukraine was largely reorganized in a European way.
• The development of the people's liberation movement, which is predominantly of a peasant-Cossack character. The Ukrainian lower strata of the population, who belonged to the East Slavic people, felt subjugated. Lithuanians and Poles, as well as the Polonized "Russian" elite, according to the peasants, appropriated the funds belonging to the Orthodox people and dispose of them unjustly, at least not in the interests of the "autochthonous" population. Most of the peasants and Cossacks were illiterate, dark and superstitious people, which left an imprint on the cultural life of Ukraine.
• Some isolation of Ukrainian lands from the centers of European cultural life. Creative, philosophical and technological achievements of European civilization came to Ukraine with a certain delay. In general, for this entire region of Eastern Europe, there is a strict gradation in terms of the level of civilization. In the 16th century, the European Renaissance dominated the Belarusian lands with might and main, Ukraine at the same time mastered for the most part the culture of the late Middle Ages, and in Russia the gloomy and hopeless early Middle Ages reigned, and in some areas almost a primitive communal system. Because of this, a kind of cultural filtration also took place: European culture penetrated into Ukraine and Belarus in a “polonized” form, and then, in the 17th century, it penetrated into the Muscovite state already in a Ukrainianized form: Simeon of Polotsk, Pamvo Berynda and many others Moscow "learned people" came to Moscow from Ukraine.

Polemic culture of Ukraine in the XIV-XVII centuries

Due to the circumstances, the medieval culture of Ukraine was highly polemical. Outstanding monuments of Ukrainian literature are mostly represented by polemical writings that defended the superiority of the Orthodox faith over the Catholic one (or vice versa), cursed or, conversely, supported the Uniates that concluded the so-called Union of Brest.

The controversy, however, did not develop into a general cultural confrontation: for example, one of the most educated Ukrainians, Prince Ostrozhsky, patronized the activities of precisely Orthodox writers and artisans, including the printer and gunsmith Ivan Fedorov, who had escaped from the wild Tatar Moscow. Orthodox artists tried to combine the Byzantine icon-painting canons with the achievements of European fine art, and also mastered civil painting proper.

The old Ukrainian churches of the ancient Russian type and the newly built churches in the Renaissance and Baroque styles passed either to the Orthodox, then to the Catholics, then to the Uniates. Behind this polemical culture of Ukraine, there was a sharp political struggle between the native Ukrainian population and the Europeans, who were perceived as invaders.

Scholasticism went along with the polemics. The “fraternal schools” founded by Peter Mohyla, one of which grew into the Kiev-Mohyla Academy by the second half of the 17th century, concentrated their activities in scholastic disputes, in which they were largely mired.

The real goal of scholastic disputes is the desire to prevent "spiritual sabotage": scrupulously examining the dogma, human rights in accordance with the "holy scripture", educated Orthodox priests tried, overcoming primitive savagery, to determine for believers the maximum "civilizational dose" that would allow the person who accepted it still called Orthodox.

Culture of Ukraine in the 17th – 18th centuries

Ukrainian culture in these centuries has undergone mutual influence with the culture of Moscow. On the one hand, scientists, writers, architects and artists willingly came to the Muscovite state and were even specially invited by Alexei Mikhailovich, again with the same goal: to perceive European civilization as if "bypassing" Catholic and Protestant missionaries.

On the other hand, having become part of the Russian state, Ukraine also adopted the subsequent Russian culture, reshaped by Peter in a Western way. And the so-called "Ukrainian Baroque", culturally representing nothing more than the early Renaissance, in the 18th century abruptly turned into the present Baroque. The beginning of this was apparently laid by Mazepa, who in his letter to Peter asked to send him the architect Osip Startsev from Moscow.

Video: History of Ukrainian culture

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 liberation war 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.

In the XIV century, the territory of Southern Russia came under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland and Hungary. Crimea, previously under the influence of Byzantium and Russia, fell into the hands of the Tatars. In the XVI-XVII centuries, a confrontation for 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 a center in Chernigov, increased the attraction of a part of the Orthodox Ukrainian population to Muscovy.

Since the time of the Union of Lublin (1569), Ukraine has been almost entirely under the administrative control of the Commonwealth. At the same time, significant differences remained between Galicia, located in the west of Ukraine, which already belonged to Poland in the 14th 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 was gradually incorporated into the ranks of the gentry of the Kingdom of Poland and converted to Catholicism, the peasant population everywhere retained its Orthodox faith and language. Part of the peasantry was enslaved. Significant changes took place among the urban population, which was partially forced out by Poles, Germans, Jews and Armenians. Left its mark on the political history of Ukraine and the European Reformation, which was defeated in the Polish-Lithuanian state. The Catholic elite tried to solve the problem of the Orthodox population with the help of the Union of Brest in 1596, which subordinated the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to the Pope. As a result, the Uniate Church arose, which also has a number of differences from Orthodoxy in ritual. Along with Uniatism and Catholicism, Orthodoxy is preserved. The Kyiv Collegium (higher theological 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 in relative dependence on the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom. In terms of its socio-political organization, this community was similar to the formations of Russian Cossacks on the Don, Volga, Yaik and Terek; between the military organization of the Dnieper Cossacks - the Zaporozhian Sich (established in 1556) - and the Russian Cossack formations, there was a relationship of brotherhood in arms, and all of them, including the Zaporozhian 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 Sahaydachny (hetmanship intermittently in 1605-1622), the Sich turned into a powerful military-political center, generally acting in line with Polish politics. The Sich was a republic headed by a hetman, who relied on the Cossack foremen (the upper ranks opposed to the "bad").

In the 16th-17th centuries, the Cossacks responded to the desire of the Poles to establish more complete control over the Sich with a series of powerful uprisings against the gentry and the Catholic clergy. In 1648, the uprising was led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky. As a result of several successful campaigns, the army of B. Khmelnytsky managed to spread the influence of the Zaporozhian Sich to most of Ukraine. However, the emerging Ukrainian state formation was weak and could not stand against Poland alone. Before B. Khmelnitsky and officers of the highest Cossack circle, the question arose of choosing allies. The initial rate of B. Khmelnitsky on the Crimean Khanate (1648) did not materialize, since the Crimean Tatars were inclined to separate negotiations with the Poles.

The union 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 (Pereyaslav Rada). The Cossack army, as the main military-political institution of Ukraine, was guaranteed its privileges, its own right and legal proceedings, self-government with free elections of the hetman, and limited foreign policy activity. The privileges and rights of self-government were guaranteed to the Ukrainian nobility, metropolitan and cities of Ukraine who swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar.

The war between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian state that began in 1654 had a negative impact on the alliance of the Dnieper Cossacks with the Russian Tsar. In the conditions of the armistice between Moscow and the Polish-Lithuanian state, B. Khmelnitsky went to 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 30,000th army of the Kyiv foreman Zhdanovich, uniting with the army of the Transylvanian prince Gyorgy II Rakoczy, reached Warsaw. However, this success could not be consolidated.

In the middle of the 17th century, a fierce struggle for the territory of the Sich between Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire unfolded. In this struggle, the hetmans occupied various positions, sometimes acting independently. Hetman I. Vyhovsky (1657-1659) concluded an alliance with Sweden, which dominated Poland at that time (anticipating the policy of Mazepa). Having defeated the pro-Russian forces near Poltava in 1658, Vyhovsky concluded the Treaty of Godiach with Poland, which assumed the return of Ukraine under the rule of the Polish king as the Grand Duchy of Russia. Near Konotop, Vyhovsky's troops in 1659 defeated the troops of the Muscovite kingdom and its allies. However, the next Rada supported the pro-Russian Y. Khmelnitsky (1659-1663), who replaced Vyhovsky and concluded a new Pereyaslav Treaty with Russia. Under this treaty, Ukraine became an autonomous part of the Muscovite kingdom.

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 Commonwealth. Left-bank Ukraine did not recognize the agreement and swore allegiance to the tsar. Not wanting to continue the civil war, Y. Khmelnitsky took the monastic vows, and P. Teterya (1663-1665) was elected hetman of the Right Bank, and I. Bryukhovetsky (1663-1668), who was replaced by D. Mnogoreshny (1669-1672) years).

The uprising of 1648-1654 and the subsequent period of unrest (“Ruin”) is sometimes interpreted in historiography as an early bourgeois or national revolution (by analogy with other revolutions of the 16th-17th centuries).

The Andrusovo 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 Muscovite 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 Zaporozhian 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 the protection of which the right-bank hetman P. Doroshenko (1665-1676) passed. This struggle ravaged the Right Bank, caused great damage to the left bank and ended with the division of Ukraine under the Treaty of Bakhchisaray in 1681 between Russia and Turkey and the Crimean Khanate and the “Eternal Peace” of Russia with Poland in 1686. The territories of the three states converged in the region of Kyiv, which remained with Russia and the Hetman Ukraine, which was part of it (hetman I. Samoylovich, 1672-1687).

Ukraine was divided into a number of territories:

1) the left-bank Hetmanship, 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 within 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 14th century;

5) Hungarian Carpathian Ukraine;

6) Bukovina and Podolia, 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 institutes of Moscow control over the left-bank Hetmanate and Sloboda Ukraine, which retained significant autonomy, were: the Little Russian Order established in 1663, small Russian garrisons in individual Ukrainian cities. Between the Hetmanate and the Muscovite state (in the pre-Petrine period) there was a customs border.

A more rigid institutional consolidation of the Left Bank and Sloboda Ukraine, and then part of the Right-Bank Ukraine, occurs in 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 down the hetman's 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 Elizaveta Petrovna gave way to a sharp policy of centralization during the reign of Catherine II. In 1765, Sloboda Ukraine became an ordinary province of the Russian Empire. In 1764, the institute of hetmanship was liquidated, and in the early 1780s, the Russian system of administration and tax collection was introduced. In 1775, Russian troops destroyed the Zaporizhzhya Sich, part of the Zaporizhzhya 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, a 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 divisions 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.

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. 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 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 Moscow 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, Bogdan Khmelnytsky 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 frequented 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 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 force to Ukraine under the command of Prince Trubetskoy, 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 end it.) Yuri Khmelnitsky with his army hurries to help, but hurries in such a way 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 hetmanship itself, breathing its last breath, 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."

Description

Ukrainians (self-name), people, the main population of Ukraine (37.4 million people). They also live in Russia (4.36 million people), Kazakhstan (896 thousand people), Moldova (600 thousand people), Belarus (over 290 thousand people), Kyrgyzstan (109 thousand people), Uzbekistan (153 thousand . person) and other states on the territory of the former USSR.

The total number is 46 million people, including Poland (350 thousand people), Canada (550 thousand people), the USA (535 thousand people), Argentina (120 thousand people) and other countries. They speak the Ukrainian language of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family.

Ukrainians, along with closely related Russians and Belarusians, belong to the Eastern Slavs. Ukrainians include Carpathian (Boikos, Hutsuls, Lemkos) and Polissya (Litvins, Polishchuks) ethnographic groups.

History reference

The formation of the Ukrainian nationality (the origin and formation) took place in the 12-15 centuries on the basis of the southwestern part of the East Slavic population, which was previously part of the Old Russian state - Kievan Rus (9-12 centuries). During the period of political fragmentation, due to the existing local features of the language, culture and way of life (the toponym "Ukraine" appeared in the 12th century), prerequisites were created for the formation of three East Slavic peoples on the basis of the Old Russian nationality - Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian.

The main historical center of the formation of the Ukrainian nationality was the Middle Dnieper - Kiev region, Pereyaslav region, Chernihiv region. At the same time, Kyiv, which rose from the ruins after the defeat by the Golden Horde invaders in 1240, played a significant integrating role, where the most important shrine of Orthodoxy, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, was located. Other southwestern East Slavic lands gravitated towards this center - Sivershchina, Volhynia, Podolia, Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina and Transcarpathia. Starting from the 13th century Ukrainians were subjected to Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish and Moldavian conquests.

From the end of the 15th century, the raids of the Tatar khans, who had established themselves in the Northern Black Sea region, began, accompanied by mass captivity and theft of Ukrainians. In the 16th and 17th centuries, in the course of the struggle against foreign invaders, the Ukrainian nationality was significantly consolidated. The most important role was played by the emergence of the Cossacks (15th century), who created the state (16th century) with a peculiar republican system - the Zaporizhzhya Sich, which became the political stronghold of the Ukrainians. In the 16th century bookish Ukrainian (the so-called Old Ukrainian) language was formed. On the basis of the Middle Dnieper dialects at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the modern Ukrainian (New Ukrainian) literary language was formed.

The defining moments of the ethnic history of the Ukrainians of the 17th century were the further development of crafts and trade, in particular, in the cities that used the Magdeburg right, as well as the creation of the Ukrainian state - the Hetmanate as a result of the liberation war under the leadership of Bohdan Khmelnitsky and its entry (1654) on the rights of autonomy into the Russia. This created the prerequisites for the further unification of all Ukrainian lands.

In the 17th century, there was a movement of significant groups of Ukrainians from the Right Bank, which was part of Poland, as well as from the Dnieper region to the east and southeast, their development of empty steppe lands and the formation of the so-called Slobozhanshchina. In the 90s of the 18th century, the Right-Bank Ukraine and the southern, and in the first half of the 19th century, the Danube Ukrainian lands became part of Russia.

The name "Ukraine", used back in the 12th-13th centuries to designate the southern and southwestern parts of the ancient Russian lands, by the 17th-18th century in the meaning of "krajina", i.e. country, entrenched in official documents, became widespread and served as the basis for the ethnonym "Ukrainians". Along with the ethnonyms that were originally used in relation to their southeastern group - "Ukrainians", "Cossacks", "Cossack people", "Russians". In the 16th - early 18th centuries, in the official documents of Russia, the Ukrainians of the Middle Dnieper and Slobozhanshchina were often called "Cherkasy", later, in pre-revolutionary times - "Little Russians", "Little Russians" or "Southern Russians".

Features of the historical development of various territories of Ukraine, their geographical differences led to the emergence of historical and ethnographic regions of Ukrainians - Polissya, Central Dnieper, South, Podolia, Carpathians, Sloboda. Ukrainians have created a vibrant and distinctive national culture.

Food varied greatly among different segments of the population. The basis of nutrition was vegetable and flour foods (borscht, dumplings, various yushki), cereals (especially millet and buckwheat); dumplings, donuts with garlic, lemishka, noodles, jelly, etc. Fish, including salted fish, occupied a significant place in the food. Meat food was available to the peasantry only on holidays. The most popular were pork and lard.

From flour with the addition of poppy seeds and honey, numerous poppy seeds, cakes, knyshes, and bagels were baked. Drinks such as uzvar, varenukha, sirivets, various liqueurs and vodka, including the popular vodka with pepper, were common. As ritual dishes, the most common were porridges - kutya and kolyvo with honey.

National holidays

Traditions, culture

Ukrainian folk costume is diverse and colorful. Women's clothing consisted of an embroidered shirt (a shirt - tunic-shaped, poly-coloured or on a yoke) and non-sewn clothes: dergi, spares, plakhta (since the 19th century, a sewn skirt - speeds); in cool weather they wore sleeveless jackets (kersets, kiptari, etc.). Girls braided their hair in braids, laying them around their heads and decorating them with ribbons, flowers, or putting a wreath of paper flowers, colorful ribbons on their heads. Women wore various bonnets (ochipki), towel-like headdresses (namitki, obruss), and later - scarves.

The men's costume consisted of a shirt (with a narrow, standing, often embroidered collar with a drawstring) tucked into wide or tight pants, sleeveless jackets, and belts. In the summer, straw bridles served as a headdress, at other times - felt or astrakhan, often the so-called smushkovs (from smushkas), cylinder-like hats. 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 an opancha - long-brimmed clothes of the same type as the Russian caftan made of homespun white, gray or black cloth. The women's suite was fitted. In rainy weather, they wore a retinue with a hood (kobenyak), in winter - long sheepskin coats (casings), covered with cloth among wealthy peasants. Rich embroidery, appliqué, etc. are characteristic.