LEFT-BANK LITTLE RUSSIA IN THE XVII – FIRST QUARTER OF THE XVIII CENTURY: FROM CONTROLLED VOLNITSA (FREEDOM) THROUGH SOCIAL ANARCHY TO GUBERNIZATION

Abstract

Aim. To analyze the process of evolution of the military-democratic system of Little Russia in the context of international relations and Russian politics for two centuries.Methodology. By employing the methods of historical and genetic research combined with content analysis, the author reveals the internal dynamics of the transition of Little Russia from stateless, semi-anarchic forms of social life to integration into the administrative system of the Russian Empire.Results. It is proved that the concept of “Ukraineˮ, in terms of the state-formation, is a completely artificial construct that has no basis in the very past to which the modern Ukrainian ideologists so diligently appeal.Research implications. The author comes to the conclusion that the appeal to the history of Little Russia as to the civilizational forerunner of the modern Kiev regime can be justified only in case of illustrating the continuity between the Ukrainian anarchy of the XVII century and its modern modifications.

Keywords

• Left Bank of Little Russia
• Little Russian Collegium
• social and economic life of the Cossacks
• Russian-Polish-Turkish tensions
• the phenomenon of Hetmanate