VIEWS OF THE NATIONAL ELITE OF THE COSSACK ERA ON THE MONARCHICAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61345/2734-8873.2024.1.15Ключові слова:
form of government, monarchism, hetman, Cossack officers, starshyna, tsarist autocracy, Ukrainian model of monarchismАнотація
At the present time, when the Ukrainian state is going through a difficult process of defending its independence, it is important to study the historical origins of our statehood, which shows the process of state formation in Ukraine. Specifically, it is important to understand the historical experience of the Cossack statehood during the latter half of the seventeenth century, including the challenges it faced in terms of foreign policy and international relations.
In the mid-17th century, Europe underwent a period of social and political development marked by the formation of national states and the establishment of bourgeois relations. Ukraine was not exempt from these pan-European processes. The Ukrainian liberation struggle aimed to create an independent Ukrainian state and introduce new social and economic relations based on small-scale (in fact, farmer-type) Cossack ownership of land. During the latter half of the 17th century, the Cossack state was divided between two forms of government due to the hetmans’ desire to establish a monarchy. However, the Cossacks’ senior officers (starshyna) firmly adhered to republican principles, primarily defending their own class interests. This article aims to elucidate the unique characteristics of the political culture of the Cossack officers and their inclination towards establishing a monarchical form of government.
The article’s methodology is grounded in general scientific principles and methods of cognition, with the aim of providing an objective and comprehensive coverage of facts, events, and phenomena. It is based on the principles of historicism and objectivism in scientific research, which prioritize factual material and avoid subjective evaluations. The topic was approached using general scientific and specific-historical research methods. Sources and literature were analyzed and synthesized, research was structured using periodization, historical material was presented using problem-historical method, and similar indicators and facts were compared using comparative- historical method in the same historical conditions.
Result: Yet even the monarchical tendencies were essentially democratic: the legitimacy of power, the public-law rights of Cossack officers, the preservation of local self-government bodies and legal procedures give all the reasons to assert that there were prospects for the development of the European-like monarchical form of government in the Ukrainian Cossack state of the second half of the XVII century.
Conclusions: The knowledge gained from studying this topic can be used to prevent, forestall, or overcome various crises that inevitably arise during the determination of public policy in various areas of public life.
Посилання
Apanovich, Elena. “Government officials of Hetmanshchyna: Ukrainian intellectuals of the XVIII century”, Ukrainian Historical Journal, no. 2. Kyiv, 1997, p. 92–97. [in Ukrainian]
Giddens, Anthony. Sociology, Kyiv: Science, 1999, 292 р. [in Ukrainian]
Gorobets, Victor. Elite of Cossack Ukraine in search of political legitimization: relations with Moscow and Warsaw, 1654-1665. Kyiv: 2001, 533 р. [in Ukrainian]
Gorobets, Victor, and Alex Strukevich. “Russian-Ukrainian Political Relations in the Second Half of the 17th-18th Centuries: Trends, Сharacterization, Stages”, Ukrainian Historical Journal, no. 1. Kyiv, 1996, р.26-31. [in Ukrainian]
Kogut, Zenon. Russian Centralism and Ukrainian Autonomy. Imperial Absorption of the Hetmanate, 1760s–1830s, Harvard University Press, 1989, р. 293. [in English]
Kogut, Zenon. “Russia and Ukraine in the 18th century: the state and prospects of the study of political relations history”, Second International Congress of Ukrainianists, Kyiv, 1994, р. 124–131. [in Ukrainian]
Krivosheya, Volodymyr. Ukrainian Cossacks’ Starshyna, part 1, Kyiv: Stylus. 1997, 103 р. [in Ukrainian]
Lipinsky, Vyacheslav. Ukraine at the turn of 1657-1659. Notes on the history of Ukrainian state construction in the XVII century. Vienna-Kyiv: Ed. Dnipro Union of Consumers Unions of Ukraine («Dniprosoyuz»). 1920, 110 р. [in Ukrainian]
Matyah, Valentine. “Value orientations of the Ukrainian society in the conditions of the Russian protectorate (the basic directions of scientific research)”, Ukraine in the Central-Eastern Europe. Studies on the history of 11th-18th centuries, Kyiv : Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2000, p. 419–434. [in Ukrainian]
Mitsik, Yuri. “Political concepts of Bogdan Khmelnitsky: some aspects of implementation”, Time of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (to the 400th anniversary of the birth of the great hetman), Kyiv, 1995., p. 32–36. [in Ukrainian]
Mitsik, Yuri. “Political culture of the Ukrainian society (end of the 16th— first half of the 17th century)”, Ukrainian Historical Journal, no. 5. Kyiv, 1998, p. 120–127. [in Ukrainian]
Mosca, Gaetano. “The ruling class”, Sociological studies, no. 10. Moscow, 1994, p. 179–187. [in Russian]
Nagorna, Larissa. Political culture of the Ukrainian people: historical retrospective and modern realities. Kyiv: IPiEND named after IF Kuras of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,1998, 278 р. [in Ukrainian].
Okinshevich, Leo. “Generalna Starshyna on the Left Bank Ukraine in the 17th-18th centuries”, Works of the Commission of learning the history of Western Russian and Ukrainian law, no. 2. Kyiv, 1926. 167 р. [in Ukrainian].
Okinshevich, Leo. Significance of military society in Ukraine Hetmanshchina in 17th-18th centuries, 120. Munich, 1948. [in Germany ].
Potulnitsky, Volodymyr. History of Ukrainian political science (Concepts of statehood in Ukrainian foreign historical and political science). Kyiv : Science, 1992. 249 р. [in Ukrainian].
Smoliy, Valery. Ukrainian society at the turn of the Middle Ages and the new time: essays on the history of mentality and national consciousness. Kyiv: Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2001. 421 р/ [in Ukrainian].
Smoliy, Valery, and Valery Stepankov. Idea of Ukrainian State in 17th-18th centuries: Problems of Formation, Evolution and Implementation, Kyiv: Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 1997. 368 р. [in Ukrainian].
Stepankov, Valery. “Formation of the Ukrainian state elite and peculiarities of its mentality in the middle of the XVII century (1648– 1657). Formulation of the problem”, Ukrainian Cossack state: origins and ways of historical development (Materials of the third All-Ukrainian historical readings). Cherkassy, 1993. Р. 28–35. [in Ukrainian].
Strukevich, Alex. “’March Articles’ as a source of political autonomy of Ukraine Hetmanshchyna in the middle of the 18th century”, Russian- Ukrainian Treaty of 1654: new approaches “to the history of interstate relations” (Materials of scientific-theoretical seminar). Kyiv, 1995. Р. 44–62. [in Ukrainian].
Strukevich, Alex. “Political and Cultural Orientations of the Cossacks’ Starshyna in the middle of the 18th century in the pan-European context”, Ukrainian Cossack state: origins and ways of historical development /Materials of the sixth All-Ukrainian historical readings. Cherkassy, 1997. 134–146 р.р. [in Ukrainian]
Cimbalisty, Вogdan. “Political Culture of Ukraine”, Modernity, no. 3 Kyiv, 1994. Р. 94–105 р.р. [in Ukrainian].
Yakovenko, Natalya. Parallel world. Researches on the history of representations and ideas in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries, 263. Kyiv: Science, 2002. 263 р. [in Ukrainian].