Daily life of the peoples of Ukraine, the Volga region, Siberia and the North Caucasus. Culture of Ukraine in the 17th century: History of Ukraine

The usual clichés, which few people think about, are used by everyone, including historians. For example, "The sheet of Bogdan Khmelnitsky,
sent from Cherkasy to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, with a message about the victories over the Polish army and the desire of the Ukrainian people to unite with Russia" from June 8, 1648 .
Excuse me, but where does it say about the Ukrainian people? I did not manage to see a single document that would speak about the Ukrainian people. Until the second half of the 19th century, the concepts of "Ukrainian people", "Ukrainian nation", etc. did not exist in nature.
Here is the name of the territory "Ukraine" occurs periodically. But it has nothing to do with the name of the people living on this land, which has long been known to everyone. Suffice it to recall the Siberian Ukraine. For example, the siege of the Kumar prison was reflected in Russian folklore. In the middle of the XVIII century. in Siberia, Kirsha Danilov recorded the song "In the Siberian in Ukraine, in the Daurian side" with a poetic description of the battle.

Returning to the "Ukrainian people" and the naming of Khmelnytsky's letter, it is easy to make sure that Bohdan does not write about any people inhabiting Ukraine. In all surviving written sources, we are talking about the Zaporizhian army, of which he is the head (photocopy and text below).

The situation is similar with absolutely all documents that have come down to us. Interestingly, even in documents written by ardent enemies of Russia. The same heir of Mazepa, Philip Orlik, wrote in Russian about the Russians inhabiting the banks of the Dnieper. In the famous pseudo-constitution, preserved both in Latin (for Charles) and in Russian (for his own), the enemy of Peter the Great and Russia does not call the inhabitants of Ukraine Ukrainians. However, Ukraine is not Ukraine for him, but "Our Motherland is Little Russia." And Orlik writes about the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian army and about the Russians. But he, just like Khmelnytsky, Vyhovsky, Vyshnevetsky and other hetmans, had no need to avoid mentioning the Ukrainian people. On the contrary, speaking against Russia, it would be logical to emphasize in documents addressed to the same Poles, Tatars, etc. their difference from Russians and call themselves Ukrainians.

You can often hear the explanation that Ukrainians are actually Russians, and Russians in Russia are not really Russians. Therefore, they say, all hetmans write about themselves as Russians.

There is a homespun truth in the fact that Little Russia, as even Taras Shevchenko called it, was inhabited by Russians, heirs and descendants of the inhabitants of Kievan Rus. They did not consider themselves Ukrainians, so they were not called by a false name. But they did not consider the inhabitants of Russia to be impostors either. If they did, then the aforementioned hetmans would inevitably write about it, especially in correspondence with the enemies of Russia. The same Vygovsky after the Battle of Konotop should have written about the victory over the impostors, not the Russians. Yes, and they would call themselves not the hetmans of the Zaporizhian army, but the kings, rulers, sovereigns, ... of all Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. But it didn't occur to them.

Didn't think of it?

The most clear, majestic and glorious to the Tsar of Moscow, and to us 33 lords of merciful pan and kindness.
Likewise, with the contempt of God, it has become what we ourselves have made and tried about it, at the present hour we could through
see the envoys of your good health to your royal majesty and pay your lowest bow. God Almighty
having congratulated us from your royal majesty, sending, even if not to us, to Pan Kisel, messages in his needs, which comrades
our Cossacks in the long run, they turned before us, before the troops. Through whom we joyfully came to see your royal majesty
inflict a warning on our old-time Greek viria, for which from ancient hours and for the waves of its crooked merit, from the kings
we reconcile the long-standing prejudice, and until the quiet hour from the godless Aryans we can’t rest.
[T]orets our savior Jesus Christ, having appalled the falsehood of poor people and the crooked tears of orphans of the blind, with affection and mercy
looking back at us with his saints, likewise, having sent his holy word, he fought us. Which hole was dug under us,
they themselves collapsed into the nussia, but the two troops with their great camps helped the Lord God to open up and take three hetmans with live bait from others
their sanators: the first one on Zholta Vody, in the field in the middle of the Zaporozka road, the commissar Szemberk and the sin of the pan of Krakow, not a single
did not enter the soul. Then the hetman himself, the great Pan Krakow, from the innocent good man Pan Martin Kalinowski, hetman
full of crowns, near Korsun the city both fell into captivity, and the army of all their quarters is sparingly beaten; we didn't take them, 34
alet these people took them, who served us [in the other world] from the king of the Crimea. It was given to those us and about that your [royal] majesty
know that the singing vision of us came from Prince Dominik Zaslavsky, who before us sent begging about the world, and from Pan
Kisel, voivode of Braslav, but the song of the king, our pan, death took, so with reason, but with the same godless reasons
this and our enemies, who eat a lot of kings in our land, for whom the land is now completely empty. Zichili bihmo sobi
the autocrat of such a ruler in his land, as your royal grandeur, the Orthodox Chrestian king, azali bi
the prophecy from Christ our God was fulfilled, that everything is in the hands of his holy mercy. In what we upevnyayut your royal majesty, if
beat the will of God for that, but hasten your royal infection, do not be afraid, step on the panship of that, but we are with all the Army
For Zaporozky, we are ready to serve your royal majesty, to which we can, with our lowest services, seem to be bestowed.
And change it will be too much for your royal majesty, if the Poles want to attack us again, hurry up at the same time
and from our side attack them, and we will take them away for God's help. And may God fix the old wiki familiar
the prophecy, to which we ourselves have fallen, to the merciful nugs of your royal majesty, as if more humiliated, is humbly given.
Date from Cherkas, June 8, 1648.

Your royal majesty the lowest servant. Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Hetman of the Army of His Royal Grace Zaporozky.

Below is a photocopy of Orlik's pseudo-constitution written in Russian. It is easy to read "to the great memory of the Zaporizhian army and the entire people of Little Russia glory and memory" (at the very end). It is difficult to assume that the document written for the enemy of Russia, the Swedish King Charles, used a false naming of local residents.

And here's what the pseudo-constitution was actually called. Pay attention to the date - the month of April. Obviously not Ukrainian.
In general, the situation is absurd. People live side by side, genetically no different from each other, who had a common state on these lands more than a thousand years ago, when most of the current nations of Europe simply did not exist (look at least at France in the 10th century). In the written documents that have come down to us, they use the same language, they also call themselves the same. Church books are also published in the same language, even in Lvov, even in Kyiv or other Russian cities.

And are they different nations?

P.S. The Germans today live quietly in Germany and in Austria. But in the years when the above documents were written, no Germans, as they understand themselves today, existed. In 1701, the kingdom of Prussia had just appeared. And the difference in languages ​​was such that even today the southerners hardly understand the northern Germans. Although no one talks about different languages ​​- only about dialects of German.

So who sows discord in the current state of Ukraine?

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 came out on 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, 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, bringing with them, from which the tsar and boyars were dizzy: taxes are not collected, 60,000 gold pieces that Moscow sent to 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 greeted 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 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 hetmanate 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 12th-15th centuries on the basis of the southwestern part of the East Slavic population, which was previously part of the Old Russian state - Kievan Rus (9th-12th 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 people - 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-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 kind of 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 Slobozhanschina. 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 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 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, porridges were the most common - 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 - a speed shirt); in cool weather they wore sleeveless jackets (kersets, kiptari, etc.). Girls braided their hair into braids, putting 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 caps (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.

Modern Ukraine occupies the territories of a number of principalities into which Kievan Rus broke up in the 12th century - Kyiv, Volyn, Galicia, Pereyaslav, Chernigov, Novgorod-Seversky, as well as part of the Polovtsian Wild Field.

The name "Ukraine" appears in written sources at the end of the 12th century and is applied to the outskirts of a number of named principalities bordering on the Wild Field. In the XIV century, their lands became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also became "Ukrainian" in relation to it (and after the Polish-Lithuanian Union of 1569 - in relation to the Commonwealth). Chronicles of the XV-XVI centuries. “Ukrainians” are known not only in present-day Ukraine. There were, for example, Ryazan Ukraine, Pskov Ukraine, etc.

For a long time the words "Ukraine", "Ukrainian" had not an ethnic, but a purely geographical meaning. The Orthodox inhabitants of Ukraine continued to call themselves Rusyns until at least the 18th century, and in Western Ukraine until the beginning of the 20th century. In the treaty between Hetman Vyhovsky and Poland dated 1658, according to which Ukraine became an independent state in union with the Commonwealth, the Ukrainian state was officially called the “Russian Ukrainian Hetmanate”.

In the 14th century, the term “Little Russia” arose in Byzantium, by which the patriarchs of Constantinople designated, to distinguish from the Moscow metropolis, a new metropolis with a center in Galich, created for the Orthodox on the lands of present-day Ukraine. The name "Little Russia" is used from time to time in their title by the last independent Galician princes ("Kings of Russia" or "Little Russia"). Subsequently, the opposition between Little and Great Russia received a political justification: the first was under the rule of Poland and Lithuania, and the second was independent. However, these names came from the fact that Little Russia was the historical core of Kievan Rus, and Great Russia was the territory of the later settlement of the ancient Russian people (cf. in antiquity: Little Greece - Greece proper, Great Greece - southern Italy and Sicily).

The name "Little Russia" (in the Russian Empire - Little Russia) for the present Ukraine was also adopted by the tsars. At the same time, the inhabitants of Ukraine themselves never called themselves Little Russians. This was the definition given to them by the Russian administration. They coexisted with two self-names - Rusyns and Ukrainians (over time, they began to give preference to the second), although in the 19th century the government actively propagated the opinion that they were part of a single Russian people.

There was another name for part of the Ukrainians - Cherkasy. There are conflicting hypotheses about its origin. It did not apply to all Ukrainians, but only to the Cossacks. The first information about Ukrainian Cossacks dates back to the end of the 15th century. These were free people who did not obey the masters and settled in the territories of the Wild Field. Cherkasy raided the camps of the Tatars in the steppe, and sometimes they themselves were attacked by them. But the steppe freemen attracted more and more people from the estates of the Polish and Lithuanian lords to the ranks of the Cossacks. Not any Cossacks were called Cherkasy, but only the Dnieper Cossacks (then the Ryazan Cossacks were known, and in the 16th century - the Don, Terek, etc.).

Ukrainian historiography made the Cossacks the basis of the national myth. However, in fact, for a long time the Cossacks did not care who to rob. In the 16th century, both the Crimean Khanate and the cities of the Commonwealth, where Orthodox Ukrainians lived, were subjected to their invasions. Only from the beginning of the 17th century did glimpses of aspirations for independence for the whole of Ukraine begin to appear in the movement of the Cossacks against the Commonwealth.

The Cossacks often and willingly put up with the Polish kings if they provided them with more benefits. The bulk of the Polish-Lithuanian troops that flooded the Muscovite state in the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century were Cherkasy. Poland sought to put the Cossacks under its control and included part of the Cossacks in the so-called. registry, which was paid a salary for service on the border with the lands of the Crimean Tatars. At the same time, most of the Cossacks were outlawed, which did not stop those who wanted to "Cossack" in an independent military republic based in the Zaporozhian Sich.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who raised the Cossacks in the middle of the 17th century to the war of liberation, was not up to his historical task. He counted more on an agreement with the king than on the Ukrainian peasantry, who were ready to oppose the Polish pans, but did not wait for Khmelnitsky's Cossacks to support him. As a result, Bogdan was unable to retain most of the Ukrainian lands and asked for patronage from the Muscovite tsar.

The difference in the political concepts of the two parts of Russia was revealed immediately, as soon as the Moscow government took Khmelnitsky (1653) under its control. The Cossacks understood the alliance with Moscow as a bilateral alliance, in which Ukraine not only retains its government, finances and troops, but also the freedom of external relations, and Moscow does not have the right to appoint its governors and governors in Ukraine. In addition, the Cossacks insisted that the tsar personally swear an oath to fulfill the contract, just as Khmelnitsky swore allegiance to the tsar.

But the boyars answered that they did not have it for the tsar to swear to someone. They considered Khmelnytsky's move only as a transition to the autocrat's allegiance, and some autonomous rights left to Ukraine as a favor bestowed on her. After that, taking advantage of the war with Poland, Moscow appointed its governors to the main cities of Ukraine, who began to carry out justice and reprisals, and placed garrisons there. This cooled the zeal of the Cossacks for the same faith in Moscow. Already Bohdan Khmelnitsky himself has actually deviated from Moscow, establishing relations with Sweden and the Crimea against both Poland and Russia. Under his successors, the betrayal of part of the Cossack elite to Moscow became obvious.

For many years, Ukraine became the arena of struggle between Russia and Poland, as well as the Cossacks themselves, who supported one side or the other. This time has received the name Ruin in the history of Ukraine. Finally, in 1667, a truce was signed between Russia and Poland, according to which the Left-Bank Ukraine and Kyiv retreated to Russia.

In the era of the Ruins, hundreds of thousands of people fled from the Right-Bank Ukraine to the Russian bank of the Dnieper. Right-bank Ukraine, which remained behind Poland, lost any shadow of autonomy. Things were different in Left-bank Ukraine. The Little Russian Hetmanate was an autonomy within Russia until the betrayal of Mazepa in 1708. They had their own laws and courts (in the cities, self-government was preserved according to Magdeburg law), the hetmanate had its own treasury and departments. In peacetime, the tsars had no right to send Cossacks to serve outside Ukraine.

In 1727, the government of the princes Dolgoruky, under the young Tsar Peter II, restored the hetmanate, but in 1737, during the period of Bironism, it was again abolished. The hetmanship was revived again by Elizaveta Petrovna in 1750, and in 1764 Catherine II finally liquidated it.

The Ukrainian state is located in Eastern Europe. This country borders on Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and Russia. It has access to the Black and Azov Seas.

In ancient times, the current Ukrainians were called Little Russians and Rusyns. The Ukrainian nationality originates from the Eastern Slavs. Ukrainians live mostly in their own territories. But in some countries you can still meet representatives of this nationality: In Russia, the USA, Canada and other states.

Poleshchuks, Boikos, Hutsuls, Lemkos - all these ethnographic groups belong to the Ukrainian people.

Peoples inhabiting Ukraine

Today, the main population of Ukraine are Ukrainians and Russians themselves. Also, Belarusians, Moldovans, Tatars, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians and Poles live in Ukrainian territories.

In addition, some Ukrainians live in foreign territories: in Canada, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

The Ukrainian nationality is also made up of foreign Rusyns - Slovaks, Serbs, Americans and Canadians. Also, many Hutsuls live in Ukraine.

Modern Ukraine for a long time included Slavic-speaking and Iranian-speaking peoples. Gradually, the Iranians were evicted by the Turks. The Germans also lived here for some time. But the Greeks, Armenians and Jews lived the longest in the Ukrainian lands.

In Soviet times, the composition of the population of Ukraine changed somewhat - Jews, Poles, Germans, Tatars began to leave the territory of Ukraine, and at the same time, the Russian people began to move there.

The ethnic structure of Ukraine changed under the influence of both external and internal factors - religion, differences in living standards, historical events and foreign policy.

Culture and life of Ukraine

Ukrainian life is full of color and religiosity. Tourists have always admired the beauty of the nature of these places and the character of the people.

The main feature of the Ukrainian nationality is the love for work and agriculture. This feature appeared in ancient times, because the Ukrainian people have always depended on the agricultural year.

What is a tradition or custom in many countries is commonplace and everyday for Ukrainians. For example, folk songs. People just need to entertain themselves by working in the fields.

If we talk about national clothes, then the men's outfit cannot be compared in brightness and beauty with the women's. A beautiful shirt with embroidery is belted with a hem. A velvet or silk corset and an embroidered apron are worn over this. Clothing is decorated with multi-colored ribbons, giving a special colorfulness to the outfit. The headdress is of particular importance - unmarried women wore a flower wreath, married women wore a high ochipok covering their hair.

A men's suit looks much simpler than a woman's: a long shirt, harem pants, a sleeveless jacket and a long belt.

Family in Ukraine is of great importance. Therefore, Ukrainians observe all the rules of marriage and family life.

Traditions and customs in Ukraine

Ukrainians have always honored and respected the traditions of their ancestors. And even after the adoption of Christianity, they were able to connect their past with the present.

Speaking of religious traditions, it is worth noting Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, Trinity and Ivan Kupala.

Christmas in Ukraine begins with the celebration of Holy Evening on January 6th. On this day, people cook kutya and uzvar. And on Christmas every family sets a festive table overflowing with meat dishes.

One of the Christmas customs is carols. Carol-makers go from house to house and collect gifts and goodies. They distribute roles among themselves - birch, latkovy, treasurer, bread-bearer, star star, dancer, etc.

Maslenitsa is still a pre-Christian holiday. It is held in honor of the end of winter and the onset of warm days. Today this holiday is held a week before Lent. As a rule, these days people cook pancakes with various fillings, treat each other, burning the effigy of Winter.

An Easter custom is to dye chicken eggs and bake Easter cakes. People meet each other with the words: "Christ is Risen!", and in response they hear: "Truly Risen!".

The feast of the Trinity is celebrated for 3 days. Green Sunday is the day when girls perform fortune-telling rites. It is believed that on this day the predictions come true. Checkered Monday is the day of consecration of fields from fires, hail and crop failure. The third day is Bogodukh's day. On this day, the girls play various games.

The holiday of Ivan Kupala is famous for its mysticism. They say that on this day you can hear the conversations of evil spirits. And if you bathe in a spring or drink dew, then all negativity is washed off a person.