The Annals of UVAN, Vol. IV-V, Summer-Fall, 1955, No. 4

380 Pages·1610·4.92 MB·English

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
DMITRY ČIŽEVSKY
Haward University
OLEKSANDER GRANOVSKY
University of Minnesota
ROMAN SMAL STOCKI
Marquette University
VOLODYMYR P. TIMOSHENKO
Stanford University
EDITOR
MICHAEL VETUKHIV
Columbia University
TECHNICAL EDITOR
HENRY M. NEBEL, Jr.
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Copyright 1955, by the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the
U.S., Inc.
THE ANNALS
of the
UKRAINIAN ACADEMY
of Arts and Sciences in the U. S.
Vol. IV-V Sum m er-Fall, 1955 No. 4 (14)-1 (15)
Special Issue
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE
SOUTHERN UKRAINE
(1750-1775)
N. D. Polons’ka -Vasylenko
Published by
THE UKRAINIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
IN THE U.S., Inc.
New York 1955

THE ANNALS OF THE UKRAINIAN ACADEMY OF
ARTS AND SCIENCES IN THE U. S., INC.
Special Issue
CONTENTS page
Introduction .................................................................................. 1
Part One
COLONIZATION OF NOVA SERBIYA AND
SLAVYAN OSERBIYA
I. The Return of the Zaporozhians to their “Free
Lands” .............................................................................. 5
II. Colonization of the “Places Beyond the Dnepr” and
the “Ukrainian Line” ................................................ 19
III. Recruitment of Foreign Colonists and the Plan to
Establish Military Settlements in Nova Serbiya and
Slavyanoserbiya ............................................................. 40
IV. The Territory of Nova Serbiya and Slavyanoserbiya 50
V. The Administration of Nova Serbiya and Slavyano­
serbiya .............................................................................. 75
VI. The Foreign Population of Nova Serbiya and Slavy­
anoserbiya ..................................................................... 102
VII. The Ukrainian Population of Nova Serbiya and Sla­
vyanoserbiya ................................................................. 121
VIII. Concluding Remarks on the Colonization of Nova
Serbiya and Slavyanoserbiya .................................... 163
Part Two
SETTLEMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW RUSSIA
I. The Territory of the Province of New Russia .... 181
II. Administration of the Province of New Russia .... 193
III. Plan of Settlement of the Province of New Russia 200
IV. Distribution of Land to Landlords and the Settling
of Estates ..................................................................... 218
V. Colonization of State Settlements and Towns
A. State Settlements ..................................................... 238
B. Town Population ..................................................... 257
VI. Some Conclusions on Colonization ........................... 266
VII. Relations between the Settlers of the New Russia
Province and the Zaporozhians ................................ 290
Bibliographical Note ................................................................. 333
Bibliography.................................................................................. 339
Map ............................................................................................... 351
Index to the M ap.......................................................................... 351
A Note on Transliteration......................................................... 353
Editor’s Note.................................................................................. 354
PREFACE
This work is the result of more than thirty years research in
the archives of the Ukraine and Moscow. Orginally, The Settle­
ment of the Southern Ukraine, 1750-1775, was to be the first vol­
ume of a broader historical work—The Settlement of the South­
ern Ukraine in the Eighteenth Century. The second volume of
this work was to be The Settlement of the Southern Ukraine,
1775-1797, but it was lost during the Second World War.
The author wishes to acknowledge the help and assistance of
the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U. S., espe­
cially, its president, Professor M. O. Vetukhiv; the Research Pro­
gram on the U.S.S.R. and its assistant director, Dr. Robert Slus-
ser; the translator, Professor Ihor Ševčenko; Dr. Mark Raeff, who
helped in the preliminary editing, and Professor O. P. Ohloblyn,
who helped during the final editing of the work.
N. Polons’ka-Vasylenko
The translating and editing of this study were carried out
with the assistance of the Research Program on the U.S.S.R.
(East European Fund, Inc.). Its publication as a Special Issue
of the Annals was facilitated by a grant from the Research
Program.
The views of the author are her own and do not necessarily
represent these of the Research Program on the U.S.S.R. or the
East European Fund.
INTRODUCTION
The subject of the present work is the colonization of the
Southern Ukraine in the middle of the eighteenth century, the
period in which this movement reached its peak.
The years 1734 and 1775 were chosen as the chronological
boundaries of this study. The first date marked the relase of the
Zaporozhian Cossacks from the Tatar protectorate and the found­
ation of the New Sich (.Nova Sich) on the Pidpil’na River; the
second, the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich. This period
was characterized by features distinguishing it from the years
which preceded and followed.
During the period of the New Zaporozhian Sich the coloniz­
ing activity was intensified. The Zaporozhian nobility (starshy-
na), in the process of strengthening and consolidating, strove
to develop the rural economy in these regions, which led to an
ever-growing struggle with the Russian authorities for the land.
The establishment of Nova Serbiya (New Serbia) and Slav­
yanoserbiya (Slavic Serbia), foreign military colonies, founded
partly on the borders of Zaporozhian “Free Lands” (Volnosti,
i. e. privileged territories) and partly on these Zaporozhian lands
proper, is the second salient feature of the period under discus­
sion. Their purpose was to protect the Russian frontiers from
Tatar incursions as well as from possible complications which
might arise in dealing with the Zaporozhian Cossacks. However,
these colonies did not justify the hopes and the trust put in
them by the authorities; they failed to form a reliable bulwark,
but, instead, were the first step of the Russian authorities towards
the destruction of Zaporizhzhya.
A third feature was the abolishment of the Serbian colonies
and the establishment of the province of New Russia (Novo-
rossiiskaya guberniya) in their stead. The Russian authorities,
in penetrating more and more deeply into the Zaporozhian step­
pes, were preparing the destruction of Zaporizhzhya. This whole
period is characterized by an incessant and increasingly active
colonization in the direction of Southern Ukraine. Ukrainian
and Russian peasants were fleeing serfdom’s evertightening grip.
1
9 THE ANNALS OF THE UKRAINIAN ACADEMY
Masses of settlers from the Left-Bank Ukraine and from Russia
were joined by those from the Right-Bank Ukraine, when the
extensive privileges by which the landlords had lured settlers
to abandoned lands were curtailed. Then, too, towards the mid­
dle of the eighteenth century both the Russian government and
the Zaporozhian nobility began to use all means to attract set­
tlers to the Southern Ukraine. Settlements (.slobody, privileged
communities) and towns, organized by the state or the landlords,
were set up. In this period the flow of Russian and Ukrainian
capital is hardly noticeable. The establishment of the Serbian
military colonies and the province of New Russia, half military
in character, was to protect the landlords of the Left-Bank and
and of Slobids’ka Ukraine (part of the Left-Bank Ukraine)
from Tatar and Zaporozhian incursions from the south. At that
time, Ukrainian and Russian landlords did not dare come to
these territories, so fraught with insecurity and danger. There­
fore the majority of landlords, who had been allotted lands there,
were officers of local regiments and employees of the local chan­
ceries. Only the more enterprising and versatile representatives
of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, most of them
Russian, came there, founding mills and factories and establish­
ing commercial relations.
The year 1775, the end of the period under discussion, is a
decisive date between two epochs. By the Treaty of Kuchuk-
Kainardji (1774), Russia gained control over the Black Sea
littoral, which opened a broad route for commercial relations
with both Asia and Europe. The Crimean protectorate guaran­
teed that the Ukraine would not be molested by Tatar invasions.
The destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, which had presented
an obstacle to the movement of Russian capital in the direction
of the Black Sea, introduced a radical change in the position of
the country. The vast area of the Zaporozhian “Free Lands’’ was
incorporated in the provinces of New Russia and Azov (Oziv).
These lands then became the field of expansion for Ukrainian
and Russian landlords. Huge latifundia were founded there,
whose wheat and other agricultural produce were channeled
towards the Black Sea ports.