The poles in Kyiv region, Volyn and Podillia: from the divisions of the Polish-lithuanian commonwealth to the january uprising

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to do a comprehensive analysis of the policy of the Russian Empire concerning the population of Right-Bank Ukraine (nobility, peasantry) in the context of socio-political and military processes at the end of the 18th – mid-19th centuries. The principles of historicism, scientific objectivity, systematicity and comprehensiveness are the theoretical and methodological foundations of the research. Such general and special scientific methods of the study as: logical, problem-chronological, historical situational, comparative have been used to solve the objectives. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the study of the state authorities role in the settlement/intensification of ethno-social conflicts on the Right-Bank, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the Polish-Ukrainian (noble-peasant) relations at the micro level, the levelling of myths and stereotypes about them, which gave rise to the Polish and Ukrainian historiography during the last century. The Conclusions. At the end of the 18th century the entry of Right-Bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire did not decrease the influence of the Polish nobility in the region, which was integrated into the power vertical of the Romanov Empire gradually. The factor of “wealthy Polish nobility” and “poor Ukrainian peasantry” determined the priorities of St. Petersburg's ethno-social policy in the region: the former, de facto, received unlimited rights and opportunities, while the latter were granted a disenfranchised status, which naturally contributed to the growth of a social tension in the South-West region and stimulated anti-noble/anti-Polish uprisings. speeches. The anti-noble uprisings showed the shaky position of the Russian administration in the region, which was threatened with defeat without the support of the Ukrainian peasantry. In this context, the peasants of Right Bank acted as a kind of guarantor of the nobility's obedience.