| Popis: |
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the military and political elite (“starshyna”) of the Cossack Hetmanate confronted a new series of threats from Imperial Russia, which sought to redefine the nature of its relations with the autonomous “Little Russian” polity. Cossack officials attempted to maintain their status, political influence, and wealth in the face of Peter I’s efforts to prohibit the election of the hetman and to control appointments and distribution of lands, in the process transforming themselves into landlords ("new nobility"). After Peter’s death, the starshyna demanded that the Russian government equalize their status with that of the other imperial officers and officials. To that end, Cossack officials drafted and tried to approve three Ukrainian counterparts (1742, 1756, 1762) to Peter I’s "Table of Ranks" (1722). These projects reflected the actual practices of career promotion and seniority in the Cossack corporation. In the future, they became one of the arguments in the Cossack elite’s struggle to obtain the rights of the Imperial Russian nobility. |
