The study of the history of the class struggle of the peasantry in the eighteenth century requires attention to the lower forms of anti-feudal struggle compared to the uprisings, such as the "search for the Cossacks" and escapes, which became widespread in Left-bank Ukraine in the second half of this century. They are still insufficiently covered in the literature, especially the first 1 . Some sources on these issues have been published, 2 but the bulk of them have not yet been introduced into scientific use.

The policy pursued by tsarism fully corresponded to the desire of the Ukrainian feudal lords for the final enslavement of the Peasant-Cossack masses. The Cossack foreman, who occupied a dominant position in the Left-bank Ukraine, seized most of the land in their hands. The lands that had previously belonged to non - enslaved peasants-the so-called free military authorities-have almost disappeared. If according to the audit of 1741 there were 4,695 households belonging to non-enslaved peasants in the region, according to the audit of 1753 - 1,723 yards and 1,852 out - of-court huts, then according to the audit of 1764-only 813 yards and 603 out-of-court huts, where more than 4 thousand male souls lived .3 The decree of May 3, 1783 completed the registration of serfdom in the Left-bank and Sloboda Ukraine. In 1785, the Ukrainian feudal lords were finally equalized in rights with the Russian nobility.

Along with the peasants, the object of feudal exploitation increasingly became the Cossack masses, who gradually lost their rights and privileges obtained during the liberation war of 1648-1654. One of the most common forms of feudal offensive against ordinary Cossacks was the seizure of their lands. In addition to military service, the Cossacks were used by the government and the senior administration as cheap labor for the construction and repair of fortresses, digging canals, etc. The bulk of the Cossacks, being on their own support both during their service at outposts and during campaigns, nevertheless had to pay a significant part of the taxes collected from the population Left-bank Ukraine. All this made the ordinary Cossacks a natural ally of the peasantry in the class struggle. Nevertheless, even in the second half of the 18th century, the position of ordinary Cossacks (personal freedom, the right to land) was favorably different from that of peasants deprived of these rights.

In such circumstances, the movement of "seeking Cossacks", i.e., attempts by peasants to obtain Cossack rights through judicial and administrative institutions, became very widespread. This peculiar anti-feudal movement, characteristic of the Left-bank Ukraine, was born in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when the Cossack elders, having strengthened their economic positions, launched a decisive offensive against the peasant-Cossack masses.

By decree of April 16, 1723, the government tried to settle the rather acute issue of solving the cases of "seekers of the Cossacks". According to the decree, anyone who could prove on the basis of the Cossack lists or the testimonies of old Cossacks that he or she either served in the Cossack service himself or came from a Cossack family could leave the ranks of "subjects" and enroll in the Cossack estate .4 Interviewing witnesses

1 This issue is discussed in the book: Gurzhiy I. O. Village massacre in Turbayi (1789-1793). Kiiv. 1950, as well as in the work of the bourgeois emigrant historian V. A. Myakotin " Essays on the social history of Ukraine "(Vol. 1, vol. 3. Prague. 1926).

2 Селянський рух на Украiнi (середина XVIII - перша чверть XIX ст.) Зб. док. i м-лiв. Киiв. 1978.

3 TSGADA, f. 13, op. 1, d. 34, ll. 34-39ob.; d. 22, ll. 235-235ob., 42-54ob.; TSGIA of the UKRAINIAN SSR, f. 269, op. 1, d. 4451, ll. 9-10ob.; f. 763, op. 1, d. 472, ll. 43-53ob.

4 PSZ. T. 7, N 4196.

page 167

he passed through special question points: the Cossack witness had to know very well not only the "seeker of the Cossacks" himself ,but also his father and grandfather. 5 Of course, it wasn't easy to find such a witness.

The decree of 1723 was also valid in the second half of the XVIII century. Many peasants who had never belonged to the Cossack class, i.e. were not subject to this decree, but somehow acquired Cossack lands, began to seek the Cossacks. In connection with the spread of this movement, the Kiev Regimental Chancellery in 1750 was forced to ask the General Military Chancellery for the second time as soon as possible to achieve a new decree, "so that those who were predicted to be Cossacks (i.e.," seekers of the Cossacks " - A. P.), for a single reason, that they live on Cossack grounds, for non-obedience, after a long time according to their petitions, the Kiev regimental Chancellery decided that red tape and ruin were not reviled in vain. " 6
The movement of "seeking Cossacks" included not only enslaved Cossacks and peasants, but also a part of the townspeople, as well as the peasants of the so-called free settlements .7 This led to the appearance in 1755 of the Hetman's order, which determined the procedure for filing "claims about the Cossacks" for the burghers and peasants of "free settlements" .8
"Looking for the Cossacks" became much more difficult after the publication of the universal law of 1760, according to which peasants were allowed to move to other places only with the written permission of the landowner and without any property (this hetman's universal law was also confirmed by the tsar's decree of 1763). Thus, if a previously enslaved Cossack or peasant who sought Cossack rights, If he could at least leave his landowner, then now this exit from" citizenship " became almost impossible.

With its liquidation in 1764. In the Left-bank Ukraine of the hetmanate, the decision on the fate of the "seeking Cossacks" passed to the Little Russian Collegium. Relying on her support, the Ukrainian feudal lords dealt with those subjects who declared their desire to move to the Cossack class. The number of such facts is very large. In 1766, the Little Russian Collegium received a complaint from residents of the village of Sokirintsy against the Prilutsky colonel G. Galagan, who, in response to the attempt of several subjects to regain the Cossacks lost under his father, I. Galagan, seized their property, and then tortured them in the landowner's yard: "With unusual barbars (rods. - A. P.) he beat his naked body inhumanly, so that the blood was splattered and the body fell from the bones, and with that tyrannical torment of one of us, Cyril Gaevenka, he seasoned to death, and brought others to illness." When the son of the murdered man, Moses, filed a complaint against Galagan with the Little Russian Collegium, it did not make any decision on punishing the fanatical landowner. At the same time, the board refused M. Gaevenko asked to be included in the Cossack class (on the grounds that he "sought the Cossacks" not through a direct family line) and ordered him and his brothers to remain subjects of Galagan 9 .

Trying in every possible way to prevent their subjects from entering the Cossack class, the senior leadership also used those legislative acts that limited the operation of the decree of 1723 in relation to "seeking Cossacks". The report of Colonel Krizhanovsky to the General Court of Gadyatsky, which dates back to 1765, is significant in this regard. Justifying your right

5 This is how, for example, Cossacks Ivan Borovik and Semyon Filimonenko - witnesses of the Olishevka village of the Kiev regiment Mikhail Serik, who was "looking for Cossacks" - were interrogated (in turn) in the General Court: "The first question is: How old are you? The second question is: Do you know the petitioner's grandfather and why exactly, and what his name and nickname were, whether he was the plaintiff's grandfather by his father, and where he lived, in what town or village, on what grounds - on the Cossack or owner's and whose exactly, and whether he sent Cossack service or was in whose citizenship and in whose exactly, if he served as a Cossack, then in what campaigns, outfits and other commanders, in what years and under what commanders... by whom and why do you know all this completely? The third question is: This is higher than what you have shown, is it the very truth that you have shown?". Similar questions were raised about the father of the "seeker of the Cossacks" (TsGIA of the Ukrainian SSR, f. 56, op. 1, d. 322, ll. 40-41).

6 Ibid., f. 51, op. 1, d. 488, l. 2.

7 The situation of the peasants of the "free settlements" (i.e., those who owned lands not yet captured by the feudal lords after the liberation war of 1648-1654) was similar to that of state peasants in Russia.

8 TsGIA of the UKRAINIAN SSR, f. 269, op. 1, d. 2634, ll. 4, 7.

9 Ibid., f. 54, op. 3, d. 1238, ll. 17, 18; f. 56, op. 2, d. 17, ll. 21, 22, 28, 41, 42. On the reprisals against the "seeking Cossacks" , see ibid., d. 1555, l. 2; d. 1186, l. 2; f. 763. op. 1, d. 176, l. 2; etc.

page 168

on subjects who began to "search for the Cossacks", he wrote that "all the Cossacks are sitting on Peasant soil" 10, and referred to the royal decree of 1734, according to which a Cossack who sold his land, even if he continued to live on it, became a peasant, obliged "according to the proportion of his estates, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth duties to pay and repair"11 .

Such legislative measures, of course, somewhat weakened the movement of "seeking Cossacks". However, in general, it remained one of the most widespread forms of struggle of the masses of the Left - bank Ukraine against feudal oppression even in the 60s and 70s of the XVIII century.

Fearing the strengthening of popular movements, the landowner-senior administration was forced to recognize Cossack rights for individual "seekers of the Cossacks". In 1779, after a long period of judicial red tape, the General Court, based on the decree of 1723, recognized Cossack rights for the subject of the former Hetman K. G. Razumovsky Kotsyuba. The Malorossiyskaya Collegium 12 agreed with the decision of the General Court .

The "search for the Cossacks" during the wars was somewhat facilitated. Needing military strength, the tsarist government sought to replenish the ranks of the Cossacks at the expense of"seeking Cossacks". Relatively easily in 1773 (i.e., during the war with Turkey), the Cossack rights of I. Bondarenko, a subject of the landowner A. Evreinova, were recognized .13
Since 1782, cases on the "search for the Cossacks" in large numbers came to the viceroyalty boards created in Ukraine. In the report of the provincial prosecutor dated May 19, 1782 to the Novgorod-Seversk viceroyalty board, it was stated that "many enter the viceroyalty board complaints against various local landowners about attracting them, who bring those complaints, to their citizenship, proving that they are Cossacks by nature" 14 .

After the legal registration of serfdom in 1783, which actually existed in the Left-bank Ukraine, peasant crossings were finally banned. However, the decree of 1783, apparently, could not stop the movement of "searching for the Cossacks". Data for 1783 for Kiev, for 1790 and 1791 for Chernihiv, for 1795 and 1797 for the Novgorod - Seversk viceroyalty indicate that cases of "seeking Cossacks" continued to be considered there15 .

Another common form of peasant protest against feudal oppression in the left-bank Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century was escaping. It is difficult to determine their number. But it is possible to trace the stages and trends in the development of this form of struggle and, to a certain extent, assess its scale. In the second half of the 18th century , more than 60,000 people 16, i.e. more than 3% of the total population of the region17, fled from the territory of Left-bank Ukraine . The main areas of shoots recorded in the 50s-60s of this century are the Right-bank Ukraine and Zaporizhia Sich 18 . It was during these years that the feudal nature of the policy of the senior administration and the government sharply increased. During the 1770s, only 3 thousand fugitives can be counted.

The decrease in the number of escapes was probably explained by the fact that under the influence of the Peasant War of 1773-1775, more active forms of struggle prevailed in Left - bank Ukraine (armed actions, arson of landowners ' estates, deforestation, etc.). For the second half of the XVIII century, the greatest number of escapes occurred in the 80s - the period of final enslavement Peasant-Cossack masses of the left-bank Ukraine, when the number of registered fugitives exceeded 26 thousand people 19 .

According to other sources, in 1783-1791, more than 30 thousand people fled from the Kiev and Chernihiv governorates alone .20 The landlords of the first of them complained that the peasants were no longer fleeing singly or alone.

10 Ibid., f. 53, op. 3, d 2079, l. 6.

11 PSZ. T. 9, N 6614.

12 TsGIA of the UKRAINIAN SSR, f. 56, op. 3, d. 2618, ll. 27, 36, 37.

13 Ibid., op. 1, d. 322, l. 33.

14 Ibid., f. 206, op. 3, d. 483, ll. 1, 2.

15 Ibid., f. 193, op. 2, d. 66, l. 376; f. 204, op. 2, d. 509, ll. 2-8; d. 585, ll. 2-4, 22; f. 206, op. 3, d. 6743, ll. 3, 22.

16 Подсчитано по: Селянський рух на Украiнi, с. 406 - 454. The fleeing families indicated in these documents were counted in the number of people based on the fact that a peasant family at that time on average consisted of 6-7 people (Perkovsky A. L. Evolyutsia sim'i i gospodarstva in Ukraine in the XVII-1st floor. XIX art. В кн.: Демографiчнi дослидження. Вип. 4. Киiв. 1979, с. 43).

17 The population of the Left-bank Ukraine in 1783 was about 2 million people (Perkovsky A. L. Uk. soch., p. 39).

18 Селянський рух на Украiнi, с. 407 - 426.

19 Ibid., pp. 426-445.

20 Central Scientific Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Department of Manuscripts, f. 10, 3537, l. 104.

page 169

families, but "whole villages", while not only secretly ," but also explicitly", finding shelter "on the one hand, within the borders of Poland, and on the other - within the borders of the Ekaterinoslav province". The local authorities were often powerless to resist the escapes, because the peasants, "conspiring among themselves, often accumulate in great parties and are so strong and bold that they dare to resist anyone who tries to block their way." 21
In the 90s of the XVIII century, when serfdom took root in the southern regions of Russia, the number of fugitives decreased to almost 3 thousand 22 . But even then the escapes of serfs and Cossacks remained one of the most common forms of anti-feudal struggle. It caused huge economic damage to landlords ' farms. A concrete idea of this is given by the complaint of the landowner I. Sontsov to the Chernihiv viceroyalty board (1796) against the Miloradovich landlords (Kharkiv viceroyalty), who took in the peasant A. Stepanov who escaped from him. Sontsov demanded that not only the serf be returned to him, but also a monetary compensation of 200 rubles (in compensation for the loss from paying recruitment and salary taxes to the treasury for the fugitive for 2 years) 23 .

In 1795, a report was received from the zemsky court of Pogar to the Novgorod-Seversk viceroyalty board that 1,542 people had fled from the estates of landlords, state-owned possessions and Cossack kurens over the past two years (Cossacks-306 souls of young peasants and 109 women; state peasants-20 souls of young peasants and 12 women; the rest in the overwhelming majority most of them are serfs). At the same time, the landlords lost the most efficient part of the rural population, as people in their 20s and 40s mostly ran away .24
The main reasons for the escape of the Cossacks were harassment by the elders and the ruin of farms 25, an increase in duties and taxes. In 1763, Chernihiv Colonel Miloradovich was forced to ask the General Military Office to reduce the number of outfits for the Cossacks of the village of Kudrovka Sosnitskaya hundred, who began to flee the village in groups and one by one. On February 15, 1792, the Chernihiv State Chamber reported to the viceroy's board that the Cossacks of Bodakva village, Lokhvitsky uyezd, Shuleki village, Golenko town, and Ya. Lugovsky with their families had fled in 1789. Well-to-do Cossacks also ran away, sometimes together with farmhands .26
If they were caught, the fugitives would be severely punished. Those who tried to escape to the Zaporozhye Sich were publicly punished with sticks. The Little Russian collegium ordered the local administration to make sure that " no one, both from the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, could go to the Zaporozhye Sich to settle, but those who went there, if they came at least had a passport or ticket for passage to Little Russia and back to the Sich, should be taken under guard." 27 . The viceroyalty boards, based on reports from the zemstvo courts, gave so-called publications about fugitives to all parts of the Left-bank Ukraine, and often beyond its borders.

In contrast to the "search for the Cossacks" (to a certain extent legalized form), shoots more clearly and deeply reflected the socio-economic processes that took place in society. Each new stage of enslavement gave another impetus to the class struggle, which in the region under study was expressed in the expansion of the scale of both the "search for the Cossacks" and escapes.

21 Там же; Селянський рух на Украiнi, с. 246 - 247.

22 Селянський рух на Украiнi, с 445 - 454.

23 TsGIA of the UKRAINIAN SSR, f. 204, op. 5, d. 7131, ll. 1-11.

24 Ibid., f. 206, op. 3, d. 7919, ll. 274-284ob.

25 Ibid., f. 51, op. 1, d 2966, ll. 1-4; d. 2077, ll. 1, 2; f. 54, op. 3, d. 2994, ll. 4-12, 15, 16; d. 8658, ll. 1, 2; d. 1552, l. 2; f. 206, op. 3, d. 4200, l. 2.

26 Ibid., f. 51, op. 1, d. 2517, ll. 1-4; f. 54, op. 1, d. 535, l. 1; f. 204, op. 5, d. 5529, ll. 2, 3.

27 Ibid., f. 54, op. 3, d. 8658, l. 11.

page 170

Permanent link to this publication: