Спадщина Польсько-Литовської держави в соціокультурних процесах Козацького Гетьманату другої половини XVII–XVIIІ ст

ENThe article investigates the influence of traditional models of political and legal organisation of society, social connections, and political representation characteristic of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the political culture and practices of early modern Ukrainian (Cossack) statehood, as well as the dynamics of socio-cultural changes in the second half of the 17th-18th centuries. Despite the prevailing concept in traditional Ukrainian historiographical discourse of a rigid opposition between “Cossack” and “noble” democracy, with the former marked as socially just and the latter as a manifestation of the dominance of one leading estate to the detriment of other estates, the analysis of the socio-cultural practices of the Hetmanate shows a close genetic connection between them. The most obvious receptions of the Commonwealth’s experience manifested themselves in the field of military construction, where the model of the Hetmanate’s armed forces, with its characteristic division into irregular estate-based Cossack troops, a permanent hired (mercenary) army, and artillery, directly followed the model of the Commonwealth. However, in the realm of social relations, the algorithm of privileging the Cossack estate, the formation of patron-client relationships, the demonstration of social prestige, etc., repeated the relevant Commonwealth practices. In the development of representative democracy in the Hetmanate, the experience of noble assemblies became relevant. Under the conditions of the imperial policy of Russia, aimed at unifying the structure of autonomy to general imperial norms, the efforts of the Hetmanate’s authorities to restore in Ukraine the models of judiciary, traditions of noble assemblies, free elections, and other elements of social life genetically connected with the Commonwealth, were an important means of preserving early modern Ukrainian statehood.