Eighteenth-Century Ukraine: New Perspectives on Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History ed. by Frank Sysyn et al. (review)

Reviewed by: Eighteenth-Century Ukraine: New Perspectives on Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History ed. by Frank Sysyn et al. Lucien Frary (bio) Frank Sysyn, Volodymyr Sklokin, Zenon E. Kohut, and Larysa Bilous (Eds.), Eighteenth-Century Ukraine: New Perspectives on Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History (Montreal, Edmonton: McGill-Queen's University Press and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2023). 648 pp., ill. Index. ISBN: 978-0-2280-1699-1. This timely volume features recent trends in the historiography of eighteenth-century Ukraine. The distinguished editors bring together twenty specialists (mostly in English translation) in a state-of-the-subject compendium on military and political history, society and identity, religion and culture, demographics and disease. The collection stirs debate about the periodization (deemed "always provisional") of this pivotal moment in Eurasian history and provides new perspectives for the comparative study of empire generally. Sharply argued and often innovative, these studies suggest that the time is right for a comprehensive synthesis of early modern Ukrainian history.1 In the introduction, the editors review the topics and sources engaging researchers of eighteenth-century Ukraine, especially since the end of the Soviet Union. Highlighting recent advances in scholarship, they divide the book into four parts: "Cossack Autonomies and Their Demise," "Society, Economy, and Demographics," "Church, Culture, and Education," and "Political and Historical Thought," each containing several concise, well-documented chapters. Geographic knowledge of the Eurasian steppe expanded with the clash of empires and resulted [End Page 187] in the production of maps. Kyrylo Halushko begins the volume with an expert summary of the cartographic work done by travelers who helped situate "the country of the Cossacks" as a politonym on maps of Europe. Maps served as tools of administrative integration, propaganda and legitimacy, and the next chapter, by Volodymyr Kravchenko, explores the "peculiar East-Slavic terminological labyrinth" (P. 58) that constitutes the symbolic geography of the Russian empire. Kravchenko demonstrates the fluidity and instability that characterize both Ukrainian self-identity and the place of Ukraine on the mental maps of educated Russians. As the Russian state advanced, the elite sought symbols to adorn its edifice. Oleksii Tolochko reports on the discovery of Kyiv as a center of archaeological pilgrimage (dubbed both the "Russian Jerusalem" and the "Slavic Pompeii") and historical consciousness among the people of "Rus'," "Great Russia," "New Russia," "Little Russia," and "Ukraine." Empire-building required Empress Catherine II to innovate when dealing with the Sloboda and those in charge of it. Volodymyr Sklokin charts the activity of Evdokim Shcherbinin, the leader of an "enlightened" commission that portrayed the abolition of Ukraine's autonomy as a civilizing act. Shcherbinin employed rhetoric that appealed to the "people" and sought their approval for protection from corrupt Cossack starshyna and clergy. The fluid movement of armies and populations during the era facilitated the spread of disease. The outbreak of bubonic plague in 1770–1771 in Kyiv provides the setting for Oksana Mykhed's chapter on border security and medical reforms: the problems unleashed by the plague actually helped catalyze the centralization and integration of new territories and people. Although the history of bureaucracy may seem colorless, Oleksandr Pankieiev draws on archival material to show how the stationing of hundreds of local officials in steppe Ukraine led to the creation of a permanent, loyal class of individuals willing to support and strengthen the Russian Empire on the ground. Vadym Adadurov concludes the first section with a contribution on Napoleon's Russian campaign, which reveals the remarkable loyalty toward tsarist Russia (and animosity toward pro-French Poland) of the nobility and commoners of the Little Russian gubernia. Romanticized portraits of chivalrous heroes on horseback notwithstanding, the freewheeling lifestyle of the Cossacks became legendary at this time. Hetmanate politics provides the focus of Viktor Horobets's archival-rich chapter on the efforts of St. Petersburg to regulate the democratic traditions of the Cossack military and the complex [End Page 188] interplay between ordinary soldiers, townspeople, and starshyna during the free elections of military fellows (tovarystvo). Next, Oleksii Sokyrko investigates the controversial Hetmancy of Kyrylo Rozumovs'kyi, whose sweeping military reforms promoted fighting efficiency while localizing identity and incorporating officers into a Malorossian Table of Ranks. A companion piece...