Does Ukraine Have a History of Liberties? On Early Modern Ukrainian Studies

Abstract

The present review article explores the question of whether the post-Soviet Ukrainian historians have shown any interest in the history of liberties in their own country, and if so, what have they discovered on the subject. Firstly, I discuss the way in which Ukrainian historiography re-evaluates the country’s original ‘reunification’ with Russia during Khmelnitsky’s uprising (1648-1654). The uprising is today interpreted as the foundation of an independent hetman state. However, the main change has occurred in the evaluation of what is called Hetman Orlik’s constitution of 1710. It is considered today as the culmination of independent Ukrainian development. It has achieved cult status and is regarded as the first constitution, which introduced the separation of powers and safeguarded the Cossacks’ liberties. The critical interpretation of early modern history by Natalya Yakovenko is appreciated here; because she put early modern Ukraine back into the Polish context, she also developed a specific realistic method of history-writing and critically evaluated the impact of the Cossack wars. The Rzeczpospolita’s place in Ukrainian history has been further defended in the works of Mikola Krikun and Oleksandr Vynnichenko from the University of Lviv. However, it is in the realm of constitutional history that a fixed rights-centred historical narrative has been developed. In the last section, we recall some topics of the era after the loss of independence which are neglected in the Ukrainian research. These are the codification of 1728-1743 and the philosophical work of Yakiv Kozelskiy connected to the Legislative Commission of 1767.