Ethnic Cleansing of the XVth–XVIIth Centuries in Eastern Ukraine Territories (On the Issue of Sources of Rashist Praxis)

Abstract

The article deals with how Muscovy, in the XVth – early to mid-XVIIth centuries, changed the ethnic composition of the Siverian Lands and the Upper Oka Principalities – the then eastern territories of Rus-Ukraine – due to large-scale ethnic cleansing and their subsequent settlement by Muscovites. It is shown how, in the course of expansionist practices at the dawn of the Russian Empire formation, modern methods of hybrid war arose, with its propaganda, seizure of territories, looting, extermination and deportation of people. There is an analysis of the insufficiently researched events of the late XVth to early XVIIth centuries in eastern Rus-Ukraine, in the Siverian Lands and on its eastern border – in the Upper Oka Principalities. These territories, which, along with other Ukrainian lands, previously belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and were occupied by Muscovy in the course of two wars, were inhabited by Sevryuks and minor communities – Mtsenskians, Lyubuchans, Kozelskians and others. The article’s task is to trace the rhetoric of Moscow’s ruling circles with regard to substantiating the imperial expansion, as well as to study actions of the conquerors from the point of view of identifying their ethnic component, including ethnic cleansing carried out by them. Sources of the study are ambassadorial documents, chronicles, memoirs and diaries of foreigners. Methodology of this historical and anthropological investigation includes achievements of scholars in studying ethnocentric conceptions (Justin Stagl, Anthony Smith, Oleksiy Tolochko) and the behavior of war people in pre-modern times (Philippe Contamine, Natalia Yakovenko). Result. During Muscovite-Lithuanian wars, with the first of which (1486–1494) undeclared, Moscow, for justifying its actions, widely used extensively deception and information sabotage (accusations of intimidating Orthodoxy, etc.), statements about the alleged patrimonial right to the former Ancient Rus lands. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between the conquerors and the local population, in which the own-alien contraposition is displayed. Attention is drawn to the cruel, even for the Middle Ages, Muscovite practices in relation to aborigines: looting, terror, murders, taking prisoners, and even enticement of local princes to their side, annexation and colonization of lands. During the second war (1500–1503), only the lands of the princes, whom Moscow lured to its side by lavish promises and deception, escaped plunder. After the annexation of Sivershchyna, Muscovites started to populate these territories on a mass scale, which, along with the oppression of autochthons, caused dissatisfaction among the latter. Attention is also drawn to the peculiar separatism of Sevryuks, who, during the Time of Troubles in Muscovy in the early XVIIth century, have given support to False Dmitrys, chieftain Bolotnikov and other impostors. To this, Moscow authorities responded with brutal terror, in the course of which the rebels were dealt with in the most terrible way. It resulted in devastation of Sivershchyna, while the remains of aboriginal population were assimilated. Conclusion. The comparison between Russia’s expansionist practices of today and five-to-three hundred years ago, including the great-power demagogy of Russian rulers, as justification for conquest, as well as the predatory behavior of Russian subjects, demonstrates a significant similarity. This indicates that the emergence of the current ideology of Rashism and Rashist practices goes back to old times, when the future Russian Empire just began to come into being.