The role of Opishnia in the history of Slobozhanshchina of the 17th century

Abstract

The article considers in chronological order information about the participation of people from Opishnia (modern Poltava region) in the processes related to the development of lands of Sloboda Ukraine. The purpose of the research is to characterize the activity of persons connected with the town of Opishnia in the events that took place in Slobozhanshchyna in the late 1630s and early 1670s. The methodological basis of the research is the principles of historicism, systematization in combination with historical-comparative and micro-historical methods. Scientific novelty of the research. For the first time, all currently known mentions of the town of Opishnia in the late 1630s and early 1670s arecomprehensively analyzed in published written sources concerning the history of Slobozhanshchyna at that time. It is found that settlers from this town came to the settlements created by the Moscow state in the late 1630s - in the 1650s. After all, Opishnia had a border status and, at least since the 1620s, there was a crossing to the left bank of the Vorskla River near it, from where the shortest route was from Kyiv, Lubny and Myrhorod to the east, where Yablonov, Chuhuiv, Pechenehy and Kharkiv were being settled at that time. Mention of the settlers from Opishnia is connected with these settlements. Immigrants from different regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukrainians and possibly Belarusians and Wallachians, they stayed in Opishnia for a short time, since this settlement itself was formed around 1640. All the materials found show that the war-torn settlers from Opishnia moved to the territory of the mostly modern Kharkiv region after social cataclysms associated with various military actions covering the Middle Vorskla. They came mainly from the lower classes, were pro-Moscow, but freedom-loving, so they often bothered the Moscow authorities. At the same time, they made a significant contribution to the development of the infrastructure of the sparsely populated area by the beginning of the 17th century. Conclusions. An analysis of the information published in written sources allows to conclude that the natives of Opishnia played an important role in the processes that took place in Sloboda Ukraine in the 1630s - early 1670s. In particular, with their active participation, several settlements were established.