Ukrainian Voivodeship Sejmiks in Exile in the iddle and Second Half of the 17th Century: A Research Proposal

Abstract

The article analyzes the relevance of studies devoted to the history of Ukrainian voivodeship sejmiks in exile. It concerns the parliamentary practices of noble corporations from Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Bratslav voivodeships, which, due to the Cossack revolution of 1648, lost access to their estates and were forced to migrate to other parts of the Polish-Lithuanian state. The purpose of the paper is to pose a question for future research related to the subject of exiles from the Ukrainian voivodeships and their parliamentary activities.One of the tasks was to review the historiography on the history of parliamentary system, whose research topic consisted in various aspects of the activity of knightly circles from Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Bratslav voivodeships in chronological frameworks from the beginning of the Cossack revolution of 1648 and throughout the second half of the 17th century. As this topic is poorly presented in domestic historiography, this work analyzes foreign academic achievements. First of all, it concerns the publications of Polish historians whose research interests are directly related to refugees from the eastern borders of the Commonwealth. Besides, the article outlines a range of research questions that are relevant to the study in regard to the potential of the source material. Possible topics include the comprehensive analysis of the parliamentary practice of the Ukrainian knighthood in exile, the exploring of local political elites, and common assemblies of Ukrainian nobility during the period of their forced migration. The necessity of the research is caused by the fact that domestic historians primarily study the events of the middle – second half of the 17th century in relation to the existence of the Hetmanate. Given this, attention to the analysis of the activities of the exiled nobility will allow a broader overall presentation of the struggle for the Ukrainian lands in the above mentioned chronological frameworks and more extensive knowledge about the history of parliamentarism in the period after Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s speech.