“White Planters” of “White Slaves”: the Nobility of the Left- Bank Ukraine on the Eve of the Great Reform

Abstract

The article is devoted to the historiographical estimation of the participation of the nobility of the Left Bank Ukraine in the preparation of the peasant reform of 1861. An attempt is made to overcome the simplified ideas about the peculiarities of serfdom on the Left Bank and outlined the main ways to overcome historiographical inertia in the perception of noble-peasant interaction in the pre-reform period. The main focus is on identifying the basic stereotypes about the role and position of the nobility in the social transformations of the mid-nineteenth century. The position on the readiness of the social elite for the emancipation of the peasantry is substantiated. The author’s concept is based on the statement that in the analysis of the problems of serfdom it is necessary to take into account regional features. It is inappropriate to divide, as is usually done, the nobles into those who resisted the liberation of the peasants, and a few supporters of the reform. The author considers the mood of representatives of various groups of the nobility of the Left-Bank Ukraine on the eve of the reform of 1861, their positions are illustrated by various sources. The article emphasises that there is no need to generally blame those members of the regional nobility who did not want to unconditionally agree to the terms of the reform proposed by the government. During the abolition of serfdom, aristocratic reformers were outraged by the distrust, over-regulation, and guardianship of the imperial bureaucracy. They were convinced that this contradicted the very spirit of reform and the nobility’s idea of freedom of economic activity. This approach will help to avoid uniformity, involvement in the analysis of the actions of the nobility of the Left-Bank of Ukraine in the atmosphere of preparation and implementation of reform and will understand the pre-reform social and intellectual situation in its entirety.