Power Structures of the Early Modern Ukrainian State: Colonel’s Role in Regulating Land Relations

Abstract

The purpose is to clarify the prerogatives of regimental leaders in land relations in Hetmanshchyna, to identify the institutional role of colonels in resolving land conflicts, and to compare their functional responsibilities with specific governance practices based on the involvement of a wide source base.

To understand the nature of the power interaction of the Cossack state at the local / regimental level in the field of regulating land relations, scientific approaches of social history and historical anthropology, the new social history, and microhistory were applied. Their application contributes to understanding not only the institutional nature of the prerogatives of colonels in the settlement of issues related to the acquisition of land in Hetmanshchyna and the confirmation of the relevant rights, but also the study of the practices of applying these power capabilities, paying attention to individual incidents of the implementation of the provision policy by the heads of regiments.

The scientific novelty is the conclusions about the breadth of the prerogatives of the colonels of the Zaporozhian Host in the settlement of land relations and the correlation of their functional capabilities depending on the status of the corresponding soil.

Сonclusions. The power prerogatives of regimental commanders, among other important administrative functions, included a wide range of issues related to the regulation of land relations in the Hetmanshchyna. The regimental leaders managed the land fund, which consisted of free lands — former crown lands and lands and plots forced to be abandoned by the nobility (szlachta), from which the fund of so-called rank estates was formed as a result of the Cossack Revolution of the mid-seventeenth century. Colonels’ land grants were mostly temporary. Cases of transfer of land “for all times” concerned only lands that had the legal status of wastelands. At the same time, there was a stable practice of confirming the colonels’ grants with the relevant universals of the Hetman’s government or letters of the Moscow tsar. Colonels distributed vacant land among the Cossack administration (starshyna) and noble Cossacks as a reward for their military service. Later, references were added to encourage the recipient to perform good service in the future. Sometimes, the grants were motivated not only by the recipient’s previous or future service merits but also by the service of his relatives, such as a father or son. Even if the land was purchased by a Cossack or a foreman, the colonel also had to permit to establish a farm or village on it. There was a practice when the same colonel confirmed the legitimacy of ownership of the same property not once but several times during his term