Hetmanate

Hetmanate 

(Russian, Getmanshchina). (1) Semiofficial term, starting in the second half of the 17th century, for the Left-bank Ukraine. After the Ukraine was united with Russia in 1654, the Hetmanate became, along with Kiev, a constituent part of the Russian state. The Hetmanate was ruled by a hetman elected by the General Host Rada. It enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy, having its own administrative-territorial system, courts, finances, and army. Feudal and serf-owning relations predominated in its sociopolitical structure. In 1722 and 1734 the tsarist government temporarily suspended the rule of the hetmans, and in 1764 the Hetmanate was abolished once and for all.

(2) A counterrevolutionary dictatorship of the pomeshchiks(landlords) and bourgeoisie in the Ukraine in 1918, headed by the henchman of the German occupation forces P. P. Skoropadskii, a former tsarist general and large pomeshchik. The German command issued an order dissolving the Central Rada and staged an election for its Ukrainian hetman on Apr. 29, 1918. Skoropadskii staffed his government with representatives of the large pomeshchiks and capitalists. By a special charter the hetman restored private ownership of plants and factories and introduced a regime of drumhead military courts. The struggle of the Ukrainian people for restoration of Soviet power, led by the Bolsheviks and relying on the support of the Russian people, brought about the defeat of the German occupation and the elimination of the Hetmanate in the middle of December 1918. On December 14, Skoropadskii fled to Germany.

REFERENCES

Lenin, V. I. “Tezisy o sovremennom politicheskom polozhenii.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36.
Istoriia grazhdanskoi voiny v SSSR 1917-1922, vol. 3. Moscow, 1957.
Istoriia Ukrains’koi RSR, vols. 1-2. Kiev, 1967.

A. V. LIKHOLAT