Timothy Snyder, The Making of Modern Ukraine, Lecture #11: Ottoman Retreat, Russian Power, Ukrainian Populism
I’ve just finished watching Yale history professor Timothy Snyder’s eleventh lecture for his class “The Making of Modern Ukraine.” This lecture was entitled, “Ottoman Retreat, Russian Power, Ukrainian Populism.”
At the start of this lecture, Professor Snyder entreated the class to remember the date 1699. “What happened in 1699?” he asked. On January 26, 1699 the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed. The treaty concluded the Great Turkish War, and marked the end of the Ottoman Empire’s 400-year expansion into central Europe. This shift in power left central and eastern Europe wide open for the expansion of the Habsburg Empire and the Russian Empire, both of which took advantage of the Ottoman retreat.
But the Ottoman Empire had a small hold-out in Crimea, which was inhabited by Muslim Tatars. Crimea has had strategic value — both military and economic — since Ancient Greece colonized the Black Sea in the 6th century BC. In the 18th century, the value of Crimea was not only as a seaport, but as a source of scimitar-wielding Tatar warriors who fought both for and against all parties concerned, sometimes alongside the Ukrainian Cossacks, who adopted Crimean dress and weaponry (the scimitar).
The Cossacks, who were struggling to maintain their own Ukrainian state, the Hetmanate, found themselves squeezed between the three imperial powers of the region — the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate, and the Russian Empire. As these three powers slugged it out in war after war during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Cossacks aligned themselves first with one power, then another, in an attempt to maintain control over their territory. (Which, interestingly, is the same territory in southern Ukraine that Russia is currently attempting to control.)
Why is this struggle important? During the 18th century the Russian Empire was firmly established in Europe under Peter I and Catherine the Great. (Catherine was German. Her real name was Sophie.) In all likelihood, this would not have been possible without the Cossacks.
The 17th century had been a disaster for the Cossacks, who after a brief period of independence suffered a series of civil wars, known as the Ruin. In the 18th century the Cossacks attempted to restore their state, but had been so weakened by internal strife that they had to align themselves with the other major powers. The Cossacks on the eastern side of the Dnieper River (the left bank) aligned themselves with Russia. The Cossacks on the western side of the river (the right bank) aligned themselves with Poland. In the end, Poland lost. And what had been Ukraine was swept up by the Russian Empire over the course of the 18th century.
In 1719, Cossacks were banned from exporting grain from any but Russian ports. (Then, as now, grain was a major export of the region.) And in 1764 the Cossack Hetmanate was dissolved by Catherine the Great. It was fully incorporated into the Russian Empire as “Little Russia” in 1781.
One of the interesting observations made by Professor Snyder in this lecture was the role language played in establishing colonial control. Once the southern Cossack region of Ukraine had been absorbed by the Russian Empire, and Crimea annexed, Catherine set about renaming the towns and cities. The Crimean and Ukrainian names were replaced with Greek names (e.g. Mariupol) in order to establish the Russian Empire’s historical “ties” with Ancient Greece (there were none in actuality) and thereby legitimizing the empire’s claims over the region. (Putin is using the same strategy.) The incorporation of Ukraine as “Little Russia” also was a way of establishing control through re-naming.
What this lecture brought home was the fact that this region, indeed all of Europe and Asia, had been contested territory, wracked by incessant warfare and internal strife for centuries. Each victor not only reaped the spoils, but imposed their own set of social, economic, and political rules. And with each new colonial expansion, the inhabitants had to adjust to new rulers, much to their dissatisfaction.
You can watch the eleventh lecture for The Making of Modern Ukraine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hde-2h5eEQI
The syllabus for the course is here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/syllabus-of-my-ukraine-lecture-class
You can watch all of Timothy Snyder’s lectures for The Making of Modern Ukraine here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNewfxO7LhBoz_1Mx1MaO6sw_
You can read my summaries of his lectures here: https://ericaverr.medium.com/
Erica Verrillo is the author of the Phoenix Rising Trilogy (Random House). Her short work has appeared in over a dozen publications. She is also the author of the definitive reference guide for treating myalgic encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide, now in its second edition (first edition, St. Martin’s). She holds degrees from Tufts University (BA — History) and Syracuse University (MA — Linguistics) as well as doctoral work in Linguistics, Anthropology, and Speech Communication. Her professional life includes: Spanish language editor for the journal Mesoamerica, linguistics instructor (Dartmouth), Spanish and ESL instructor (Syracuse University), classical musician (Oxford Symphony Orchestra), Mayan linguist (SUNY Albany), and director of a non-profit NGO for Mayan refugees. She is the president of the American Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to to serving the needs of patients and caregivers through support, advocacy, and education. Her writing blog, Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity, has received nearly 8 million page views. You are welcome to visit.
