The book by professor of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy Natalia Yakovenko, which has become a Ukrainian intellectual bestseller in recent years, offers an alternative view of ten centuries of Ukrainian history (IX-XIII centuries) to the traditional national narrative. The author contrasts the stories of the suffering of a people yearning to find their own state with the history of Ukraine as a long process of civilizational encounters (West and East, Orthodoxy and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy) and the result of the interaction and conflicts of various states, ethnic and social groups that created the unique cultural contours of that , which was destined to become present-day Ukraine. In the light of this concept, the discussion points of the common Ukrainian-Russian history also find a new and diverse interpretation. To whom belongs to the heritage of Ancient Rus'? Was the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 a “reunification”? How to explain the contradictions in the personality of Ivan Mazepa? The rigor of the scientific description and the elegance of the style make Yakovenko's book both serious and fascinating reading. At the moment, this is the most complete introduction to the pre-modern history of Ukraine published in Russian, which can serve as a textbook.

CONTENTS: Introduction. What is this book about? 5Territory of Ukraine: historical core and later additions. — Names and self-names of Ukrainian territory. — East and West in Ukrainian reading. — Preface to the second edition [2005] Section I. From Cue to the “last Viking” Svyatoslav 31 Cue and his “glades” are a rebus for historians. — Rus and “Russian land” in the 9th–10th centuries. Section II. Under A sign of Byzantine civilization 531. Kievan Rus - state and people 53Vladimir's baptism of Rus' in legend and reality. — Contours of the state building of the 11th century. — The struggle of the princes for the Kiev “communion” in the 12th–13th centuries. — People of Rus': oratores, bellatores, laboratores. — Writing. Language. “Old Russian nationality” or ethnic groups?2. Rus' and the Steppe 103 Nomadic states are enemies / neighbors of the Russians. — The Empire of Genghis Khan and the Genghisids before the attack on Rus'. - Batu's campaigns. Creation of Ak-Orda, or Golden Horde3. Galicia-Volyn Principality - Rus' Kingdom 121Formation of territory. "Separatism" of the Rostislavichs. — Wars for the “Galician inheritance.” Danilo Galitsky. — New redistribution of the “Galician inheritance.” The end of the Kievan-Russian history. — Where did the Kievan-Russian history “flow” Section III. Dissimilar branches of the Russian trunk (late XIV - mid-XVI century) 1441. Galician and Podolian Rus' 144 Changes in the ethnic composition of the population in the XV century. — From the boyars and warriors to the Rusyn gentry of the “Polish nation.” — Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches: first experiences of coexistence. — Religious and ethnic diversity of cities. Urban "nations". — Spread of Magdeburg law. The first craft workshops. — “Discovery of the world” through books and travel. Latin school in Russian cities. — “Galician Renaissance”: neo-Latin poetry, architecture, plastic arts2. Kiev and Volyn lands 175Gedimin and Olgerd - “gatherers of Russian lands.” - Grand Duchy of Lithuania under Olgerdovich and Vytautas. — Svidrigailo in the dynastic war of 1432–1438. — Two Social Models XV V. Volyn Svidrigailo and the Kiev Principality of Olelkovich. — Changing the balance of power between Vilna and Moscow. The uprising of Mikhail Glinsky. — “Princely syndrome” is the calling card of Volyn in the 16th century. — Gaining independence of the Kyiv Metropolis. Coexistence of Orthodox and Catholics. — City, city law, city population. — From particular privileges to the legislative system: Lithuanian statutes and reforms of the 1560s.3. The first hundred years of the Cossacks 225Wild field. Thresholds. Great Meadow. — Early mentions of Cossacks-Tatars and Cossacks-Rusyns. Dispute about the origins of the Ukrainian Cossacks. — The Crimean Khanate is a catalyst for the Cossack region. — Knights of Christianity in Muslim dress. - Zaporozhye Sich of Prince Baida-VishnevetskySection IV. Ukraine-Rus is the third wheel in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth “Two Peoples" 2511. Union of Lublin and the first decades after the union 251Attractiveness of the union. - Volynians and Kyivians at the Lublin Sejm in 1569: the Uniform Privilege. — A surge of princely power after the union. — Meeting of Rus' with Russia: Galician gentry in Volyn and the Kiev region. — The birth of the “old-time Russian people.” — Ostrog Academy2. Church and Russian society from the Brest Cathedral to the legalization of the Orthodox hierarchy (1596–1632) 275On the eve of the inter-church union. — Two councils in Berestye in 1596 — Protestants are the third force in the dispute. — Verbal war for and against inter-church union. — Power conflicts between “Rus' and Russia.” Jesuit missionary work and hostility towards the Poles. - The gentry and burghers are guarding Orthodox “piety.” — Secret ordination of the metropolitan under the protection of a Cossack saber. — New political consciousness, or the emergence of a “third people” in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of “Two Nations”3. Nobility, common people, Cossacks: a node of interrelation and contradictions 316Colonization of the steppe borderland. Poles and Jews in the newly developed territory. — Peasants, boyars, townspeople: the specifics of their way of life. — Cossacks between the “reform of Stefan Batory” and the death of Peter Sagaidachny. — The struggle for self-assertion: Cossack wars of 1625–1638.4. The bifurcated world, or the General image of the culture of Ukraine-Rus at the end of the 16th - mid-17th centuries. 372First steps on the path of confessionalization: “mentality of reforms.” — School, college, gymnasium, academy. — Diversity of linguistic and religious practices. — “Sarmatians-Roksolans” and/or “Polish Sarmatians”. — The world of the majority against the backdrop of the “reform mentality” of elite cultureSection V. Cossack era 4071. Cossack revolution 1648–1657. 407Bogdan Khmelnitsky is a man, a leader-liberator, “the scourge of God.” — On the scales of military happiness. - The horrors of war. - Hetman's diplomacy in search of a way out. — Pereyaslav Agreement of 1654 — Territory and model of power/governance of the Cossack state. — Senior Corps: social and ideological incompatibility. — The beginning of the Moscow-Polish war. Death of Bohdan Khmelnitsky2. Ruin (1658–1678) 483Introductory chord to the civil war: Martin Pushkar against Ivan Vygovsky. — An attempt to return to the familiar world: the Gadyach Agreement of 1658 — The bitter fate of Yuras Khmelnichenko. — “War of the Coasts”: Pavlo Teterya and Ivan Bryukhovetsky. — Andrusovo halving of 1667 — Demyan Mnogohreshny for and against Moscow. — Turkish alternative to Petro Doroshenko. — Man-made desert after the Chigirin Wars of 1677–1678.3. Mazepa and the Mazepas 522The many faces of Ivan Mazepa. — The path to the Poltava disaster. — Vae victis. — Attempt of revenge by Pylyp Orlik4. The last decades of the Cossacks in Right Bank Ukraine 557 “Turkish” hetmans - “Polish” hetmans. — Paliivschina5. Culture illuminated by the glow of war 563Generational rhythms of the “long” 17th century. — The birth of the “Cossack-Russian fatherland.” — Changes in the life of the Orthodox Church. Past and present through the eyes of its servants. — The image of Ukrainian history in the “literature of clerks”: Grigory Grabyanka, Pylyp Orlyk, Samoilo Velichko. — Zaporozhye Sich is the quintessence of democracy. — “Us” and “them”, or New perception of neighbors. — In the bizarre world of the BaroqueSection VI. Between Speech The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire 6131. “The Prophecy of Vernigora”, or Koliyivshchyna: the dilemma of Ukrainian-Polish relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 613The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between chaos and attempts at “direction”. — Nobles and townspeople: sketch of a social portrait. — Faith of the poor: the phenomenon of Hasidism. - Peasant problem. Social banditry: oprishki and haidamaks. — Explosion of Koliivshchyna in 1768 — Changes in the life of the Church. Basilian enlightenment2. The extinction of Cossack autonomies in sub-Russian Ukraine 656Political-administrative structure and society of the Hetmanate. — “Cossack liberties” in the St. Petersburg edition of the 1720–1740s. — A streak of hope: the reign of Kirill Razumovsky (1750–1764). - New order, new “ranks”, new “nobles”. — The latest attempts to prevent changes in the Hetmanate. — The quiet decline of suburban Ukraine. — The final half-century of the Zaporozhye Sich. Applications 701 Bibliography. — List of illustrations. — Name index