4_A Submission to the Legislative Commission

(excerpt)

Context

• Author(s): Hryhorii Poletyka
• Date of Publishing: 1768
• Historical Placement: Catherine the Great's reign brought about rationalism and centralization. Part of that process was to get rid of old special contracts and statuses of regions. This led to a revocation of special privileges that the Hetmanate had enjoyed, chief among them, their autonomy. In a legislative Commission which accompanied these developments, Hryhorii Poletyka argued against this and pleaded for the restoration of the Hetmanate's old rights.

Summary

The submission starts by arguing that the newly proposed nobiliary rights are in conflict with the previously established rights of the "Little Russian szlachta" (szlachta means nobility). It then goes on to outline some key rights of the szlachta:

• Little Russian affairs are to be settled by the szlachta (nobility), only trumped by the highest imperial power.
• The szlachta has the right to set and change laws, with the sovereign's permission
• Local authorities and the szlachta have the right to create internal institutions, impose and cancel taxes and to make requisitions, among other things.
• Local civil and military officials must be elected by a free vote, and just Little Russian szlachta is eligible for these positions.
• Members of the szlachta cannot be detained or put into prison for a crime, unless they are caught in the act. He must be called to trial and judged according to the law instead.
• Szlachta have full legal authority over their subjects, including the right of trial.
• The szlachta have the right to travel to foreign countries and use dispose of their property in any way they want.
• The szlachta have the right to determine which of their family members have access to their property.
• The szlachta can freely use all of the resources that are won from their property.
• The szlachta only have to pay a small amount of property taxes
• The szlachta can trade their cattle and domestic property freely.
• If a foreigner without children dies on a szlachta estate, all his property will go to the szlachta, not the state treasury.
• The army cannot be quartered on szlachta property.
• A szlachta manor enjoys such privileges that even a criminal cannot be apprehended without the landlords consent. Instead, they must be summoned to court.
• The szlachta have the right to cut wood, catch wild animals and fish as they desire.
  It continues by stating that all of these rights were granted by the Polish Kings and subsequently re-affirmed by every Russian sovereign, arguing that any changes to them should only be done with general agreement. Concluding, it states that it cannot agree with the newly proposed nobiliary rights.

Takeaways

• The text balances it's obedience to the Russian Empire and its sovereign and a disagreement about the policy of said sovereign.
• It builds upon the notion of rights inherent to Little Russia, asserting it's representative nobility as a necessary component to any decision-making about it.

Source

Ralph Lindheim & George Luckyj (eds.), Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology of Ukrainian Thought from 1710 to 1995 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pages (71-73) .
Academia link | DOI

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