Ukraine signed the Pereia Slavic Agreement with Russia, the two countries began a history of merger, and Ukraine began to accept the protection of the Russian Tsar.
In the beginning, Ukraine still enjoyed almost all the rights of an independent state, its Cossack system was retained, even the Cossack legion system was retained, Ukraine had its own financial and tax system, the head of the Cossack Legion Was equivalent to an independent state power, but almost 130 years after the merger of Russia and Ukraine, the ukrainian system of autonomy was completely abolished, the Cossack Legion was abolished, and the Legion was transformed into a gendarmerie as part of the Russian army.
In fact, after the merger of Russia and Ukraine, the Tsarist government has been trying to abolish Ukraine's system of autonomy. During the reign of Peter I, the "Northern War" broke out, which also provided a good opportunity for Peter I to abolish the ukrainian autonomy system.
Peter I
The Northern War was a war fought by the Russian Empire for supremacy with the Kingdom of Sweden in order to seize the outlet to the Baltic Sea. At the end of the 17th century, in order to acquire more territory, Sweden took a series of important military and diplomatic measures to strengthen the navy and army. In 1698, it also formed an alliance with Britain and the Netherlands to form a so-called maritime power alliance, and later it allied with France.
Sweden's actions this time aroused the dissatisfaction and fear of the Baltic states, so the Tsarist Russia at that time took advantage of this to form an anti-Swedish alliance with Denmark, Saxony and the Ottoman Empire, and the Northern War broke out.
Northern War
During the war, Tsarist Russia made a series of strategic arrangements to defeat Sweden, but these considerations completely ignored the interests of the Ukrainian people, resulting in a very serious rift in the relationship between the then chief Mazepa and Peter I. According to Russian history, after the war began, the Ukrainian army was sent to the very far north to fight the Swedish army, and the losses were very heavy.
The supply of grain, grass, ammunition and other supplies for the Russian army needed to be borne by Ukraine, and many Ukrainian people were driven to the north to build fortifications. In order to control the Ukrainian army, Peter I sent Russian and German officers to the Ukrainian army. These foreign officers were very rude to the Cossack soldiers, and all of this caused resentment among Geitman and the Ukrainian people. It was not until Peter I began to make up his mind to reform the Cossack army, a decision that directly touched the interests of the Cossacks, and the chief Mazepa offered to send russian troops to protect Ukraine from Swedish aggression, but the Tsar refused.
However, the Pereia Slavic Agreement signed by the Russian-Ukrainian merger stipulated that Russia was responsible for protecting Ukraine, and the Tsar's refusal violated this provision. Mazepa eventually decided to ally with Sweden against Russia, but as a result of the Northern War, Russia dominated the Baltic Sea and Sweden declined and disappeared from the list of European powers.
It is conceivable that the Ukrainian Cossacks, who chose to ally with Sweden, would be further weakened after the end of the Northern War. In 1722, Peter ordered the establishment of the Little Russian Yamen, composed of six Russian officers and a prosecutor stationed in Ukraine. The yakuza was responsible for supervising the Ukrainian shipbuilding industry, exercising tax and administrative jurisdiction, and Peter also ordered that the Geitman affairs in charge of the Russian diplomatic yagu be transferred to the management of the suffragists, effectively turning Ukraine into an ordinary territory of Russia.
This meant that Ukraine's autonomy would be abolished, and the successor, The Leader of Getman, was well aware of this, so he pleaded with Peter to change his decision, but was refused. Some cossack regimental commanders wrote to the Tsar asking for a re-election of Getman, and as a result were arrested in St. Petersburg. After the death of Peter I, the fate of Ukraine depended entirely on the situation at the Russian court. During Queen Elizabeth's reign, Ukraine's system of self-government improved, but not because the Empress realized that ukrainian national autonomy rights should be recognized, but simply because his favorite brother was the then Chief Geitman.
Catherine II
During the reign of Catherine II, Russia basically abolished the Ukrainian system of autonomy, the Empress disliked the Ukrainians very much, she could not accept any form of Ukrainian self-control, in order to abolish the Getman regime, Catherine II summoned the last Getman to St. Petersburg, instructed him to give up the position of Getman. In 1764, the Empress issued an edict establishing the Little Russian Gate headed by the Governor-General, replacing the Getman regime, which consisted of four Russian officials and four reliable Ukrainians, and the Governor-General was held by Russian nobles, and the Getman system, which lasted for more than 100 years, was abolished.
Alexander II
After the abolition of the Ukrainian system of self-government, the Russian Tsar used various means to assimilate Ukraine:
The first is language and ideas, for example, Tsar Alexander II signed a decree prohibiting the publication of Ukrainian books in the country, prohibiting the entry into the country of Ukrainian books published abroad, prohibiting the theater from performing Ukrainian plays, prohibiting the singing of Ukrainian songs, and so on. It is very exaggerated that the word "Ukraine" was not allowed in Russian writings, but was replaced by "Little Russia", which was repealed until 1905;
The second was the assimilation in education, in 1805 Kharkiv created a new university, the first higher education institution in Ukraine under Russian rule, in 1834 St. Vladimir University was established in Kiev, both institutions were taught in Russian, from Nicholas I In order to reduce the influence of poles on Ukraine, Russian schools in Ukraine gradually replaced Polish teaching, from 1830 to 1831, after the suppression of the Polish national uprising, All Polish language schools in Ukraine were closed.