HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

REGIONALISM AND POLITICAL THOUGHT 185tion. Even in the areas in which the Commonwealth ultimately prevailed,the composition and the characteristics of the nobility weredrastically altered. These changes weakened the nobility's attachmentto the regionalist political traditions that existed prior to 1648.The votum was a call for the restoration of proper order in theCommonwealth through the preservation of regional rights. Althoughdeep disaffection with the state of affairs in the Commonwealth wasexpressed, the basic political and social order of the Commonwealthwent unquestioned. It is not surprising, then, that when in 1648 anuprising in the Ukraine threatened to overturn the existing order,many nobles in the Ukraine set aside their concerns about regionalprivileges and fought to preserve their connection with the noblerepublic. It is true that some nobles who felt strongly about theOrthodox issue or who were impressed by the might of the CossackHetmanate passed over to the rebel camp. By so doing, they weakenedthe constituency for regionalist sentiments among nobles loyal to theCommonwealth.While nobiliary regionalism did not have direct continuity after the1640s, its development between 1569 and 1648 and its influence afterthe great revolt should be studied carefully. As a trend in politicalthought, the evolution of the concept of the unity of the incorporationlands and their designation as Rus' requires examination. Hence, wemust pay closer attention to the disputes over privileges guaranteed bythe incorporation charters and to the special legislation for the incorporationlands. This may well help us ascertain the degree to which thecultural, religious, historical, social, geographic and economic differencesbetween the Ukrainian lands and the other territories of theCommonwealth — all so salient to the modern historian — weremanifest in the political thought of the elite of the seventeenth century.We must also place Ukrainian regionalism in the context of politicalthought and events in the Commonwealth as a whole. Once thephenomenon of Ukrainian nobiliary regionalism is better understood,we can begin to appreciate its impact on the revolution of 1648 and thepolitical thought of the Hetmanate. In that regionalism lay the seeds ofthe Treaty of Hadiach of 1658 and of its attempt to form a Duchy ofRus' within a restructured Commonwealth.Harvard University