Dr. Svitlana Potapenko

POLY Ukraine Research Fellow

Senior Research Fellow, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv

The Axis Kyiv–Lviv and Beyond: Community of Interaction of Ukrainian Ecclesiastic Elites in the Mid-Eighteenth Century

The fruitful multifocal relations which Kyiv and Lviv maintained in the mid-eighteenth century may come as a surprise at first glance. A closer look, however, reveals the established community of interaction which went far beyond political and confessional dividing lines. These cities served particularly as the sites for the broad intellectual collaboration that crossed the state border between the Hetmanate and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to which they correspondently belonged. The rivalry for a leadership within the Rus' Christian realm that was taking place between the Orthodox and Uniate Churches since the Union of Brest (1596) also did not prevent their representatives to communicate intensively.
This community of interaction was being sustained not by means of political domination or Church control. On contrary, it was keeping as a whole through the exchange of ideas, texts and artistic contributions, in other words, through the symbolic communication of the actors. On the one hand, the secular and religious spheres were merging as both sides cooperated on non-church publishing projects. On the other hand, this symbolic communication attained the collaborators (publishers and booksellers) abroad, mostly in Poland and Germany, ultimately reducing religious tensions and making an emergence of inter-confessional constellations possible. The roots of this communication traced back to the third decade of the seventeenth century, when viewing on the Jesuits educational institutions, the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolitan Petro Mohyla (1596–1647) founded the collegium later known as the Kyiv-Mohyla Academia. The trilingual system (Church Slavonic, Latin, and Greek) adopted there paved the way for the polyphony of texts, also in Polish and German.  
The research program “Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities" offers a set of modern methodological instruments to explore this community of interaction as a case study through the prism of its structure, resources, and realm. It equally allows shifting a focus from what was dissociating (mostly in the theological dimension) toward the benefits of interplay and mutual support. In this sense, a common historiographic path narrowed by the denominational limits will be replaced by a wider prospect of religious interrelations.

  • Senior Research Fellow, Department for Act Archeography, M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (2013 - present)
  • Research Fellow, M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (2010 - 2013)
  • Degree of Candidate of Sciences in History, M.S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (2010)
  • Doctoral Student, M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv (2006 - 2009)
  • Student at the Department of History, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine (2000 - 2006)
  • Intellectual and social history with a focus on elites
  • Religious and cultural history of Eastern Europe
  • History of book publishing and reading
  • History of justice
  • Eighteenth-century studies
  • Research Fellow, “Polycentricity and Plurality of Premodern Christianities" (POLY) research group, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, also supported by Gerda Henkel Foundation (March 2022 - present)
  • Visiting scholar, Joint Excellence in Science and Humanities for Ukraine Program, Austrian Academia of Sciences / Institute for Slavonic Studies, University of Vienna, also supported by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, project “The Viennese Archive of the Hetman Family Rozumovskys (Razumovskys): Collection of Books and Engravings" (July - August 2022)
  • Visiting scholar, Gerda Henkel Fellowship, Institute for East European Studies, University of Vienna, project “The Rozumovskys'/Razumovskys' Family History" (February 2020)
  • Visiting scholar, Gerda Henkel Fellowship, New Europe College, Bucharest, project “Instead of Myself, I Entrust to Be in the Court and to Attend…": Attorneys in Sloboda Ukraine (1730s-1830s)" (2019-2020)
  • The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, grant for young scholars, project “The Cossack Autonomy of Sloboda Ukraine and the Russian Imperial Centre in the Documents of the late 18th and the First Third of the 19th Centuries" (2017-2018)
  • Junior visiting fellow, Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, project “The Elite of Sloboda Ukraine and the Russian Empire-Building: Integration and Transformation" (2014-2015)
  1. “Instead of Myself I Entrust to be in the Court and to Attend": Advocates in Eighteenth-Century Sloboda Ukraine. Kyiv, 2021 (in Ukrainian).
  2. The Viennese Archive of the Hetman Family Rozumovskys (Razumovskys), vol. 1, 2. Kyiv, 2018, 2020 (in Ukrainian).
  3. The Elite of Sloboda Ukraine. Lists and Records of the 1760s. Kyiv, Kharkiv, 2007 (in Ukrainian).
  1. The Ukrainian-Russian Frontier as a Zone of Contact and Conflict. Kyiv, 2020 (in Ukrainian), co-edited with Viktor Brekhunenko, Yurii Mytsyk, Ivan Syniak and Inna Tarasenko.
  2. Documents of the Ukrainian Cossackdom of the 16th and early 17th Centuries: Proclamations, Correspondence, Agreements and Oaths. Kyiv, 2016 (in Ukrainian), co-edited with Viktor Brekhunenko, Yurii Mytsyk, Orest Zajats and Vitalii Shcherbak.
  1. Serving the Empire? The Ukrainian Nobility in the Late Eighteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in: East Central Europe 2021 (48): 145–161.
  2. Advocates in Eighteenth-Century Sloboda Ukraine, in: New Europe College Yearbook (2019/2020): 71–146.
  3. Lviv and Sloboda Ukraine: Some Remarks toward the Discussion on Volodymyr Sklokin’s Monograph ‘The Russian Empire and Sloboda Ukraine during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century: Enlightened Absolutism, Imperial Integration, Local Society’ (Lviv: UCU Press, 2019. 268 p.), in: Ab Imperio 2020 (2): 204–212.
  4. Loyalty in Exchange for Wealth: Slobodska Ukraine Peripheral Nobility in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, in: Ukraina Moderna 25 (2018): 103–120, special issue “The Economic Elite of Ukraine from a Comparative Historical Perspective”.
  5. An Overview of the Documents from the Collections of the Manuscripts’ Department of the National Library of Russia (Saint Petersburg) with regard to the History of Sloboda Ukraine in the late 18th and early 20th centuries, in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 21/22 (2018): 18–30 (in Ukrainian).
  6. On the History of the Kharkiv Archives: A Report Concerning “An Ancient Archive” (1819) Found in the Old Bell Tower of the Assumption Cathedral, in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 19/20 (2016): 440–447 (in Ukrainian), co-authored with Andrii Paramonov.
  7. “Under the Guise of Friendship and Frankness”: New Documents on the Tatar Commission of 1770–1775 by Yevdokim Shcherbinin and the First Russian Annexation of the Crimea, in: Наш Крим – Our Crimea – Bizim Qirimmiz 2 (2016): 35–35 (in Ukrainian).
  8. Address-Calendars as a Prosopographic Source: Some Remarks, in: Issues on Genealogy 14 (2016): 1–5 (in Ukrainian).
  9. Cossack Officials in Sloboda Ukraine: from Local Elite to Imperial Nobility? in: Dimensions of Modernity. The Enlightenment and its Contested Legacies, ed. Ed. P. Marczewski, S. Eich. Vienna: IWM, 2015, Vol. 34.
  10. Materials on the Historical Geography of the Eighteenth-Century Ostrohozk region, in: Annals of the Shevchenko Scientific Society ССLXVIII: Papers of the Commission of Special (Auxiliary) Historical Disciplines (2015): 88–106 (in Ukrainian).
  11. The Cossack Elite of Sloboda Ukraine (the Second Half of 17th and the Late 18th Centuries), in: History of Trade, Taxes, and Customs: The Collection of Papers 2 (2015): 56–65 (in Ukrainian).
  12. Andrii Krasovsky as a Little-Known Person at Taras Shevchenko’s St. Petersburg Entourage, in: Kyiv Archeographic Commission in the History of the Ukrainian National Revival. Ed. D. Gordienko, V. Kornienko, Kyiv: IUAD, 2015. 136–145 (in Ukrainian).
  13. Local Society under the Loup of the Imperial Government: Accounting of Children of the Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers in the 1760-1770s, in: Special Historical Disciplines: Issues on Theory and Methods 24: Genealogy and Heraldic (2014): 77–87 (in Ukrainian).
  14. The Krasovskys’ Family Archive: An Attempt at Reconstruction (Based on the Collections of the Institute of Manuscripts of Volodymyr Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine), in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 18 (2014): 24–46 (in Ukrainian).
  15. Source Publications on the History of the Ukrainian Cossackdom: Experience of the M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Sources Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in: Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Studies 1 (2014):152–157 (in Ukrainian).
  16. The Rosalion-Soshalskys as a Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers’ Family: Concerning the Genealogical Reconstruction (late 17th and the mid-19th Centuries), in: Issues on Genealogy 11 (2013): 95–103 (in Ukrainian).
  17. Lists and Records of 1757–1767 as a Source on the Genealogy of the Cossack Officers of Sloboda Ukraine Regiments, in: Genealogy: Collection of Papers. Issue 1. Ed. Valerii A. Smolii, and Valerii V. Tomazov, Kyiv: VD “Prostir”, 2013. 181–193 (in Ukrainian).
  18. “And the Izium Provincial Office Has Burned Out Together with All the Buildings, Papers and Other Things” (Concerning the Great Fire Occurred in the Town of Izuim in Sloboda Ukraine on April 11, 1766), in: The Sources on the Local History. The Urban Everyday Life of the 18th and the first half of the 20th Centuries. Ed. N. Zinevych, Kyiv: IUAD, 2013. 97–109 (in Ukrainian).
  19. The Tatarchukys (Tatarchukovys) as a Little-Known Family of the Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers, in: The Cossackdom in the History of Ukraine (Devoted to the 360-Aniversary of the Batih Battle). Ed. O. Strukevych, Vinnycia: VDPU, 2012. 225–231 (in Ukrainian).
  20. Belarus Natives Among the Cossack Officers’ Families in Sloboda Ukraine (the Case of the Horlenskys), in: New Studies on the Monuments of the Cossack Era in Ukraine 21 (2012): 158–164 (in Ukrainian).


  1. “Instead of Myself I Entrust to be in the Court and to Attend": Advocates in Eighteenth-Century Sloboda Ukraine. Kyiv, 2021 (in Ukrainian).
  2. The Viennese Archive of the Hetman Family Rozumovskys (Razumovskys), vol. 1, 2. Kyiv, 2018, 2020 (in Ukrainian).
  3. The Elite of Sloboda Ukraine. Lists and Records of the 1760s. Kyiv, Kharkiv, 2007 (in Ukrainian).
  1. The Ukrainian-Russian Frontier as a Zone of Contact and Conflict. Kyiv, 2020 (in Ukrainian), co-edited with Viktor Brekhunenko, Yurii Mytsyk, Ivan Syniak and Inna Tarasenko.
  2. Documents of the Ukrainian Cossackdom of the 16th and early 17th Centuries: Proclamations, Correspondence, Agreements and Oaths. Kyiv, 2016 (in Ukrainian), co-edited with Viktor Brekhunenko, Yurii Mytsyk, Orest Zajats and Vitalii Shcherbak.
  1. Serving the Empire? The Ukrainian Nobility in the Late Eighteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries”, in: East Central Europe 2021 (48): 145–161.
  2. Advocates in Eighteenth-Century Sloboda Ukraine, in: New Europe College Yearbook (2019/2020): 71–146.
  3. Lviv and Sloboda Ukraine: Some Remarks toward the Discussion on Volodymyr Sklokin’s Monograph ‘The Russian Empire and Sloboda Ukraine during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century: Enlightened Absolutism, Imperial Integration, Local Society’ (Lviv: UCU Press, 2019. 268 p.), in: Ab Imperio 2020 (2): 204–212.
  4. Loyalty in Exchange for Wealth: Slobodska Ukraine Peripheral Nobility in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, in: Ukraina Moderna 25 (2018): 103–120, special issue “The Economic Elite of Ukraine from a Comparative Historical Perspective”.
  5. An Overview of the Documents from the Collections of the Manuscripts’ Department of the National Library of Russia (Saint Petersburg) with regard to the History of Sloboda Ukraine in the late 18th and early 20th centuries, in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 21/22 (2018): 18–30 (in Ukrainian).
  6. On the History of the Kharkiv Archives: A Report Concerning “An Ancient Archive” (1819) Found in the Old Bell Tower of the Assumption Cathedral, in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 19/20 (2016): 440–447 (in Ukrainian), co-authored with Andrii Paramonov.
  7. “Under the Guise of Friendship and Frankness”: New Documents on the Tatar Commission of 1770–1775 by Yevdokim Shcherbinin and the First Russian Annexation of the Crimea, in: Наш Крим – Our Crimea – Bizim Qirimmiz 2 (2016): 35–35 (in Ukrainian).
  8. Address-Calendars as a Prosopographic Source: Some Remarks, in: Issues on Genealogy 14 (2016): 1–5 (in Ukrainian).
  9. Cossack Officials in Sloboda Ukraine: from Local Elite to Imperial Nobility? in: Dimensions of Modernity. The Enlightenment and its Contested Legacies, ed. Ed. P. Marczewski, S. Eich. Vienna: IWM, 2015, Vol. 34.
  10. Materials on the Historical Geography of the Eighteenth-Century Ostrohozk region, in: Annals of the Shevchenko Scientific Society ССLXVIII: Papers of the Commission of Special (Auxiliary) Historical Disciplines (2015): 88–106 (in Ukrainian).
  11. The Cossack Elite of Sloboda Ukraine (the Second Half of 17th and the Late 18th Centuries), in: History of Trade, Taxes, and Customs: The Collection of Papers 2 (2015): 56–65 (in Ukrainian).
  12. Andrii Krasovsky as a Little-Known Person at Taras Shevchenko’s St. Petersburg Entourage, in: Kyiv Archeographic Commission in the History of the Ukrainian National Revival. Ed. D. Gordienko, V. Kornienko, Kyiv: IUAD, 2015. 136–145 (in Ukrainian).
  13. Local Society under the Loup of the Imperial Government: Accounting of Children of the Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers in the 1760-1770s, in: Special Historical Disciplines: Issues on Theory and Methods 24: Genealogy and Heraldic (2014): 77–87 (in Ukrainian).
  14. The Krasovskys’ Family Archive: An Attempt at Reconstruction (Based on the Collections of the Institute of Manuscripts of Volodymyr Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine), in: Ukrainian Archaeographic Year Book 18 (2014): 24–46 (in Ukrainian).
  15. Source Publications on the History of the Ukrainian Cossackdom: Experience of the M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Sources Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in: Interdisciplinary Humanitarian Studies 1 (2014):152–157 (in Ukrainian).
  16. The Rosalion-Soshalskys as a Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers’ Family: Concerning the Genealogical Reconstruction (late 17th and the mid-19th Centuries), in: Issues on Genealogy 11 (2013): 95–103 (in Ukrainian).
  17. Lists and Records of 1757–1767 as a Source on the Genealogy of the Cossack Officers of Sloboda Ukraine Regiments, in: Genealogy: Collection of Papers. Issue 1. Ed. Valerii A. Smolii, and Valerii V. Tomazov, Kyiv: VD “Prostir”, 2013. 181–193 (in Ukrainian).
  18. “And the Izium Provincial Office Has Burned Out Together with All the Buildings, Papers and Other Things” (Concerning the Great Fire Occurred in the Town of Izuim in Sloboda Ukraine on April 11, 1766), in: The Sources on the Local History. The Urban Everyday Life of the 18th and the first half of the 20th Centuries. Ed. N. Zinevych, Kyiv: IUAD, 2013. 97–109 (in Ukrainian).
  19. The Tatarchukys (Tatarchukovys) as a Little-Known Family of the Sloboda Ukraine Cossack Officers, in: The Cossackdom in the History of Ukraine (Devoted to the 360-Aniversary of the Batih Battle). Ed. O. Strukevych, Vinnycia: VDPU, 2012. 225–231 (in Ukrainian).
  20. Belarus Natives Among the Cossack Officers’ Families in Sloboda Ukraine (the Case of the Horlenskys), in: New Studies on the Monuments of the Cossack Era in Ukraine 21 (2012): 158–164 (in Ukrainian).


Kontakt

Dr. Svitlana Potapenko

Email: tba