Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky started building the Ukrainian state to the accompaniment of roaring cannons and fires consuming cities and their residents. This state was built by victorious commanding officers. Unlike Western Europe, there were no civilians with such traditions. The Ukrainian state thus became known as the Viisko Zaporozke (Zaporozhian Host), and the name stayed even after Zaporizhia began to live a life of its own. It was only in the 18th century that it was officially renamed Little Russia (the new appellation applied to Left-Bank Ukraine). “Little Russia” was first used in 14th-century documents, with regard to the Halych-Volyn and later Prydniprovia territories. It started being used on a broad scale after Khmelnytsky signed the “reunion” treaty with Muscovy in 1654.
Toward the end of 1780, Left-Bank Ukraine (formerly the Hetman State) was ordered by Moscow to adopt Russia’s administrative model, which divided the former Hetman State into three regions ruled by governors general, with centers in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Novhorod-Siversky. In 1796, Paul I of Russia signed an ukase that abolished the general governments and established gubernias, notably the one called Little Russia and centered in Chernihiv, along with three gubernias in Right-Bank Ukraine, centered respectively in Volyn, Podillia and Kyiv; also the New Russia gubernia, centered in Novorossiysk (formerly Ekaterinoslav, now Dnipropetrovsk), and the Kharkiv one (formerly Slobidska) that included the eastern regions of the former Ekaterinoslav government-general (with parts of the former Oleksopil, Sloviansk, Donetsk and Pavlograd provinces).
Kyiv was getting increasingly important as an administrative, military, trade, and cultural center. Its population had increased from 11,000 (1722 census) to some 42,000 in the 1780s, yet the city didn’t attract as much political and public attention as did Hlukhiv, Chernihiv or Baturyn. War, Tatar raids, and huge human losses notwithstanding, Ukraine was developing, albeit in line with Russia’s scenario.
In 1785, Catherine II of Russia signed the Charter to the Nobility that placed the Ukrainian noblemen on an equal footing with their Russian counterparts and expanded the Ukrainian nobility’s rights. The sons of former Cossack starshyna now had every opportunity to make a spectacular military career, but on one condition: they had to embrace Russian imperial culture. That was why quite a few Ukrainian noblemen shed their colorful Cossack attire, adopted European style, and started speaking Russian or French. Many advantages offered by serving the [Russian] empire largely explain why the liquidation of the Hetman State met with such little resistance on the art of Ukrainian nobility. As it was, few Ukrainian noblemen mourned the destruction if the Hetman State and the past Cossack glory.
Suppose we consider this tragedy using the life story of Semen Sulyma and his glorious family as a real-life example.
Semen Sulyma was a Cossack colonel in Pereiaslav at the time, and his sons would follow diverse life paths.
In 1789, Khrystofor [Christopher] Sulyma was ordained archimandrite of Hamaliivka Monastery. In 1791, he became the Bishop of Feodosia, promoted to Bishop of Feodosia and Mariupil in 1799, and appointed as Bishop of Kharkiv, which religious post he held until 1813.
Semen Sulyma’s son Hryhorii was 22 when he suddenly decided to become a monk, after his father’s passing in 1766, and joined the cloistered community of Saint Matrona (his twin brother Fedir’s life story remains unknown). It was from this monastery that 70 haidamaks (historically known as paramilitary bands in 18th-century Ukraine) set forth, led by Maksym Zalizniak, a Left-Bank Zaporozhian Cossack, one of the organizers of the Koliivschyna Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland (in the course of which Polish noblemen — the szlachta — were murdered, along with Jews, Uniates, and Roman Catholic priests across the country west of the Dnipro).
Semen, Yakym, and Yevstakhii Sulyma each embarked on military careers. Yevstakhii was a “second major” (Russian army rank under Peter I, it followed that of captain) with the Infantry Regiment of Pskov. He was destined to die young. After the Russian government abolished the Cossack order in 1784, the ten Ukrainian Cossack regiments were replaced by ten infantry ones, each having six squadrons. These made up Little Russia’s Cavalry Corps. These infantry regiments retained quite a few features of the good old Cossack army, with the rank-and-file men composed mostly of battle-hardened Cossacks, and the company and regiment commanding officers belonging to the starshyna [Zaporozhian]. This reorganization of Cossack regiments as regular [Muscovy-commanded] troops caused a lot of bad blood among the starshyna and rank-and-file Cossacks, especially in 1788, when there appeared the Starodubsky, Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Kyiv, and Hlukhiv regiments, that were designated as “heavy cavalry,” with those of Pereiaslav and Lubny being assigned the “light cavalry” role.
Semen and Yakym received military training at the prestigious Infantry College for Noblemen in St. Petersburg. Semen Sulyma, in recognition of his meritorious progress as a cadet, was promoted to lieutenant [after graduation] and left in the college’s employ as an instructor. In 1769, after five years in this capacity, the college administration acknowledged his professional merits and talents, conferring upon him the title of court counselor, equal to lieutenant colonel. In 1770, he became the College’s chief accountant. He did numerous translations from French and German into Russian; a number of his papers dedicated to the raising of the younger generation appeared in print. Despite his belonging to St. Petersburg’s aristocratic quarters (his wife was Princess Maria Nesvitsky), he loved Ukraine very much and he and his wife ended their lives in Ukraine, precisely in Baryshivka (currently in Yahotyn raion).
Yakym Sulyma cuts a distinguished figure in the family history. An erudite, he was Major General, Privy Councilor, and the last Justice General of Little Russia. He was born in 1737, studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and graduated with honors from the Infantry Cadet Corps (1759). He was left in that military college’s employ as a sergeant, was promoted to lieutenant in 1761 and kept training cadets for active duty. Like his brother Semen, he knew several foreign languages and did numerous translations, including the two-volume French History of Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (a celebrated Marshal of France).
His activities coincided with the judiciary reform in Ukraine (1760-63) under Kyrylo Rozumovsky. The Hetman State was divided into 20 judiciary districts, each with a provincial court that was authorized to handle lawsuits and the pidkomorny land court. There were also ten justices in each regimental city to handle criminal cases. These judges were elected by the local starshyna. The General Court was the highest instance, like the Polish State Tribunal. Under the Hetman’s Decree of February, 17(28).1763, the General Military Chancellery was deprived of judicial functions. This resulted in the General Court becoming the highest appellate instance, one qualified to deal with cases involving Cossack starshyna, among them colonels and other general officers under the Hetman’s aegis.
This reform was positive, in that it separated the judiciary from the executive branch and decreased the number of appellate courts. On the other hand, it was a graphic example of the system envisaged by the 1588 Statute of Lithuania, thus reinstating statutory courts that had been abolished by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
In 1763, Yakym Sulyma was promoted to captain, and to premier major a year later, and assigned to the Azov Infantry Regiment. Three years later, he was recalled from active duty and returned to the Cadets Corps. A born tutor, he was authorized to oversee the training and indoctrination of the cadets. It was then he drew up the Statute of the Cadets Corps, the blueprints of the Moscow Educational Home, and did the required paperwork, including “money actually collected, borrowed, and due the widows…” All his developments reflected the 18th-century Enlightenment philosophy, so the empress of Russia endorsed them without hesitation. It should be noted that the military service in the Hetman State had its effect on the ranks and positions of all servicemen, so they would keep them until the very end, combining their military and political functions.
In 1770, Yakym Sulyma was promoted to colonel. In 1773, he married Maria Skorupa, daughter of the Starodub colonel.
After the first partition ofPoland in 1772, Russian troops occupied Belarus. A year later, Count Chernyshov, Governor General of the Belarusian gubernia, appointed Yakym Sulyma as head of his chancellery, to draft various bills for the newly established gubernia. Count Chernyshov highly valued Yakym Sulyma’s professional skills and talents. In 1775, he was conferred the rank of brigadier and then major general (in 1778, owing to Count Chernyshov’s solicitation).
Life seemed perfect for Yakym Sulyma, but then his wife died in childbirth (1783), leaving their daughter Maria and four other children, whom their father raised with love and care.
Poland’s second partition took place in 1793, with Right-Bank Ukraine being annexed by Russia. This served to enhance the economic and cultural ties between the Ukrainian territories and played a positive role in the building up of the Ukrainian nation. Three years later, the General Court was reinstated, replacing the trial chambers. Versed in previous and current legislation, Yakym Sulyma was elected Justice General — out of four candidates. He was 40 when he was transferred from the military to civil service, appointed as privy councilor. In 1799, his meritorious service was acknowledged by Order of St. Anna, 1st Class. Yakym Sulyma served as Justice General of Little Russia in Chernihiv, then the center of the Little Russian gubernia. He kept this position until 1802, when the General Court was abolished again. That year Yakym Sulyma was conferred the Big Cross of St. Vladimir [Volodymyr] and ad interim retirement allowance. In 1805, was back in business as “column leader” of Alexander I of Russia’s Quartermasters Corps under the command of General Pieter van Suchtelen. Together with him and his nephew Mykola, Yakym Sulyma took part in the crucial Battle of Austerlitz (1805). His nephew Mykola was hit in the head in action and captured by the French, but two weeks later he was exchanged for a French prisoner of war.
Yakym Sulyma’s son Pavlo served under Pieter van Suchtelen’s command as his aide-de-camp. Yakym had every reason to feel proud of his sons, whom he had raised single-handedly after the passing of his beloved wife. Pavlo studied at the University of Gottingen and received a Ph.D. in philosophy, while his younger son, Yakym, graduated from Moscow University.
He was also proud of his two daughters: Paraska, the eldest, had married Ivan Wojciechowicz, Actual State Councilor, appointed as Vice Governor of Penza, in 1817, who was also the first to compile a Ukrainian dictionary in 1823 that had quite an impact on the Ukrainian language. His younger daughter Maria had married Lieutenant Captain Mykhailo Markovych, who would become Marshal of the Pereiaslav Nobility in 1839.
Yakym Sulyma owned large estates in the vicinity of Poltava, but spent the last years of his life in Sulymivka, finishing his Diary of Yakym Semenovych Sulyma in Polish. Writing it took many years and it embraced a period from 1772 until 1817, containing interesting information about contemporary and previous judges of Little Russia/Ukraine. In this diary the Justice General defined and explained current legislation and offered recommendations meant to improve the imperial judicial system. The Wojciechowicz couple would visit now and then their father, help with the estate, and go to the family’s Church of the Intercession (the Wojciechowiczs’ descendants were destined to be the last owners of Sulymivka).
The Napoleonic Wars were in progress. In 1812, Pavlo Sulyma was ordered by Prince Volkonsky to travel from St. Petersburg to Ochakiv but he suddenly died en route, in Bronnytsi, being 33 years of age, single, a promising career officer. Yakym Sulyma died in 1818 and was buried in the family’s vault, in Sulymivka. His son, Yakym Sulyma, was a noted philanthropist in Kyiv, but he ended that family tree branch without leaving children.
However, the other branches of this ancient tree continued to grow, producing a number of career officers, statesmen, and public figures who were conferred awards for meritorious service and feats of arms.
Members of the Sulyma family took part in new developments and made a tangible contribution to the development of the Russian Empire.
