Module 6: The Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Age of the Hetmanate

Module learning objectives: 

• Identify key Cossack figures, administrative roles, and historical milestones, such as the establishment of the early Sich, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654), and the Constitution of 1710. (Level 1)

• Explain the socio-economic and geopolitical factors that drove the emergence of Cossackdom, as well as the unique features of Cossack Baroque culture and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Level 2)

• Examine primary sources (e.g., Cossack chronicles, Pylyp Orlyk's Constitution) to illustrate the development of early modern Ukrainian legal and state-building thought (Level 3).

• Analyze the internal rivalries and foreign interventions during "The Ruin" (Ruyina), as well as the evolution of the Cossack elite from a military democracy into a landowning nobility

• Compare and contrast the diplomatic strategies, alliances, and state-building visions of key Hetmans (e.g., Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ivan Vyhovsky, Ivan Mazepa) (Level 4).

• Critique competing historiographical narratives surrounding pivotal turning points, particularly the 1654 Pereyaslav agreement and Mazepa’s alliance with Sweden.

• Assess the long-term impact of Tsarist imperial policies, including the abolition of the Hetmanate and the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. (Level 5)

• Formulate an evidence-based thesis evaluating the Cossack era as a foundational pillar of modern Ukrainian national identity and statehood (Level 6).