Servants in the Hetmanate Cities: The Case of Poltava City during the 1760–1770s

Abstract

Despite the advancements in the study of early modern Ukraine during the last decade, social history of the Cossack Hetmanate still remains scarcely explored. In particular, the study of cities in the Cossack’s autonomy and of social groups specific to city areas still remains outside scholarly attention. This article addresses one of these social groups—servants who constituted the largest group in the Hetmanate cities, such as in Poltava city located in Central Ukraine. This article provides an account on sex and age structures, social affiliations, geographical origin, and wage system of this social group in Poltava. The sources comprise of the data from Rumyantsev Register (1765–1769) and confession records (1775).