Archive Kosh of the New Zaporizhzhia Sich as a source for the study of the history of the Moldovan national minority of Ukraine in the middle of the XVIII century

Abstract

The article investigates and analyzes the archive of the Kosh of the new Zaporozhian Sich as one of the sources for the study the history of the Moldovans of Ukraine. On the basis of this source, highlights the key points that will be useful during the study of the Moldovan national minority of Ukraine and the history of its origin on the territory of our country.

Many researchers actively used the materials of this archive when writing their works on the history of the Cossacks and even issued separate documents (A. Skalkovsky, D. Yavornitsky, M. Slabchenko etc.).   

Archive Kosh of the New Zaporzhia Sich, which is located in the Central state historical archive in Kyiv, stores documents reflecting the multifaceted history of Zaporizhia Sich Ukrainian Cossacks for 1734-1775. with all its difficulties and contradictions, (some documents go beyond this chronological framework). It is the documents of The Kosh Archive that convincingly testify that the Zaporozhian Sich was a stronghold of the statehood of the Ukrainian people, which was based on democratic principles. This was manifested in the organization of the Army, administrative and political structure, socio-economic relations, production, life, culture of the Cossacks.

Archive Kosh of the New Zaporizhia Sich largely fills the existing gap in the subject of scientific research and allows a wider range of Ukrainian public to get acquainted with one of the important stages of the development of Zaporizhzhya Sich-the period of the so-called New Sich (1734-1775).

This source, in turn, gives us valuable information about the economic moments of life of Moldovans who lived in this period on the territory of the so - called New Serbia-military settlement territory, created in 1752 by order of the Russian government and occupied the space from West to East from the rivers Siniukha to the Dnieper, and from North to South from the river

The article deals with the peculiarities of the relations of the Moldovan population and Sich.  These processes were different in their kind, as in the territory of the settlement in different years of its existence (1752-64) there were about three-quarters of the Moldovans of the total number of settlers.