Ukrainian History

La rivolta ucraina nasce sotto una cattiva stella: all’ombra di una Russia revanscista e di un Occidente in crisi. Eppure, è l’occasione per avviare un percorso di desovietizzazione e di riconciliazione con la Polonia. Purché l’Ue faccia la sua parte.

This was originally published in Polish: “Refleksje żołnierza Ukraińskiej Powstańczej Armii. Pamiętnik Ołeksandra Powszuka (1943–1944) [Reflections of a Soldier of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army: The Memoirs of Oleksandr Povshuk 1943-1944].” In Prawda historyczna a prawda polityczna w badaniach naukowych. Przykład ludobójstwa na Kresach południowo-wschodniej Polski w latach 1939-1946, ed. Bogusław Paź, 179-90. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 2011.

The article is devoted to the problem of history of forming of tax policy in relation to foreign migrants and colonists in the Russian empire in the second half 18 – to the middle 19 е.
Keywords: colonists, podushnoe taxation, landed tax, tax deductions, tax policy.

The dissertation in competition on an academic degree of a Doctor of Science, specialty 07.00.01 – History of Ukraine, 07.00.02 – World history. – Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, 2008.
The tax policy of Russian Empire’s government at the end of the 18 century – in the middle of the 19 century was first in the historiography fully investigated in this dissertation. The systems and comparative analyses of this policy in different regions of  Russian Empire were done. The main attention was paid to Poltava,  Chernihiv, Slobozhanschina (Kharkiv), Volyn, Kyiv, Podillya, Katerunoslav, Kherson and Tavria provinces, and a historical and comparative analysis with the regions of Byelorussia and Baltic were also held.
The origins, the principles of administration and the main factors of the influence on the policy of Romanov Empire’s government in taxation were explicated. The common and different in taxation of “Great Russian” and “suburban” provinces were shown. It was proved, that the tax policy of Russian autocracy in the Ukrainian provinces as in the Empire in whole had some regional peculiarities. So, in Slobozhanschina and in Livoberezhzhi it essentially differed from other regions of Ukraine by the availability of the special groups of people – as military citizens and Cossacks. It was established that the rates of the poll tax were the same for the state, and the rates of the tax were determined by social classes. It was shown, that the charge of the tax obligation according to the number of the revision persons without the inclusion of the demographic changes continued the phenomenon of “Dead Souls”, when it was necessary to pay taxes for dead people between the revisions by the communities and landowners. It was proved that the taxation of the trade and industrial population of the towns was more progressive – the tradesmen who were united into the guilds. The considerable attention was paid to the guild reform by E. Kankrin (1824) which had the positive consequences for agrarian Russian Empire in the development of the cities, trade and industry. It was established that the tax policy of Russian Empire was determined not only by the social class approach, there was the taxation by the religious stripe and ethnic origin. The author made the systematic and comparative analyses of the taxation of Jewry, Crimean Tatars and foreign colonists.
It was fixed that the most important moment in the fiscal relations among the indirect tax and fees in  Romanov Empire was the drinkable income (the manufacture taxation and alcohol trade); and the distillation was one of the most developed industry. If in Russian provinces there was a payment system of tax collection of the alcohol, in Ukrainian provinces there was a partial free sale of the spirit with a specific system of its taxation that aroused the considerable difficulties in its administration for the leading structures. 
It was fixed that in the pre-reform period the taxation was least ordering by the structural taxation system of Romanov Power in spite of all authority’s attempts and it served as a hotbed of various functionaries’ abuses of local imperial and elective administrations. It was pointed that the town taxation and fees from the times of Rich Pospoluta continued to exist in cities and towns in Ukrainian and Russian provinces even in the 40 ths of the 19 centuries.
It was proved, that all components of Russian fiscal policy acted uncoordinated, asynchronously as in Ukrainian provinces so as in whole Empire, that is there was any united system of the state actions in this sphere. Partial and mainly local actions of central and regional leading structures as to the optimization of tax policy of Russian Empire couldn’t solve all these problems. Tax system required the urgent complex reformation that can be started only after the liquidation the basis of the feudal system – serfage – and the refusal from the poll tax system that was in the base of the national and local taxation.
Key words: taxation policy,  Russian Empire, government, governmental institution, state finances, taxes, fees, tax position, tax rate, province, region.

The article deals with the problem of taxation of inhabitants In Slobozhanschina and Livoberezhna Ukraine; the peculiarities of this process in the mentioned regions are described.
Key words: taxation, taxes, fees, poll tax, Livoberezhna Ukraine, Malorosiya, Slobozhanschina, Cossacks, military citizens, peasantry.