Konotop Articles

Konotop Articles ( Konotopski statti). An agreement between the Cossacks and Muscovy, concluded in Kozatska Dibrova, between Konotop and Putyvl, on the occasion of the election of Hetman Ivan Samoilovych (June 1672). Although the articles, consisting of 10 points, formally ratified the Hlukhiv Articles, in practice they further limited Ukraine's rights, particularly in foreign affairs, by prohibiting the hetman from having direct diplomatic relations with neighboring states. They also strengthened the interference of Muscovy in Ukrainian internal affairs by limiting the hetman's judicial powers and limiting the number and autonomy of the kompaniitsi (Mercenary regiments). The Konotop Articles were published in Aktyotnosiashchiesia k istorii Iuzhnoi i Zapadnoi Rossii, vol 9, and by Andrii Yakovliv in Ukraïns’ko-Moskovs’ki dohovory v XVII–XVIII vikakh (Ukrainian-Muscovite Agreements in the 17th–18th Centuries, 1934).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]