Great Russian Office

Great Russian Office [Великороссийский приказ; Velikorossiiskii prikaz]. An institution of the Muscovite central government in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its function from 1688 was to control and supervise the Cossack regiments in Left-Bank Ukraine that were not part of the Hetman state, ie, Okhtyrka regiment, Sumy regiment, Izium regiment, and Kharkiv regiment. It also administered the Cossack population (see Cossacks) in Slobidska Ukraine. The office was located in Moscow and was responsible to the Posolskii prikaz, the central office for foreign affairs.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]