Little Russian Office

Little Russian Office (Russian: Prikaz Malyia Rossii, Malorossiiskii prikaz). A Muscovite agency established in 1663 to represent the tsar's interests in Left-Bank Ukraine or the Hetman state. The office was based in Moscow and had a staff of approx 20. It maintained ties on the tsar's behalf with the hetman's government and representatives in Moscow, kept the tsar informed of developments, gathered intelligence, supervised and supplied the Muscovite garrisons in several of the Hetmanate's towns, mitigated conflicts between them and the people, oversaw the construction of fortresses and bridges, looked after the interests of Russian merchants in Ukraine, issued travel permits, and settled jurisdictional disputes. The office also monitored the administrative institutions of the Hetman state and the hetman's correspondence with foreign rulers, reviewed the hetman's appointments, and interfered in the affairs of the Orthodox church in Ukraine. From 1707 it had a resident general in the hetman's capital. The head of the Little Russian Office also usually headed the Muscovite Office of Foreign Envoys and was responsible directly to the tsar. The office was replaced in 1722 by the Little Russian Collegium.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Diadychenko, V. Narysy suspil’no-politychnoho ustroiu Livoberezhnoï Ukraïny kintsia XVII–pochatku XVIII st. (Kyiv 1959)
Sofronenko, K. Malorossiiskii prikaz Russkogo gosudarstva vtoroi poloviny XVII i nachala XVIII veka (Moscow 1960)

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]