Ruin

Ruin (ruina). A period in the late 17th century in the history of Ukraine, characterized by the disintegration of Ukrainian statehood and general decline. Some historians (eg, Mykola Kostomarov) correlate it with the tenures of three Moscow-backed hetmans (Ivan Briukhovetsky, Demian Mnohohrishny, and Ivan Samoilovych) and limit it chronologically to 1663–87 and territorially to Left-Bank Ukraine. Other historians (eg, Borys Krupnytsky) consider the Ruin to apply to both Left- and Right-Bank Ukraine from the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the rise of Ivan Mazepa (1657–1687).

During the Ruin Ukraine became divided along the Dnipro River into Left-Bank Ukraine and Right-Bank Ukraine, and the two halves became hostile to each other. Neighboring states (Poland, Muscovy, the Ottoman Empire) interfered in Ukrainian internal affairs, and Ukrainian policies were skewed by efforts to curry favor among the various occupational forces. The Ukrainian Orthodox church was subordinated to the Moscow patriarchate in 1686. Ukrainian leaders during the period were largely opportunists and men of little vision who could not muster broad popular support for their policies (Ivan Briukhovetsky, Mykhailo Khanenko, Yurii Khmelnytsky, Demian Mnohohrishny, Stepan Opara, Ivan Sirko, Yakym Somko, Petro Sukhovii, and Pavlo Teteria). The hetmans who did their utmost to bring Ukraine out of decline were Petro Doroshenko, Ivan Samoilovych, and Ivan Vyhovsky.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kostomarov, N. Ruina: Istoricheskaia monografiia, 1663–1687, vol 15 of Istoricheskiia monografii i izsledovaniia Nikolaia Kostomarova (Saint Petersburg–Moscow 1882)
Levitskii, O. Ocherk narodnoi zhizni Malorossii vo 2-oi polovine XVII v. (Kyiv 1901)
Zerkal’, S. Ruïna kozats’ko-selians’koï Ukraïny (New York 1968)
Iakovleva, T. Het’manshchyna v druhii polovyni 50-kh rokiv XVII stolittia: Prychyny i pochatok Ruïny (Kyiv 1998)

A. Zhukovsky