On So-Called Theories “Centralization of Muscovy” and the “New Period of Russian History” and the Place of Ukraine in Them (16th — 17th c)

Abstract

The article examines the feasibility of applying the concepts of “centralization” of Muscovy and “new period of Russian history” in the 16th and 17th centuries, respectively. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and determinism, using general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, analogy, generalization and logic, as well as the problematic and chronological approach. The “centralization” of Muscovy was aggressive in nature and essentially meant the elimination of self-government in certain regions of the country. In the economic sphere, by the middle of the 18th century, all “Russian” lands had not been united around the capital yet, which cannot indicate the formation of an “all-Russian market”. At the same time, the merchants did not constitute a separate social stratum yet, and there was no banking system, despite the presence of internal customs. At that time, Moscow did not become a powerful center of large industry on the basis of the development of bourgeois relations. At the same time, for Ukraine, the “new period” began in the mid-17th century, and it was undoubtedly connected with the events of the National Revolution, both in the socio-political and socio-economic sense. Accordingly, the beginning of the “new period of Russian history” can be attributed only to the 18th century.