Home Social Sciences Quality of Life in the Hetmanate and Left-Bank Ukraine in the 18th–19th Centuries: Between ‘Subjective’ Narratives and ‘Objective’ Markers
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Quality of Life in the Hetmanate and Left-Bank Ukraine in the 18th–19th Centuries: Between ‘Subjective’ Narratives and ‘Objective’ Markers

  • Igor Serdiuk ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 27, 2025

Abstract

This article aims to better understand the quality of life in Left-bank Ukraine during the 18th and 19th centuries through the analysis of a wide range of social, economic, and demographic indicators. The concept of ‘quality of life’ is considered as an interdisciplinary framework combining sociological, economic, historical, and demographic approaches. The study also evaluates the potential of various sources, including diaries, chronicles, statistics, and population censuses. Particular attention is paid to the subjective perception of well-being and its treatment in historical sources. The research demonstrates that quality of life in the region was closely connected with access to resources, education levels, infrastructure development, and professional medicine. A significant aspect of the study is the exploration of differences in perceptions of well-being among various authors. For instance, foreign travelers often romanticized or, conversely, criticized the everyday life of Left-bank Ukraine, depending on their personal views and experiences. The article analyzes key spheres affecting quality of life, such as social inequalities, population density, agrarian culture, and urbanization levels. The author emphasizes that quality of life did not always improve alongside modernization, and the expansion of urban infrastructure, for example, often adversely affected living conditions for certain groups as a consequence of inadequate water supply and sewage systems. The study highlights the necessity of analyzing historical transformations through the integration of subjective and objective data. The conclusions suggest that to objectively assess the quality of life in the region, researchers need measurable and comparable markers, as well as integral indicators reflecting the impact of various factors on human lives. Mortality rates and life expectancy are proposed as such indicators. Existing data for Left-bank Ukraine indicate a noticeably higher quality of life in the region compared to the provinces of European Russia at that time. However, this data is insufficient, referring only to the quality of life in Left-bank Ukraine at its ‘exit point’ from its ‘exit point’ from its situation of subjugation to empire. Without knowledge of mortality and life expectancy at its ‘entry point’, when the Hetmanate was still a distinct social and economic entity, such data can be interpreted in various contradictory ways, as is happening now. Therefore, the next stage of research would require studying these same indicators as they apply to the Hetmanate.


Corresponding author: Igor Serdiuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, 187489 Professor at Kyiv School of Economics , Mykoly Shpaka St, 3, Kyiv, 01135, Ukraine; Associate Researcher at French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES, UAR 3138 CNRS–MEAE), Prague, Czech Republic; and Research Fellow at Centre for Advanced Study (CAS Sofia), Stefan Karadga St, 7B, Sofia, 1000, Bulgaria, E-mail:
This article is written on the basis of a report presented at the international scientific methodological workshop “IMPEDIMENTS & ENGAGEMENTS. Humanities and Social Sciences since the Russian Invasion of Ukraine”. The author is grateful to all participants, discussants and organizers of the workshop – French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague.

Funding source: Centre for Advanced Study (CAS Sofia)

Award Identifier / Grant number: Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship 2023-2026

Funding source: French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES) in Prague

Award Identifier / Grant number: CEFRES, UAR 3138 CNRSMEAE

Acknowledgments

I am sincerely grateful to CEFRES for their support in the preparation of this text and my research. I am also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose criticisms, suggestions, and comments helped to refine and improve the manuscript. My greatest gratitude goes to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who defend Ukraine from Russian aggression.

  1. Research funding: This work was supported by Centre for Advanced Study (CAS Sofia) (Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship 2023-2026) and CEFRES non-residential fellowships for Ukrainian researchers in humanities and social sciences (CEFRES, UAR 3138 CNRSMEAE).

References

Aleppo from, Pavlo. 2009. Ukraina – zemlia kozakiv: Podorozhnii shchodennyk [Ukraine – The Land of the Cossacks: Travel Diary], edited by M. O. Riabyi. Postscript by V. O. Yavorivskyi. Kyiv: Yaroslavyi Val.Search in Google Scholar

Bachynska, Olena. 2012. “Malorosiiski kozaky XIX ct.: sotsio-demohrafichna kharakterystyka ta terytorialne rozselennia [Malorosiiski Cossacks of the 19 th st.: socio-demographic characteristics and territorial settlement].” Istoryko-heohrafichni doslidzhennia v Ukraini: Zbirka naukovykh prats 12: 15–26.Search in Google Scholar

Bauman, Zygmunt. 2007. Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Beauplan Levasser, de, Guillaume. 1990. Opis Ukrainy [Description of Ukraine]. Translated by Ya. I. Kravets and Z. P. Borysiuk. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka.Search in Google Scholar

Bovhyria, Andrii. 2010. Kozatske litopysannia v rukopysnii tradytsii XVIII st.: Spysky ta redaktsii tvoriv [Cossack Chronicles in the Manuscript Tradition of the 18th Century: Lists and Versions of Works], 8. Kyiv: Instytut istorii Ukrainy NAN Ukrainy.Search in Google Scholar

Brik, Tymofiy. 2018. “Wages of Male and Female Domestic Workers in the Cossack Hetmanate: Poltava, 1765 to 1769.” Economic History of Developing Regions 33 (2): 123–46, https://doi.org/10.1080/20780389.2017.1372186.Search in Google Scholar

Chernetsky, Vitaliy. 2007. Mapping Postcommunist Cultures: Russia and Ukraine in the Context of Globalization. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.10.1515/9780773576506Search in Google Scholar

Durkheim, Émile. 2005. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Translated by J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Etkind, Alexander. 2011. Internal Colonization. Russia’s Imperial Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar

Fliz De la. 1996. Albomy [Albums]. Kyiv: Instytut ukrainskoi arkheohrafii ta dzhereloznavstva im. M. Hrushevskoho.Search in Google Scholar

Gerasimov, Ilya, Marina Mogilner, and Sergie Glebov, eds. 2005. Novaia imperskaia istoriia postsovetskogo prostranstva [The New Imperial History of the Post-Soviet Space]. Kazan: “Ab Imperio”.10.1353/imp.2005.0007Search in Google Scholar

Gun, Otto. 1806. Poverkhnostnye zamechaniia po doroge ot Moskvy v Malorossiiu v oseni 1805 goda. ochinenie Ottona fon Guna. Translated from German. Parts 1–3. Moscow: Tippografia Platona Beketova.Search in Google Scholar

Hechter, Michael. 1975. Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–966. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Search in Google Scholar

Hrushevskyi, Mykhaylo. 1928. “Chernyhiv ta Sivershchyna v ukrainskii istorii. Kilka sposterezhen, zdohadiv i pobazhan [Chernihiv and Severshchyna in Ukrainian history. A few observations, guesses and wishes].” In Chernyhiv i Pivnichne Livoberezhzhia. Ohliady, rozvidky, materiialy. Kyiv: Ukraincka Akademia Nauk.Search in Google Scholar

Joseph, Sirgy M., Michalos C. Alex, Abbott L. Ferriss, Easterlin A. Richard, D. Patrick, and W. Pavot. 2006. “The Quality-Of-Life (QOL) Research Movement: Past, Present, and Future.” Social Indicators Research 76 (3): 343–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-005-2877-8.Search in Google Scholar

Keenan, Edward L. 2022. “Dniprovia: Why You Can’t Get Russian Early Modern Cultural History Right Unless You Get Ruthenian Cultural History Right First.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 39 (1–2).Search in Google Scholar

Kohut, Zenon. 1988. Russian Centralism and Ukrainian Autonomy. Imperial Absorption of the Hetmanate 1760s–1830s. Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.Search in Google Scholar

Konyskyi, Hryhorii. 1846. Istoriia Rusov, ili Maloi Rossii [The History of the Rusiv, or Little Russia]. Moscow: Unyversytetskaia Typohrafyia.Search in Google Scholar

Krman, Daniel. 1999. Podorozhnii shchodennyk (Itinerarium 1708–1709) [Travel Diary (Itinerarium 1708–1709)]. Kyiv: Vydavnychyi Tsentr ‘Prosvita’.Search in Google Scholar

Lejeune, Philippe. 2010. ‘Drogi zeszycie…’, ‘drogi ekranie…’ O dziennikach osobistych [‘Dear Notebook…’, ‘Dear Screen…’ On Personal Diaries]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.Search in Google Scholar

López-Noval, Borja. 2016. “The History of the Idea of Quality of Life.” In Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life, 153–75. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.10.4337/9781783471171.00013Search in Google Scholar

Lytvynova, Tetiana. 2011. «Pomishchytska pravda». Dvorianstvo Livoberezhnoi Ukrainy ta selianske pytannia naprykintsi XVIII – u pershii polovyni ХIХ stolittia [“Landlord’s Truth”. The nobility of Left-bank Ukraine and the peasant question at the end of the 18th – in the first half of the 19th century]. Dnipropetrovsk: Lira.Search in Google Scholar

Maerchyk, Mariia. 2015. Analiz dyskursiv v doslidzhenniakh ukrainskoi tradytsii dobranychnykh nochevok molodizhi (kinets XIX–XXI st.) [Analyzing Discourses in Studies of Ukrainian Traditions of Pre-marital Youth Gatherings (Late 19th–21st Century)]. Antropolohichnyi Forum (24): 95–119.Search in Google Scholar

Markevych, Mykola. 1855. O narodonaselenii Poltavskoi gubernii [On the Population of the Poltava Province]. Kyiv: Unyversytetskaia Typohrafyia.Search in Google Scholar

Markovych, Yakiv. 1859. Dnevnye zapiski malorossiiskogo podskarbiia general’nogo Yakova Markovicha, edited by Aleksandr Markovych, Part 1. Moscow: V Tipografii V. Got’e.Search in Google Scholar

Masliy̆chuk, Volodymyr, and Igor Serdiuk. 2021. Rozchakluvannia neduhy. Lokalna tradytsiia, «stari» khvoroby ta «nova» medytsyna v Ukraïni XVIII–XIX st. [Disenchantment of the disease. Local tradition, «old» diseases and «new» medicine in Ukraine in the 18 and 19 centuries]. Kharkiv: Olexandr Savchuk.Search in Google Scholar

Meslé, France, and Jacques Vallin. 2011. “Historical Trends in Mortality.” In International Handbook of Adult Mortality. International Handbooks of Population, 2, edited by Richard G. Rogers, and Eileen M. Crimmins, 9–47. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-90-481-9996-9_2Search in Google Scholar

Miloradovych, Vasyl. 1991. Zhytie-bytye lubenskoho krest’ianina [The Life of a Lubny Peasant]. Kyiv: Lybid.Search in Google Scholar

Mironov, Boris. 1999. A Social History of Imperial Russia, 1700 - 1917. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.Search in Google Scholar

Nazarenko, Vadym. 2024. Yak my poliubyly kartopliu. Naddniprianska istoriia [How We Fell in Love with Potatoes. Dnieper Region History]. https://localhistory.org.ua/texts/kolonki/iak-mi-poliubili-kartopliu-naddniprianskaistoriia/.Search in Google Scholar

Nussbaum, Martha, and Amartya Sen. 2003. The Quality of Life, edited by Martha Nussbaum. Oxford: Oxford Academic.Search in Google Scholar

Pervaya vseobshaya perepis naseleniya Rossijskoj imperii 1897 goda. 1904. Poltavskaya guberniya. [The first general census of the Russian Empire in 1897. Poltava province]. Sankt-Peterburg.Search in Google Scholar

Pervaya vseobshaya perepis naseleniya Rossijskoj imperii 1897 goda. 1905. Chernigovskaya guberniya. [The first general census of the Russian Empire in 1897. Chernigov province]. Sankt-Peterburg.Search in Google Scholar

Peshkov, Dmytro. 2023. “The Quality of Drinking Water and its Accessibility in Poltava in the 19th – Early 20th Centuries.” City: History, Culture, Society 16 (2): 52–66. https://doi.org/10.15407/mics2023.02.052.Search in Google Scholar

Petrovska, Yuliya. 2016. “Dzherela Z Istorii Diialnosti Zemskykh Ustanov Chernihivskoi Hubernii U Sferi Prodovolchoho Zabezpechennia Naselennia 60-ti Rr. XIX St. – Pochatok XX St. [Sources from the History of Activity of Zemstvo Institutions of Chernihiv Province in the Field of Food Provision of the Population in the 60s of the 19th Century – the Beginning of the 20th Century].” Sivershchyna v istorii Ukrainy 9: 334–8.Search in Google Scholar

Pinker, Steven. 2018. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. London: Penguin Books Limited.Search in Google Scholar

Podgorna, Anastasiya. 2023. “Changes in Infant Mortality in a Ukrainian County Town between 1807 and 1910 (Based on the Metric Records of Romny, Poltava Governorate).” City: History, Culture, Society 16 (2): 67–95. https://doi.org/10.15407/mics2023.02.067.Search in Google Scholar

Portnova, Tetiana. 2016. Liubyty i navchaty. Selianstvo v uiavlenniakh ukrainskoi intelihentsii druhoi polovyny XIX ct. [To love and teach. The peasantry in the ideas of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of the second half of the 19th century]. Dnipropetrovsk: Lira.Search in Google Scholar

Pozzi, Lucia, and Diego Farinas. 2015. “Infant and Child Mortality in The Past.” Annales de Démographie Historique 1: 55–76, https://doi.org/10.3917/adh.129.0055.Search in Google Scholar

Prutkin, Jordan, and Alvan Feinstein. 2002. “A History of ‘Quality of Life’ Measurements.” Yale Medicine Thesis. Digital Library 424.Search in Google Scholar

Ptukha, Mykhailo. 1928. Smertnist U Rosii I Na Ukraini [Mortality in Russia and Ukraine]. Kharkiv-Kyiv: TsSU USRR.Search in Google Scholar

Rashin, Adolf. 1956. Naselenie Rossii za 100 let (1811–1913 gg.). Statisticheskie ocherki. [Population of Russia for 100 years (1811–1913). Statistical essays]. Moskva: Gosstatizdat.Search in Google Scholar

Rklytskyi, Mykhailo. 1910. Kazaki Zolotonoshskogo uezda po dannym Rumyantsevskoi opisi 1767 goda. Statisticheskii Ezhegodnik Poltavskogo Gubernskogo Zemstva na 1909 god, 91–216. Poltava.Search in Google Scholar

Schalock, Roger. 1990. “Attempts to Conceptualize and Measure Quality of Life.” In Quality of Life: Perspectives and Issues, 141–8. Washington D.C.: American Association on Mental Retardation.Search in Google Scholar

Serdiuk, Igor. 2021. “The Child in 18th-Century Ukrainian Historical Narrative.” Slavia Orientalis 1: 23–42. https://doi.org/10.24425/slo.2021.136999.Search in Google Scholar

Serdiuk, Igor, and Yurii Voloshyn. 2019. “Historical Demography in Ukraine: From ‘Political Arithmetic’ to Non-political History.” Poland’s Demographic Past 41: 9–32. https://doi.org/10.18276/pdp.2019.41-01.Search in Google Scholar

Shevchenko, Taras. 2003. Zibrannia tvoriv: U 6 t. [Collected Works: In 6 Volumes]. Vol. 1: Poeziia 1837–1847 [Poetry 1837–1847]. Kyiv.Search in Google Scholar

Shlikevich, Alexey. 1890. “Luchshe Li Zhilos V Malorossii Za Sto Let Nazad? [Was Life Better in Little Russia a Hundred Years Ago?” Zemskij sbornik Chernigovskoj gubernii 11: 152–79.Search in Google Scholar

Sichynskyi, Volodymyr. 1946. Chuzhyntsi pro Ukrainu = Foreign Voices on Ukraine: Vybir Z Opysiv Podorozhiv Po Ukraini ta Inshykh Pysan’ Chuzhyntsiv Pro Ukrainu za Desiat’ Stolitt’ [Foreigners about Ukraine: A Selection from Travel Descriptions of Ukraine and Other Writings by Foreigners about Ukraine over Ten Centuries], 5th ed. Augsburg: Vyd. Petra Pavlovycha.Search in Google Scholar

Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. Seriia II. 1882. Issue 19. St. Petersburg.Search in Google Scholar

Velychko, Samiĭlo. 2020. Litopys [Chronicle]. Kyiv: TOV ‘Vydavnytstvo ‘KLIO’.Search in Google Scholar

Yaremenko, Maxym. 2012. “Nasolody Osvichenykh V Ukraini XVIII Stolittia (Pro Kulturu Vzhyvannia Tserkovnoiu Elitoiu Chaiu, Kavy Ta Vyna) [The Pleasures of the Educated in Ukraine in the 18th Century (About the Culture of Tea, Coffee and Wine Consumption by the Church Elite)].” Kyivska Akademiia 10: 117–85.Search in Google Scholar

Zamura, Olena. 2014. ‘Velykyi shalenets’: Smert i smertnist v Hetmanshchyni XVIII st.: Monohrafiia [‘The Great Reckless One’: Death and Mortality in the Hetmanate of the 18th Century: A Monograph]. Kyiv: K. I. S.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-05-16
Accepted: 2025-02-11
Published Online: 2025-02-27
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 13.1.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humaff-2024-0044/pdf
Scroll to top button