Education as a Factor in the Formation of the Ukrainian Cossack Elite in the European Intellectual Space

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the role of education as a key factor in the formation of the Ukrainian Cossack elite (starshyna) and its integration into the European intellectual space during the early modern period. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach, including historical-comparative and historical-genetic methods, as well as the concepts of cultural transfer and institutional isomorphism. The study analyzes the transformation of the Cossack starshyna from a military-service estate into an early modern political class, which took place under the influence of the political culture and legal traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of institutional adaptation and manifestations of institutional isomorphism that facilitated the adoption of European models of socio-political organization by the Cossack elite. It is established that education became the decisive channel for integrating the Cossack elite into the European cultural and educational space. Its formation took place through Jesuit and Piarist colleges, the activities of church brotherhoods, the development of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, as well as studies at universities in Central and Western Europe. The study also highlights the significance of book culture and private libraries as important indicators of the intellectual level of the elite and as a means of its integration into the European intellectual environment. It is demonstrated that the assimilation of the classical heritage, Roman law, and humanist ideas contributed to the formation of new political concepts among the Cossack elite, including notions of civic virtue, the “common good,” and early modern statehood. These ideas were reflected in political practice and legal documents, particularly in the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk of 1710. The study concludes that education played a system-forming role in the formation of the Ukrainian Cossack elite, ensuring its social transformation and intellectual Europeanization. At the same time, this process was characterized by selective cultural adaptation, which contributed to the preservation of the distinctiveness of the Ukrainian elite tradition in the early modern period.