elements. Dumas were in the active
"propaganda" arsenal of kobzars, which became
a certain symbol of Cossack culture, entering the
corpus of the so-called Ustyn books – collections
of folklore and other works that were transmitted
orally (Martynova, 2003, p. 305).
Cossacks and "leaflet communication" were
actively used. As early as 1625, written appeals
were spreading in Zaporizhzhya Sich, which
spoke about the tasks of the Ukrainian liberation
movement, in particular, in the matter of
opposing the crown army (Scherbak, 2004,
p. 20-31). Researchers are also talking about a
"proclamation war". On the eve of the next stage
of the Russo-Swedish war, after the anathema of
I. Mazepa, the tsar, writes M. Arkas, sent two
manifestos to the Ukrainian people. In one
respect, the monarch flattered the Ukrainians so
that they would not believe the manifestos and
universals of Charles and Mazepa, because, they
say, there is not a single people in the whole
world who live as easily and freely as the
Ukrainians under the hand of Moscow; in the
second, the king promised not to punish anyone
for not informing about Mazepa's intentions to go
over to the Swedes. Peter I urged Ukrainians not
to be afraid to return to their property. Those who
will not obey, the king will consider traitors and
will take away their positions, signs and property,
punishing them with death, and their women and
children will be sent into exile... About the letter
to the Cossacks from clergymen, written on the
instructions of Peter I, says V Serhijchuk
(Serhijchuk, 2016, p. 161).
I. Mazepa also joined the information war,
sending out circulars where he explained the
reasons that forced him to go against Russia.
"Moscow, he wrote, wants to devastate the cities,
enslave all the elders, turn the Cossacks into
dragoons and soldiers, drive the people to the
Moscow lands across the Volga, and populate
our region with their own people." In the same
way, the colonels – supporters of Mazepa, who
called to disobey the tsarist manifestos and
support the Hetman – distributed pamphlets.
Swedes also spread their appeals in Ukraine,
printing appeals to Ukrainians on a Russian
printing press that happened to be in their
possession. In the postcards, the Swedish king
assured the Ukrainians that he had no intention of
doing evil, but wanted to free them from the
Moscow yoke, and also advised them to obey
Hetman Mazepa. Enraged by such
proclamations, Peter I even issued a decree not to
believe the prints and not to keep them, and to
detain and deliver those who distribute leaflets to
Moscow, for which "royal mercy" was promised
(Arkas, 1994, p. 295-296; Butych, 2006,
p. 411-413).
Proclamations were also used during the
Haydamak movement, evidence of which has
been preserved in foreign intelligence
documents. Polish sources, currently researched
by E. Buket, report that from the middle of the
summer of 1768, after the capture of Colonel M.
Zalizniak by the Moscow army near Umannaya,
proclamations were spread on Ukrainian lands,
which stated that "...a Muscovite is an enemy of
the people, so you should not serve him, because
only by freeing yourself from him, you can get
unlimited freedom." (Butych, 2004, p. 222;
Rolle, 1966, p. 20). Leaflets with a similar
content, distributed in the territories where I.
Bondarenko (under the signature "Cossack
Ivan"), Ya. Sachenko, S. Maiboroda, M. Guba
and other insurgents were active, were quite
effective and intensified the insurgent struggle
(Omel`chuk & Sinyak, 2017, p. 245).
Book collections testify to the place of books in
the life of Cossack Ukraine. Large libraries were
formed at educational institutions and printing
houses in Ostroh, Lviv, Lutsk, Chernihiv,
Kharkiv, Nizhny... The book collection of the
Kyiv-Mohyla collegium was famous for its
collection, where, according to various sources,
more than 12,000 editions of different times and
countries were collected. The special storage
archive consisted of handwritten works – lecture
notes, chronographs, diaries, as well as various
business documents. The library and archive
could be used not only by teachers and students
of the academy, but also by anyone.
Monasteries and churches had their book
collections. Thus, according to the description
from the 18th century, the Intercession Church of
Nova Sich had 120 books of various contents -
from liturgical to historical. Often patrons of
such gatherings were the Cossacks themselves.
In the library, for example, of the Samara Desert-
Mykolaiv monastery, there were publications
donated by the chief of the Velichkiv kuren D.
Miria, the Cossack Biletsky, the last chief of the
Kosh P. Kalnyshevsky, etc. (Arkas, 1994,
p. 333-334; Isaievych, 2004, p. 933; Khyzhniak,
2004, p. 768).
Separately, we can talk about private Cossack
book collections of the XVII–XVIII centuries.
For example, according to sources, the estate of
General Military Judge G. Myloradovych
contained 16,000 books, the Bunchuk comrade
of the Starodub Regiment S. Lukashevich had
12,000 books, Colonel V. Kochubey in Zhuky in