Catherine II finished the work that her predecessors had begun in Ukraine. Although Catherine was German, she became a strict supporter of Russification and centralization.
After the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 the Crimean Khanate got under Russia’s control. There was no need any more to have the Zaporozhian Sich and the Hetmanate as a barrier against the Tatar-Turkish threat. Thus, the Sich was destroyed in 1775. The despotic nature of the Russian empire could not tolerate such independent institution as the Sich. Catherine II even attempted to wipe the word “Zaporozhian Cossack” from popular memory, as it was a symbol of freedom and disorder. When she announced the liquidation of Sich, she warned that “the use of the word ‘Zaporozhian Cossack’ shall be considered by us as an insult to our imperial majesty”.
The turn of Ukrainian autonomy (the Hetmanate) came in 1781. In the place of Ukrainian autonomy, three provinces (those of Kiev, Chernigov, and Novhorod-Siversky) were established. These were similar in size and organization to the thirty other provinces of the empire. In 1783 the Ukrainian peasants were enserfed.
The Ukrainian elite, in contrast, benefited from these changes. The peasants were finally placed under its complete control and it was equalized in rights with the Russian nobility. After receiving the status of the Russian nobility the former starshyna was exempted from taxes, from civil service, and from military service. Great career opportunities opened before the new nobles. Some of them even obtained the most influential posts in the imperial government in St Petersburg. For these reasons, the leadership of the former Hetmanate accepted the liquidation of its autonomy without complaints. Ukraine became an ordinary Russian province.
Southern Ukraine (the former Wild Field) was given a new name - Novorossiia (New Russia). Offering cheap land, religious toleration and exemption from military service and taxes, the Russian government attracted people from all over Europe. Many different nationalities settled Novorossiia: Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Moldavians, Greeks, Armenians; Jews, and especially Germans.[16]
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