12 - Reshaping the Don in the imperial image: power, privilege, and patronage in the post-Bulavin era (1708–1739)

Summary

A new era dawned in the history of the Don Cossacks during the destructive crushing of the Bulavin uprising. The region would be rebuilt from the ashes of rebellion, but it would now become a hub for the networks of patronage, protection, cronyism, and corruption that were central features of the Petrine system. Cossack leaders sought to distance themselves from rank-and-file Cossacks by cultivating the favor of well-connected imperial officials. Just as in the metropole the “fledglings of Peter's nest” could corruptly accrue wealth and power with impunity as long as they enjoyed the personal confidence of the tsar, the ataman of the Don Host became a “little autocrat” who ignored local and imperial laws and lorded over the Host for as long as he enjoyed the confidence of the ruler's confidants.

In spite of the fact that the most critical transformations of Cossack politics took place soon after 1708, the decade after the uprising is the most neglected period in the historiography of the region. V. D. Sukhorukov, the liberal Don Cossack historian, ended his extensive survey of Don history with the Bulavin rebellion, signifying that Cossack liberty had been crushed. Others only gave limited treatment to the period, probably due to the fact that the Donskie dela could no longer serve as an anchor in a period in which Petrine generals began to determine Cossack policy and when documents were displaced due to administrative reforms and changes of jurisdiction over the Don.