The New Order
At the time of Khmelnytsky’s death, the Cossacks controlled most of the Right and Left banks of the Dnieper (the former provinces of Kiev, Bratslav, and Chernihiv), while the West Ukrainian lands of Galicia and Volhynia remained in Polish hands.
About 1.2 to 1.5 million people lived in the roughly 250,000 sq. km that were held by the Cossacks. In the first decades after the uprising, about 50% of the land – formerly owned by the Polish crown – became the property of the Zaporozhian Host, which, in return for taxes, allocated most of this land to self-governing peasant villages. The income from a part of these lands, the so-called rank lands, was used to remunerate high-ranking Cossack officers while they were in office. About 33% of the land was owned by Cossacks and Ukrainian nobles. And 17% was confirmed as the property of the Orthodox church.The Cossacks quickly established their own form of government. The territory they controlled was divided into sixteen military districts (polky), corresponding to the regiments in the Cossack army. Colonels who commanded the 3000–5000-man regiments in wartime served as their district’s chief administrative and judicial officials in times of peace. Each regimental district was further divided into company subdistricts (sotni) in which captains performed military and administrative functions. Both regiments and companies had their headquarters in the major towns in their area and carried their names. At the bottom of this administrative structure were the individual small towns and villages in which Cossack otamany held sway. Initially, Cossack officers were elected by the Cossacks in their units. However, in time, these posts became hereditary.
At the pinnacle of this military/administrative system stood the hetman. Theoretically, he was subject to the will of the general Cossack council (rada) that had elected him.
But the rapid growth in the number of Cossacks during the 1648–56 period made these general councils impractical and, consequently, hetmans called them infrequently. Khmelnytsky and his successors preferred to consult the increasingly influential council of officers instead. In practice, however, hetmans were free to exercise their wide prerogatives and they were considered to be the de facto rulers of Ukraine. In addition to commanding the Cossack army, they conducted foreign affairs, supervised the administrative and judicial systems, and controlled the Cossack treasury and land fund. The fund consisted of the estates that had been confiscated from the Poles and the hetman’s right to distribute them as he saw fit contributed greatly to his political leverage. In addition to the confiscated lands, which were used mainly to support Cossack officeholders, the treasury had an annual income of about 1,000,000 gold pieces from taxation, duties, and tariffs.Assisting the hetman in the fulfillment of his functions was the heneralna starshyna, a combination of general staff and council of ministers. Its most important member was the secretary-general (heneralny pysar) or chancellor, who established the agenda of the council meetings, formulated key government documents, and supervised the day-to-day conduct of foreign affairs. Another key member of the staff was the quartermaster-general (heneralny obozny), a position analogous to minister of war, who was responsible for the military preparedness of 40,000–60,000 Cossack regulars, including artillery. The judge-general (heneralny suddia) looked after judicial affairs and the two adjutants-general (heneralny osavul) as well as the standardbearer-general (heneralny khorunzhy) were used for special assignments by the hetman. Although Khmelnytsky and his successors always considered Kiev to be Ukraine’s major city, the headquarters of the administration was based in the small Cossack town of Chyhyryn and, in the 18th century, in Baturyn and Hlukhiv. The formal designation for the Cossack order and the lands it controlled was the Zaporozhian Host. The Muscovites, however, usually referred to it as Malorossiia (Little Russia), although the Poles continued to call it Ukraine.