The ramifications of the Union of Lublin and the absorption of Ukrainian lands into Poland were not only political in nature;

they also had a great impact on the way of life of the Ukrainians. Even before the union, a whole new socioeconomic order, very different from that of Kievan Rus’, was evolving in Ukraine. The Ukrainians’ exposure to the Poles, and through them, to Western Europe, had a crucial influence on the form and direction this socioeconomic development took. Because of it, society was organized along Western lines. Ukraine’s economic links with the West became stronger than ever before. Indeed, rarely in Ukrainian history would the impact of the West on Ukraine as a whole be as great – and as evident in the everyday functioning of society – as it was under the overlordship of the Lithuanians and Poles.