Smutok I. The Ruthenian Gentry of the Peremyshl Land in the 15th - 18th Centuries). A Historical-Genealogical Research

The origins of the Ruthenian gentry should be linked with the policy of the Polish monarchs and local sovereigns (Vladislav Opolsky). They sought to form a loyal environment on the territory of Galicia among the upper strata of the local society. The lack of human resources and the low mobilization potential of the monarchy forced the authorities to select different people for the defense and administration of the region, not paying attention to their social origin, ethnic and religious affiliation. This approach led, inter alia, to a heterogeneous confessional situation among the Peremyshl' gentry. Privileged estate Peremyshl land since the first years of Polish rule was divided into Catholic, Orthodox and mixed, Catholic-Orthodox group. The last two were replenished at the expense of the local native population. They were from different strata of the Old Ruthenian society: from the boyars, princes? servants, the common people. They were also migrants, mainly the Ruthenian-Wallachian population from Maramaroschyna and the interfluve of the Dniester and Prut rivers. To a lesser extent, the settlers from Volhynia and other Ruthenian lands. In the 15th century the Ruthenian gentry is equally represented at all levels of the local gentry society. However, religious conversion led to the disappearance of its representatives among the nobility and at the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries. it is represented exclusively by the ordinary gentry. 16th century is characterized by the gradual transformation of the Ruthenian gentry from the community, which identifies for the confessional criteria a separate socio-cultural group that definitely dissociates from the rest of the Catholic nobility. During this period, the Ruthenian gentry undergoes radical demographic changes, which in turn affect its property status and social positions, have evolved changes in the way of life. The formation and growth of social exclusion was strengthened by marriage policy: among the fifteen hundred thousand fixed in the 16th century Peremyshl's acts. Marriages of the Ruthenian gentry no more than ten belong to mixed Orthodox-Catholic. In the vast majority of cases, the same local Orthodox families of the Peremyshl land act as marriage partners of Ruthenian gentry families. 17th century. became a period of intensive changes that swept all segments of the society of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They did not bypass the Orthodox nobility of the Peremyshl land. The starting point for the transformations that began in its midst was the Brest Union of 1596. The creation of the Uniate Church was a challenge to which the specified community could not but react. In the future, this factor is imposed by others - socio-economic problems of the mid 17th century. Broad participation in the armed struggle against the Cossacks and other military campaigns and the like.