The process of subjugation of the Kyiv Metropolia to the patriarchate of Moscow (XVII c.)

This study depicts in detail the processes of subjection of the Kyiv Metropolia to the Patriarchate of Moscow that lasted between 1648 and 1700 though it for centuries belonged to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul from 988. Herewith the factor of the Church in the Ottoman-Cossack State relations, the struggle of the Ukrainian clergy for independence and the occupation of the territories of the Constantinople Patriarchate by the Tsardom of Muscovy realized in the forms of oppression and delusion were analyzed. During the research, we benefited from the documents and works written in different languages and appertaining to the history of the Ukrainian Church and the Ottoman-Cossack State relations. By virtue of the Ottoman documents concerning Moscow diplomacy, which historians did not take into account before, we obtained the opportunity to evaluate from the new point of view the most important period of the history of the Ukrainian Church. As a result of our study we rich a conclusion that in 1686 the Patriarchate of Moscow subjugated the Kyiv Metropolia acting contrary to the canons of the Orthodox Church. Meanwhile the war that lasted between the Ottomans and the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1686-1700 completed the occupation of the metropolia, realized due to the diplomacy, conducted by Moscow in the Ottoman Empire. The most obvious feature of the occupation of the Kyiv Metropolia became the fact that the patriarchate and the authorities of Moscow consciously commented and translated in the false form the charters of the Istanbul Patriarch Dionysius IV concerning the status of the Ukrainian Church, which he assigned in 1686. Simultaneously this study reveals the occupation of the Kyiv Metropolia in the context of the "Third Rome" policy, conducted by the Tsardom of Muscovy, and its struggle for the dominance over the Ottoman lands. From this point of view the conclusions, which we reached, could be widely used in the studies on Turkish-Ukrainian relations and history of the Orthodox Church.