Samovidets Chronicle

(Eyewitness Chronicle), the most complete and reliable Ukrainian chronicle, also known as the Cossack Chronicle. Its author is thought to have been the chief treasurer Roman Rakushka-Romanovskii.

The Samovidets Chronicle covers Ukrainian history from 1648 to 1702 and supports the reunification of the Ukraine with Russia. In this work the registered cossacks appear as the moving force in the Ukrainian people’s war of liberation. The author disapproves of the antifeudal struggle and of the enlistment of the popular masses in the cossack forces. In describing events in the Ukraine in the second half of the 17th century and the early 18th, the chronicle condemns the pro-Polish and pro-Turkish sympathies of some members of the officer corps and the feuds among the officer factions and supports Ukrainian autonomy. The Samovidets Chronicle is a valuable work in Ukrainian literature and one of the best examples of the 17th-century Ukrainian literary language.