Debate with a 'Tatar imperialist': Catherine II and the abolition of autonomies (27.11.2021)
A debate between Vitaliy Dribnytsya and a “Tatar imperialist” opponent. In the factually valuable part (the first two minutes) the historian explains that Catherine II’s abolition of the Zaporozhian Sich (1775) and the autonomy of the Hetmanate was not an isolated episode but part of a systemic centralizing policy of abolishing regional autonomies across the whole Russian Empire, ideologically inspired by the French Enlightenment and Voltaire. The rest of the video repeats already covered topics (Lenin and the UNR, Soviet quasi-statehood, independence without war, the losses of the Holodomor).
Key moments
- 01:08 Catherine II abolished the Zaporozhian Sich and the autonomy of the Hetmanate
- 01:43 A systemic centralizing policy: abolishing every autonomy in the empire (the Baltic)
- 01:55 The ideological model: Voltaire and the French Enlightenment, the consolidation of France
- 02:44 The rest — a repeat about Lenin, the UNR, the USSR, independence, and the Holodomor