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nobles. Orders were given by the Empress to denationalise and to Russify the Ukrainians.
But the national consciousness never left the people. And this consciousness has been kept alive by the élite even through the most gloomy time of the Tsarist oppression. In 1767 Catherine II had the idea of convening deputies elected from all parts of the Empire, in order that they might present the aspirations of their countries and give their advice in legislative questions. The Ukraine, although deprived then of almost all her liberties, also had to send her deputies. And in spite of all the repression made by her Governor, Count Roumiantzev, the Ukrainian patriots were elected and a memorandum drawn up in which the national demands w-ere formulated.
This memorandum recalled the fact that the Ukraine was bound to Russia by her own wish and that she had the right to constitute a separate State in the Empire and to preserve her national freedom.
But the assembly of deputies instituted by Catherine II resulted in nothing; it was soon suppressed by the Empress. And from that time until 1905 Russia possessed no means through which the will of the people could be expressed.
The populace of the whole Empire became plunged in a miserable ignorance. The Ukraine, who had, at the time of her union with Russia, numerous schools, saw these Russified and constantly diminished, so that illiteracy increased without cessation.
2. After the Nineteenth Century.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, as we have already said, a new era of literature arose and brought with it the man of genius, Shevchenko. Owing to him and the Ukrainian literature, the national sentiment and the memory of a sad but glorious past were kept alive.
At the commencement of the nineteenth century political groups sprang up which formulated the Ukrainian demands (1820–1825). Some twenty years later the
