Brief History Course: Unification of the Slavs
On March 27, 1793, Catherine the Great issued a manifesto on the inclusion of Right-Bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire.
Right-Bank
The long-term and difficult process of uniting Ukraine in general and Right-Bank Ukraine in particular with Russia was associated with the search for the national identity of the Ukrainian people, and the struggle for liberation from Polish oppression. In addition to Russia and Poland, this process also involved Turkey and Sweden. It was the struggle between the parties to the conflict that led to the emergence of Right-Bank Ukraine (as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). According to the 1667 Truce of Andrusovo, the lands of the Zaporizhian Army, located on the right bank of the Dnieper, were for the first time officially named Right-Bank Ukraine.
Aleksey Kivshenko Pereyaslav Agreement. 1654. Reunification of Ukraine
Three Parts
The geopolitical changes of the second half of the 18th century, among other things, included the weakening of Poland and the predatory political attitude of Austria and Prussia towards the same. In that situation, Poland tried to make the Ottoman Empire its ally in order to survive. Prussia and Austria, though, managed to convince St. Petersburg to divide Poland. The first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in 1772. Austria obtained Galicia, Prussia — the Baltic part of Poland, and Russia — the eastern territories.
Catherine and Ukraine
Like the first partition, the second partition of Poland (1793) was sanctioned by Empress Catherine II. This resulted in Russia obtaining Minsk with the adjacent Belarusian lands and Right-Bank Ukraine. A rebellion stirred up by the Poles a year later was a failure, as the Ukrainians did not support the same. The third partition of Poland (1795) led to Russia gaining control over most of the lands inhabited by Ukrainians. Therefore, being German, Catherine, during her reign over Russia, re-united the Slavs who once created Kievan Rus.