Viktor Vorobyy's book analyzes in detail the most difficult and contradictory period of the relationship between the Hetmanate and the Russian Romanov dynasty - from the middle of the 17th century. until the liquidation of Ukrainian autonomy by Catherine II. The author's focus is on the causes and political and legal content of these relations, the logic of international relations in Eastern Europe, socio-political transformations within the Hetmanate, which significantly influenced Ukrainian-Russian integration. The monograph thoroughly examined the Ukrainian policy of Petro І, which allows us to reconstruct the motives for the political reorientation of the hetman Ivan Mazepa and the reasons for the decline of the Hetmanate in the "post-Azepine" era. The author tries - where sources allow - to understand the internal motivation of the parties, the perception of political and social conflicts by the then elites.