The project attempts to reframe the debate on the Russian imperial rule in early modern Ukraine by putting it in a broader comparative context and by bridging the gap between perspectives of old and new imperial history on the one hand and historical and cultural studies of imperial rule on the other. It overcomes the limitations of the previous conceptualizations of the Russian-Ukrainian encounter that reduced it to only one dimension – imperial, colonial, or cultural entanglement. Instead, it provides a new theoretical framework that emphasizes its multidimensionality. It argues that the complexity and multidimensionality of this encounter determined the special place occupied by Ukrainians in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and explains the fixation with Ukraine of contemporary Russian leadership and elites. Through the in-depth examination of several case studies, the project explores the evolution of these dimensions' relative weight and character during the early modern period.