Ukrainians in Russia include all the family of hetman Ivan Mazepa, A. Vojnarovsky, and those in Mazepa's Cossack forces that returned to Russia. Some were imprisoned in exile for the rest of their lives such as hetmanPavlo Polubotok, Pavlo Holovaty, P. Hloba and Petro Kalnyshevsky. Beginning in the 19th century, there was a continuous migration from Belarus, Ukraine and Northern Russia to settle the distant areas of the Russian Empire. The promise of free fertile land was an important factor for many peasants who until 1861, lived under Serfdom. In the colonization of the new lands, a significant contribution was made by ethnic
Bulgarians in Ukraine of Bulgarian education and culture, and is in fact the first modern Bulgarian gymnasium. In 1861, 20,000 Bulgarians from the Romanian part of Bessarabia moved to Russia, where they were given land in Taurida Governorate to replace the Nogais who had left what was formerly territory of the Crimean Khanate. Those settlers founded another Bulgarian community—the Tauridan Bulgarians. After the whole region was incorporated once again within the bounds of Russia in 1878, the process of Russification grew stronger, as many Bulgarian intellectuals returned to newly established Principality of Bulgaria to help set up the Bulgarian state. The Bulgarian minority