WI: Zaporizhian Hetmonate is never abolished?

So here is an interesting question I haven't seen discussed here before: what if Russian empress Catherine the Great never abolishes the Zaporozhian Hetmonate and its control over the Sich territory? What if the territory remains a mostly-autonomous part of the Russian Empire like the Grand Dutch of Finland was?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhian_Cossacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhian_Sich

I guess the question is really 2-part:

1) if this were to occur how would it impact the history & development of the region?
2) how could this occur in the 1st place (that is to say what would persuade Russian rulers not to get rid of this institution)?
 
Might this result in 'cossack' becoming a bona fide ethnicity, complete with its ascribed language? The territory would remain under Russian control, of couerse, and I don't think it would change anything about the eventual Russian conquest of areas to its southeast. The Czars wouldn't add the Caucasus to the Zaporozhie. But it might well mean no cossack settlements and, by extension, the concept of cossack coming to be associated exclusively with one region and its language.

You'd also need different villains for the horror stories of Russian autocracy that filled the papers of Europe and America in the late 19th century.
 
Might this result in 'cossack' becoming a bona fide ethnicity, complete with its ascribed language?

Ukrainians consider the Zaporozhian cossacks to be their ancestors, so their bona fide ethnicity and language is Ukrainian, even if it might be called something different ITTL.

Essentially, the POD is allowing the modern Ukrainian nation to form much earlier and thereby allow the Ukrainian national revival to occur earlier. Ukrainian nationalism will be more entrenched in the cities and among the peasantry since you won't have Great Russian nationalists trying to shut it down. Ukraine might end up being the same to Russia as Hungary was to Austria by the late 19th or early 20th centuries, or perhaps even as Polish nationalism was to Russia.

Of course, this also means the Cossack Hetmanate will look west towards Poland or Austria who occupy lands with people they consider to be theirs.

This means if a scenario occurs that allows Ukraine to become independent as happened IOTL after the Great War, there is a much greater chance of Ukraine keeping its independence rather than being returned to the Russian fold as happened with the Soviet Union.
 
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