In the meanwhile all the old vices that had existed in the Hetman state, of striving for the control of estates and land on the part of the officers, continued with increased energy. Peter saw to it that his favorites, like Menshikov, received large estates in Ukraine. He appointed Russian officers in the Kozak regiments and saw to it that they were richly rewarded, so that even the officers of the Hetman’s Council consisted largely of Russians and not of Ukrainians. On hearing of the death of Skoropadsky, Peter followed the same tactics that he had used in disposing of the Patriarchate. He appointed Colonel Polubotok Acting Hetman with instructions to listen to Velyaminov, exactly as he had used Stephen Yavorsky to carry on the Patriarchate until the Holy Synod was ready to function. Then he transferred the responsibility for the Little Russian Board to the Senate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where it had previously rested. It was another symbolic act in the elimination of all privileges on the part of the Kozak Host and the Ukrainian population, and was intended to show that the Ukrainians were only Little Russians and part of the Russian state. When the officers petitioned for the election of a new hetman, Peter postponed decision on the ground that all the hetmans had been traitors, except Khmelnitsky and Skoropadsky and he sent another agent to Ukraine to aid Velyaminov in securing evidence of Kozak dissatisfaction with their officers and in investigating the misdeeds of the latter. He also summoned Polubotok to St. Petersburg so that the Acting Hetman could be near the Tsar. This made it more difficult for Polubotok, who was sincerely endeavoring to restore justice and discipline in the Host, to undertake any positive action. His efforts to do this merely made his position worse and when it was discovered that he was sending letters to Ukraine to tell the people how to act under the new investigations, Peter solved all problems by arresting and incarcerating him in the Fortress of Saints Peter and Paul in Petersburg together with Colonels Apostol and Miloradovich, who had been summoned also to the capital. Thus the governing body of the Kozaks and their most influential leaders were in prison, while Peter was planning his next step. Polubotok could not stand the new insults and he died in prison in the fall of 1724, just a few months before Peter himself passed away.