[3] Contrary to serfs, Eastern Orthodox Serbs enjoyed substantial levels of autonomy (in exchange for providing forces to fight against the Ottoman Empire) granted in multiple documents starting with Statuta Valachorum, but which was gradually obsolete or eliminated by the creation of centralized modern state.

The Horvat's colonization idea was enthusiastically supported by Elizabeth of Russia, and it was the first centrally planned settlement of the southern steppe which led to deterioration of Russian relations with Habsburg monarchy and Ottoman Empire and crystallization of the key features of the future Eastern Question.

The Russian state was able to secure a large part of territory of modern Ukraine by signing of the Truce of Andrusovo and the 1686 Treaty of Perpetual Peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1751 (or in some sources 1750) the Russian envoy in Vienna Count Mikhail Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin was contacted by colonel of the Austrian military Jovan Horvat with request to allow him and other Serbs to resettle in the Imperial Russia.

As the Pannonian Frontier, New Serbia was also organized into military province located on the Russian-Polish border and on the land of Buhogard palanka, Zaporizhian Sich.

After the formation of New Serbia, its initial new settlers were Serbs, but also many Moldavians and other Romanians (Mocani from Transylvania), Ukrainians, Bulgarians and others settled in the area.