From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey. Painted by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.

Dnieper Cossacks redirects here.

The Zaporozhian Host (Ukrainian: Запорізька Січ, Russian: Запорожская Сечь) or Zaporozhian Voisko (Ukrainian: Запорізьке Військо, Russian: Запорожское Войско sometimes translated as Zaporozhian Cossack Army), also called by the name of its fortified capital Zaporizhian Sich, was a political, social, and military organization of the Dnieper regions' Cossacks in Ukraine.

While the Ruthenian Cossacks had existed earlier and Cossacks had migrated into the region about the Dnieper earlier, the new factor giving rise to a historic term was in their gathering as an organized Host centred in Zaporizhzhian territory (literary "behind the rapids" of the Dnieper river), which began from the early sixteenth century and remained politically cohesive and significant into the eighteenth century. In effect the organization of the `host' was a declaration of independence from the authoriarian rulers of the day, and a sword to their throats. The situation built slowly from tension into crisis until significant violence broke out in the Khmelnytsky Uprising, during which, the Cossacks sought to achieve an Eastern Slav polity.

The independence of the Zaporizhian Sich challenged the authority of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Tsardom of Russia, and the Ottoman Empire as well as the Khanate of the Crimean Tatars, largely a proxy of the latter. It went through a series of conflicts and alliances involving the three before finally being destroyed by the order of the Russian Empress Catherine II.

The Zaporozhian Host was led by a Hetman with a help of The Main Secretary, The Main Judge, The Main History Writer and the supreme government body called the Sichova Rada (council). The most famous hetmans were Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Petro Konashevych, Pylyp Orlyk, and Ivan Mazepa.

Some sources call Zaporizhian Sich a "cossack republic" [2], as the highest power in it belonged to the assembly of all its members and all leaders (starshyna) were elected. Cossacks constituted a society (hromada) consisted of "kurens" (several hundreds of cossacks). There was a cossack military court, which severely punished violence and stealing among the compatriots, bringing women to the Sich, alcohol drinking in wartime etc. There were active Orthodox churches and schools, providing religious and secular education for children.

It could be called as The Ukrainian Orthodoxal Republic,^{[citation needed]} because as all countries of Europe Zaporizhska Sich had its own coat of arms; gentry (ukrainian szlacta), which started cultural and military resistance with polish szlahta; president (hetman); the parliamen (main council and the council of leaders); original strategy of battle.

In that time Ukraine had one of the best infantry in Europe, because its soldiers could fight without a help of cavalry. National infantry was used in Austria, defending Vienna, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, fighting with polish szlachta, Moscovy, terminating russian monarchy and Muslim's countries, rescuing christened prisons and attacking strongholds in the Black Sea.

In the times of peace all cossacks were working in their factories, they were living as a simple people in families, who were learning strategy, languages and were teaching recruits. All cossacks were independent in choosing their weapons, such as polish szlachta. Rich cossacks (ukrainian gentry) preferred to were heavy armor, shooters preferred to wear simple national or szlachtian clothes and sometimes chain mail ...

In the times of war all cossacks were divided into regiments and were serving as a regular soldiers. Ukrainian cossacks were good in war, but only with good officers

Camp of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks. Painting by Józef Brandt.

After the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, the territory became a suzerainty under the protection of the Russian Tsar, although for a long time it enjoyed nearly complete autonomy.^{[citation needed]} After the death of the Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1657, his successor, Ivan Vyhovsky, alarmed by a string of Russian victories against the Poles in the ongoing Russo-Polish War, initiated a turn towards weakened Poland. An attempt was made to implement a three-constituent Commonwealth of nations with the Cossacks joining the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth into a political entity by a Treaty of Hadiach (1658). However, the treaty ratified by the Polish Sejm or parliament was rejected at the Hermanivka Rada by the Cossack rank and file who could not accept union with the mostly Catholic Poland by that time largely perceived by them as an oppressor of the Orthodox commoners. The angered cossacks executed Polkovnyks (colonels) Prokip Vereshchaka and Stepan Sulyma, Vyhovsky's associates at the Polish Sejm and Vyhovsky himself narrowly escaped death. ^[1]

As the suzerainty of Russia, the Host comprised the Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine, and Zaporozhia, centred around the fortress, Zaporizhian Sich. After Khmelnytsky's death the Zaporozhians maintained a separate government from Kiev, where the Hetmans ruled in Kiev's autonomous cossack state. The Zaporozhians elected their own leaders, known as Koshovyi Otaman to one-year terms. During this time, there was frequent friction between the cossacks of Kiev and the Zaporozhians.

Cossacks who in the past fought for their independence from Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which attempted to turn them into serfs, now began several uprisings against the Russian Tsar, in fear of losing their privileges and autonomy. In 1709, for example, the Zaporozhian Host led by Kost Hordiienko went along with Hetman Ivan Mazepa against Russia. Mazepa, despite being viewed by the Tsar Peter the Great a trusted adviser and even a close friend, allied himself with Charles XII of Sweden against Peter.^[2] Peter, "angered and surprised" by Mazepa's actions ordered the retaliatory destruction of the Sich.

Upon the death of Mazepa in Bessarabia, the part of Starshyna who followed him, in 1710 elected his former general chancellor Pylyp Orlyk, as his successor. Orlyk issued the project of the Constitution where he promised to limit the authority of the Hetman, preserve the privileged position of Zaporozhians, take measures towards the social equality among them and take steps towards the separation from Russia should he manage to obtain power in Ukraine. With the support of Charles XII, Orlyk made an alliance with the Crimean Tatars and Ottomans against Russia, but following the early successes of their 1711 attack of Russia, their campaign was defeated and Orlyk fled to exile yet again .^[3] The Zaporozhians built a new sich under Ottoman protection, the Oleshky Sich[3] on the lower Dnieper.

Although some of the Zaporozhian cossacks returned to Moscow's protection, their popular leader Kost Hordiienko was resolute in his anti-Russian attitude and no rapproachment was possible until the leader's death in 1733.^[2]

A Zaporozhian Cossack Attack, by Franz Roubaud.

Over the years the friction between the Cossacks and the Tsarist government lessened, and privileges were traded for the reduction of the Cossack autonomy. The Cossacks who did not side with Mazepa elected Ivan Skoropadsky, one of the "anti-Mazepist" Polkovnyks (Colonels) as their Hetman. Measured Skoropadsky, while advocating for the preservation for the Hetmanate autonomy and privileges of Cossack nobility, was careful to avoid open confrontation and remained loyal to the union with Russia. With the Russian military needs, the Skoropadsky allowed for stationing of ten Russian regiments in the territory of Hetmanate. At the same time Cossacks took part in the construction, fortification and channel development projects in Saint Petersburg, to establish a new Northern Russian capital. Many did not return, and it is statated that St Peterburg was built on Cosack bones^[4]

In 1734 as Russia was preparing for a new war against the Ottoman Empire, an agreement was made with the Zaporozhian cossacks. Under the Treaty of Lubny, the Zaporozhian cossacks regained all of their former lands, privileges, laws and customs in exchange for serving under the command of the Russian army stationed in Kiev. A new sich (Nova Sich) was built to replace the one that had been destroyed by Peter I. Concerned about the possibility of Russian interference in Zaporozhia's internal affairs, the cossacks began to settle their lands with Ukrainian peasants fleeing serfdom in Polish and Russian-controlled territory. By 1762, 33,700 Cossacks and over 150,000 peasants populated Zaporozhia.^[2]

By the late 18th century, much of the Cossack officer class in Ukraine was incorporated into the Imperial Russian nobility (Dvoryanstvo), but many of the rank and file Cossacks, including a substantial portion of the old Zaporozhians, were reduced to peasant status. They were able to maintain their freedom and continued to provide refuge for those fleeing serfdom in Russia and Poland, including followers of the Russian cossack Yemelyan Pugachev, which aroused the anger of the Russian empress Catherine II. As a result by 1775 the number of runaway serfs from the Hetmanate and the Polish ruled Ukraine in Zaporizhiya rose to 100,000. Furthermore after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which annexed the Crimean Khanate into Russia, the need for a further southern frontier defence (which the Zaporozhians carried out) was gone. On the contrary colonisation of New Russia began. This created new tensions with the Cossacks, as numerous Serbian colonists, despite protests from Cossacks ^[3] were invited to settle. New colonies such as New Serbia and Slavyanoserbia were set up which resulted in conflicts over land ownership with the Cossacks.

All this meant that the Zaporozhians were becoming increasingly irratant to the Russian interests in developing of the region.

The decision to destroy the Sich was adopted at the court council of Catherine II on May 7, 1775. General Pyotr Tekeli received orders to occupy the main Zaporozhian fortress, the Sich, and liquidate it. The plan was kept secret and regiments returning from the Russo-Turkish war, in which Cossacks also participated, were mobilized for the operation. They included 31 regiments (65,000 men in total). The attack took place 15th May and continued to the 8th of June. The order was given by Grigory Potemkin, who formally became a Zaporozhian Cossack under the name of Hrytsko Nechesa a few years prior.^[5] Potemkin, in his turn, was given direct order from Empress Catherine, which she later explained in her Decree of August 8, 1775:

On June 5 1775, General Tekeli's forces divided into 5 detachments and surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. The lack of southern borders and enemies in the past years had a profound effect on the combat-ability of the Cossacks, who realised the Russian infantry was to destroy them only after being surrounded. To trick the Cossacks, the rumour was spread that the army was crossing Cossack lands en route to guard borders. The surprise encirclement put a devastating blow to the morale of the Ukrainians. In addition the capital of republic was terminated by: 1) destroying the port, 2) killing gards silently, 3) surrounding the Citadel.

Petro Kalnyshevsky was given two hours to decide on the Empress's ultimatum. Under the guidance of a starshyna Lyakh, behind Kalnyshevky's back a conspiracy was formed with a group of 50 Cossacks to go fishing in the river Ingul next to the Southern Buh in Ottoman provinces. The pretext was enough to allow the Russians to let the Cossacks out of the siege, who were joined by five thousand others. The fleeing Cossacks travelled to the Danube Delta where they formed the new Danube Sich, under the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire.

When Tekeli realised of the escape, there was little left for the remaining 12 thousand Cossacks. The Sich was razed to the ground. However, the operation for the most part was bloodless, the Cossacks were disarmed, the Cossack treasury, archives confiscated. However, Petro Kalnyshevsky was arrested and exiled to the Solovki (where he lived to 112 years of age to his death. Most upper level Cossack starshyna were repressed and exiled as well, such as Pavlo Holovaty and I.Hloba, although lower level commanders and rank and file Cossacks were allowed to join Husar and Dragoon regiments^[7].

Part of a series of articles on
Cossacks
Cossack hosts
Don · Ural · Terek · Kuban · Orenburg ·Astrakhan · Siberian · Baikal · Amur · Semirechye · Ussuri
Other groups
Azov · Black Sea · Bug · Caucasus Line · Danube· Hetmanate · Tatar Cossacks · Nekrasov · Persia · Turkey · Jewish Cossacks · Zaporozhia
History of the Cossacks
Colonisation of Siberia · Khmelnytsky Uprising · Treaty of Hadiach · Bulavin Rebellion · Pugachev's Rebellion · 1st Cavalry Army · Decossackization · Betrayal of the Cossacks · XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps · 1st Cossack Division
Famous Cossacks
Andrei Shkuro · Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Ivan Mazepa · Ivan Sirko · Pyotr Krasnov . Stenka Razin · Yemelyan Pugachev · Yermak Timofeyevich
Cossack terms
Ataman · Hetman · Papakha · Plastun · Shashka · Stanitsa
This box: view • talk • edit

The after effects of the Sich's destruction did not give the Empire its best results. Supporting the increase in the privileges gained by the higher ranking leadership put a strain in the budget, whilst the stricter regulations of the regular Russian Army prevented many other Cossacks from integrating. Also troublesome was the presence of the Danubian Sich, who would now support the Ottoman Empire in the next war. In 1784 Potemkin chose to re-generate the Host of the Loyal Zaporozhians (Войско верных Запорожцев) and settled them between the Southern Buh and Dniester rivers. For their invaluable service during the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792 they were rewarded with the empty Kuban land and in 1792 migrated there as the Black Sea Host.

In 1828, the Danubian Sich ceased to exist after it was pardoned by Emperor Nicholas I, and under amnesty were settled on the Northern Azov shores between Berdyansk and Mariupol forming the Azov Cossack Host. Finally in 1860 they too migrated to the Kuban and merged with the Black Sea Cossacks to form the Kuban Cossack Host. The Kuban Cossacks served Russia's interests right up to the October Revolution and their descendants are now undergoing active regeneration both culturally and militarily. The 30,000 descendants of those cossacks who refused to return to Russia in 1828 still live in the Danube delta region of Romania, where they pursue the traditional Cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing and are known as Rusnaks.^[8]

Although in 1775 the Zaporozhian Host formally ceased to exist, its has left a profound cultural and a political as well as a military legacy on Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey and many other states that came in contact with it.

The shifting alliances in the Cossacks have generated a mass amount of controversy, especially during the 20th centuries. For Russians the Pereyaslav Rada gave Moscow, and later Imperial Russia the required impulse to take over the Ruthenian land, claim rights as the sole successor of the Kievan Rus and for the Russian Tsar to be declared the protector of all Russias, culminating in the Pan-Slavism movement of the 19th century.

The modern descendants of the Zaporozhian Host, the Kuban Cossacks remain loyal towards Russia, many fought in the local conflicts following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and today, just like before the revolution when they made up the private guard of the Emperor, the majority of the Kremlin Presidential Regiment is made from Kuban Cossacks^[9]

However even more crucial of the Zaporozhian Cossacks was their independence and will, which eventually in the latter half of the 19th century would shape and influence the idea of Ukrainian Self determination. The shifting alliances is interpreted as a way of survival of the Host, and ultimately the destruction of the Sich in 1775 is interpreted as the blow against the Ukrainian self-determination and independence. ^[10].

Ukrainian historians, such as Adrian Kaschenko (1858-1921) ^[10], Olena Apanovich ^[11] and others go on to interpret the final abolishment of the Zaporizhian Sich in 1775, as the destruction of the Cossack historic stronghold perceived as the bastion of protection of the Ukrainians and their ways of life, was the final blow that brought Ukrainians to the total submission of the Russian Empire.

Eternally together Soviet poster made for the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada in 1954, illustrating the Russian and Soviet ideology that considers the Zaporozhian Cossacks to have been unifiers of the Russian and Ukrainian people

The Ukrainian aspect of the Zaporozhians would be the stimulus of the emerging Ukrainian self awareness in the middle of the 19th century and culminate in a distinct Ukrainian nationality who would claim the Zaporozhian Cossacks as their progenitors. During the Soviet times this point of view was slightly watered down in order to prevent the rise of nationalist sentiment, but at the same time supported (and becoming official) to create a negative image of the Russian Imperialist policies, yet retaining the Russophilic tendency of the Zaporozhians to justify Ukraine being part of the Soviet Union.

Zaporozhian attire, songs and music found its way into official state dance and music ensembles, which dominated the image of Ukraine in the years to come. Since the Independence of Ukraine in late 1991, attempts at regenerating the Cossack lifestyle have been made, although these attempts have diverged more into politics, horsemanship and cultural endeavours.