One of the deputies of the Crimean parliament told how, when the peninsula was a part of Ukraine, he traveled around the Lviv region. His attention was attracted by a well-groomed mound with a cross on top. The attendant explained that this was the "grave of a Zaporozhets". When asked where in Galicia, whose inhabitants were always on the Polish side during the wars of the Cossacks with the Poles, a Cossack burial appeared, obviously revered, the "guide" explained that this was an "installation", that in the mound, which was poured a year ago, no one not buried.
According to the deputy, such an "art object" is a kind of symbol of Ukrainian historiography, "heaped up" like a pseudo-mound, out of nowhere.
Note that it is based on the unrestrained exploitation of the "Cossack past" of Ukraine. On which, in turn, political structures are being erected.
So, for example, a few days ago the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a bill on renaming the Dnipropetrovsk region into Secheslav (Sicheslavska). This innovation is assumed within the framework of the law on decommunization, "restoration of historical justice" and designation "the role of our ancestors - the Cossacks in the construction of Ukrainian statehood."
However, for the sake of "historical justice", we note that the Cossacks were not engaged in the construction of "Ukrainian statehood", and modern Ukrainians are not their descendants.
Note that the dispute about who the Cossacks are: an estate, a sub-ethnos or an ethnos still does not subside. Without going into the specifics of this difficult dispute, we note that the Cossacks and in general all the Dnieper Cossacks at the time when they lived on the territory modern Ukraine, did not consider the rest of the inhabitants of Little Russia to be their equal or their brothers in blood. The Cossacks called themselves "Cherkas", not "Ukrainians" or "Little Russians".
Nikolai Gogol, in his immortal "Taras Bulba", described in some detail the procedure for receiving new arrivals in the Zaporizhzhya Sich: "You believe in God, you believe in the Holy Trinity, but well, cross yourself and go to whatever kind of chicken you know."
However, in this way, the Dnieper or Don Cossacks were accepted into the Sich. All the others received a different welcome. So, a foreign Catholic or Protestant (and such came) could be accepted only after the adoption of Orthodoxy. And then only if he was a "military man" of interest to the slaughter: an artilleryman, engineer, gunsmith or a seasoned warrior.
The peasant who had escaped from the Pan was offered to become a "servant of the army." He was allowed to settle on the lands of the Sich, use its protection and rent farmland. For which he had to pay a quitrent to the Sich treasury. There was no question of any admission to the Cossack "partnership".
The situation changed after the outbreak of wars with Poland, which were waged by the Cossacks not for the sake of building "Ukrainian statehood", but in defense of Orthodoxy and their "knightly rights", constantly violated by royal officials and magnates.
Due to large losses of personnel and general confusion, some Little Russian peasants had a chance to climb to a higher level of the social ladder, to join the community of privileged soldiers and "find themselves".
However, this “infusion” did not change either the way of life, or the traditions, or the self-awareness of the Cossacks.
The abolition of Catherine the Great Sich began the process of resettlement of the Cossacks and Dnieper Cossacks to the Kuban, Terek, on the territory of other Cossack troops of Russia, which continued until the middle of the 19th century.
The Cossacks, who did not agree with the liquidation of the Sich and left for Turkish territory, also returned from emigration and settled mainly in the Kuban.
That is, the absolute majority of the Cossacks and Dnieper Cossacks moved to the Kuban, transferring here the regalia and traditions of the Sich, and partly its structure. Until now, a significant part of the Kuban villages are named after the Zaporozhye kurens.
Those who remained in Ukraine ceased to be Cossacks both legally and professionally and, ultimately, ethnically.
It is also noteworthy that the Kuban balachka, which is spoken in the Black Sea villages of the Kuban, is not at all a "dialect of the Ukrainian language", which, in fact, was not even in late XVI II century (it began to be created from different tribal dialects only at the end of the next 19th century), and the dialect of the Russian language.
The tsarist government, interested in the fastest economic development of the Kuban Territory, which was seriously hampered due to the fact that all the forces of the Cossacks were shackled by the war with the highlanders and participation in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, began to settle peasants in the Kuban. Including from Little Russia. But the peasants from the Chernigov and Poltava provinces were not at all considered by the Cossacks who had migrated from there earlier as "fellow countrymen." They were called "nonresident" and "Ukrainians", and their status was similar to that of the "serfs of the army" in the Sich. It was a shame for the Cossack to be related to the "nonresident".
It is no coincidence that during the civil war it was the "nonresident" who became the main support of the Bolsheviks and the worst enemies of the Cossacks. They became one of the most active participants in decossackization.
Added to this was the campaign of forcible Ukrainization, which was carried out in the Kuban in the 1920s and 1930s, when all office work and school education in the region was translated into the “Ukrainian” language. And the Cossacks resisted this Ukrainization with all their might.
The Kuban Cossacks do not consider the Ukrainians as their compatriots, but the Don, Terek and other Cossacks.
It is noteworthy that the descendants of the "nonresident" in the Kuban today most often position themselves as the descendants of the Cossacks (fortunately, Little Russian and Cossack surnames often coincide) and participate in the revival of the Cossacks.
The attitude of the Kuban people, the only heirs of the Zaporizhzhya army and the Dnieper Cossacks, to "Ukrainian statehood" is evidenced by the fact that during the Civil War they destroyed the Petliura gangs, and today they played one of the main roles in the "Crimean spring". Many Kuban residents fought and are fighting with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Battalions, together with the Don brothers for the freedom of Donbass. And many fighters laid down their heads in this struggle.
In other words, they are the only heirs of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and the Dnieper Cossacks, their glory and traditions. And all the claims of the Kiev ideologists to the Cossack roots and heritage are untenable. Moreover, the "Svidomo" Ukrainians have renounced the main achievements of the Dnieper Cossacks, the preservation of Orthodoxy in the southwestern Russian lands and their reunification with the rest of Russia.
The word "Cossack" of Turkic origin was first recorded in the V Polovtsian dictionary 1303 and in government documents of the Genoese colonies, and in 1492 it first appeared in Ukraine. This name referred to free health-care workers and steppe industrialists. The steppe expanses of Ukraine in those days were distinguished by great natural resources, there were deer, elks, beavers, foxes, wild horses, goats, wolves; rivers and lakes were overflowing with various fish, crayfish, waterfowl. On departures - as these industries were called - gangs of industrialists also mined honey, salt, saltpeter. for the winter, most of the outgoing workers returned to their homes, sold their booty in the cities, and in the spring they gathered again in mobs and went to the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the steppe rivers. But some remained in the steppe for constantly arranging wintering, Burdyugi and farms on the islands, in the gullies and in the ravines. taking into account the constant Tatar danger, the upkeepers were forced to go out into the steppe well-armed. And the border peasants were ready to repulse every minute. For example, in 1594 the German ambassador Lasota over the Desna saw many strange small houses with loopholes among the fields, where the peasants flee when the Tatars suddenly attack them, and there they defend themselves, because each peasant, leaving for the field, hangs a rifle on his shoulder, and to the sides saber or cleaver: Tatars attack very often, and there is almost never peace from them. "
Steppe crafts brought considerable booty, but ... demanded from people great enterprise, courage and endurance. Over time, the steppe Cossacks adopted from the Tatars all the methods of the steppe partisan war, and from active defense they also began to move on to attacks on smaller Tatar detachments, on Tatar shepherds, or on merchant caravans. In general, the term "Cossacks" in the middle of the 15th century. concerned exclusively the Tatars - lightly armed horsemen who performed guard duty in the Cafe and other southern Genoese colonies, but allowed themselves arbitrary actions. But since the end of the century, when this name was formed for the Ukrainian Cossacks, the documents do not mention the Tatar Cossacks.
So, the Ukrainian Cossacks, the outcasts, as well as the inhabitants of border towns and villages, became the force that the outlying elders and rulers fully used to fight the Tatars. Of course, in the first historical writings about the Cossacks (Sarnitsky, Belsky, Gvagnini), only the names of the ringleaders - nobles, quite often ordinary adventurers, adventurers who were looking for thrills, glory and booty, and not the real leaders of the Cossacks - were preserved in the Wild Field. Late Cossack chronicles adopted this tradition and quite often call these feudal lords Cossack leaders - hetmans.
The most famous of the first leaders of the Cossacks was the prince from Volyn Dmitry Vishnevetsky, a descendant of the ancient Ukrainian family of Nesvitskaya, who was popularly called Baida. Vishnevetsky was a man of outstanding abilities, an outstanding warrior and organizer, and at the same time had adventurous inclinations. In the 50s of the XVI century. Baida gathered around him a detachment of several hundred Cossacks and rather successfully fought against the Tatars. Having quarreled with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who did not support his plans for expansion to the south, Vishnevetsky decided to go to the Turks and even lived in Istanbul for some time, but returned to the Dnieper. On the island of Malaya Khortitsa, below the rapids, he built a small castle, in which he twice withstood the Tatar siege. In 1556 Baida moved to Moscow, and his Cossacks, together with the Moscow army, made a campaign against Niz, near Aslam - Kermen and Ochakov. In response, the khan decided to destroy the Cossack nest on Khortitsa. In the summer of 1557, Khortitsa was surrounded by the Tatars, and the Turkish flotilla approached the Dnieper. Not receiving help, people and weapons from the king, Vishnevetsky was forced to leave his Khortitsky castle and retreat to Cherkassy. Subsequently, he, together with the Moscow army, made another campaign against the Crimea, and the khan must hide behind Perekop. But then Moscow fell out with Lithuania over Livonia, and Vishnevetsky, without waiting for her support, returned to Ukraine. In 1563 he intervened in the Moldavian strife, planning to become the ruler of Moldova, but was captured and died in Constantinople in 1563 a martyr's death on hooks, and in oral tradition he became Baida - a Cossack, a glorious knight, whom the Sultan himself tried to attract to his service.
Although Vishnevetsky died without realizing his plans, his activities were of great importance for the further development of the Cossacks, and Vishnevetsky's idea of pursuing an independent Cossack policy using independently Christian states was soon developed by the truly Cossack leaders. After Vishnevetsky, the Cossacks had another leader of the princely family, Bogdan Ruzhinsky, who also went to the Crimea several times and died, undermining the fortifications of Aslam - Kermen at the mouth of the Dnieper 1577
From the second half of XVI v. Cossacks started IVAN PODKOVA to interfere in Moldovan affairs. After Vishnevetsky, the new contender for the Moldavian throne in 1577 was the Zaporozhets Ivan Podkova. At the head of the Cossack detachment, he went to Moldova and, with the support of some of the local boyars and the people, received Yassy and became the master. But then, not having enough strength to fight the Turks, Podkova returned to Ukraine, where he was captured by Y. Zbarazhsky by cunning. In the summer of 1578, by decision of the Polish government (at the request of Turkey), Horseshoe was executed in Lvov.
The quantitative growth of the Cossacks and its formation as a powerful state of Ukrainian society was facilitated by socio - economic changes after the union of 1569. A powerful stream of Polish feudal lords poured into the Ukrainian lands, the noble magnate economy developed in full force. The gentry used the wide power gained during the uncorrupted 1573, and with thoughtless zeal rushed to destroy the remnants of rural self-government and economic independence of small landowners: Russian and Wallachian law was abolished, gentlemen appointed their tivuns and chieftains, abolished rural legal proceedings in order to exploit the population unrestrictedly. The peasantry, especially in the principality, zealously defended their rights, but they rarely succeeded in winning trials in the royal courts, however, the gentry simply did not recognize the sentences that were unfavorable for themselves and resorted to force. Occasionally the peasants decided on armed uprisings against individual feudal lords, and mostly resorted to passive resistance. The cities, for the omnipotence of the gentry, were also isolated from each other and had to constantly fight for their meager rights, to a large extent were subordinated to the great tycoons. In them there was a sharp struggle between the Catholic patriciate and the broad masses of artisans, small merchants, very limited in the rights of the townspeople. The situation was aggravated by religious persecution. All this forced the masses to flee to the east, where the hand of the magnates had not yet reached.
The choice of the site for the Sich was determined by the natural conditions. conditions, the convenience of its defense, it was bound to be tied to the Dnieper - the main waterway of Ukraine and the very route for sea voyages against the Turks and Tatars. Sich as a military and political center of the Cossacks, its capital, during the second half of the 16th century. was on about. Tomakovka, from 1593 - on the island. Bazavluk (Chertomlyk, or Old Sich). On January 1594, Chertomlitsk was visited by the ambassador of the German emperor E. Lyasot, who described in sufficient detail the customs and way of life of the Sich. Several thousand Cossacks lived in Sich in simple brushwood huts, covered with horse skins from the rain. Subsequently, in the 17th-18th centuries, Kureni, as well as service premises - a cannon, treasury, bakeries, were built of wood. Every January there must be a church, and around it there is a large square. During the heyday of the Cossacks, Sich was a large city with suburbs, where thousands of artisans and merchants lived, a special building was intended to house foreign ambassadors.
The harsh living conditions of the Cossacks, the fight against the constant shortage of hunger, the absence of any influence of the Polish administration and the noble system beyond the thresholds in general influenced the formation of a democratic system in Zaporozhye. All power in the Sich belonged to general advice, all Cossacks were considered equal and had the same rights. The advantage would have been experienced Cossacks, "grandfathers", as well as those who had the most abilities and military merit. In peacetime, the highest chief among the Cossacks was the koshevoy ataman (at first he was called hetman) and the foreman - esaul, judges, clerk, transport, smoking atamans. All of these positions were elective, and the foreman reported to the council annually. If the Cossacks saw some violation of their rights and freedoms, irresponsibility or harm to society in the actions of someone from the foreman of the koshevoy, then the council at any time could deprive them of the government, and sometimes even execute them. The Council, especially the 5th important historical moments, was convened frequently, sometimes even several times a day. The decision was taken by a majority vote and the minority must obey. In later times, the democratic traditions of the Cossacks were somewhat limited by the growing importance of the Cossack foremen, the new Ukrainian aristocracy, and from the end of the 17th century. the tsarist administration also influenced the election of the foreman.
At the initial stage of its existence, the economy of Zaporozhye was not very good-natured. The Cossacks were engaged in hunting, fishing, beekeeping, cattle breeding, extraction of salt and saltpeter. They acted as permanent intermediaries in trade with the Crimea and Turkey. Zdobichnitsa mobs were based on the principles of the union, artel, but the leading role in them was played by wealthy Cossacks, owners of boats, seines and other instruments of labor, owners of capital. They influenced the decision of the council in the Sich.
The Zaporozhye army was formed on the principles of voluntariness, as well as a fairly strict selection of those who wish; young people, having come to the Sich, were unequal for several years, went through a large school of hardening and military training. The basis of the troops was the Zaporozhye infantry. The cavalry was less numerous, although each of the Cossacks had to be able to ride on horseback, and during the campaign, the entire army often moved on horses or boats. The Zaporozhian Cossacks were skilled strategists, using the advanced methods of conducting large operations at that time, often combined with partisan actions of small detachments, widely used military intelligence, various means of disinforming the enemy. The Zaporozhye infantry in the camp from the carts, which necessarily accompanied them on the campaign, was invincible and could successfully withstand the onslaught of ten times superior enemy troops. The Cossacks showed great skill in the assault and siege of fortresses, in fortification earthworks, they had experienced sappers. The perfection of the Cossacks in the possession of firearms and artillery aroused universal admiration of contemporaries. In contrast to peacetime, during the war, strict discipline and obedience reigned in the army. Koshevoy, a hetman or a colonel who led the campaign, had unlimited power and could punish those responsible with death.
The Lithuanian and subsequently the Polish government first tried to keep the Cossacks under their control with the help of their border administration. But the elders, from whose possessions the Cossacks set out on campaigns, were
interested in getting their share of the booty, they sold gunpowder and foodstuffs to the Cossacks, so they stood closer to the Cossacks than to the king. In the second way to subjugate the Cossacks, attempts to organize from among the Cossacks separate units that were in the public service, would receive payment from the treasury and would be subject to the authorities appointed by the government.
The first such proposal was put forward by the Cherkassian elder A. Dashkevich as early as 1533. His project provided for the creation of a two thousand department of Cossacks on the Dnieper to protect the border from the Tatars. According to Zhigmont 1 in 1541, it was ordered to make a census of the Cossacks of Kiev, Kanev and Cherkassk regions. 1568 Zhigmont
August 11 made the first real attempt to attract the Cossacks to government service. 300 Cossacks were recorded in the register and since then the name of the government Cossack formations - registered ones - has emerged. In 1578, King Stefan Batory, starting a war with Moscow, decided to use for it the Cossacks, who still caused the Polish government a lot of trouble, now and then pulling the Turks and Tatars. In the fall of 1578 in Lvov, with five representatives from the Cossacks, a "decree on nizivtsyamy" was concluded. According to this decree, the head of all the lower Cossacks was supposed to be the Cherkasy headman Mikhail Vishnevetsky, to whom the “hetman” and the entire Cossack foreman were subordinate. The regiment consisted of 500 Cossacks, who were paid 6 kopecks of Lithuanian pennies and were given cloth for a caftan. The center of the Cossacks was determined by the city of Trakhtemyrov below Kiev. The resolution was valid for the entire period of the war with Moscow. The "senior", or hetman (as the Cossacks called him), of the regiment was nobleman Jan Orishovskyi, and his assistant and clerk Beger. In 1581, a register of this regiment was compiled, which makes it possible to establish National composition registered: more than 80% of Ukrainians and Belarusians, 10% of Poles, and besides them there were Muscovites, Moldovans, two Circassians, Serbia, a German, a Tatar. A new recruitment of Cossacks took place in 1583 (600 people), in 1590 a thousand Cossacks were recruited. The Polish government attracted Cossacks to civil service during the wars, but when the war ended, the military people returned to the fortifications. The king, hiring Cossacks for service, helped to awaken in the Cossacks the consciousness of their isolation from other estates in the state, to develop a kind of immunity, which consisted in disobeying ordinary authorities, but only to their foremen, exemption from taxes, the right to freely dispose of their property.
From the second half of the XVI century. the Cossacks, except for trips on land under the Tatar castles at the crossings, under
Perekop, Ochakov, Bendery, Akkerman, Kiliya, began to organize trips to the Black Sea, using gulls for this - small vessels 20 m long and C -4 m wide, which were propelled by oars and had sails. Seagulls accommodated 50-70 Cossacks, each of which was armed with a gun, and had several light cannons. Initially, several boats took part in the campaigns, mainly near Ochakov and on the Black Sea coast (Crimea), but already at the end of the 16th century. the fleet grew to several hundred gulls, and campaigns were carried out to Turkish cities, even to Constantinople. In addition to seagulls, the Cossacks widely used captured Turkish ships: galleys, sandals, etc. At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. Cossack flotillas have already decided to engage in open battle with powerful Turkish squadrons, were used for landing, sea blockade, fire support of ground forces. As Krip'yakevich noted, the entry of the Cossack fleet into the Black Sea had historical significance: "Ukraine broke through the Turkish - Tatar naval blockade, which blocked its way to Europe, and again began the period of sea expansion." In addition, the naval operations of the Cossack fleet significantly influenced European politics, contributed to the establishment of Ukraine as an independent factor in world politics.
The spread of the Cossacks in the last decades of the XVI century. was due to the massive "pokazachennya" free rural and urban population of the Ukrainian lands of Lithuania. The peasantry, dissatisfied with the socio-economic order established by Poland, brought new sentiments to the Cossack movement. Between the Cossacks and the peasantry as a numerous state in Ukraine, there is a feeling of mutual understanding and a certain community of interests, and it turned out to be in the first conflicts of the Cossacks with the Polish state.
The first Cossack uprising of 1591-1593 is associated with the name of "Honored Cossack", nobleman with
The podlasie of Krzysztof Kosinski. In 1591, for military services, he received an estate in Kievskaya, but this land was taken away by the headman of Belaya Tserkov Janusz Ostrozhsky. Indignant Kosinsky gathered the Cossacks, attacked at the end of 1591 on the White Church and other estates of Ostrog. The insurrectionary movement covered Volhynia and Podillia. Ukrainian gentlemen, seeing the government's indecision, decided on their own to curb Kosinsky. Konstantin Ostrozhsky himself became the head of the gentry militia of the Volyn Voivodeship. A bloody battle took place near the town of Pyatka on January 23, 1593, in which the rebels were defeated, having lost from two to three thousand killed, 26 cannons and several corugs. Kosinsky must surrender and conclude an agreement that will follow the rapids and will not organize riots, the Cossacks had to return all the looted property, and the peasants who joined the uprising had to return to their masters. But Kosinsky did not calm down. Having retreated with the Cossacks to Zaporozhye, in May 1593 he again came to Cherkassy with cannons and two thousand Cossacks, but died in the battle.
The further development of the uprising was prevented by international events. In the early 1990s, the idea of a large anti-Turkish coalition emerged in Europe. In Ukraine, these plans were supported by the Kiev Catholic Bishop I. Vereshchinsky and Prince Ostrozhsky, who obviously wanted to turn the energy of the Cossacks into a war with the Turks and thus save their estates. In the fall of 1593, the Pope sent to the Cossacks a special ambassador, Yu. Komulovich (Komuleo), who in Kamenets-Podolsk met with two Cossack leaders, one of whom was Nalivaiko, and gave them 12,000 gold ducats as a deposit. The ambassador of the German emperor Lasot gave the Cossacks trumpets, tambourines, banners and 8000 ducats.
Severin Nalivaiko came from Gusyatin, but was born in Satanov, where his parents are from the bourgeoisie
subsequently moved. The father of the Cossack leader was struck to death by Mr. Kalinovsky, therefore, in the actions of S. Nalivaiko, one can see personal motives. Severin's brother Demyan was a priest and active leader of the Ostrog cell. Severin himself from a young age was a Cossack, a remarkable artilleryman, then served in the army of Prince Ostrozhsky and fought against Kosinsky. But after the battle of Fifth, Nalivaiko left Ostrog and headed the Cossack department, acted against the Turks on the lower Dniester. As Lyasota recalls, on July 1, 1594, Nalivaiko's envoys arrived in the Sich and offered the Cossacks their friendship and fifteen hundred horses reflected in the Tatars. So, several thousand Cossacks headed by Hetman Grigory Loboda went to Nalivaiko. Subsequently, the Poles tried in every possible way to emphasize the difference between the "sedate" foreman Loboda and "Lotr" Nalivaiko, which was reflected in the Cossack chronicles. In fact, Grigory Loboda discovered in the next Cossack-Polish war great strategic talent and personal courage.
The combined army of Loboda and Nalivaiko set out for Moldavia in the fall of 1594, defeated the master Aaron, received Yassy, and Aaron swore allegiance to the emperor. Subsequently, together with the army of Aron, Loboda and Nalivaiko went at the beginning of 1595 to Tyaginya, Belgorod and Kiliya, and in the spring they returned to Ukraine, settled in the noble possessions and demanded "stations" or took food and fodder by force. Nalivaiko supported the petty bourgeoisie of Bratslav, who in the spring of 1594 received the city castle, expelled the noble administration and proclaimed themselves a "free Cossack city".
Then Nalivaiko went to Volhynia, to Belarus, acquiring cities and taking indemnities from them. Reflected from the Lithuanian army, the Cossacks returned to Volyn. At the same time, Loboda with his Cossacks stood in Polesie, also collecting "stations" from the local gentry, and one Cossack detachment led by Shaula went to Nalivaiko. In fact, at the present time, almost all of Volhynia and the Kiev region were occupied by the Cossacks, and had a huge influence on all the lower strata of the Ukrainian people. All this in the end forced the Polish government to take action.
To curb the Cossacks with weapons was entrusted to Stanislav Zholkevsky, then a complete hetman. Zholkiewski, an outstanding politician and commander of that time, set out in the spring of 1596 with a select army and considerable artillery. He was joined by Ukrainian gentlemen, in particular, Prince Kirik Ruzhinsky with his army. An experienced strategist, Zholkevsky wanted to defeat the Cossacks in parts and first hit the army of Nalivaiko. But Nalyvayko, successfully maneuvering, managed to avoid an unequal battle, march under the protection of a camp from carts from Kremenets to Podillya and hide in the Uman forests.
While Zholkevsky was massacring Bratslav, Nalivaiko hurried to the White Church and joined up with the Shaula Cossacks, who had artillery. Here they defeated Ruzhinsky, who led the vanguard of the Polish army, but retreated in front of Zolkiewski. Near the Ostry Kamen tract, Zholkevsky caught up with the Cossacks, but a fierce battle (in which Saul took off his hand with a cannonball) did not bring victory to the Poles. Zholkevsky withdrew to the White Church, waiting for reinforcements, and the Cossacks went to Pereyaslavl. A council was held there, at which Loboda was elected hetman instead of Nalivaiko. Since then, the Cossack army found itself in a difficult situation: many city Cossacks with women, children and all their property joined it. Subsequently, this made it difficult for the troops to advance and became one of the reasons for the surrender of the rebels.
Zolkiewski, having received reinforcements from Poland and Lithuania, again went to the Cossacks, hoping to destroy the "Rebelia" at any cost, and Loboda led the Cossacks deep into the steppe. On Solonitsa near Lubny, they were cut off their path to retreat, and the Cossacks had to build a powerful camp at the end of May. In it, during the siege, disagreements and disputes began, during one of which Loboda was killed. But not Nalivaiko was elected hetman, but Krempsky. Under the hot sun and constant shelling, having no feed for livestock and water for children and women, the Cossacks bravely withstood the siege, inflicting significant losses on the Poles with well-aimed fire from the trenches and bold forays. Zholkevsky, hearing that help was coming to the Cossacks from Zaporozhye, made a last desperate attempt to force them to surrender. After two days of continuous cannonade and Zolkiewski's skillful diplomatic actions, the Cossacks were cut off from the world, knowing nothing about the imminent salvation, and were forced to agree to negotiations. Zholkiewski demanded to hand over the ringleaders, guns and all the kleinods. The Cossacks suffered, but after accepting weapons, the Polish soldiers rushed to the defenseless Cossacks, laying several thousand in place. "They were cut down so mercilessly that for a mile or more the corpse lay on the corpse," wrote one of the Poles. Only the Krempskiy part of the Cossacks managed to break through to Zaporozhye. Nalivaiko was taken to Warsaw and tortured for almost a year in prison, and at the end they chopped off his head and quartered. Shaulu was executed in the same way (April 21, 1597).
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Ukrainian Cossacks- modern collective historiographic name Cossacks living on the territory of present-day Ukraine, which, first of all, means the free Cossacks, which appeared in the 15th century. in the southern Kiev region and eastern Podolia, later called Dnieper or Zaporozhye. In the Ukrainian Cossacks, there are Sich (grassroots), registered (city), court and suburban Cossacks. Term Little Russian Cossacks officially appeared in 1654 to designate the Cossacks who lived in the Left-Bank Ukraine (Hetmanate) after its annexation to Russia and was widely used in the pre-revolutionary period.
History of origin
During the Horde invasion, the population of the devastated lands of Ancient Rus escaped from the hardships of war in inaccessible border lands. So the first Cossack communities arose, the inhabitants of which consisted of both common people and representatives of the old Russian princely and boyar families.
- Markevich... History of Little Russia. |
Zaporozhye Cossacks
The Zaporozhye Cossacks, located on the territory of the Left-Bank Ukraine controlled by the Russian Kingdom, in a number of official documents, were also called Little Russian Cossacks... The register of Little Russian Cossacks in the Moscow kingdom was limited to 60 thousand people.
As a result of the discrepancy between the policies of the leadership of the Hetmanate and the kosh chieftains Zaporizhzhya Sich at the end of the 17th century, the unity of the Zaporizhzhya Army as an integral military-political organism was disrupted, which was reflected in the appearance of the term "Zaporozhian Nizovoy Army", which began to represent the Sich Cossacks, denoting the Sich itself and the territories under its control.
Sloboda Cossacks
Main article: Sloboda Cossacks
Starting from the middle of the 17th century, leaving the war-torn lands of Right-Bank Ukraine, a significant part of the Little Russian population of the Commonwealth and some Zaporozhye Cossack detachments moved to the border empty southern outskirts of the Moscow state (on the territory of modern northeastern Ukraine, as well as border regions of Russia adjacent to it) resulting in suburban Cossacks... Already during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, these settlers were assigned to the Belgorod category and began to be called the "Slobodskoy Ukrainian Cossack regiments" Belgorod and Sevsky regiments, - and its settlers, who retained their Cossack structure, guaranteed by the letters of gratitude from the Moscow sovereigns, were named suburban Cossacks.
Court Cossacks
Among the Cossacks of Ukraine in the VIII century are known court Cossacks... This was the name given to the protection of the Polish magnates and who were supported at their expense (kost). Court Cossacks were hired from among the peasants and, despite their status, often took part in popular uprisings. The most famous court Cossack is Ivan Gonta, the Uman centurion of the court Cossacks of the Count of Silesia Potocki.
Revived Cossacks
Free Cossacks
In mid-March 1917, the peasant Smokty from Rusanovka, in the Belotserkov region, organized the Rusakovskaya Hundred. Soon the peasants decided to gather a Cossack congress in Zvenigorodka and work out a statute of the organization there. This was done by Kovtunenko, a person with higher education. In early April, all the elected commanders of the hundreds arrived at the congress and adopted the statute of an organization called "Free Cossacks" (Ukrainian. "Vilne Kozatstvo") :
- The Free Cossacks are organized for the defense of the liberties of the Ukrainian people and the maintenance of order;
- Free Cossacks - a territorial militarized organization, where citizens of the county at least 18 years old have the right to join;
- The organization does not accept people "hostile to Ukraine and people punished by the court for criminal offenses";
- All affairs of the organization are in charge of the commanders and councils of the Cossack foremen;
- The foreman is elected to the command posts by the people. Elected commanders appoint their own deputies, clerk, treasurer and librarian.
Red Cossacks
Criticism of the role of the Cossacks
The movement for the independence of Ukraine was also linked with the Cossacks by such a critic of the idea of the Ukrainian nation as Nikolai Ulyanov, who also negatively assessed the Ukrainian Cossacks: “The Cossacks were brought up in the spirit of denying the state ... hearts and were at any moment ready for the "distribution" of the hetman's belongings ", and" the Cossack "democracy" was actually an ochlocracy ... Without creating their own state, the Cossacks were the most quarrelsome element in those states with which their historical fate was connected. "
see also
Notes (edit)
- Golobutsky V.A. Ukrainian Cossacks // .
- Golobutsky V.A. Ukrainian Cossacks // Soviet Historical Encyclopedia / Ed. E. M. Zhukova. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973-1982.
- - article from the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- Treaties and regulations of the rights and liberties of the military between Yasne to the nobleman of His mercy Pan Philip Orlik, the newly elected army of Zaporizhzhya Hetman, and between the Innocent persons of the Colonels, and the same army of Zaporozhye with full joy from both sides. To the fate of the birth of Christ αψί of the month of April ε: (April 5, 1710)
- Antonovich V. Uman centurion Ivan Gonta // "Kievskaya Starina" - K., 1882. - Book. 11. - P. 250−276; "Ruska Historical Library" - Lviv, 1897. - T. XIX. (Ukrainian)
- Golobutsky V.A. Sloboda Cossacks // Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
- Markevich N. History of Little Russia - M .: In the printing house of August Semyon, at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy, 1842. - T. 1. - Ch. 1.
- , Sec. 2.1. Registries of Cossacks for state services
- Shpitalev G.G. Zaporozhye army of the New Sich period = Zaporozhye in the period of New Sich (Ukrainian) // "Pivdenna Ukraine": Chasopis. - Zaporizhzhya, 2002 .-- T. 7. - S. 159−182.
- Zaporozhye army // Dankir O., Kochiev G., Khodov S., Yuriv V. Cossack Orderly (Retrieved April 15, 2012)
- "To the Day of the State Flag of Ukraine on August 23, 2010" // © TsGEA of Ukraine (tsdea.archives.gov.ua) (Retrieved April 14, 2012)
- The decision of the Zemsky Sobor on the reunification of Ukraine with Russia of October 1, 1653 // Russian legislation of the X-XX centuries: in 9 volumes - M., Legal Literature, 1985. - Vol. 3. Acts of Zemsky Sobors.
- Acts relating to the history of Western Russia, collected and published by the Archaeographic Commission - St. Petersburg. : Printing House Eduard Prats, 1853. - T. 5. "1633−1699". - S. 93, 99, 100, 111, 122, 123, 125, 131, 137.
Acts relating to the history of Southern and Western Russia, collected and published by the Archaeographic Commission - St. Petersburg. , 1872. - T. 7. "1657−1663. 1668-1669 ". - For example, on S. 197: "Ivan Vygovskaya, hetman with the army of your tsarist majesty Zaporozhsky." - , P. 368, quote: "In general, according to Dmitry Bagaliya's estimates, by the 1780s, over 990 thousand people lived on the territory of Sloboda Ukraine in the previously deserted expanses, among whom the absolute majority were colonists from Ukraine, and about half were considered free military inhabitants, that is, former Cossacks "
Ukrainian Cossack. The structure of the Ukrainian Cossack army. Regalia. Sergeant Major
The structure and management of the Ukrainian Cossack army took decades and finally took shape under the great Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Only under him did they adopt a harmonious organization and system. Until 1648, the Polish authorities actively intervened in Cossack life and constantly changed the conditions and rules of Cossack administration, changing the structure, reducing the register, and canceling their own universals and regulations.
From the Registered Cossacks, regiments-districts were made up, the centers of which were cities, by the names of which the regiments received names. Kanev became the first "capital" of the registered Cossacks, where the hetman elected by the Cossacks and approved by the king, the highest foreman, the registered artillery, the treasury and the hospital was located. In the regimental cities there was a regimental sergeant major, in townships there were regimental hundreds. The register has been preserved - a list of the Cossacks, compiled in March 1581 in Cherkassy. More than five hundred Cossacks who came from cities and towns located along the entire course of the Dnieper, from Volyn, Podolia, Chervonnaya Rus, from the Belarusian lands, there were also "foreigners" - 26 people from Cherkassy, 14 people from Kanev, 8 from Bila Tserkva, 13 from Kiev, 7 from Lyubech, 1 from Teterin, 2 from Dubrovna, 1 from Drutsk, 1 from Gorki, 7 from Gomel, 1 from Chechersk, 2 from Krichev, 10 from Mstislavl, 10 from Bragin, 3 from Chernobyl, 17 from Mozyr , 1 from Lyubon, 2 from Ozeren, 1 from Petrikov, 13 from Turov, 6 from David-Gorodok, 2 from Pinsk, 1 from Khvoinya, 4 from Slutsk, 3 from Minsk, 1 from Koydanov, 1 from Borisov, 1 from Grizovka , 9 from Bobruisk, 4 from Vishnevets, 11 from Rovno, 1 from Guchin, 1 from Olyk, 1 from Zvyagel, 4 from Lutsk, 1 from Torchin, 2 from Ostropol, 3 from Vladimir, 1 from Litovizh, 5 from Ostrog, 1 from Kovel, 4 from Korets, 1 from Berestechka, 1 from Derman, 1 from Chudnov, 5 from Kamenets, 3 from Vinnitsa, 1 from Bratslav, 2 from Khmelnik, 2 from Pikov, 2 from Yampol, 2 from Kolomyia, 1 from Buchach , 1 from Galich, 1 from Zolochev, 1 from Zbarazh, 1 from Lvov, 2 from Yaroslav, 4 from Vilno, 2 from Novogrudok, 2 from Kovno, 5 from Vitebsk, 6 from Polotsk, 1 from Smolensk, 1 from Krichev, 2 from Slonim, 20 from Moscow, 4 from Moldova, were from Ryazan, from the Volga cities, from Serbia, Crimea, Poznan, Krakow, Sandomierz.
The Cossacks had a horse, guns, spear, pistols and saber, weapons were received from Sweden, Poland, Turkey. Service Cossacks received a salary and clothing, on campaigns - food and fodder for horses. Compulsory service lasted up to seven years and was almost always voluntary. The volunteers were called camaraderie. The comrades had the advantage when voting; upon leaving the service, they were often called foremen. In the first period of the Cossacks, their clothes were simple - a shirt, wide trousers, leather boots, a belt, a caftan, outerwear - a retinue, a sheep fur hat with a cloth top.
Many Ukrainian Cossacks lived in villages, in the outskirts, in huts, called kurens. Kureni were ruled by kuren atamans. Several kurens made up a hundred, several hundred - povet. There were centennial and provincial chieftains. In hundreds and counties, banners and military badges were kept by the cornet, who watched military service... If necessary, they gathered the Cossacks in a gathering place - in Baturin, Cherkassy, Chigirin, Pereyaslavl, Konotop, Nizhyn, Chernigov. At a general meeting, the troops chose regimental foremen - marching.
Ukrainian Cossacks shaved the hair on their heads just above the ears, cutting them into a circle, wore a huge mustache, which served as a sign of the Cossacks. The Zaporozhian people shaved their entire head, leaving a forelock on the top of the head - an oseledent, in Russian a crest. Sometimes the forelock was braided like a braid and wrapped around the left ear. There is a legend that the Crimean Tatars, going on a raid on the Ukrainian lands, boasted that they would bring home the heads of the Cossacks. It was for this "convenience" that the Zaporozhian Cossacks made an oseledent - "come and take it." Many came, few returned. It didn't work out very well.
During the campaigns, the Cossacks ate millet porridge with crushed breadcrumbs. Turks, Tatars and Poles were afraid of Cossack raids, because it was impossible to prevent them - across the steppe "the Cossack walked in the grass with the grass even". The Cossacks swam across the rivers on sheaves of reeds, holding on to a horse. When pursuing, they scattered "garlic" behind them - metal balls with four thorns, which crippled the enemy's horses, infuriating the enemy, which made him make mistakes. If there were a lot of pursuers on foot, the Cossacks returned and hacked the enemy. All the Cossacks loved freedom and preferred death to slavery - that is why they were so afraid of them. "Today is a pan, and tomorrow he is gone" - said the soldiers.
On the Left Bank, near the Dnieper, guard posts were built, around which in high places there were "figures" - twenty tarry barrels one on top of the other - when the Crimean Tatars approached, they were set on fire, and the population, notified of the enemy, went to fortified places that were guarded Cossacks who fought with the Tatars. The Cossacks perfectly mastered all types of weapons, knew military affairs very well - otherwise there would not have been their glorious victories.
If large groups of enemy troops met, the Cossacks, instead of a square, formed a triangle in three ranks, having guns at the corners, in the middle there were banners and the foreman.
On the march, the Cossacks walked in a column of three in a row, in front of the banner-banner. The encampment camp was surrounded by carts, between which guns were placed. Tents were erected on peaks.
Colonels and centurions were elected for life. The regimental cities were fortified with a rampart, a moat, a palisade, inside - a fortified "castle" with a palisade, a rampart with cannons. There has always been an underground passage in the city - an exit to the water. This organization remained until the middle of the 18th century.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky conducted nobilization - a census of the population - all the mobilized, claiming Cossack dignity and promoted to Cossacks were entered in the registers and sworn in. On the Left-Bank Ukraine, in the Gotman region, the Cossacks had almost noble rights, they elected the hetman, colonels, sotniks, had their own court, law, and judges. The Cossacks owned the inherited land, had the right to distill and sell wine, honey, and the right to trade. Only a court could exclude a Cossack from his class.
Under Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky, at the beginning of the 18th century, there were ten regimental cities on Ukrainian lands - Kiev, Poltava, Nizhyn, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Mirgorod, Gadech, Lubny, Priluki, Starodub. During the Ruins period, in mid XVII century, many Cossacks moved to Slobodskaya Ukraine, where Kharkov, Sumy, Akhtyrka were built, which received the name of regimental cities. Later, the city of Izyum received the rank of regimental.
Under Hetman Ivan Mazepa, his personal guard was established in Baturin - three Serdyutsk regiments.
Under Hetman Kirill Razumovsky, all the Cossacks received the same uniform - the upper long caftan is a zhupan, only blue, with red cuffs and cuffs, a white cloth semi-caftan and white woolen trousers, a red belt - a sash, a Polish hat, multi-colored in each regiment.
The regiment consisted of a region with cities, towns, villages, villages, farms. In the hands of the colonels, almost all military force, in many respects the election of the leadership of the Cossack army depended on them. The regiment was directly ruled by a regimental clerk, a transport captain.
The Cossack hundred represented a large district. It was ruled by the esaul, the cornet, the transport, the village chieftains.
The first time the Cossack army became famous in 1620 in the famous battle of Khotin, where the Polish and Cossack troops, of which there were sixty and forty thousand soldiers, respectively, defeated a huge Turkish army. The 19th century historian N. Sementovsky wrote:
“On the battlefield, every Cossack flew to enemies on a par with everyone else, on the battlefield he, like a true knight, sought glory and only personally could achieve it. Military glory was the main goal to which everyone aspired, everyone tried to earn it, did not spare their lives. "
As a reward for the Battle of Khotin, the Polish elite demanded that 37,000 Cossacks be transferred to the peasant class. In 1632, Cossack deputies arrived at the general Diet, which elected a new Polish king. The deputies asked for the right to vote in the elections for the Cossacks, defended Orthodox faith... The Polish Senate replied insolently:
“Cossacks are like hair or nails in a human body: when hair or nails grow too much, they are cut off. They do the same with the Cossacks: when there are few of them, they can serve as protection for the Commonwealth, and when they multiply, they become harmful to Poland. "
The Ukrainian Cossacks were recognized as "non-citizens", and the Ukrainian lands - a colony of the Polish Crown.
It is not surprising that with such an attitude towards the whole people, later Rzeczpospolita collapsed, having undergone three divisions in the 18th century. The Ukrainians decided their own destiny.
All Cossack leaders were elected. At the Cossack or military council - the Rada, in which all Cossacks could participate, they elected the hetman, chieftains, colonels, military foreman, concluded treaties with other states, conducted court cases, approved plans for military campaigns. The decisions were taken by the majority. The historian N. Sementovsky wrote about the elections of the Ukrainian hetman:
“The ceremony of electing the Little Russian hetman was as follows. Knighthood gathered on the agenda of atamans among the vast Maidan and agreed among themselves who to elect to the Hetman district. The military foreman selected the votes from the regiments and pronounced the names of those named publicly, and then the Cossacks, out of two or three named after long disputes, and sometimes fights, chose one. The chosen one was taken out to the middle of the square, put on a dais, and the foreman, taking a mace and a banner from the table, handed it to the newly elected, who, according to custom, refused the order, saying that he was not worthy of such an honor that he could not rule chivalry. The foreman and the people asked him to accept the mace, and for the fourth time the newly elected took the mace and bowed to the people on four sides. In joy, the Cossacks shouted, threw up their hats and fired their guns.
At the end of the choice, the foremen introduced the newly elected to the church, where a prayer service was served, and at the end of the service of God, the hetman was sprinkled with holy water and he was applied to the cross and icons. Then they took him into the palace, and after that a feast began both in houses and in squares, which lasted for several days. "
Since the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Yasnovelmozhny Pan Hetman in the Hetmanate had the rights of the ruler of the country. The Zaporozhye koshevoy ataman recognized his power over himself. The hetmans enjoyed all their rights - the supreme judge, who had the power to execute and pardon, sanctioned the election of the Cossack foreman, distributed lands, villages, townships, regiments, minted coins, conducted foreign affairs, declared war and made peace. The hetman did not give a report to anyone, but according to the general Cossack court he could be removed, imprisoned and executed. After the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the hetman's power was constantly limited to the Muscovy - "so that it was clear to the whole world that the monarch, and not the hetman, owned the land." The hetmanate was liquidated in 1803, after the death of the last hetman, Kirill Razumovsky.
The hetman had a mace, a military seal, a bunchuk, a banner. He owned many lands - rank estates and estates "for the mace". In the war, hetmans used a helmet, shell, armor, were armed with a saber, two daggers, pistols. If the hetman went on a military campaign, then he left the mandate hetman for himself.
Kleynods or regalia - precious military insignia of the Ukrainian Cossacks - have been known since the end of the 16th century. They included a banner, a bunchuk, a mace, a seal with a coat of arms, later feathers, clubs, timpani.
Bunchuk - the most important standard of the Cossack army - consisted of many horse tails, woven together and painted with red, white, black paint. The top of the bunchuk was a head skillfully woven of fine hair ropes, on which a large gilded dome was planted on top. Small bunchuk was given to the order hetman.
Bunchuk meant power and victory, was used in special occasions, at the exits of the hetman, during glad, during the campaigns. Bunchuk was kept by the General Military Bunchuzhny and his assistants - Bunchuk comrades, who were adjutants of the hetman during the military campaigns.
The mace was the wand of government. Maces were large, small, later wands, six-fighters, feathers. The hetman mace, a little less than half a meter long, consisted of a walnut stick, had a silver ball at the top, or an object of another shape. The silver ball was covered with pearls, emeralds, turquoise, gilded. On the mace were also texts from the Holy Scriptures. The handle of the mace was also edged in a silver frame, and sometimes it was all silver. Other Cossack commanders had pernachs or six-fighters - zhupas worn behind their belts.
The banners - the banners of the Ukrainian Cossacks - were made of bright silk fabrics, often red in color. On the one hand, the banners often painted the face of the Mother of God, on the other, the cross and the name of the army, regiment; saints and angels were also depicted. Later, eagles, lions, swords appeared on the banners. Cossack hundreds also had their badges. The banners were guarded by cornet.
Cossack seals have been known since the 16th century - “On this seal is the Little Russian military coat of arms: a warrior in a crooked cat, a musket on his shoulders, and a saber and a Cossack horn with gunpowder and bullets on his side. Given to the Army from the King of Poland and Hungary Stefan Batory in 1576 ”. Then there were seals from the Moscow Tsar. The military seal was under the jurisdiction of the General Military Judge. The colonels had their own seals, which were kept by the Esauls.
The Ukrainian Cossacks were ruled by General Elders - Noble lords, who sat and judged in the General Chancellery of the Army, which was under the jurisdiction of the hetman. These were both military and administrative leaders. General Obodny was the chief of carts and artillery, regimental carts were subordinate to him. The General Army Clerk was in charge of all military affairs, carried out the orders of the hetman, and was in charge of the General Army Chancellery. General of the Troop Esaul managed the regiments. The general judge was in charge of civil and sometimes military affairs. Very influential colonels were both military commanders and administrative leaders of the region, oblast, and its entire population. In their subordination were also regimental carts, scribes, judges, two esauls, who supervised the combat training of the regiment's Cossacks. The centenary was subordinate to the colonels. The researcher of the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks N. Berezin wrote at the end of the 19th century:
“The Ukrainian Cossacks represented not only a free, but organized army by their own order, but a willful army. Anyone could get into the Cossacks, so that the ranks of the army, especially the Zaporozhye, were replenished with many fugitive slaves, and then it was impossible to get out of there. The Cossacks and Zaporozhye, closely associated with it, were thus a refuge, in which everyone could rely on. The willfulness of the Cossacks was manifested in the fact that they did not reckon with supreme power... They entered into treaties with the Moscow tsars on the protection of their borders, their hetman negotiated with the German emperor, like an independent ruler. "
The Zaporozhye Cossacks in the documents called themselves the knights of the Zaporozhye Army, the Christ-loving army, the Brave knights.
All positions in the Zaporozhye Army were elective. Supreme authority belonged to the military Rada, in which all the Cossacks took part. It was they who chose the koshevoy chieftain and the entire foreman. At the parliament, decisions were made about a military campaign, about peace, and a court was made. Decisions were made by the majority, sometimes "with a fight." The historian A. Kuzmin wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century:
“Glad took place on large area between smokers. With the rumble and beating of drums, the Esauls-administrators gathered the people; everybody quit work, partying, their business and in a crowd poured into the square, where they stood in a circle - the Maidan. Silence fell over the sound of the trumpets of the troopers. The one who assembled the Rada - and both the koshevoy and the Cossacks themselves could collect it - went out into the middle of the Maidan and declared what was needed. All the Cossacks were in checkers, and the speaker, even the koshevoy himself, was bareheaded, as a sign that he was ready to submit to the decision of his comrades.
In the Sich there were always several valiant and experienced Zaporozhians who could honorably take the place of the koshevoy, and therefore, when it was necessary to choose a new one, the crowd began to shout several names at once. When one name triumphed over another, a cloud of hats flew up.
The Esauls led the newly elected into the middle of the Maidan, where the foremen, kuren atamans, covered him with hats and handed him a club or mace, the insignia and power of the koshevoy. Then several gray-haired respected Zaporozhians emerged from the crowd, who put mud and all kinds of rubbish on the head of the new koshevoy so that he would remember that all the Cossacks were his equal. Koshevoy, having changed his clothes, went out again into the circle. The heads of all were reverently bared, their eyes dropped to the ground, and there was complete silence. The new koshevoy slowly and sedately spoke to the assembly, and only his hat was burning with its scarlet top under the rays of the bright sun. "
The Koshevoy ataman headed the military and administrative authorities, approved court sentences, was engaged in diplomacy, and distributed trophies among the kurens. He had a mace, a banner, a bunchuk, and a military seal. All the foremen obeyed him.
The military foreman consisted of a military judge, a clerk, a transport train, esauls, kuren atamans, and a merchant.
The military judge carried out judicial functions, during the absence of the chieftain of the kosh, he replaced him. Together with the military belongings, he was responsible for the belongings and the arsenal.
The military Pisar was in charge of the Sich Chancellery, drafted and, on behalf of the Koshevoy Ataman, certified documents. All the scribes of the army obeyed him.
The military esaul was involved in organizing a security service, conducting an investigation and executing court sentences, maintaining discipline and order among the Cossacks, distributing money and provisions.
The troop wagon train was in charge of artillery and fortification works, directly supplying the troops, and led sieges.
The kuren chieftains were very influential. It was from them that the koshevoy was always chosen. The central settlement of the Cossacks was called the kosh, the land holdings were called the Liberties of the Zaporozhian Army. Known are Khortitskaya, Tomakovskaya, Bazavlukskaya, Chertomlytskaya, Kamenskaya, Oleshkovskaya, Pokrovskaya, Zadunaiskaya Sich, several districts - Kodaksky, Samara, Orelsky, Ingulsky, Bugogardovsky, Kalmiussky. The lands of the Zaporozhye Troops were located in the Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Donetsk, Kirovograd, Kherson, Odessa regions.
In the Zaporizhzhya Army there were up to forty kurens - Levushkovsky, Plastunovsky, Detkovsky, Bryukhovetsky, Vedmedevsky, Platnirovsky, Pashkovsky, Kushchevsky, Kislyakovsky, Ivanovsky, Konelevsky, Sergeevsky, Donskoy, Krylosky, Konevsky, Baturinsky, Polovichevsky, Vasyurinskiy Titarovsky, Shkurensky, Kurenevsky, Rogovsky, Korsunovsky, Konebolotsky, Gumansky, Derevyankovsky, Poltava, Myshastovsky, Minsky, Timoshevsky, Velichkovsky.
The kuren could accommodate up to half a thousand people, but only a few lived permanently - the Cossacks were fishing, hunting, in the apiary, in the field guard, going for salt. During the campaigns, the smokers were emptied.
The clothes of the Cossacks consisted of a goat jacket, a Circassian coat with cut-off sleeves, woolen trousers, a silk belt, very wide morocco boots, and a Kabardian cap with galloon. They had a spear, saber, four pistols, a sling with cartridges, a gun. There were cannons too. The modern Ukrainian historian V.F.Ostafiychuk wrote:
“A peculiar socio-political and administrative structure was formed in the Sich, the basis of which was the principles of military democracy. The supreme bodies of power were the military council or circle and kuren gatherings, at which they decided critical issues, of a military and political nature, a foreman was elected.
The democracy of the Zaporizhzhya Sich was centuries ahead of Europe, where the Great French Revolution proclaimed democratic freedoms only in 1789. And it was supported by customary law, before which everyone was equal, and which proclaimed will and equality with the right that has occurred since the times Kievan Rus... The elective system of government bodies gave reason to K. Marx to call the Sich Christian Cossack Republic.
In the middle of the 16th century, the Zaporozhye Cossacks created a significant army with a harmonious organization. It was headed by the hetman. The main military unit was a regiment (500 muskets each), which was divided into hundreds, and they - into tens. The army was dominated by infantry, there were few cavalry. The Sich also had a large fleet of large boats - gulls or canoes. In the 20s of the 17th century, their number exceeded 100-150. The army was distinguished by severe discipline. The power of the hetman and the foreman during the campaign was unlimited. Treason was considered the worst crime. In Zaporozhye, there was a permanent school of knightly, military art, in which brave young men from all over Ukraine and even from other countries studied. The ambassadors of Austria, Transylvania, Poland, Muscovy and other countries, having visited the Zaporozhye Sich, recognized the Cossack army as the best European army.
In the history of the Ukrainian people, the Zaporizhzhya Sich played an important role. It concentrated the freedom-loving elements of the Cossacks, was the center of the struggle against external enemies, the main force of the people for social and national liberation. Zaporozhye Cossacks took Active participation in all peasant uprisings, giving them greater organization. The Sich became the embryo of a new Ukrainian Cossack-elders' statehood. With the beginning of the existence of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the spirit of the Cossacks began to spread throughout Ukraine. "
Ukrainian songs were sung by the Cossacks:
Oh, lie on the fire,
And pid a mountain of poppies to bloom,
Then do not poppies bloom,
Well the Cossacks go.
The Poles went on three roads,
Moskal for four
And the Cossacks,
Macha yak,
We covered the field.
Sit mother at the viconc,
Call the son of a Zaporozhets:
"Go, sinku to the little house
Snake, I scratch your head. "
“Izmiy, mother, sobi herself,
And my daughter is kohanochtsi.
The crunches of the board snake me,
And scratch the thorns and kutsi,
And dry me from the sun,
And roar the riotous showcase,
And smooth the green foliage,
And there is a maiden on the hill of the Cossack.
"Come back, blue, before home:
I'll make my bed. "
"Bed, mother, you yourself,
And my daughter is kohanochtsi.
And I will make a bed of siryachin,
And in the heads of the kulachin,
And I will be smothered with a Cured leaf,
Do not grow up with comradeship. "
At the end of the 16th century, the diplomat of the Holy Roman Empire E. Lasot visited the Zaporozhye Sich with a letter from Emperor Rudolph:
“About two miles remained to the island of Bazavluk, at the branch of the Dnieper at Chertomlyk. Here there was then a flogging of the Cossacks, who sent several of the main persons of their comradeship towards us and greeted our arrival with a large number of cannon shots. Then they escorted us to the colo, to whom we asked to convey that it was very pleasant for us to find the knightly fellowship there in full health.
In the morning the hetman visited us, in the community of some of the main persons and then, in turn, received us at his place. After dinner, they listened to the Moscow envoy, who, while handing over the gifts, started talking about a public meeting and about what we had agreed upon on the way. However, even before that, the hetman apologized to us from the stake so that we would not harm them that they give the Moscow envoy an audience before us, saying at the same time that they are well aware that His Imperial Majesty is in the first a place among all Christian monarchs, and that therefore they should have heard before his messenger; but that it seemed appropriate for them to hear first from the Moscow envoy, assuming that the Muscovite in his negotiations with them would not have kept silent about the case of His Imperial Majesty.
Having asked us to enter again, they listened to the public reading of our letter and demanded that everyone express their opinion about it. When, after the hetman's two-fold proposal, the silence continued, then, as is usual with them in important matters, they split up and formed two stakes: one for the leaders, the other for the common people, which they call the rabble. After a long debate, the rabble expressed their agreement with the usual shout of entry into the service of His Imperial Majesty, and in a sign of this threw their hat up. Then the crowd immediately ran to another stake, to the chiefs, and threatened to throw into the water and drown those of them who would not agree with them. The bosses did not dare to oppose them, because the rabble, which is stronger and more powerful than them, having come into a rage, does not tolerate contradictions, but only demanded that we talk to them about the conditions. Having elected 20 deputies for this, they again invited us to the colo.
Among the large stake, these deputies, sitting on the ground, formed a small stake again and, after many meetings, asked us to sit down with them, which we did. Then they announced to us their readiness to serve H.I.V., not sparing their lives in this service. They also did not refuse to move to Wallachia and, having crossed the Danube, to invade Turkey, only asserted that in doing so they would encounter insurmountable obstacles, namely, firstly, that they would lack horses, both for themselves and under tools, since the Tatars, during the seven raids they made during the past winter, stole more than two thousand horses from them, of which then they had no more than four hundred; secondly, that it would be too dangerous, with a small number of their troops, three thousand people, to go to Wallachia, while it is impossible to rely on the Wallachian ruler; and they are well aware of the fickle and changeable character of the Vlachs themselves; thirdly, that they consider it impossible to commit themselves to serve and go so far, with so little remuneration and with the uncertainty of our proposals. Referring to the fact that they do not have the habit of serving and going on campaigns, when the exact conditions are not known, they want me, on behalf of H.I.V., to conclude a contract with them regarding a three-month salary and the upkeep of horses.
Regarding the salary, I said that I considered it impossible to enter into negotiations with them about this, since the present embassy was dressed up by the emperor after the proposals made to him, which did not contain real demands. If these requirements had been presented before, then this case would have been arranged in a different way in advance. As for the horses, I said that going up the Dnieper, they could easily, in the cities and villages of their homeland, get horses from their relatives and friends.
They replied that they were calling on God to witness their readiness to serve the interests of H.I.H., but that there were reasons, already announced by them, that would not allow them to undertake a trip to such distant places. But nevertheless, in order to prove their humble loyalty to H.I.V., they agreed to send ambassadors to him, authorizing them to conclude an agreement with him regarding the conditions of their maintenance, promising at the same time to try to deliver horses for themselves.
I still invited them, on behalf of H.I.V., to get under way as soon as possible and go to Wallachia, adding to the fact that, upon reaching the Wallachian border, nothing would prevent them from sending their ambassadors to E.I. V. to negotiate the content they require. Undoubtedly, I added, H.I.V., seeing that they had got down to business and, in serving him, were acting bravely against the enemy, would show them even greater favor and mercy during these negotiations.
The Esauls reported all this to the big stake. There, after long deliberations, there was again an approving decision, accompanied by a throwing up of the hat. When we left the stake after that, the Cossacks began to rattle military drums and trumpets, fired ten volleys from guns, and at night they fired several more rockets.
But on the same evening, several restless persons, joined by more prosperous ones, such as hunters and boat owners, wandered around the huts of commoners and, representing the remoteness and danger of the path, warned them and did not advise them to decide what they would then have to do. repent. They proved to them the impossibility of food during such a distant campaign for the insignificant amount sent to them, while most of them are poor people. They asked them what they would use this money for - whether to buy bread or to buy horses, while at the same time supplying them with the appearance that E.I.V. He can easily lure them far from their country, and then, when he no longer needs them, they will abandon them to their fate, especially since he did not give them any certification by means of letters and press.
With such words, they made such an impression on the people that ordinary Cossacks, having gathered again in the colo the next morning, came to a completely different conclusion and did not want to set out on a campaign under such uncertain conditions, especially since they did not even know where they were. the money they were promised, and from whom they should receive it, since they were not presented with a letter from EI.V., or a certificate that additional money would actually be delivered to them ”.
The French military engineer G. Beauplan, who built fortresses in the Commonwealth for almost twenty years in the middle of the 17th century, wrote in his work Description of Ukraine, published in 1650:
“In the country of Zaporozhye you will find people skilled in all the crafts necessary for a dormitory: carpenters for building houses and boats, carts, blacksmiths, riflemen, tanners, shoemakers, bochars, tailors. Cossacks are very skillful in obtaining saltpeter, which is abundant in Ukraine, and in preparing cannon powder. Women spin linen, weave linen and cloth for their own use. All Cossacks know how to plow, sow, reap, mow, bake bread, prepare food, brew beer, honey and mash, drive vodka; all the same, without distinction of sex, age and condition, they try to surpass each other in drunkenness and frivolity, and there are hardly such carefree heads as Cossacks in all of Christian Europe. However, it is also true that they are generally capable of all arts, although some of them are more experienced in one than in another. There are also among them people with higher knowledge than one would expect from commoners. In a word, the Cossacks are quite smart, but they only care about what is useful and necessary, especially about such things that are needed for agriculture.
Fertile land provides them with bread in such abundance that they often do not know where to give it: for apart from the Dnieper, not one of the navigable rivers flowing through Ukraine flows into the sea.
The Cossacks profess Greek faith, calling it Russian. Combining generosity and unselfishness with the clever and sharp mind, the Cossacks passionately love freedom; they prefer death to slavery, and to protect independence they often rise up against their oppressors - the Poles. In Ukraine, hardly seven or eight years go by without a riot.
In war they are tireless, courageous, brave, or rather daring, and value their lives a little. Accurately shooting from arquebuses, their usual weapons, the Cossacks most show courage and agility in a camp, fenced off by carts, or in the defense of fortresses.
Endowed by nature with strength and prominent growth, they love to flaunt, but only when they return with the booty taken from their enemies; they usually wear simple clothes. Few of them die in bed, and even then in extreme old age: most of them leave their heads on the field of honor. "
One of the first researchers of the history of Ukraine D.N.Bantysh-Kamensky wrote in the 19th century:
“On January 1, according to an ancient decree, a new koshevoy and foreman was elected, if the people were dissatisfied with the previous ones. They also distributed that day to each kuren: rivers, rivers and lakes for fishing, from the mouth of the Samara to the mouth of the Dnieper and the Bug. As soon as the dovbysh, by order of the koshevoy and the elders, began to beat the gathering, the esaul took out the marching banner from the church and put it on the square; then the Cossacks from all the kurens gathered, and, after staying two more times in the timpani, finally appeared the koshevoy with the club, and behind him the judge with the wax seal and the clerk with the inkwell. All of them, together with the Esaul, who held the rod, stood, without hats, in the middle of the circle and bowed in four directions. Dovbysh again struck the timpani in honor of the arriving officials, after which the Koshevoy pronounced the following in a loud voice:
“Now, good fellows, the new year has come! It is necessary, according to ancient custom, divide rivers, rivers and lakes for fishing into smoking. "
Then a lot was cast, which decided what each kuren had to own for a whole year. Koshevoy again turned to the people:
"Well, good fellows, do you want to elect new foremen at the beginning of this new year?"
When the Cossacks were satisfied with their bosses, they exclaimed: you, good gentlemen, can still continue to pander over us; after which they all went home. Otherwise, the dissatisfied forced the koshevoy to abandon his rank, and then he put the club on the hat and, worshiping all the people, returned to his kuren. The same was done by the judge, the scribe, and the esaul in their renunciation.
Other allotted days for popular meetings, in which either the leaders were replaced, or they consulted about campaigns, were the feasts of John the Baptist and the Intercession Holy Mother of God, to which the church in Sich is dedicated. If the Cossacks had no reason to be indignant at their leaders, then on these holidays there was no public meeting; but the slightest displeasure armed them against their superiors, even on ordinary days. Then the dissatisfied Cossacks agreed among themselves, and if there were ten kurens, they dared to malicious intent. Often the koshevoy and other elders stood up for the smokers adherent to them, and then the Cossacks, who gathered at the Rada with large clubs, not only quarreled, but even came to fights and murders. At this time, the foremen, waiting for the end of the strife that had begun between the Cossacks, always stood at the bottom of the church to hide there in case of need. Finally, the right of the strong was terminated by disagreement: the retired foreman immediately put his honorary badge on his hat, bowed to the assembled people, thanked for the honor rendered to him hitherto, and immediately went to his kuren; for it happened that those who wanted to justify themselves or did not leave the place for a long time were killed in the assembly itself, and sometimes on the way back. With all this, the retired foremen enjoyed the respect of the people throughout their lives; they were given the first places everywhere and were buried with greater honors than ordinary Cossacks.
The Zaporozhians did not have any written laws, the military judge decided cases in accordance with common sense and ancient customs, and in difficult cases conferred with Koshev and other chiefs. Theft, non-payment of debts, adultery and murder were considered by them to be the main crimes. They could rob passers-by and neighbors; but if a Zaporozhets accused of stealing from his comrade, hid or bought what was stolen, then, even if he returned the theft, they chained him to a pillar on the square, and he had to endure abuse and beatings from everyone passing by. A whip usually lay beside the chained criminal, and if within three days he did not receive forgiveness from his opponent, they would pin him to death. When the one who was forgiven for the second time was accused of theft, in this case he lost his life on the gallows. Those who did not pay their debts were chained to the cannon in the square until the creditors had the desired satisfaction from him. Nothing could compare with the execution of a murderer: a Cossack who killed another was thrown into the grave, then a coffin with the body of the murdered was lowered onto it and covered with earth. Only the love of his compatriots for him and his brave deeds could save the murderer from such a cruel death, but rarely did these criminals receive pardon. "
The great Ukrainian historian M. Hrushevsky wrote:
“The Cossacks are a very interesting phenomenon, but very complex. Due to its originality, as well as thanks to the loud role played by him in the history of Eastern Europe, it attracted attention for a long time, they were engaged in a lot, but nevertheless, a lot remained in it until recently, and in the literature on this issue, and very vague and erroneous judgments are often expressed.
At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries, under the strong influence of ideas about the privileges associated with the Cossack title, the concept of the Cossack class was finally formed, and all social elements who wanted to free themselves from the shy framework of the Polish social scheme: peasants began to count themselves in these border regions. landlord and state estates, townspeople, even the boyars and small gentry, attracted by the elders to the heavy castle service. Since at this time, on the one hand, the unprecedented influx of the peasant population into southeastern Ukraine falls, and on the other hand, the spread of the Polish order in them, the domination of the gentry and serfdom, from which all those who were considered to be the Cossacks considered themselves liberated, - then the Cossacks are growing unusually, increasing from hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands.
The stupid policy of the government, which either tried to crush all the Cossacks with strict repressions, with the exception of a handful of registered Cossacks, then, in need of an army, turned to the help of non-registered ones, even sometimes invited everyone to join the Cossacks, finally deprived the local administration and landowners of the opportunity to put a limit "Ukrainian willfulness".
The government never wanted the complete destruction of the Cossacks. In terms of their cheapness and skill, courage and endurance, these were irreplaceable troops, and the government always wanted to leave a certain part of the Cossacks, more disciplined, for public service. This legal part of the Cossacks, according to the plans of the government, was also supposed to serve to curb the rest of the willful mass of the Cossacks, keep them in subjection and prevent them from going to foreign lands.
But here the eternal lack of money for the Polish treasury created new difficulties: the government did not have the means to take on a salary of a larger number of Cossacks, it took them into the service of one or two thousand, at most, and even so it paid so poorly and defectively that they had to look for themselves other sources of food. For this reason, even these servicemen, “registered”, could not be kept in obedience and discipline, and there was no point in even thinking about making them real keepers of order in Ukraine. With several hundred registered Cossacks, it was impossible either to organize the defense of Ukraine, or to keep the masses of unregistered Cossacks. In general, the Polish ruling spheres were neither strong enough nor far-sighted enough to either destroy the Cossacks or discipline and organize them. In general, they paid very little attention to eastern Ukraine in their domestic policy... Repressions and bloodshed did not stop the growth of the Cossacks and only irritated its most militant part.
If a significant part of the Cossacks - these showed bourgeois and peasants - appreciated its social and social privileges in the Cossacks and, being under the Cossack "court", calmly managed on their lands, then for another, a significant mass of the Cossacks, the war was its real element, the main source of food , and trips to the Tatar and Turkish lands are as irreplaceable a resource as fish and animal industries. In the interests of maintaining good relations with Turkey and Crimea, the Polish government wanted to end these campaigns. But in this case, it was necessary to give a different outcome to the energy of this warlike part of the Cossacks, and at the same time it was necessary to find a different source of food for it. Without this, the most influential leaders of the Cossacks could not keep the Cossacks from campaigns. Government prohibitions, constraints and persecutions on the part of Ukrainian elders and landowners only aroused irritation and hatred in him. Feeling the impossibility under such conditions to establish strong relations with the government and realizing that only the actual strength of the Cossacks does not give the government and the gentry the opportunity to break it, the leaders of the Cossacks strive to increase the numerical strength of the latter more and more, to expand its territory further and further into the depths of settled colonization. attracting more and more masses of the Ukrainian peasantry into its midst. On the other hand, irritation at oppression and repression results in a struggle with the frontier elders and masters. This is how the first Cossack wars begin. "
Prominent Ukrainian historian N.D. Polonskaya-Vasilenko wrote about the Cossacks in her very interesting History of Ukraine:
“In the 16th century, they began to unite into a military organization. Among the first organizers were Ostap Dashkovich, the headman of Cherkassky, Predslav Lanckoronsky, the headman of Khmelnitsky, Bernard Pretvich, the headman of Barsky, Semyon Polozovich, there were the sons of the magnates - the princes Zaslavsky, Zbarazhsky, Koretsky, Ruzhinsky, Sangushko and others. The participation of these figures indicates what a great role the Cossacks played in the defense of Ukraine against the Tatars and how highly the highest representatives of the administration of the lands appreciated their help, which the government was not able to protect on its own.
Since the 1580s, the term "Sich Cossacks" has already been used. The Cossacks considered themselves an independent military-political force and led a policy independent of Poland, concluded treaties with Moscow, Crimea, Turkey, Moldova.
Grassroots Cossacks created a military organization in Zaporozhye in the 16th century, which, with minor changes, existed until the 18th century.
In the XVI-XVII centuries, the Cossack mass lived in a military camp, had 38 kurens, which were headed by atamans; the economy was common, the army was provided with food and weapons. However, already in the 16th century, differentiation began: wealthy Cossacks appeared who owned boats, tools of production, and the poor sometimes did not even have their own shirt. The main income of the Cossacks, which allowed them to exist, was the spoils of war taken during the attacks on the Tatars.
The Cossacks had their own fleet, seagulls, large boats for 50–70 people, with guns, on which they sailed into the sea. In the 16th century, the Cossacks, having adopted their military tactics from the Tatars, went on horseback campaigns, but fought on foot and became very dangerous enemy... In connection with the successful campaigns, the Cossacks became a serious participant in Eastern European politics, especially in the struggle against Turkey. The campaigns of the Cossacks brought them fame in Europe.
After the uprising of Severin Nalivaiko, the fury of the Poles knew no bounds. The Warsaw Diet of 1597 proclaimed all the Cossacks "enemies of the state" and called for the destruction of them. The Cossacks did not lay down their arms.
They were an intermediate layer between the gentry and the peasants. As a gentry, the Cossacks were obliged to serve, they were free from the servant. The Cossacks were separated from the peasants by freedom, and from the gentry by the fact that they did not have serfs.
The Cossacks won the glory of outstanding warriors. Cossack detachments took part in Thirty Years' War... When in the Muscovy began " Time of Troubles”, Ukrainian Cossacks took a massive part in hostilities - in the army of False Dmitry in 1604, in the army of King Sigismund himself. In 1618, they saved the prince Vladislav from captivity. The brilliant victories in the Black Sea of the Cossack fleet - in 1606 the conquest of Varna, in 1614 the conquest of Sinop and Trebizond, in 1615 the destruction of the outskirts of Constantinople, in 1616 the capture of Kafa - provided the Cossacks with military glory.
Since the beginning of the 17th century, the Cossacks have been living under an elective foreman, ignoring the Polish authorities: "Neither magistrates in cities, nor elders, nor hetmans listen, they establish their own rights, they do not recognize the authorities, they start another state in the state," he wrote in the instructions for seimiks about the situation in Ukraine, the king.
In 1935, in Lviv, which was then part of Poland, the unnamed "Great History of Ukraine" was published: "The Cossacks in the 16th-17th centuries took on the mission of fighting for the religious, national and state ideals of Ukraine.
The Cossacks were glorified by the Ukrainian folk song, the Ukrainian romantic poetry was praised, Ukrainian and foreign historiography explained its weight in history.
The Cossacks were born and strengthened in the special conditions of our state and political hard times, on the "wild fields" devastated by the Tatars, in the immediate vicinity and in the continuous struggle against the Crimean raids. The Cossacks rise up as a spontaneity, chaos, without a big goal and deep political program. But having united by society, calling on the mind of the nation to help their armed hand and desperate knightly heart, the Cossacks very soon changed their role as the guardian of the steppe outskirts to the role of a builder - the creator of the revived Ukrainian statehood. "
Kunyaev Stanislav Yurievich
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UKRAINIAN COSSACKS - the collective name of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the 15-18 centuries. (see Zaporizhzhya Sich, Registered Cossacks, Sloboda Cossacks). After the entry of Ukraine into Russia, they were officially called Little Russian. In 1783 they were converted to a tax-paying estate, close to the state peasants.
The Cossacks had a horse, guns, spear, pistols and saber, weapons were received from Sweden, Poland, Turkey. Service Cossacks received a salary and clothing, on campaigns - food and fodder for horses. Compulsory service lasted up to seven years and was almost always voluntary. The volunteers were called camaraderie. The comrades had the advantage when voting; upon leaving the service, they were often called foremen. In the first period of the Cossacks, their clothes were simple - a shirt, wide trousers, leather boots, a belt, a caftan, outerwear - a retinue, a sheep fur hat with a cloth top.
Many Ukrainian Cossacks lived in villages, in the outskirts, in huts, called kurens. Kureni were ruled by kuren atamans. Several kurens made up a hundred, several hundred - povet. There were centennial and provincial chieftains. In hundreds and counties, banners and military badges were kept by the cornet, who watched the military service. If necessary, they gathered the Cossacks in a gathering place - in Baturin, Cherkassy, Chigirin, Pereyaslavl, Konotop, Nizhyn, Chernigov. At a general meeting, the troops chose regimental foremen - marching.
Ukrainian Cossacks shaved the hair on their heads just above the ears, cutting them into a circle, wore a huge mustache, which served as a sign of the Cossacks. The Zaporozhian people shaved their entire head, leaving a forelock on the top of the head - an oseledent, in Russian a crest. Sometimes the forelock was braided like a braid and wrapped around the left ear. There is a legend that the Crimean Tatars, going on a raid on the Ukrainian lands, boasted that they would bring home the heads of the Cossacks. It was for this "convenience" that the Zaporozhian Cossacks made an oseledent - "come and take it." Many came, few returned. It didn't work out very well.
During the campaigns, the Cossacks ate millet porridge with crushed breadcrumbs. Turks, Tatars and Poles were afraid of Cossack raids, because it was impossible to prevent them - across the steppe "the Cossack walked in the grass with the grass even". The Cossacks swam across the rivers on sheaves of reeds, holding on to a horse. When pursuing, they scattered "garlic" behind them - metal balls with four thorns, which crippled the enemy's horses, infuriating the enemy, which made him make mistakes. If there were a lot of pursuers on foot, the Cossacks returned and hacked the enemy. All the Cossacks loved freedom and preferred death to slavery - that is why they were so afraid of them. "Today is a pan, and tomorrow he is gone" - said the soldiers.