The Cossacks

Crimean Tatars

Southern Ukraine in the 15^th century was a deserted land. Nobody dared to build settlements there because of the danger of Crimean Tatar attacks. The Tatar-Mongol armies invaded the Crimea in the mid-13^th century and made the peninsula part of the Golden Horde. After 1204, when Constantinople was captured by the Crusaders, the Italian city-states Genoa and Venice captured Byzantine territories in Crimea and built several fortresses on the Crimean coast. The most noted of them was Kaffa (Theodosia). The Crimean Tatars separated from the Golden Horde in the 15^th century and established their own state the Crimean Khanate under the leadership of the Girei dynasty. Being unable to subjugate the Italian fortresses the Tatars asked their brothers-in-faith the Ottoman Turks for help.²⁹ In 1475 the Turks captured Italian fortresses but decided to keep the peninsula under their control. Thus in 1478, the Crimean khan was forced to accept the overlordship of the Ottoman sultan. The Crimean Khanate, however, retained a vast autonomy.

The Crimean poor soil could not produce enough food to satisfy all the needs of the peninsula population. The poor economy could not satisfy the growing appetites of the Tatar nobility either. The solution was found – yasyr.³⁰ The Crimean economy became based on slavery. Crimean Tatars made frequent raids into Ukrainian territory and took numerous captives (yasyr), who were later sold, mostly to the Turks, at slave markets. Tatar military units were very mobile. Each warrior had 3-4 horses and he could change them in motion. Tatar detachments could cover a distance of 100 km per day.

The Origin of Cossacks

Southern Ukraine was a very fertile area filled with various kinds of animals and fish. Some brave people gathered into groups with the purpose of hunting and fishing in this dangerous area. They also attacked traders or Tatar settlements to get booty. These people were called the Cossacks.

The first mentions of Ukrainian Cossacks date back as yearly as the 15^th century. In 1492 the Crimean khan complained to the Lithuanian Grand Prince that the Cossacks attacked and robbed a Turkish trade ship. The Grand Prince promised to seek for the goods “among the Cossacks in Cherkassy.” Cherkassy was a border town at the edge of the Wild Field (Дике поле).

The word “Cossack” is of Turkish origin and has several meanings. Ukrainian patriotic historians usually translate it as a “free man” but Turkish, Polish, and some Russian historians tend to translate it as a “bandit.”³¹ The first Cossacks lived on the Ukrainian steppe frontier and consisted of various social groups including runaway peasants, burghers, defrocked priests, and even adventure-seeking noblemen. Although Poles, Belarusians, Russians, Moldavians, and even Tatars joined the ranks of the Cossacks, the overwhelming majority of them were Ukrainians. The Cossacks borrowed many words, cloth, weapon, and traditions from Turks and Tatars. For example, such words as кіш, курінь, осавул, булава, барабан, сурма, табір, майдан, ватага are borrowed from their Muslim neighbors. A Russian variant of Cossackdom evolved father to the east, along the Don River. Sometimes Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks helped each other in their military raids against Muslims. On the other hand, the Cossacks along with Tatars made military raids against Russia. For example in 1521 the Cossack -Tatar army under the leadership of Khan Mengli-Girei and Hetman Ostafii Dashkevych attacked Moscow.³² Russians also made unions with Tatars from time to time. As a result of such unions Ukraine, as part of Russia’s traditional enemy – Poland-Lithuania, suffered a lot. For instance, in 1482 Crimean Tatars at the request of Tsar Ivan III, who promised to help the Crimeans in their struggle against the Golden Horde, attacked and destroyed Kiev, an important city of Grand Principality of Lithuania. Cossacks, in their turn, as Poland-Lithuania’s subjects, regularly took part in the Commonwealth’s numerous wars against Russia. For example, in 1618, the Cossack army, under the leadership of hetman Sagaidachny, burnt to cinder such Russian cities and towns as Livny, Yelets, Ryazhsk, Skopin, etc; all the inhabitants, including infants, were killed. On the other hand the Cossacks in union with the Russians could be engaged in wars against Moldova, Crimea, and Turkey. Or, in union with the Tatars fight against Moscow or Turkey. So, we can assume that Cossacks did not have constant enemies or constant allies; all depended on circumstances and lucrative propositions from different countries.

By the mid-16^th century the Cossacks had developed a military organization of a democratic kind. Their center was the Sich, an armed camp in the lands of the lower Dnieper “beyond the rapids” (za porohy) – hence, Zaporozhia. The Sich was founded by Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, better known as baida (“baida” in Tatar means “carefree”). Baida-Vyshnevetsky was a very adventurous Cossack otaman (leader). He never married and spent all his life in military raids.³³ Women and children, regarded as hindrance for an adventurous life, were not allowed to enter the Sich. All Zaporozhian Cossacks had equal rights and could elect and depose their leaders at their noisy councils (radas). The voices were not counted, so the side that shouted loudest was the winner. Radas often ended in severe fighting with a number of Cossacks killed. The elected leaders were called starshyna (officers) with otaman or hetman on the top. The deposed leaders were often killed on the spot.

The legal system of the Zaporozhian Cossacks was primitive but effective. For example, a murderer was often tied to his victim for several days as punishment for the crime. (No wonder many murderers went mad as a result of such punishment).

Gradually the number of Cossacks grew and many of them settled in frontier towns or villages, coming from time to time to the Sich to take part in adventurous military raids to Crimea, Moldova or Turkey. Military raids to these countries were arranged every year, not infrequently several times a year. Turkish historians stress the cruelty of Cossack raids on their territory. They write that Cossack detachments appeared on the coast unexpectedly (their boats were too shallow to be seen from distance). Local population of Turkish and Tatar coastal towns was looted, buildings and mosques burnt, many men killed and women raped (Cossacks were especially hungry for women as there were no women in the Sich). The negative image of the Ukrainian Cossack is immortalized in Turkish folklore. Turkish mothers warned their children that a Cossack would take them if they behaved badly. It is to some extent similar to the image of Babai in Ukrainian folklore tradition.

Quite often the Cossacks, following the example of the Crimean Tatars, took yasyr during their military raids. For example, the legendary Cossack otaman Nalyvaiko in 1594 burnt dozens of Turkish and Tatar settlements and took 4000 captives as yasyr. In 1603 the Cossacks took thousands of women and children in Belarus (3-4 women and 3-4 children for each Cossack) in order to sell them later. In 1595-96 the Cossacks under the leadership of Nalyvaiko devastated Volhynia (Lutsk saved itself by paying a large contribution) and Belarus (Slutsk, Bobruisk, and Mohiliv). In 1638, Turks liberated from the Cossack captivity several hundred Turkish women and children on the island of Tender. In 1660 the Cossacks, after capturing the town of Aslan, sold its Muslim inhabitants to traders in Ukrainian towns. The Cossack otaman Ivan Sirko took into captivity 1500 Tatar women and children in his Crimean raid in 1667. Thus, the Cossacks raids into Crimea, Turkey, Moldova, Belarus, Russia or even some Ukrainian lands did not differ much from those of Tatars to Ukraine. The aim of these raids was booty.

The rich booty the Cossacks captured in the Turkish, Moldavian and Tatar towns was the major part of their income. Most Cossack raids were carried out by sea. For this purpose, the Cossacks constructed flotillas of forty to eighty long, narrow, and shallow galleys called chaiky, each of which could hold about sixty men. By their frequent sea raids in the 16^th – 17^th centuries against the Turks, the Cossacks gained great fame all over Europe as the Ottoman Empire was at the time the most powerful state in the world. The Austrian empire and Roman Pope established contacts with the Zaporizhian Cossacks as they considered them the “bravest warriors in the world.” Cossacks were not afraid of storming strong Turkish and Tatar fortresses. For example, in 1606 they captured the Ottoman (Turkish) fortress of Varna, which had been considered impregnable before. In 1608 the Cossacks captured Perekop in the Crimea. In 1609, they sacked Kilia, Ismail, and Akkerman. In 1614 they destroyed Trapezund and Sinop in Asia Minor. In 1616, Kaffa, a powerful fortress and the center of the slave trade in the Crimea, was taken and thousands of slaves freed. Practically every year the Cossacks attacked either Turkish territories or those of Turkey’s satellites (Crimea, Moldova, and Walachia). Turkish large military ships were often bravely attacked by small Cossack boats (chaikas). In describing Cossack military activity, Naima, a 17^th-century Turkish historian, noted: “There are no people on earth who care less about life and have less fear than they”. Besides regular raiding of Turkish coastal towns the Cossacks even dared to plunder twice the outskirts of the Turkish capital, burnt its harbor and made their escape within view of the angered sultan.

In their military raids the Cossacks, besides looting Tatars and Turks, also liberated thousands of Ukrainian captives, though it was not the aim of their raids. That brought them gratitude from the Ukrainian people and was immortalized in many folk songs.

Cossacks detachments were often hired by Poland-Lithuania local officials (starostas) to protect southern lands of Rzeczpospolita against Tatar raids. Thus the Cossacks played an important role in defending Ukraine. The Polish king was interested in protecting Ukraine as this reach province gave the Commonwealth a significant part of income. Agricultural products produced in Ukraine were in great demand in Europe.

Cossack annual raids against the Ottoman Empire and its satellites (Crimea, Moldova, Walachia) had seriously deteriorated Polish-Ottoman relations. The sultan was furious at Cossacks and demanded from the Polish king to keep them from attacking Turkey or Turkey’s satellites. Poland tried to forbid the Cossacks to attack the Ottoman territories but they refused to obey and continued their regular raids. If they had stopped them the Sich would have vanished as its economy was based on these raids.³⁴ The Polish king complained in parliament that the Cossacks “create difficulties for us and involve us in conflicts with our powerful neighbors… they ignore obligations… and threaten the life and property of innocent people.” Ukrainian Cossacks did not pay attention to peace treaties between Poland and Turkey or Crimea. In 1620, for instance, the Cossacks told the Muslim envoys that “the Polish king may have made peace with you, but we did not.” As Turkey was unable to punish Cossacks it decided to punish Poland instead (Cossacks were considered Polish subjects and used Polish flags in their military campaigns). In fact, the Cossacks caused several wars between Poland and Turkey, one of the most horrible for the Poles was that one in 1620, when the Turks completely destroyed a Polish army (with its Cossack detachments) at Cezora. (In this battle Bohdan Khmelnytsy’s father was killed; Bohdan himself was taken prisoner).

The peaceful Ukrainian population sometimes paid very dearly for Cossack heroic attacks against Turkey and Crimea. As was already said, since Poland was often unable to punish the Cossacks, the Ottoman Turks and Crimean Tatars tried to punish Cossacks themselves. In 1615, for example, the Turks organized a Tatar raid on Ukraine as retaliation for the Cossack raid on Istanbul (Constantinople). About 200 towns and villages in Podillia and Volhynia were burnt and many thousands people were taken into captivity. In 1616 Volhynia paid dearly for the Cossack attack on Trapezund. In 1589 the Tatar khan organized a huge “retaliation raid” on Galicia and Podillia. It took Poland a lot of energy to drive the Tatars back.

It is interesting to note that Ukrainian patriotic historians explain Cossack raids against Crimea or Turkey as retaliation for Muslim attacks on Ukraine, while Turkish historians say that the Cossacks themselves caused a number of retaliating attacks on Ukraine. It is very difficult for Ukrainian historians to justify frequent Cossack raids on Turkey since it was the Crimean Tatars not the Ottoman Turks who made military raids against Ukraine. It is even more difficult to justify frequent Cossack raids against their Christian neighbors: Moldavians and Walachians, who did not threaten Ukraine at all.

The Cossack raids against Poland’s neighbors were also a reason for a number of wars between Cossack and Polish troops (which tried to punish the Cossacks for their raids) at the end of the 16^th and the beginning of the 17^th centuries. On the other hand, Polish kings were reluctant to worsen relations with the Cossacks as they needed their military help in wars (Cossacks fought, often along with the allied Polish troops, in Livonia, Russia, Moldova, Walachia, Turkey, Crimea, Germany, Austria, and even France).

The Cossacks’ sea activity frequently disrupted trade on the Black Sea. Cossacks often attacked trade ships, looted them and then sank them with their passengers. The Turkish sultan and Crimean khan regularly complained to the Polish king of such events.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks considered themselves as the brotherhood of equals. Thus, the ideal Zaporozhian Cossack was supposed to despise the accumulation of wealth. According to the “code of behaving” of the “real Zaporogian” („справжнього запорожця”) all his booty was to be drunk away in the Cossack community („на людях”).³⁵ This stereotype is reflected in Ukrainian folk tradition:

Козацька здобиченька

Марно пропадає:

Тиждень козак заробляє,

За один день пропиває.

The role of the Cossacks in Ukrainian life was not limited to protection of the country and military raids against their neighbors. As Orthodox believers they constantly defended the rights of their church. Thanks to the Cossacks Ukraine was not completely converted into Greco-Catholicism. (Since the Polish kings often needed Cossack military help, they guaranteed some rights to the Orthodox Church). The Cossacks also financially supported Orthodox churches, schools, and printing houses.