Le Sabot Post-Moderne

..freedom is most differently on the march..even in the winter the air is a little sweeter..

Who are the Cossacks?

Purloined from a roots website some time ago and hyper-condensed by myself from a post written by 'Steve Botnovcan' - here's a mini-history you may find as interesting as I did.

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The first occurrence of the name "Kazak" is registered in a Turkish-Arabic dictionary of 1245 which was probably compiled in Egypt. But in 13th-century Egypt this word was not yet used as an athnic name. It acquired it's meaning later from the territory of Kazakstan in the 15th-16th centuries and the term Cossack referred to self-governing warrior communities in the Dnieper and Don river regions. Cossacks were superior horsemen and exceptional warriors who were always on horseback and always ready for battle, 24 hours a day. Men were required to carry weapons all the time. Daggers were provided even for women and children. Babies were carried in a special hood behind the back so hands were free to fight in case of sudden attack. Any outsider could join the Cossacks, if the Cossacks considered him a worthy warrior. There is evidence that Cossacks accepted in their communities Tartars, Germans, Greeks, and Turks. There was only one condition to joining the Cossacks, a belief in Christ.

In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the Kazaks consolidated a nomadic empire, and from 1488 to 1518 they controlled virtually the entire steppe region. In 1654, threatened by Polish domination, the Zaporozhian Cossacks signed a treaty with Russia (Union of Pereyaslav) and received privileges from the Russian government - in return for military service. With support of Russia the Cossacks expanded eastward from their home in the Don and were early colonizers of Siberia. For example, ataman Ermak, the conqueror of Siberia, was a Cossack.

By the end of the 19th century the number of Cossack groups had expanded to 11, including the Don, Kuban, Derek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Semirechen, Siberian, Transbaikal (Zabaikal'skie kazaki), Amur and Ussuri. In tsarist Russia the Cossacks usually lived in special settlements near the country's borders. Every Cossack man was liable for military service to the Tsar, having to provide his own horse, uniform, saber, lance, saddle, etc. Cossacks fulfilled border guard and territorial militia functions, being in a sense "a live fence" of Russia. In exchange, Cossacks had a number of economic privileges. For four centuries until the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, Russia relied on free Cossack warriors to defend and expand its southern and eastern frontiers.

Cossacks were always free, even during the centuries when Russia, Prussia, Poland and other states in the region had serfdom law. Cossacks had freedom, special economical privileges and lands to own - in exchange for their military service to the Tsars. It was the Cossacks that extended Russia's territories into Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia, Russian Far East and even North America (Alaska and Northern California).

..many thanks Ron,it truly is a small world..one day we might trace our lineage around this planet..guess dna testing can already do it..

Is that really Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky's mace? Is that a worthy symbol for a 21st Century Ukrainian President?

Was not the Hetman Khmelnitsky responsible for the wanton massacres of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles and other innocent civilian victims in one of the most horrific terrorist "insurgencies" of all time?

Just asking.

Alvar-

In my opinion, no. Anyone who killed 100,000+ innocent people isn't worthy of anything.

From the point of view of the average citizen here, then yes. I think they're wrong, but I'll try to explain it as best as I understand the situation. . . No doubt ten people will then promptly jump on me. :-)

It seems to me that Ukraine has a real tendency to focus on the bits of history that appeal to it. Which means a lot of stuff disappears down the memory hole. The millions of Ukrainians killed by the Soviets get lost by a huge percentage of the population who choose to focus on the relative stability and prosperity of the USSR's late period, for instance. Even in westernized, cosmopolitan Kiev there's virtually NO sense that the USSR was evil. Nothing comparable to Germany's introspection following WWII.

Same goes for the Cossacks. They get remembered as defenders of Orthodoxy, as merry warriors who defended Ukraine against Turks and Poles, etc. I've been here a long time, and never heard anyone discuss the Khmelnitsky pogrom. Some hate him for making his deal with the Russians, but for the most part he's remembered as the guy who defended against the Poles.

Go to downtown Kiev, to the square in front of Sofia Cathedral, one of Ukraine's holiest churches. There you'll find a large equestrian statue of Bogdan, mace in hand. He's revered, his sins forgotten.

In the national context it isn't weird that they would use his accoutrements for the inauguration. It just should be.

Disco,

Thanks for the explanation. I had suspected something along those lines. It's good to know that today's Ukrainians don't consciously express a nostalgic desire to indulge in the sorts of atrocities that the Hetman's victims could never forget.

Analogously, the Mongolians revere Ghenghis Khan, who isn't altogether popular everywhere his minions went. And the French, Bonaparte. Whether the 20th Century killers we have come to know and loathe will in the distant future seem as anodyne as Timur the Lame and Assurnasirpal is anybody's guess.

Revealing my ignorance here, what if any is the relationship between Cossacks/Kazaks and the Kazakhs of Kazakhstan? Just coincidence, or is one group an offshoot of the other, or? (Yes, I know 'kh' and 'k' are different sounds, but still.)

Cossack is an English spelling, the pronunciation of which is only somewhat near the original. The original spelling (Kazak) was Russian, I believe - and Kazakh was perhaps a Ukrainian original spelling, as many Ukraine names add a trailing h.

Perhaps John can elucidate.