History of the Ukrainian lands of the Cossacks. Main moments in the history of Southern and Western Rus' in the 16th–17th centuries

At the instigation of modern Ukrainian historians, the phrase “Ukrainian Cossacks” firmly entered our lexicon and began to acquire various enthusiastic epithets: “an original national phenomenon”, “an exclusively Ukrainian phenomenon”, etc.

“Svidomi” do not even notice the fact that the Cossacks on the Don are mentioned in sources several years earlier than in Zaporozhye, and if it is determined: the Don people are Russians, the Cossacks are Ukrainians, then the Cossack priority will go to our northern neighbor. One overexposure is followed by another: all Cossacks, without exception, are declared Ukrainians and on this basis maps of the “Ethnographic Borders of Ukraine” appear, including Kuban, Don, Stavropol, Voronezh. Well, if you try to take a closer look at the “Ukrainian Cossacks” - how Ukrainian was it?

In the Cossack register from the time of the Khotyn War of 1621, Moisey Pisarok and Tsetsyura Semrok are listed among the colonels. A few years later, in 1625, a major Cossack uprising took place in Ukraine, led by Hetman Mark Ishmael. In later historical literature he was slightly Ukrainized and now he appears in all textbooks as Marko Zhmailo. But in early sources he is listed precisely as Ishmael. A few years later, returning from Crimean campaign In 1628, the Cossacks elected Moisernitsa as hetman instead of the deceased Doroshenko. In the 1630s, Ilya Karaimovich (hetman in 1633 and 1637) was known among the registered Cossack elders. The author has great doubts about the Ukrainian nationality of these Cossack leaders. In my subjective opinion, they rather belonged to the Jewish nation.

Professional historians know well that the famous associate of Khmelnitsky, Colonel Morozenko, glorified in the People's Duma, was in fact a Polish nobleman named Stanislav Mrozovetsky. Many historians, for example, Kostomarov, a simple listing of whose names leads to certain thoughts: Jan Oriszovsky, Vojtech Chanowitsky, Samuil Zborovsky, Kirik Ruzhinsky, Krysztof Kosinsky, Krysztof Nieczkowski, Nikolay Zacvilikhovsky, Arkovsky, Krempsky, Pyrsky, etc. Their nationality is beyond doubt - they are Poles.

In 1641, the Cossack ataman Stenka Voloshenin was mentioned (Volokhi at that time were called Moldovans). Known in the 1640s. Colonel Philon Jalaliy is Tatar by origin. Special mention must be made about the Russians. In the period being described (XVI-XVII centuries), it is generally impossible to draw a firm dividing line between the Russian and Ukrainian nationalities, because they simply have not yet formed. And in general, then, nationality was no longer determined by blood, but by views, ideology (religion), so that all Orthodox Christians were “Russians” (the word “Ukrainian” appeared 200 years later). Moreover, here we are faced with the problem of sources. From Grushevsky a version began to circulate that Russian chroniclers, writing down the names of Ukrainian figures, Russified them and in order to restore justice they must be Ukrainized back. This is how it turned out from the chronicle hetman Kolenik Ondreev - Kalenik Andrievich, and from the first printer Ivan Fedorov - Ivan Fedorovich. We will not deny the possibility of such a distortion, but within the framework of pluralism of opinions, the author has the right to assume that among the Cossack leaders there were also Great Russians. Ivanovs and Petrovs with Great Russian names, which were also recorded by chroniclers. And now there is no need to turn them into Ivanovichs and Petrenoks. Moreover, there are examples when in one document they appear in a row: Stepan Khomenko, Moisey Avdeev, Vasily Grigoriev, Ivan Vasilyev (Zaporozhye registered Cossacks) or “Yakushko Yakimov and Filip Parashilenko”. Sources have preserved for us the names of the Cossacks quite purely: Zhdan Konshin, Vlas Ivankiev, Ondros Telesov, Pavel Belyaev.

Let us note that there was never any “iron curtain” or stone wall between Zaporozhye and the Don; there was a constant exchange of population between them; as Colonel Shafran (and many others) testified in 1626, several hundred Cossacks lived permanently on the Don, and “in the Zaporozhi” - Donets. One of the first Don atamans was Mishka Cherkashin (the Ukrainians were called Cherkasy at that time). The Cossacks went on campaigns together against the Turks, rebelled together against the Polish or Russian government (this is also confirmed by many documents).

They may ask why all this is being written, since among the Cossacks there were still plenty of Doroshenok, Tomilenok and Orandarenok? We don’t deny that there really were a lot of them, maybe even the majority. But this is not a reason to classify ALL Cossacks as Ukrainians. The Cossacks are not a nation, but a special military-service class. And, like any class, it was absolutely international in composition.

Anyone could become a Cossack - Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Tatar, Jew. Nothing prevented the Ukrainians from becoming Cossacks and even, as we see, occupying command posts (there are even more foreigners among ordinary Cossacks). Therefore, dividing the Cossacks into “Ukrainian” and “Russian” is stupid and pointless. The Cossacks were either one single class, or an incredible mixture - according to national composition. And if anyone wanted to divide them, it was only on a geographical basis: there were Zaporozhye, Kuban, Don, Yaik Cossacks, there were even Ryazan and Tatar (XV century) Cossacks who fought among themselves. And for those who like to equate the Cossacks and Ukrainians, we recommend re-reading “The Chronicle of Little Russia” by A. Rigelman, which lists in detail the differences between the Little Russians (Ukrainians) and the Zaporozhye Cossacks: “The Sichev Cossacks made a fence on the Dnieper and set up huts in it the great ones, calling them kurens and began to live... each, according to the inclination of his trade, abounded in fish, animals and honey... with many of their self-will, riots and robberies, they disgraced their name into rebellious ferocity, for they turned it into rebellious ferocity. they themselves were incessantly embarrassed by civil strife and often killed themselves, from which the Koshevoy and the foreman were always in great fear, despite all this, two statutes that Zaporozhye had: a wifeless life and cruel punishment home tatem... They Cossacks were rude everywhere. On the contrary, the Ukrainian Cherkasy or the Little Russian people, such as the nobility, Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, lead their lives very differently. They have quite a few settlements in cities, towns, villages and farmsteads, produce arable land, garden sowing, gardens and gardens, do all sorts of arts, crafts and trades. They are pleasant and affectionate in their manner. These people are of a cheerful disposition, they love music and other fun. Almost all of them dance in Polish, and even more so they can dance in their own Cherkassy way..."

Yuliy FEDOROVSKY- historian, associate professor at the Eastern Ukrainian University. V. Dalia, Lugansk

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II. The Cossacks on the outskirts of the Lithuanian-Polish state were formed quite a long time ago. With the advent of the Crimean Horde, free communities of Cossacks began to appear on the Lithuanian-Polish steppe borders, as a kind of border police to fight the Tatars. The Cossacks not only repelled Tatar raids on Lithuania and Poland, but also attacked Crimea and Turkey themselves. They were considered subjects of Lithuania and Poland, but did not obey their state. Their fight against the Tatars was generally useful for the state, but their robberies on the Black Sea led to major troubles for Poland from Turkey and Crimea. Both circumstances forced the Polish government in the 16th century. seriously think about bringing the Cossacks under the supervision and control of the state. The Polish authorities tried to form their own government detachments from the Cossacks and, with their help, gradually restore order on the steppe outskirts. At the same time, they encouraged the gentry colonization of Ukraine, thanks to which the free population of Ukraine - the “Cossacks” - turned into “khlops” or serfs, and the social order usual for Poland was established in Ukraine. Thanks to the measures of the kings of the 16th century, the Cossacks, recruited into service, developed a certain self-government by the end of the 16th century: they elected a hetman, a military foreman (judge, clerk, colonels, etc.) and were divided into regiments (districts), but in the regiments there were only a certain number (600) of full-fledged Cossacks, called registered, i.e., included in the lists (registers). The rest of the population of the Dnieper region was considered as simple peasants. In 1590, special restrictive measures were taken against him in order to curb his willfulness; Unregistered Cossacks were included in the khlopstvo and began to be given, along with their lands, to the Polish gentry who settled in Cossack Ukraine. Meanwhile, from this very trouble, from the increasing oppression of Poland and the lords, the peasantry escaped precisely on the Dnieper, leaving Poland and Lithuania.

The peculiarities of the Polish system were established in Ukraine after the Union of Lublin in 1569, when it became a Polish region. But at the same time, these features began to triumph in everything Lithuanian state, and in Poland itself the aristocratic order of the nobility was denoted by more and more sharp features. These circumstances caused increased eviction of dissatisfied people from the middle of the state to southern steppe, and the Polish government tried hard to take possession of this steppe. Thus, Ukraine ceased to be a refuge for the dissatisfied just as their numbers increased, and this caused major social unrest. The unregistered Cossacks left the master's hands further south, closer to the Tatars, and formed a kind of stronghold of the Cossacks beyond the thresholds of the Dnieper - Sich Zaporizhzhya. The Cossack tradition grew stronger there, the struggle against the Mohammedan world continued, and everyone dissatisfied with the state order in Poland and Ukraine flocked there. When Poland decided to lay hands on Zaporozhye, a number of well-known Cossack uprisings arose. Under the leadership of their hetmans (Kosinsky, Loboda, Nalivaiko, Taras, Pavlyuk, Ostranitsa), the Cossacks rushed to Poland, acting in the name of the religious and civil independence of the Russian people. These uprisings failed, and the Poles ravaged even the Sich, took Ukraine more and more firmly, and crushed the people more and more. After the indignation was pacified, the influx of the Polish element - lords and priests - into Ukraine usually increased, and the Cossacks turned into slaves of these newcomers. Such an order, of course, could not satisfy the inhabitants of Ukraine; the common misfortune more closely connected the Cossacks with the khlops; The uprisings took on the character not exclusively of Cossacks, but of zemstvo ones, and were supported by peasants throughout Western Rus'.

By the half of the 17th century. discontent not only outside the doorsteps, but throughout Ukraine has increased to an extreme degree. When in 1648, with the help of the Crimean Tatars, military clerk Bogdan Khmelnitsky raised a new uprising of the Cossacks, the whole of Ukraine - both Cossacks and peasants - took his side. The entire nation rose up for people's freedom and faith. In a word, the results of the religious and social Polish regime had an impact. With the help of the Tatars, Khmelnitsky defeated the Poles and near Zboriv forced King John Casimir to agree to return the Cossacks to their former liberties. The number of registered Cossacks was increased to 40,000. But this could not satisfy Ukraine, because all of Ukraine rebelled, and the situation of some Cossacks improved, while the rest of the Russian and Orthodox people had to again become under the rule of the Poles. Therefore, the uprising rose again, and Khmelnitsky was again at the head. Ally of the Cossacks, Crimean Khan, betrayed Khmelnitsky, and near Bila Tserkva an agreement unfavorable for the Cossacks was concluded with the Poles, which reduced the number of Cossacks by 20,000. For Khmelnitsky, it was clear that this would not end the matter: but it was also clear that Ukraine did not have the strength alone to fight against Poland . The most natural thing was to look for help in Moscow of the same faith.

In 1651, Khmelnitsky turned to Tsar Alexei with a request to take “Little Russia under his hand.” Moscow did not immediately decide to join this Polish region and, therefore, to war with Poland. Tsar Alexei diplomatically stood up for Little Russia, but this did not lead to anything. Khmelnitsky was forced to fight again And again asked Moscow for citizenship. Then the Zemsky Sobor in Moscow decided in 1653 to accept Little Russia, and on January 8, 1654, Ukraine swore allegiance to Tsar Alexei. The number of registered Cossacks was determined at 60,000. Little Russia was left with its social structure and self-government, and the hetman was given the right of diplomatic relations (except for Polish and Turkish). The combined forces of Ukraine and Moscow inflicted on the Poles in 1654–1656. a series of strong defeats that brought Poland to the brink of destruction, especially since the Swedes were simultaneously attacking it. But Poland was saved by the discord between Russia and Sweden and achieved a truce with Russia, ceding Little Russian and Belarusian lands.

Pereyaslav Rada 1654 Union of Ukraine with Russia. Painting by M. Khmelko, 1951

This is how Moscow acquired Russian lands long lost by Russia. But it was not easy to retain these lands given the difficulties that were created by Little Russia itself and its neighbors. In Little Russia, the entire second half of the 17th century. was a time of unrest; in this previously unsettled Cossack Ukraine in the 16th and 17th centuries. under the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian state, a certain social order developed; next to the Cossacks, free, recorded in the registries, the Polish gentry appears, enslaving the Cossacks who were not recorded in the registries; the urban population multiplied, receiving special rights from among the Cossacks themselves, a class of more prosperous and influential people emerged - the “elder”, who seeks to identify themselves with the nobility. When the separation of Ukraine from Poland occurred and the Polish-Lithuanian nobility disappeared from Little Russia, the new owners of the noble lands (“starshina”) strive to separate themselves from the Cossacks “either in the form of the Polish gentry, or in the form of the Moscow nobility,” in the words of S. M. Solovyov. Their desire for dominance in the country is met with resistance from the rest of the Cossacks, freed from the lordship. There is a silent struggle between the democratic Cossacks and the elders. Little Russian cities only care about Moscow’s assertion of their rights, and where their interests collide with those of the Cossacks, they do not spare the latter. The clergy act like the cities. In Little Russia, everything goes separately and each social group seeks from Moscow the best provision of exclusively its own interests to the detriment of others. In this “war of all against all,” Moscow had to play the role of a conciliator and appeaser, satisfying some and arousing the discontent of others. Moscow was slow to cope with its task in Little Russia, not having a solid support in the country and asserting its influence only on the sympathies of the democratic strata, while the upper strata of the population were mostly drawn to Poland with its aristocratic disposition. Despite the constant unrest - the “betrayal” of Little Russians to Moscow, Moscow holds tightly to Little Russia and ties it to itself more and more tightly (especially the left bank of the Dnieper). Already in 1657, the Cossack foreman began to make himself known to Moscow. After the death of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the hetmanship was seized by the clerk Ivan Vygovsky, a man of Polish sympathies, a representative of the Cossack elders. But Poltava Colonel Martyn Pushkar, simple Cossacks and Zaporozhye stood up against him.

Civil strife began, in which Pushkar died and Vygovsky triumphed. In 1658, Vygovsky was transferred to Poland and inflicted a terrible defeat on the Moscow troops near Konotop in 1659. But he was overthrown by the Cossacks themselves, and Yuri Khmelnytsky (son of Bogdan), who swore allegiance to Moscow, became hetman, but when the second war between Moscow and Poland began, he handed himself over to the Poles. However, the left side of the Dnieper remained loyal to Moscow and elected a special hetman, the Cossack Bryukhovetsky, in 1662. According to the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667 between Poland and the Moscow state, left-bank Ukraine remained forever with Moscow. Bryukhovetsky appeared as a submissive subject and himself worked to reduce Little Russian autonomy. But this caused general discontent in Ukraine, which attracted Bryukhovetsky himself in 1668 to break away from Moscow. Lacking a firm policy, Bryukhovetsky soon died in the unrest, and the population of the left bank again pulled towards Moscow, not wanting Polish order. The representative of these democratic sympathies was Hetman Mnohogreshny, whom the foreman managed to overthrow by slandering in Moscow. Only since 1672, with the hetmanate Ivan Samoilovich, internal calm came on the left bank of the Dnieper. But an external danger appeared. The right Polish side of the Dnieper was transferred from Poland to Turkey. Turkish Sultan Mohammed IV in 1672 undertook a campaign to conquer all of Ukraine, thus beginning the war between Moscow and the Turks, which lasted until 1681.; its theater was the right bank of the Dnieper, which Moscow failed to acquire, but it firmly took possession of the left bank. And this was already a huge success. The annexation of Little Russia was the first important offensive step of the Moscow state regarding Poland. Until now, Moscow had almost always been on the defensive, and the preponderance of forces was for the most part on the side of Poland; From that moment on, the relations between the neighbors completely change. Moscow, clearly, is stronger than Poland and is advancing on it, taking revenge for previous grievances and returning its ancient lands. At the same time, having recently been weakened by the turmoil, it is now growing every year in the eyes of its other neighbors and gaining more and more diplomatic weight, despite its internal difficulties. Moscow diplomats operating at that time could be quite satisfied with their activities.

The beginning of the Ukrainian Cossacks

Ukraine is known as a purely poetic country, and rightly so. It is not for nothing that the Polish magnates at the Extraordinary Sejm in Warsaw in 1659, in their speech to King Casimir, called it fruitful Egypt, the promised land, flowing with honey and milk, fruitful, abundant in everything, reputed for centuries to be a golden cloud.

N. Sementovsky, historian of the 19th century.

Since ancient times, the original inhabitants of Ukrainian lands were Slavic tribes. “The Tale of Bygone Years”, a chronicle compiled in the second decade of the 12th century in Kyiv by Nestor and edited by Sylvester, speaks of such a settlement of Slavic tribes - the Polyans lived along the Dnieper, the Dulebs, Buzhans and Volynians lived along the Bug, the Tivertsy and Ulichi lived along the Dniester, to the south of Pripyat - glades, on the Left Bank of the Dnieper - northerners, in the Carpathian region - white Croats. The territories of these tribes became part of the “famous in all lands” Kyiv state with its capital in the city of Kyiv, known since the 5th century. The Kiev state was glorified by many princes - Oleg, Olga, who converted to Orthodoxy, Svyatoslav, Vladimir, who baptized the country, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh. Strong connections have been established with Western Europe, Byzantium, Central Asia, the peoples of the Caucasus, the steppe people who constantly raided the Ukrainian lands: the Khazars, Pechenegs, and Polovtsy were defeated and left the historical arena. The lands of the Ilmen Slavs also became part of the Kyiv state.

IN mid-19th century century, an unknown historian wrote in the then newspapers of the Russian Empire:

“The significance of Kievan Rus has not yet been understood by anyone. This ancient, bright Rus' is illuminated with some kind of fun, a festive glow. The diverse population of the outskirts of Kyiv, the Greek trade route and others that passed by Kyiv or adjacent to it, continuous relations with Byzantium and Western Europe, church celebrations, cathedrals, princely congresses, united militias that attracted many people from all over Russia to Kiev, contentment, luxury; many churches witnessed by foreigners; the early awakening need for book teaching, at the same time some kind of ease and freedom in the relations of people of different ranks and classes, finally, the internal unity of life, the universal desire to sanctify all relationships with a religious principle, so clearly reflected in the views of our most ancient chronicler. All this together points to such conditions and the germs of enlightenment, which not all were inherited by Vladimir Rus'.”

The most significant after the Kyiv state in Ukrainian and Slavic lands there was the Principality of Galicia, located between Southern Russia and Poland. Trade routes from Russia to Hungary, Poland and Central Europe. Prince Vladimir (1144–1152) and his son Yaroslav Osmomysl (1152–1187) played a major role in the Principality and in its political life. In 1199, Roman Volynsky united two principalities - Galicia and Volyn. In 1205, during a campaign against Poland, Roman died unexpectedly. The Hungarians, led by King Andrew II, occupied Volyn and Galich and divided it with Poland. However, not for long. The inhabitants of the principality expelled the invaders and the famous Daniil Romanovich Galitsky became the head of the state. In 1240, the power of the Galician-Volyn prince extended to Kyiv.

In 1240, the Ukrainian lands were invaded by the Mongol-Tatars led by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu and were completely devastated. The historian N. Berezin wrote in his work “Ukraine”, published in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the twentieth century:

“The Tatars came from Asia. People locked themselves in cities, which were taken by the Tatars one after another, until the turn reached Kyiv. Kyiv could not resist either. And how could I resist? No matter how bravely the townspeople fought in despair, they could not resist the untold force. The country of glades and northerners was so empty that when the Italian traveler, the monk Plano Carpini, passed through these places shortly after the pogrom, he saw only wastelands strewn with whitening bones, black coal fires, already overgrown with steppe weeds. There were almost no people visible. Where thousands and tens of thousands lived, individual families of frightened, dispossessed people timidly scurried around. The Tatars remained nomadic in the steppe nearby, and no one had the courage or desire to return to the places where, as of old under the Polovtsians, one could expect a raid every hour, without hope of finding protection in the city or with the prince.

Before the Tatar pogrom, Kyiv remained the main center of the Russian land. All main events ancient Russian history unfolded around him. It is unknown what would have happened if Kyiv had remained the same crowded city. Perhaps, besides Poland, Lithuania and Moscow, there would be one more powerful state on earth, and Rus', in the end, would gather around Kyiv, and not around Moscow.

The Tatar invasion devastated all of Ukraine, after which it did not recover until it became part of the Principality of Lithuania, while the Tatars provided significant assistance to the Moscow princes for the founding of a large despotic state.”

In 1246, the power of the Mongol Khan was recognized by Daniil Galitsky. Galician and Volyn principality were constantly attacked by Poles, Hungarians, and Tatar-Mongols. Back in the 11th century, Hungary captured Transcarpathian Ukraine, where for a long time, in addition to the Bulgarians and Hungarians, people from the Galician land also lived. The historical self-name “Ukraine” itself was first mentioned in historical sources from the 12th century in relation to the Pereyaslav and Galician principalities, and in the 13th century it spread to most territory of the country. Hungary tried to continue the seizure of new Ukrainian lands, but a new state stood in its way - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The Lithuanian principality was formed in the middle Neman basin in the 13th century and, under the great Lithuanian prince Gediminas (1316–1341), subjugated the lands near the Western Dvina, the upper Dnieper, the upper Pripyat and the Western Bug. Under his son Olgerd (1345–1377), Lithuania conquered the Kiev region, Chernihiv region, Podolia and Pereyaslav region. In 1349, in battles for it with Hungary, Poland captured Galicia; nine years before that, Lithuania conquered Volyn.

The Ukrainian lands, which became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, almost retained their autonomy, language, and religion. Lithuanian princes began to accept Orthodoxy. It was a different matter in Galicia, which came under the authority of the Polish Crown; The Polish elite often abused the policy of destroying the culture of peoples dependent on it.

In 1385, the first attempt to completely unite Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single state as a result of the signing Krevo Union was not completed. From that time on, Poland, Lithuania and Muscovy fought for Ukrainian lands - until a certain time, with varying success.

Various regions of Ukraine were isolated and disunited. With the development of trade, economic ties were established between them. Kyiv, Volyn, Chernigov, Galich, Podolia gradually merged into a single economic space, a single whole, complementing each other. Their territorial unity was also created. Since the 15th century, Ukrainian cities have been governed by Magdeburg law of local self-government, which secured the rights and freedoms of citizens - Volyn, Kyiv, Zhitomir. Development took place thanks to trade routes running through Ukraine.

In 1453 troops Turkish Empire took Constantinople, then captured Black Sea coast The Caucasus, Moldova, Bukovina, and the Crimea were subjugated. Since 1498, constant campaigns of the Turks against Ukrainian lands, robberies and seizures of territories began. The Turks and Crimean Tatars even ravaged Kyiv. The population of southern Ukraine, taken into slavery, thinned out, poorly protected by the authorities.

In 1492–1493, as a result of the Russian-Polish war, part of the Ukrainian lands passed to the Moscow state; in 1503, Chernigov region became part of the Moscow Grand Duchy.

Ukrainian lands blocked the Polish Crown and Lithuania from raids from the south, taking the main blows. The position of the Ukrainian peasantry, oppressed by taxes, corvée, and religious oppression, was constantly deteriorating. The king had no real power, the actual power was with the magnates - landowners who manipulated the Sejm. Ukrainians began to move to the steppe regions, to the lower reaches of the Dnieper. A free man took as much land as he could cultivate, although he went out to plow with weapons, fearing, and not in vain, Tatar raids - but there were no lords in the steppe.

They also left parental power, from bondage, punishment, debts, problems, they were simply looking for a better life. They went to the “lower places” and never came back. Thanks to the conditions of a dangerous life, these settlers became good warriors, and their settlements moved further and further into the steppe. N. Berezin wrote:

“Having decided to live in a country dangerous from the Tatars, the South Russian people had to defend themselves. The Polish state did not give him protection. Defending themselves from predators, people got used to weapons, got used to uniting for defense and attack in military alliances or brotherhoods, in different “kupas”, “companies”, “bursas”, with an elected chieftain, with a common treasury, with a weapons depot and assembly places, where one had to appear in the event of danger. Members of such brotherhoods were called by different names, until, in the end, one common name was established for all of them - Cossacks.”

Many researchers and brilliant historians have studied the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks, putting forward their own versions of the origins of this brilliant phenomenon for more than three hundred years.

In 1736–1740 in Zaporozhye Sich To carry out serf work, engineer-lieutenant Prince S. I. Myshetsky was there, who wrote one of the first “Stories about the Zaporozhye Cossacks”:

“In 948, one man, named Semyon, left the Kyiv and Poltava lands at the mouth of the Bug River, in the estuary, on one spit, which the spit is still called Semenov Rog, for his crafts, namely, for beating wild goats and wild boars and other game, and being on this spit for one summer, he came home, and when his close neighbors saw the food there, more than a hundred people sold themselves to him for these trades, and they began to have Semyon as their chieftain. And they lived for a long time on this Bug River, and sewed themselves caftans and trousers from the skin of wild goats, and this happened in great glory that the archers began to be glorious and called them Kozars.

Like the Greek Emperor, who lived in Tsar-Grad with the Turks and had a war with the Turks and hired willing military people, His Majesty was inspired that there are such people that they did not miss any beast, and where they are, they will end up here, and they are called Kozars; They have their home along the Bug River. His Majesty liked it very much, and sent one commissar to them with the treasury, and when this commissar arrived at the Bug River and found the kozars and ataman Semyon in the reeds, he announced to that ataman that His Majesty deigned to send them the treasury, and ordered an announcement: that they and their people should carry out a capture of this enemy, near the Danube and other places here. And this ataman Semyon, taking the money, went willingly with all the Kozars, and having arrived to Ukraine, to the towns of Lysenka and Medvedovka and other towns there, he added more troops to himself, more than two thousand people, and went to the Danube and other places there. And near Turk, through the help of God, a search was carried out in different places. And especially these Kozars really showed themselves in this case, somehow: by driving away herds of horses and other livestock from the Turks, they also took away communication from the Turks, and they destroyed unfortified towns, like redoubts, and took all the people prisoner, and others were chopped down. And at the end of this battle, His Majesty favored them with his mercy and called them Cossacks.”

One of the historians of the 19th century, G. F. Miller, wrote in 1847 in “Discourse on the Cossacks”:

“According to the well-known Batu ruin, the Lithuanian princes took possession of the Kyiv Principality, and in 1340, the Polish King Casimir I turned it into a voivodeship and divided all of Little Russia into regiments.

The first hetman was Pretselav Lanskaronsky, under whom King Sigismund gave the Cossacks liberties and granted them land above and below the rapids on both sides of the Dnieper, which was taken over by Casimir I in 1340. But then, as the Poles began to push back the Little Russians, some of them chose an empty place below the rapids, and there, practicing animal and fishing, they named themselves either from the Kozars, or from the Cossacks catching wild goats, which name was later applied not only to the Little Russians, but also to the Poles hunters who struck Tatar Khan Melingirea in 1516."

“Scientists have argued for a long time about what the word “Cossack” means. Others derived it from the word “goat,” because, they say, the Cossacks competed with wild goats with the dexterity of their movements; others - from the word “spit”, because the favorite pastime of these people was fishing on sandbanks and spits. Now everyone agrees that the word “Cossack” or “Cossack” is not Russian at all, but Tatar. The Kirghiz even now call themselves Cossacks, and among the Tatars their entire military class consisted of uhlans (khan's descendants), murzas (princes, nobles) and simple Cossacks who did not own land. These Tatar Cossacks constantly roamed the steppes, maintained field guards and lived off the booty of war! The very word “Cossack” or otherwise “Kaysak” meant in their language a “light pack rider”, a free person, a tramp. Ukrainians from the Kiev and Poltava regions also went to the steppes, which brought them honey, fish, animal skins, furs and rich pastures, and there was plenty of all this. Therefore, hard agricultural work was not to the liking of many at that time, and it was difficult to do it correctly when no one was sure of the future: the Tatars would attack and plunder everything; and the steppe attracted brave people with the charm of free life.

Many Ukrainians then lived a semi-nomadic life: somewhere in a village or city they had estates, usually protected, since proper farming was not carried out, and in the winter they themselves worked either at a tar mill or at a distillery, and in the spring in whole artels, under the leadership of elected gangs, went to the steppe to hunt and fish; to graze their horses on the luxurious grasses, but here they constantly encountered Tatar tramps, and they were strongly tempted to harm their hated enemy as much as possible, and, by the way, to profit at his expense. Either they will catch a lone Tatar with a lasso, then they will burn down some ulus (Tatar encampment), then, like snakes, they will creep up in the tall grass to the Tatar chambul for the night - some will drive grazing Tatar horses into the field, where they will be caught, and others will rush at the confused Tatars, unaccustomed to foot combat, and mercilessly cut them down with sabers. Having studied with precision all the Tatar habits, all their usual roads and crossings that they used for their devastating raids, the Ukrainian immigrants soon became very useful to their fellow countrymen: they notified them about the movement of the Tatars, about the large raids that were being prepared, and placed a guard (varta) on high mounds and lay in thick reeds near various river fords and Dnieper crossings.

This life, full of dangerous adventures, among the barren steppe, in continuous petty war, left a special imprint on Ukrainian immigrants. They became so hardy that, on occasion, they could eat only roots, acorns, horns and hooves of animals, not get off their horses for whole days, swim across wide rivers and even the terrible Dnieper rapids. Death, which constantly threatened them in all forms, made them courageous and carefree, and the absence of any constraint, the habit of relying on themselves in everything, and not waiting for help from the state, developed in them a love of freedom and an independent character. All these armed Ukrainian immigrants began to call themselves Cossacks, because in many ways they were similar to their enemies - the Tatar Cossacks: they adopted not only all their military tricks, but even the costume and the custom of shaving their heads, leaving only a long forelock. When winter came, a small part of the Cossacks built huts made of brushwood, covered with horse skins, on some inaccessible Dnieper island, and remained there in the winter, keeping a warta (watchman). Most of them returned home to Ukraine; there they sold at fairs furs, skins, honey, fish, often salted due to lack of salt, ash brought from the steppe, as well as captured (stolen) Tatar horses and cattle. Their stories about their exploits and the delights of a free steppe life encouraged many listeners, bourgeois and peasants, to try their luck - to “show off in the field,” and, once they tasted this life, they no longer returned to the old one and also became Cossacks. From this, the further, the number of Cossacks grew and grew.

Since there was no permanent army in Lithuania and Ukraine, the Kanev and Cherkasy elders tried to take advantage of the courage and experience of the Cossacks in military affairs to protect the border from the Tatars and Turks, forming them into properly armed outskirts, companies and hundreds; they themselves encouraged the townspeople and peasants to send vartu from their midst to the steppe one by one and freed all such people from taxes. The Tatars soon felt the Cossack strength. In 1527, the Khan complained to the Polish king Sigismund: “The Kanev and Cherkasy Cossacks come to us, stand under our uluses on the Dnieper and harm our people; I sent your honor many times asking you to stop them, but you didn’t want to stop them. I went against the Moscow prince, 30 people returned from my army due to illness; the Cossacks wounded them and took their horses. Is it good? The Cherkassy and Kanev authorities therefore allow the Cossacks, along with the Cossacks of your enemy and mine, the Prince of Moscow, to enter our uluses and, as soon as they find out in our lordship, they let them know in Moscow.”

Sometimes the elders themselves became the leaders of the Cossacks and led them on a campaign, smashed the Tatar corrals, beat the Turks near Ochakov and took a huge number of cattle and horses. Of these elders, the “famous Cossack” Evstafiy-Ostap Dashkovich became especially famous as a Cossack leader. This Dashkovich already in 1538 proposed to the king to build a castle with a 2000 Cossack garrison on some Dnieper island beyond the rapids; but for some reason it didn’t happen. Kanev and Cherkassy became the main gathering places for the Ukrainian Cossacks; so in Moscow the Cossacks were called “Cherkasy”. From here the Cossacks spread throughout the Kiev region, Poltava region, Chernihiv region, and the southern part of Podolia. But along with these Little Russian or city Cossacks, who soon began to receive salaries from the treasury for their service, independent Cossack bands, or “kupas,” operated in the steppe, under the leadership of their elected hetmans (from the German word “Hauptmann” - captain) . They had two main goals: the fight against the Tatars and the pursuit of profitable steppe industries.”

Historian A. Kuzmin wrote in 1902 in the book “Zaporozhye Sich”:

“The Polish gentry began to move to Ukraine, where they settled on lands begged from the king, distributed to them as a reward for their service; Lithuanian and Russian nobles, wanting to gain the rights of the gentry and become equal to them in everything, began to convert to Catholicism.

Little by little, Polish customs began to take root in Ukraine, including serfdom. In less than a few decades, the Russian people saw themselves in the bitterest bondage; the difference in faith and language between pan and clap destroyed the previous closeness between them, they became strangers.

The pan-Catholic, living off his claps, did not spare them as “schismatics” - heretics, squeezing all the juice out of them and called them nothing more than “cattle” - cattle.

The life of the peasants was hard and bitter, especially in right-bank Ukraine, and therefore many of them began to flee to the east and to the Niz, where, unless they were intercepted on the road, they turned into free Cossacks.

“Cossack” in Tatar means a tramp, a rider, a free warrior. This name appeared a long time ago. This was the name given to the free inhabitants of the left bank of Ukraine who swam down the Dnieper for fish and then sold it in Kyiv and other cities. These daredevils began to be recruited as elders from royal towns and volosts, or they themselves gathered into gangs and chose their leaders. Fishing in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, in the vicinity of the Tatars, often ended in bloody skirmishes with them, and therefore these fishermen, at the same time, had to be warriors, which is why they began to be called Cossacks.”

The outstanding Russian historian S. M. Solovyov wrote:

“Initially and predominantly a Cossack, a homeless person, an exile from society, a person who feels cramped and difficult in society under certain conditions; The Cossack sought only personal freedom through flight from society; he came to the steppe with that narrow, infantile view of social relations to which his former environment of private dependence had taught him. He fled to the steppe in order to be a free Cossack, and not a peasant, for the concept of manhood was connected with the concept of labor. The free Cossack, a fine fellow, did not want to work at all, or wanted to work as little as possible, he wanted to live at the expense of others, at the expense of other people’s labor.

All the daring and restless heads, all those who had reasons to be at enmity with the government, strove to steppe Zaporozhye; It was here that uprisings broke out and spread throughout Ukraine, and the leaders of these uprisings came from here.”

Modern Ukrainian historians V. M. Sklyarenko, V. V. Syadro, P. V. Kharchenko on the origins of the Cossacks:

“The question of the emergence of the Cossacks still occupies one of the main places in the history of Ukraine. Disputes and discussions on this issue have lasted for several centuries and have not subsided to this day. A small number of sources does not make it possible to fully answer some important aspects this process, as a result of which there are a huge number of hypotheses and theories regarding the emergence of the Cossacks.

The Ukrainian Cossacks originated in the Middle Dnieper region at the end of the 15th century. There is no consensus among scientists on the origin of the word “Cossack”. It was believed that it comes from the name of the peoples who once lived near the Dnieper and Don (Kasogi, Kh(k)azars), or from the self-name of modern Kyrgyz people - Kaysaks. There were other etymological versions of the origin of the term “Cossack”: from the Turkish “kaz” (i.e. goose), from the Mongolian “ko” (armor, protection) and “zakh” (frontier). Some scientists derived it from the Tatar verbs “kaz” - “to dig”, “kez” - “to wander”, “kach” - “to run, to escape”; others have created an incredible etymology of this word from “kaz” - “goose” and “ak” - “white”.

The word "Cossack" was first mentioned in the late 13th century Latin manuscript Godex cumanicus, meaning "watchman" or "duty officer". Following this, it is increasingly found in Turkic-language sources, meaning a free armed person.”

Modern historian V.K. Gubarev wrote in his work “History of Ukraine” about the Cossacks:

“The term “Cossack” itself - Turkic origin. In the “Secret History of the Mongols” (1240) this is the name of a free person, not bound by family ties, prone to conquest. In the dictionary of the Polovtsian language (1303), a Cossack is a warrior-reconnaissance officer, a guard. On the lands of Rus', Cossacks began to be called free people who settled in the border areas of the Moscow State, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. In border conditions, located between two hostile sociocultural worlds - the world of Christianity and the world of Islam - the Cossacks from the very beginning were forced to unite in armed units led by elected atamans, and be ready at any moment to give an answer to those who coveted their independence. They replenished their ranks with the help of fugitive peasants, serfs and convicts, people persecuted for religious or political reasons. Their partnership was multinational. Thus, the Polish ambassador Pyasochinsky, speaking in 1601 with representatives of the Turkish government, noted that among the Cossacks there were “Poles, Ukrainians, Muscovites, Volokhs, Turks, Tatars, Jews, and in general people of every language.”

Historian N. Sementovsky wrote in his study “Little Russian, Zaporozhye and Don Antiquity,” published in 1846 in St. Petersburg:

“In the boundless steppes between the Black, Aral and Caspian seas, from unknown times a people bearing the name “Cossacks” appears. There is no true story about the origin and initial fate of this people either in the chronicles or in history. The only truth is that in the 10th century Cossacks already existed in Russian lands - Little Russia and further along the Dnieper, Don and Bug.

Like the beginning of everyone's history political societies and the history of the Cossacks begins with the appearance of knights, whose deeds survive many centuries, are recorded in the chronicles and then serve as the first pages in the history of peoples.”

Researcher P. Simonovsky argued in his work “A short essay on the Cossack Little Russian people and their military affairs, collected from various histories of foreign, German - Besheng, Latin - Bezoldi, French - Chevalier and Russian manuscripts of 1765,” published in the printing house of Moscow University in 1847 year:

“It’s enough that this name Cossack is ancient and known to everyone. This word, Cossack, is made up of two dialects - Caspium, that is, the Caspian Sea, and Saki, that is, the Scythian people, for they were called Saki, according to the author Pliny.

The Little Russian Cossacks, without a doubt, are the oldest of the Don Cossacks, these eyes began to be known in 1579, during the reign of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and they began to exist back in 1340, when Poland conquered Black Rus'.

When the famous Lithuanian prince Gediminas, in 1320, put an end to the Tatar rule over Kiev, he took the city of Kiev without the slightest resistance and established his own governor in it, which led the inhabitants of that land into fear and many of them were forced to leave their homes and look for settlements for themselves down the Dnieper, where they soon settled, the Poles, Lithuanians, and Tatars, being now their neighbors, constantly made attacks and insults on the Little Russians, which is why they, in defending themselves, acquired the habit of military art from small to large.

Usually the Ukrainian Cossacks were then called Cossacks, because everyone lived on the other side of the Dnieper rapids.

The Polish king Sigismund I (1507–1548) took from there some part of that military people and settled them at the top of the Dnieper rapids, to protect the borders from Turkish and Tatar attacks, when those Cossacks multiplied so much that they were able, in agreement with the brethren with his Cossacks, defeat the Turks and Tatars on the Black Sea.

King Stefan Batory, to whom Poland, for many good institutions, owes a lot, reasoning how necessary and useful the Cossacks are in war, made a military corps out of them in 1576, dividing it into 6 regiments, each regiment having a thousand people, and those regiments divided into hundreds, so that every Cossack belonging to the regiment would be included in a hundred and, when necessary, would certainly be in it. Every regiment and every hundred had a commander appointed by the king, who then, by royal definition, was without change. Over all those regiments, the king made them a superior commander with the title of hetman, to whom, for better respect and veneration, he bestowed a royal banner, a horsetail, a mace and a seal with the image of a Cossack standing in a field, with which Little Russia is still printed. At the same time, he also appointed the military foremen - the baggage officer, the judge, the clerk, the captain."

In 1910, historian M.A. Karaulov II wrote in “Essays on Cossack Antiquity”:

“The word “Cossack” is undoubtedly not of Russian origin. This word gave rise to various scientists and researchers to make a wide variety of guesses to clarify its origin and original meaning. Some tried to compare it with the name of the Kasog tribe, who lived in the 9th–11th centuries in the foothills North Caucasus; and with Kazakhia, Transcaucasia, the border Georgian region mentioned byzantine emperor 10th century by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus; and with the Khazars who lived on the lower reaches of the Don and Volga in the 8th–10th centuries. This word was derived from the Turkish-Tatar word “koz” - “goose”, and from the Mongolian word “ko” - “armor, armor, protection”, and “zakh” - boundary, border, boundary, from where “kozakh” was supposed to means "defender of the border". The historian Golubovsky considers this word to be the Polovtsian word for “guard.” However, despite all the efforts of scientists, the question of the origin of the word “Cossack” remains controversial and unclear. It is not difficult to notice that in Russian historical monuments, at first, the word “Cossack” is used in in a general sense“homeless”, “exiled”, then in the narrower sense of “a single free person”, willingly serving the state or its individual members.

The Cossacks are, in spirit and goals, a direct continuation of the heroism of the Holy Russian, and therefore they must be considered as ancient as the very Russian state. We can safely say that the Cossacks are Rus', but not a weak-willed servile Rus', groaning under a foreign yoke and powerlessly drowning in internecine struggle, but a free, victorious Rus', widely spreading its eagle wings across the steppe expanse and boldly looking into the eyes of its neighbors - enemies." .

The results of the historical discussion at the end of the 19th century were summed up by the famous encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:

“The flight of serfs developed as one of the ways of getting rid of the oppression of the landowners. Serfs and the poorest philistines went to the eastern, sparsely populated steppe regions, to the lower reaches of the Dnieper, where they entered service in border castles, and also engaged in hunting and fishing. Such unsettled people began to be called Cossacks. They actually became free people. The Cossacks became organizers of campaigns against the Tatars, which were caused by their constant raids.

In the second half of the 16th century, the Cossacks behind the Dnieper rapids created their military center - the Zaporozhye Sich.

The modern Ukrainian historian V. F. Ostafiychuk wrote in his work “History of Ukraine: a modern view,” published in Kyiv in 2008:

“In Soviet historiography it was argued that the formation of the Cossacks occurred only at the expense of peasants who fled serfdom. Unfortunately, this class approach to considering the issue of the formation of the Cossacks still outweighs scientific works and popular publications. A number of Ukrainian historians, in particular L. Zaliznyak and others, deny this “statement” and prove that the Cossacks entered the historical field long before the enslavement of the peasants. Ukraine was known to late medieval Europe under the name “country of the Cossacks.” Voltaire wrote in “The History of Charles XII”: “Ukraine, the country of the Cossacks, is one of the most fertile countries in the world. Ukraine has always wanted freedom.” Cossacks in form and essence were a variety European knighthood. They trace their origins back to the princely era and are heirs to the warrior-knightly traditions of Kievan Rus. It is probably no coincidence that the church hierarchs in their Manifesto of 1621 called the Zaporozhye army the heirs of the ancient princely knighthood. The bull of Pope Gregory IX speaks of the Cossacks under 1227.

The Cossacks gave birth not so much to serfdom as to the ardent desire to revive their state in the ancient Kiev Russian expanses. It was on this desire that the ideology of armed resistance was formed, the unity of all who contributed to this cause, regardless of nationality, social origin. Therefore, in the Cossack ranks there were peasants, artisans, nobles, priests, aristocrats, and foreigners. The Cossacks were replenished both by immigrants from Ukrainian lands and from Belarus, the Moscow Principality, and Moldova.

The Cossacks developed the uninhabited Ukrainian steppes in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, which were not under the control of either the Polish or the Tatar-Turkish invaders. Free settlers - Cossacks, for whom freedom was valued above all else, created in new places a new general organization - the Cossack society, a community in which everyone received equal rights with everyone else to use agricultural land and participate in self-government, including in the elections of Cossack leaders . At the same time, everyone was obliged to guard settlements with arms in hand and go on military campaigns.”

Ukrainian historians V.V. Sklyarenko, V.V. Sadro and P.V. Kharchenko wrote in 2008 about the Cossacks - “a phenomenon that was destined to become a new and powerful force during the general national and social decline of Ukrainians”:

“On the historical arena, the Ukrainian Cossacks appeared as a phenomenon at the end of the 15th century, but as a social stratum they formed only at the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. It was then that the Ukrainian Cossacks grew into a separate class group with their own special interests, economic and social prerogatives. Between the Cossack - a steppe warrior of the late 15th - early 16th centuries, who was engaged in the so-called "care" (economic trade), and the Cossack of the late 16th century, who became a defender of the interests of Ukrainian people in the powerful multinational union of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - a huge difference.

The Cossacks were formed on a fairly large ethnic and social base, which was constantly updated and changed over the course of two centuries. The peasantry, boyars, gentry, and petty bourgeoisie were drawn into this process.”

By the beginning of the 15th century, the Polish Crown on the Right Bank and Left Bank of the Dnieper. In southeastern Ukraine, the Zholkovskys, Kalinovskys, Zamoyskys, and Koretskys ruled. Serfdom was finally strengthened on Ukrainian lands. Polish orders and laws were transferred to Ukraine. All this was intensified by national and religious oppression. The peasants were forced to convert to Catholicism, were deprived of their rights, and were called cattle - “cattle.” Faith played a big role in the creation of the Cossacks. The lords in the castles and estates, with rare exceptions, were Catholics, the common people were Orthodox and stubbornly adhered to this faith. From religious compulsion, people left to become Cossacks in the steppe.

The gentry constantly interfered with the development of Ukrainian cities that already had Magdeburg Law. The impoverished townspeople fled to become Cossacks in the steppe. Orthodox boyars and nobles were also oppressed by Polish magnates. Russian historian A. Apostolov wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century:

“The gentry poured into Rus' in a wide stream, and behind them came the Catholic clergy. The magnates diligently begged the king for deeds of gift for free lands, and the king willingly gave these letters. Some gentlemen received such a piece of land that you couldn’t ride around it on a good horse for several days. The small gentry, the “corral” poor, also followed the lords, so that they could benefit from the crumbs from the lord’s booty. Such a nobleman will gain favor with the master, he will help him “grow into the ground”, acquire a farm, he will go up the hill, you see - another will soon become a tycoon himself. Another seedy nobleman sold his last property in his homeland and hurried to Ukraine with the money; there he appeared to the lord and asked to give him a piece of land for free. This was very beneficial for the Panamas, since it increased the profitability of their lands: the newly arrived nobleman tried to populate the land; if it was empty, he started servants and a household; if the land belonged to the peasants, then he imposed taxes on them and then paid rent to the master. The settlement of Ukraine from then on quickly moved forward; the country was rich, deserted and could feed a lot of people. The trouble was that the gentry flowed in from Poland in abundance, but Polish money did not come. Cheap labor was needed here, but either there were none at all, or there was a free population on the new lands: peasants, Cossacks, who were not at all inclined to work for nothing for the new masters who had fallen to them from the sky; The gentry grew up on cotton labor and did not recognize any other. In addition, the Russian commoner was in the eyes of the Pole a schismatic, a heretic, and they did not call him anything other than “cattle” (animal), “dog blood.” A trial against the master was nowhere to be found: the judges were corrupt, and the magnates were not afraid of them, mocking court verdicts. The misfortunes of the people were further intensified by the presence in Ukraine of the violent mercenary “quartz army”: the zholners who served in it committed outrages and robbed the inhabitants.”

In a word, the situation in the Ukraine soon became as difficult as it had been in Poland, and even worse. One Polish writer says:

“In Turkey, not a single pasha can do this to the last peasant, otherwise he will pay with his head; And among the Muscovites, the chief boyar, and among the Tatars, Murza, do not dare to insult a simple clap, even a non-religious one. Only in Poland we are free to do everything in towns and villages. Asian despots will never torture as many people in their entire lives as they would torture in the free Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.”

The lords received enormous income from their estates, scattered the money like chaff, and yet could not spend it. The magnates spent their entire lives in feasts and drinking bouts; in the gilded chambers of the castles music thundered day and night, Hungarian wine stood in barrels and many free-eating nobles languished.

Other gentry followed behind the gentlemen. The same writer says:

“From a senator to a craftsman, everyone drinks away their fortune, then enters into unpayable debts. Nobody wants to live by work; everyone strives to seize what belongs to others. It is easy to reach, and easy to come down; Everyone only thinks about this in order to have a more lavish spree. The earnings of poor people, collected with their tears, sometimes with their skins, they destroy like locusts: one person eats at one time as much as many poor people earn in a year. for a long time. They laugh at the Poles that their down must have such a property that they can sleep on it peacefully without tormenting their conscience.”

Ukrainians didn’t want to turn into “cattle”, they didn’t want to turn into blokes, they wanted freedom. Those people, peasants, artisans, nobles, who went to the Dnieper rapids, did not end up in an empty place - they were already waiting there, the Ukrainian Cossacks already had their own organization, and there were already a lot of Cossacks themselves, experienced steppe warriors.

The southern outskirts of the Ukrainian lands were subject to constant raids and devastation from hordes of Crimean Tatars - the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which included Ukrainian territories, needed to take measures to protect the border. The attacks of the Crimeans became more and more menacing and devastating, enemy detachments moved further and further, and from 1506 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan. This, naturally, did not help, and in 1511 a large sejm was convened in the city of Piotrokov to discuss the Tatar problem.

Voivode Evstafiy-Ostap Dashkovich proposed to the Sejm to create an advanced security line in the lower reaches of the Dnieper:

“For this it is necessary to establish an active guard of only two thousand soldiers. They could travel in small vessels and boats between the Dnieper islands and rapids, preventing the Tatar crossing. To cover this guard, the islands should be strengthened, and no more than five hundred horsemen are needed to deliver vital supplies to them.”

The Seimas approved Dashkovich's project and decided to organize an army of four thousand in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, for the armament and maintenance of which a special land tax should be collected. The army guarding Podolia was led by Evstafiy Dashkovich. Historian M.A. Karaulov wrote:

“Dashkovich actively set about implementing his great, as it turned out, plan. It is precisely this circumstance that we owe to the fact that in the Zaporozhye internal structure, life and order, from the very first steps, the features of the military structure of both the ancient states of Sparta and Rome, and the later knightly orders are striking.”

Dashkovich selected four thousand Cossacks, divided them into regiments and hundreds, placed foremen, colonels, esauls, centurions and foremen over them, and established a Cossack court of senior Cossacks. Every year he exchanged two thousand Cossacks kept “at Niza” for others, releasing the first “into the field, into the steppe.” From the very beginning, the Ukrainian Cossacks were divided into two types - those serving on the border and those living at home until they were called to a military campaign.

The first campaign took place in 1516 - 1,200 Cossacks led by Dashkovich reached Ak-Kerman in Turkish possessions, defeated the Tatars and returned, bringing with them 500 horses and 3,000 heads of cattle. In the following campaigns, the Cossacks of E. Dashkovich against the Tatars were helped by Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky - in 1522 and 1523. Before this, in 1515 and 1521, the Cossacks, by order of the authorities, went on a campaign to the Moscow outskirts.

At first, the Dnieper guards were small in number and could not fight large enemy military formations. Big Cossack army was entrusted with the formation of Bohdan Rozhinsky, the commander of the troops on Ukrainian lands. He organized twenty local regiments of two thousand Cossacks each and divided them into hundreds. They received their names from the cities and villages where they were located - “Kyiv Regiment, Kiev Hundred”. All Cossacks were registered, a list of names and a register was compiled; The Cossacks themselves began to be called registered. Half of the Cossacks made up the cavalry, armed at their own expense with guns, pistols, sabers and spears, intended for action “in the field.” The second half, infantry, armed with guns, spears and daggers, was intended for the defense of cities and towns. During hostilities, registered Cossacks received a salary and sometimes clothes. In peacetime, they were engaged in farming, crafts, trade, and were exempt from taxes.