The foundation of the first battle. Liquidation of the Zaporozhye Sich in connection with the Pugachev rebellion

28.08.2013 0 7398

For several centuries now, the Zaporozhye Sich has remained a symbol of unbridled prowess, dashing freemen and reckless courage. But who are they - Zaporozhye Cossacks? Where did they come from, how did they live and where did they go?

The first settlements of free people in the steppe, near the rapids of the Dnieper, appeared in the 13th-14th centuries. Gradually, the inhabitants of these places began to be called “Cossacks.” The word of Turkic origin passed into the Russian language from the Mongol-Tatars. Usually they were called robbers who hunted on the highways. And sometimes - security guards who were hired to defend against these same robbers.

Cossack is different from Cossack

In the middle of the 16th century, scattered Cossack detachments began to unite into a single force. In 1553, the Volyn prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky founded a wooden and earthen castle on the island of Malaya Khortytsia, building it at his own expense. This is how the first Sich - Khortytsia - arose. Vishnevetsky’s relationship with the Polish king did not go well. But he established close friendship with the Muscovite kingdom. Being a distant relative of Ivan the Terrible, Vishnevetsky and his Cossacks took an active part in campaigns against Crimean Tatars. However, soon the Crimeans, together with the Turks, ravaged Khortitsa. Vishnevetsky took possession of the city of Belev (in modern Tula region) and left the Dnieper forever. And the Cossacks again scattered into separate small settlements. And then the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth drew attention to the Dnieper freemen.

The famous letter of the Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan To Mohammed IV, full of insults, was written in the 17th century, in response to the demand to lay down arms.

The Poles had long dreamed that it would be nice to have a permanent army in the south, capable of repelling the Turks if necessary. Sigizmun II Augustus in 1572 issued a decree on the creation of “registered Cossacks”. 300 people were accepted into the service, who swore an oath to faithfully serve the crown, repel Tatar raids, suppress peasant unrest and participate in royal campaigns. This Cossacks was solemnly named the Army of His Royal Grace Zaporozhye. Subsequently, King Stefan Batory doubled the number of registered Cossacks.

To be called a registered Cossack was not only honorable, but also profitable. High status, honor, regular salary... But they had a very conditional relationship to the real Zaporozhye Sich.

Registered Cossacks lived not on the Dnieper, but in the town of Trakhtemirov, Kyiv Voivodeship. Their treasury, arsenal, archives and hospital were located there. They contemptuously called the real Cossacks “golyt-venny Cossacks” - from the word “golytba”. The Polish crown also did not recognize the free Cossacks of the Dnieper rapids, although it used them for military campaigns, together with the registered Cossacks. It turned out that there were two Zaporozhye Sichs at the same time: the official registered army and the wild Dnieper freemen, called the “grassroots Cossacks”. Both of them, of course, considered themselves real, and called their opponents impostors.

The Moscow state has always taken the “lower” Sich seriously: as a good ally in the fight against the Turks and Tatars, but a dangerous enemy during the Polish campaigns. After all, the Cossacks knew how to fight and loved it. The Cossacks always had the most advanced weapons of the peoples with whom they fought. Trusting the sharp saber, the Cossacks did not forget about pistols, rifles and cannons. And their light ships “seagulls” terrified the seas and rivers.

"Grassroots knighthood"

The “lower” Zaporozhye Sich was not a state. It was a community of free people, completely unique for the 16th-17th centuries, who lived as they wanted, without submitting to outside power. All decisions were made jointly, at smoking and kosheva radas (meetings). All Cossacks of the Sich were considered to be members of a kosh (community or partnership), which was divided into 38 kurens. A kuren is both a military unit (such as a battalion or a regiment) and a long wooden house (more like a barracks) in which the Cossacks lived. The entire territory on which the Sich was located was divided into 8 palanki (districts).

The most important person in the Sich was the Koshevoy Ataman, elected at the Koshevoy Rada. He had enormous power - he resolved disputes, passed death sentences and commanded the army. His closest assistants held the positions of judge, captain and clerk. And already behind them in seniority were the kuren atamans. In total, a little more than a hundred people occupied certain positions in the Sich. All others were equal.

Even the ataman could not challenge the decision of the Kosheva Rada, which met without fail once a year. Any Sich Cossack had the right to vote. But becoming a “Sich” was not so easy. It was not enough to simply come to the Sich and declare your desire to join the Cossacks. Several conditions had to be met.

Firstly, anyone wishing to join the Sich had to be free and unmarried. So it was easier for the runaway serfs to go to the Don than to the Cossacks. Although, in order to confirm their free status, it was enough to give their word, which, of course, many took advantage of. Secondly, only Orthodox Christians or those who were ready to change their faith were accepted. And finally, thirdly, it was necessary to learn “Sich knighthood.”

Only after seven years of training the candidate received the status of a “tested comrade” and was allowed to join the Sich. At the same time, he was given a nickname and surname - remember Gogol’s Taras Bulba or Mosiya Shilo.

Those who had not yet passed the test lived on the borders of the Sich and were called “winter Cossacks.” Those who decided to get married were also sent there. Moreover, they were all considered part of the “grassroots army”. But they did not participate in the rads and received only a small fraction of the spoils of war.

The laws established in the Sich were extremely harsh. Theft was considered a serious crime, which was always punishable by death. For fights, abuse of women or robbery, the Orthodox population was beaten with a whip and chained to a stake. But the most terrible punishment awaited the one who shed the blood of his fellow Cossack. The killer was placed alive in the grave, a coffin with his victim was placed on top and buried. The Cossacks especially despised deserters - they were stoned to death. Perhaps, only such harsh measures could keep this explosive mixture that had gathered on the Dnieper in check.

Union with Russia

Relations between the Zaporozhye Sich and Russia have always been difficult. Until the middle of the 17th century, the Cossacks went on campaigns against Moscow more than once. During the Time of Troubles, they fought for False Dmitry I and supported the Polish prince Vladislav, who laid claim to the Russian throne.

However, as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth strengthened, the Orthodox Cossacks began to feel more and more uncomfortable in an alliance with the rigidly Catholic state. This resulted in the uprising of Boris Khmelnitsky in 1648. Being a Cossack colonel, he managed to unite the registered Cossacks with the “grassroots army” and jointly give battle to the Polish king. The result was the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654, which announced the transfer of the Cossacks to Russian rule. This is how a new autonomous entity arose - the Hetmanate. There, two Sichs began to exist side by side again: the Army of His Royal Majesty Zaporozhian (registered Cossacks) and the “grassroots army”.

The alliance with Russia was short-lived. During the Northern War, the fatal betrayal of Hetman Mazepa occurred. On Battle of Poltava The hetman brought only a few hundred Cossacks. But even before this, the Cossacks launched active fighting against the Russians. True, it turned out that the “regiments of the new system” created by Peter I were too tough for the Cossacks. The Sichs lost their former dashing spirit and stopped borrowing military innovations from the enemy. They became slow to climb and clumsy in battle.

As a result, in May 1709, the Zaporozhye Sich was completely defeated by three Russian regiments under the command of Pyotr Yakovlev. The fortresses were destroyed, the kurens were burned, the Cossacks were dispersed or killed, and about 400 people were captured, and many were later executed.

The further history of the Zaporozhye Cossacks is one of endless wanderings, trying to find a new home and revive their former glory. I had to ask for protection from my sworn enemies - the Turkish Sultan and the Crimean Khan. But the Cossacks did not take root there. They returned to Russia under Anna Ioannovna and founded the New, or Podpolnenskaya, Sich almost in the same place where they were defeated by Peter. They guarded the Russian border, participated in the Russian-Turkish wars, but never reached their former scale.

Catherine the Great put an end to the history of the free Cossacks, who on August 3, 1775 signed the manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province.”

Victor BANEV

Zaporizhzhya Sich(Ukrainian: Zaporizhka Sich), the Zaporizhian Lower Army is the military and administrative center of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, which was located beyond the Dnieper rapids in the 16th-18th centuries.

Etymology of the names Sich and Kosh

The name of the Cossack capital - Sich comes from the word “sekti”, “to carve”, this name is associated with the fact that the capital was surrounded by a palisade with sharp edges carved into it. The letter ѣ (yat) in Ukrainian is pronounced as “i”, in Russian as “e”, therefore, when in 1918 the letter yat was excluded from the alphabet, then Sich in Russian became Sich (even earlier, under the so-called spelling correction, at the end er was replaced by er), in Ukrainian Sіch (pronounced Sich).

The Sich was a military fortification, inside of which stood a church, outbuildings and living quarters - kurens. Subsequently, this word was transformed into the concept of the capital of the entire Zaporozhye Cossacks, the center of activity and management of all military affairs, the residence of all the main elders who stood at the head of the lower Cossacks.

The word “Kosh” was often used with the word “Sich” and the Zaporozhye Army was sometimes called the Zaporozhye Kosh. This word is of Turkic origin and means “nomadic”. The Cossacks, using the word “Sich,” meant the permanent capital of the Troops, and by the word Kosh they meant the entire territory of the nomadic Troops during campaigns, including temporary headquarters and regular ways movements, as well as, possibly, pastures used by the Cossacks. This explains the signatures on the letters “Dan to Kosha of the Zaporozhye Sich”, that is, to the Zaporozhye Sich, “Dan from Kosha at the Bug” - that is, from the temporary camp at the Bug. In total, the Zaporozhye Sich existed for about two and a half centuries.

The emergence of the Zaporozhye Sich

In 1304, news of the free Cossacks in Zaporozhye and their ataman Kritika appeared for the first time. As Vladimir Boguslavsky points out, in these bandit gangs at that time the Turkic, rather than the Slavic, element clearly predominated. Only by the middle of the 15th century did the Slavs prevail in the steppe freemen, which turned into quite noticeable military force, unbridled and subordinate to no one.

According to researchers, the first fortress beyond the Dnieper rapids (the so-called Khortitsa castle, the prototype of the Zaporozhye Sich) was built by Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky in 1553 on the island of Malaya Khortitsa and existed until 1557. Currently this island is named after Baida.

The grassroots Cossacks themselves (another name for the Zaporozhye Cossacks) were first mentioned in a letter from the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Augustus “to those Cossacks who, having moved from Ukrainian castles and cities, live in the Niza.” Since the mid-1580s, the lower (Zaporozhye) Cossacks were called Sich.

As is currently believed in Ukraine, the names of the first organizers of the Zaporozhian Army and the builders of the first Sich were not preserved in the sources, the nature of their initial combat weapons and the area of the initial activity of the Cossacks remain unknown.
However, the historian V.N. Tatishchev in “Russian History from the Most Ancient Times” indicated:

The first Cossacks, a ford from the Mountain Circassians, in the reign of Kursk in the 14th century.

appeared; where they built the settlement of Cherkasy and, under the protection of the Tatar governors, engaged in theft and robbery; then they moved to the Dnieper and built the city of Cherkasy on the Dnieper.

Conditions of admission to Zaporizhzhya Sich

Reception of those who continuously came to the Zaporozhye Sich was carried out, according to D.I. Yavornitsky, after fulfilling the following conditions:

Status of a free and unmarried person

Good knowledge of Russian language

Belonging to the Orthodox faith

Availability of special training:

Newly accepted Cossacks were given new surnames in the Cossack manner: Ne-Ridai-mene-mati, Shmat, Lisitsya, Ne-drink-beer, Ne-drink-water, etc.

National composition In its composition, the Sich consisted of Little Russian Cherkasy (not to be confused with the Circassians). Taken as a whole, the Zaporozhye army was divided into Sich and Winter Cossacks. The first were the color of the Cossacks and were called “knighthood” or “comradery”. Only these Cossacks had the right to choose a foreman from among their ranks, receive a cash salary and manage all the affairs of the army. Winter Cossacks were not allowed into the Sich, but lived near it and were also part of the Zaporozhian Army.

Military and territorial division In military terms, the Zaporozhye community was divided into 38 kurens. Kuren meant in military significance- a hundred, a regiment, an independent part of the Army. The word kuren had a double meaning.

It also meant the home of the Cossacks. By

appearance the residential kuren was a long barracks, 30 meters long and about 4 meters wide. The most suitable comparison with the modern organizational and staffing structure of the armed forces for the kuren is the concept of “company”. life of the Cossacks: about peace, about campaigns against enemies, about punishing important criminals, about the division of lands and lands, about the choice of a military foreman. Military rallies were held without fail on January 1 (the beginning of the new year), October 1 (the temple holiday in the Sich), Intercession and on the 2nd or 3rd day of Easter. In addition, the Rada could be convened at any day and time at the request of the majority of the Army. The decisions of the Rada were binding on every Cossack.

Administrative and judicial authorities in the Zaporozhian Army

Total commanding staff in the Sich, according to various sources, there were from 49 to 149 people. The main thing in the Sich was the Koshevoy Ataman. Next came the judge, captain, clerk and kuren atamans. It was actually the government of the Zaporozhye Sich. Next came the lower command staff: signatory, captain, cornet, etc.

The Koshevoy ataman united military, administrative, judicial and spiritual power and war time had the powers of a dictator. He had the right to sign death sentences for Cossacks who committed crimes. The Koshevoy Ataman entered into diplomatic relations with neighboring states: Moscow, Poland, Crimea, Turkey, etc. He had the official title “His Majesty, Mr. Koshevoy Ataman.” The symbol of power of the Koshe chieftain is the mace. At the same time, without a decision from the Rada, the Koshevoy Ataman could not make a single decision on his own.

Trials, punishments and executions in the Sich

Cossack Cossack

, beating a Cossack while drunk, having sex with a woman and the “sin of Sodom,” defamation of a woman, insolence towards superiors, desertion, robbery of the population, concealing part of the loot and drunkenness during campaigns.

The judges were all military foreman.

The Zaporozhye Cossacks were armed with howitzers, mortars and mortars, self-propelled guns, pistols, spears, sabers, bows, arrows, blades and daggers. Historical and archaeological data show that the Zaporozhian Army was armed with the most advanced weapons of that time, taken from all the peoples with whom the Cossacks fought. Like true knights, the Cossacks preferred the saber to any other weapon.

The army was divided into three types of troops - infantry, cavalry and artillery. The number of the entire army was 10,000 - 12,000 people, of which the infantry was about 6,000 people. The elite part of the army was the cavalry. In terms of its fighting qualities, this unit represented the most formidable force of the Cossacks.

The army was divided into regiments and hundreds. The hundred was a tactical unit of the army and numbered 180 people. The regiment consisted of three hundred with a total number of 540 people.

A common means of transport during steppe campaigns among the Cossacks was a camp, that is, a quadrangular or round row of carts, which could be installed in several rows and fastened with chains.

Military kleynods Among the Zaporozhye Cossacks, kleinods were called military insignia, regalia or attributes of power, at which large and small rads took place and which were used by the elders, in accordance with their position. Kleinods were first granted to the Zaporozhian Army in the 16th century by the Polish king Stefan Batory. Kleinods included maces, banners, banners, horsetails, seals, feathers and reeds. All this got off precious stones

, gold thread and was of significant value.

Land and sea campaigns of the Cossacks Campaigns on land were mainly undertaken against the Poles, Tatars, and Turks. Campaigns along rivers and seas were almost always undertaken against the Tatars and Turks. In land campaigns, cavalry always prevailed over infantry. Land campaigns always began in the spring; for this purpose, a gathering of Cossacks in the Sich was announced. Just before leaving the Sich, a prayer service was served and then the largest cannon was fired. The movement of the troops proceeded with great caution along gullies and ravines. During the hike, it was forbidden to make fires, talk loudly, or smoke cradles. Scouts walked ahead of the troops.

“...And he came, Pan Sagadachnoy, from Cherkasy near the Ukrainian city of Livny, and took Livny by storm, and shed a lot of Christian blood, he flogged many Orthodox peasants with their wives and children innocently, and he committed desecrations to many Orthodox Christians and desecrated the churches of God and he destroyed and plundered all Christian houses and took many wives and children captive....”

Sea voyages were of the same nature. The difference was that the Cossacks went on a campaign on the so-called seagulls - large boats. There were two types of boats - river and sea. From 50 to 70 Cossacks boarded one boat, each of whom had a saber, two guns, ammunition and food. For sea voyages

autumn time was chosen, especially cloudy days and dark nights. The seagulls came straight out of the Sich and descended to the Black Sea. The news of the Cossacks going to sea terrified the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Turkey.

Landing on the shore, the Cossacks destroyed people, took away all valuable property, weapons, money and returned to the Sich with booty.

Protection of the borders of the Zaporozhye Sich

Living near the Tatars, who considered their main occupation to be raids on Christians, the Zaporozhye Cossacks took measures to protect their borders from a sudden invasion. The Cossacks' means of security were beckets, radutas, figures and graves. Bekets were the name given to horse patrols of the Cossacks along the eastern and southern borders. Raduts are premises for guard bequets. They were placed along the left bank of the Dnieper at distances of 15 - 18 km from each other, so that one could see another from one rainbow. The figures are a series of barrels tied together and placed on top of each other. A bunch of straw was placed on top, which was lit when the Tatars appeared. Then a bunch of straw was lit on the next figure, etc. The smoke from the burning barrels notified the Sich of the Tatar attack. Revenues of the Zaporozhian Army The main sources of income in the Sich were: military booty during campaigns, foreign and domestic trade income was provided by taverns located on the lands of the Zaporozhian Army and collection from the troops of merchants, merchants, industrialists and Chumaks passing through the lands. A significant part of the income came from “smoke”, that is, a tax on housing within the Army. The last source of income was the salary received by the Cossacks from the Polish king, and then from the Moscow Tsar (registered Cossacks).

Literacy and schools

In addition, in the Sich itself there were schools.

Zaporozhye schools were divided into Sich, monastery and parish schools. Boys who were forcibly taken by Cossacks to the Sich or brought by their parents studied in Sich schools. The monastery school existed at the Samara Hermitage-Nicholas Monastery.

Parochial schools existed at all parish churches on the territory of the Zaporozhian Army. Khmelnitsky uprising and Pereyaslav Rada In 1591-1638. A series of Cossack-peasant uprisings take place. In 1648, the Cossacks rebelled due to the increased oppression of the Cossacks by Polish magnates. The uprising was led by Cossack colonel Bogdan Khmelnytsky. Initially, the Cossacks were successful. They were supported Volyn Voivodeship. The liberation of the right bank is associated with the name of Maxim Krivonos. In September (11-13) a victory was won near Pilyavtsy. In the fall, Galicia becomes the scene of military action. On September 26, the siege of Lvov began. Hetman demanded that the Polish command and city authorities capitulate and hand over Y. Vishnevetsky and A. Konetspolsky to the Cossacks. Having learned that they had secretly fled, Khmelnitsky, having received a ransom to pay the Horde, lifted the siege and headed to Zamosc. In early November, the hetman began negotiations with the Polish government and concluded a truce with John II Casimir.

The victorious campaign of 1648 is completed. On December 23, 1648, the Cossacks solemnly entered Kyiv. However, in 1651 the Battle of Berestetsky took place, as a result of which Polish army under the leadership of King John Casimir and Nicholas Potocki, he inflicts a crushing defeat on the Cossacks, and in August of the same year, the Lithuanian hetman Radziwill occupied Kyiv. The Cossacks were forced to ask for help from fellow believer Russia. In 1654, the Pereyaslav Rada was convened, declaring the transfer of the territories controlled by the rebels to the protectorate of Russia. Russian troops supported the rebel Cossacks, which led to Russian-Polish war

1654-1667. The war ended with the Andrusevsky Truce, under the terms of which the territories lying east of the Dnieper (left-bank Ukraine) went to Russia, and those lying to the west (right-bank Ukraine) - to Poland. The terms of the truce were later confirmed by the peace treaty of 1686.

The struggle for the Zaporozhye Sich between Peter I and Hetman Mazepa

Considering that the Zaporozhye Sich had a significant influence on the Cossacks throughout Ukraine, an intense diplomatic struggle unfolded between Peter I and Hetman Mazepa for the Zaporozhye Army.

Letters began to arrive in Zaporozhye from Peter I and Mazepa, in which both tried to win the Cossacks to their side. The Cossacks did not support Peter for several reasons, one of the main ones was the Kamenny Zaton fortress), which served as a support base on the southern borders, as against the Tatars (“the Crimean Khan ... wrote to the Porte that the Tatars cannot be safe with the existence of the Kamenny Zaton fortress and that now is the most favorable time to demand from Moscow its ruin, with the threat that in case of refusal the Khan will join the Swedes with the whole horde”), and for “control” over the Cossacks, who at any moment could go over to the side of the Crimean Khan or Mazepa (from the report of the ambassador in Constantinople P. A. Tolstoy: “On the 4th I received information about the evil plans of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye: sent to the Crimean Khan to ask him to accept them under his protection”), (from a letter from the Cossacks to Mazepa: “so that authorized representatives from the king of Sweden and Poland and from him, Mazepa, are sent to us to conclude agreements, who should they follow, and to destroy the Stone Zaton, troops should be sent, and as soon as this fortress is destroyed, the Cossacks will rush to the Swedes to help against the Moscow troops." Peter failed to win over the Cossacks to his side either by letters or money. At the same time, Hetman Mazepa “announced that the tsar wanted to drive all the Little Russian people beyond the Volga, that Moscow troops were ruining Ukraine more than the Swedes.” Also, Koshevoy Ataman Gordienko called for action against Tsar Peter. “The Koshevoy thief writes station wagons across the Dnieper to Chigirin, enticing him to Mazepa’s side,” writes Prince G. Dolgoruky to Menshikov on March 16, 1709. And on April 3 he reports to the tsar that Gordienko “is still continuing his evil poison, on the other side beyond the Dnieper he constantly writes charmingly, so that they beat their foreman, and they themselves would cross the Dnieper before him, that there is already such a canal there beyond the Dnieper, collecting in clumps and breaking up apiaries ...“.

Tsar Peter I, according to D.I. Yavornitsky, lost the diplomatic war. On March 28, 1709, Koshevoy Ataman Kost Gordienko and Hetman Mazepa signed an alliance treaty with the king Charles XII. In this agreement, Zaporozhye joined the hetman-Swedish alliance against Tsar Peter I. “The leader of the Cossacks with his people was brought to the king and greeted him, swearing an oath of allegiance (This happened on March 27 (April 7), 1709).” This is how eyewitness Daniel Krman describes these events in his memoirs.

Destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich (1709)

Already in January 1709, Peter began to receive messages that the Cossacks were planning something. Suspecting that the Cossacks might move against him, Peter gives orders to strengthen the garrisons of the fortresses: “...Yesterday we received the true information that the Cossacks on horseback arrived a long time ago and are expecting the Koshevoy with the infantry soon, and this gathering of them is only 5 versts from Bogoroditsky, and It’s dangerous that they don’t do anything to him... not for the city, but for the artillery and ammunition, of which there is a lot, but there are few people. For this reason, it is urgently necessary to send one cavalry regiment to Bogoroditsky, to order it to stay there until three regiments from Kyiv are sent to Kamenny Zaton,” while pointing out to Menshikov that “...there is only one matter in order to watch and do good to the Cossacks.” the most extreme possibility; If they clearly show themselves to be nasty and it will be impossible to deal with good, then deal with them as if they were traitors...” At the Rada, held in March, the Cossacks took the side of Charles XII and began military operations against Russian troops, both independently and together with Swedish troops. In a skirmish in the town of Tsarichevka, the Cossacks captured several Russian soldiers, whom they sent to to the Swedish king, which then stood in the town of Budishchi. But in most cases, the Sich were defeated, so they were defeated in a skirmish with the detachment of Colonel Boltin, together with the Swedes they failed at the town of Sokolna from General Renne. After Kost Gordienko and Hetman Mazepa signed an alliance treaty with Charles XII, Tsar Peter I ordered Prince Menshikov to move three regiments of Russian troops from Kyiv to the Zaporozhye Sich under the command of Colonel Yakovlev in order to “exterminate the entire nest of rebels to the ground.” Colonel Yakovlev, who approached the Sich, tried to negotiate with the Cossacks “in a good way” in order to avoid bloodshed, but knowing that Koshevo Sorochinsky with the Tatars could come to the aid of the besieged from the Crimea, he began to storm the Sich. The Cossacks managed to repulse the first assault, while Yakovlev lost up to three hundred soldiers and officers. The Cossacks even managed to capture a certain number of prisoners, whom they “shamefully and tyrannically” killed.

On May 11, 1709, with the help of the Cossack colonel Ignat Galagan, who knew the system of defensive fortifications of the Sich, the fortress was taken, burned and completely destroyed. Reporting to the Tsar about the destruction of the Sich:

Elders and Cossacks from 300 people, guns, and ammunition were taken alive in that city... And from the noblest thieves who were taken alive, I ordered them to be kept, and the rest to be executed according to their dignity, and to carry out the previous decree over the Sich, and also to destroy all their places , so that this treacherous nest can be completely rooted out.”

After the battle, the following were taken prisoner: a Koshe chieftain, a military judge, 26 kuren chieftains, 2 monks, 250 ordinary Cossacks, 160 women and children. Of that number, 5 people died, 156 atamans and Cossacks were executed, and several people were hanged on rafts and the rafts themselves were sent down the Dnieper to the fear of others. This is how, according to D.I. Yavornitsky, Koshevoy Ataman Stepanenko describes these events to Hetman Skoropadsky:

What happened here in Sich was that, according to Galaganova and the Moscow oath, our partnership, they beat heads, chopped off necks on scaffolds, hanged them and inflicted other tyrant deaths, and did things that were not seen in the filthiness of the ancient tormentors: many dead from the graves not only out of camaraderie, but also the Chernetsov were dug up, their heads were cut off, their skins were peeled and hanged.
In order to weaken the terrible impression made on the Ukrainian people by the extermination of the Sich Cossacks, the tsar issued a letter on May 26 in which he said that the reason for the destruction of the Sich was the treason of the Cossacks themselves, because they had relations with the enemies of Russia, the Swedes.

Peter immediately ordered the Cossacks who did not give up their weapons to be seized, thrown into prison and executed.

Foundation of the new Sich

After the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava, some Cossacks went south and in 1710 founded the new Sich, at the confluence of the Kamenka River (in the Kherson region) into the Dnieper. However, by order of Peter, it was destroyed by the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky and General Buturlin. The Cossacks moved even further and made another attempt to found the Sich within Turkish borders. However, they immediately began to experience oppression from the Crimean Tatars and Nogais. Then the Cossacks tried to return to Russia, but Peter I rejected their request. The Cossacks managed to return to their homeland only in 1735 under Empress Anna Ioannovna.

The end of the Zaporozhye Sich (1775)

We wanted to announce throughout Our Empire... that the Zaporozhye Sich has already been completely destroyed with the extermination for the future of the very name of the Zaporozhye Cossacks... We now considered ourselves obligated before God, before Our Empire and before humanity itself to destroy the Zaporozhye Sich and the name of the Cossacks borrowed from it . As a result of this, on June 4, our Lieutenant General Tekelius, with the troops entrusted to him from us, occupied the Zaporozhye Sich in perfect order and in complete silence without any resistance from the Cossacks... Now there is no Zaporozhye Sich in its political ugliness, therefore there are no Cossacks of this name..."

The reasons for this act are a combination of several actions. By the end of the 18th century, after numerous political victories of the Russian Empire, the development priorities of the lands taken from Turkey and Little Russia, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time, and the Little Russians and Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich living there changed radically. With the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty (1774), Russia gained access to the Black Sea and Crimea. In the west, weakened by the “noble democracy,” the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was on the verge of the collapse of the divisions.

Thus, the further need to maintain the presence of the Cossacks on their historical homeland to protect the southern Russian borders disappeared. At the same time, their traditional way of life often led to conflicts with the Russian authorities. After repeated pogroms of Serbian settlers by the Cossacks, as well as in connection with the Cossacks’ support for the Pugachev uprising, Empress Catherine II ordered the disbandment of the Zaporozhye Sich, which was carried out by order of Grigory Potemkin to pacify the Zaporozhye Cossacks.

On June 5, 1775, the troops of General Peter Tekeli divided into five divisions and surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. Absence of southern borders and enemies beyond last years dramatically affected the fighting qualities of the Cossacks, who learned about the danger only after the Sich was surrounded. The suddenness of the action of the Russian troops had crushing blow on the morality of the Cossacks.

Tekeli read out an ultimatum, and Koshevoy Peter Kalnyshevsky was given two hours to think. But, behind Kalnyshevsky’s back, a certain foreman Lyakh gathered a group of 50 Cossacks and asked them to leave the encirclement to go fishing in the Ingul River. After approval by the Russians, another five thousand Cossacks joined the group, who went to the Turkish lands of Moldova. Having learned about this, Tekeli threatened with severe reprisals, after which the remaining 12 thousand Cossacks laid down their arms. The entire treasury and archives were confiscated from the Sich. After this, Tekeli's artillery leveled the empty fortress. For performing a bloodless operation, Tekeli was awarded the order St. Alexander Nevsky.

Consequences

The Zaporozhye Cossacks were dissolved, many Cossacks escaped punishment. Former petty officers were given nobility, and lower ranks were allowed to join the hussars and dragoons. But Catherine did not forgive the three Cossacks for their previous insults, Pyotr Kalnyshevsky, Pavel Golovaty and Ivan Globa, for treason towards Turkey, were exiled to different monasteries, although even here the fate was varied, for example, Kalnyshevsky on Solovki was able to live up to 112 years and even after an amnesty Alexander I chose to remain in the place of “exile”.

Of the 5 thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey, the Sultan allowed the founding of the Transdanubian Sich (1775-1828). But even here the conditions turned out to be more severe than in Russia, the Cossacks had to fight for their existence with the Nekrasovites, and also participate in the suppression of uprisings of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans who shared their faith. Therefore, in 1828, the Cossacks betrayed Turkey and returned to Russia from which the Azov was formed Cossack army.

In 1787, the Cossack elders submitted a petition addressed to the Empress in which they expressed their desire to continue to serve. The “Army of Faithful Cossacks” was formed, which participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1792. At the end of the war, the army was transformed into the Black Sea Cossack Army and, as a sign of gratitude, they were allocated the territory of the Kuban, which it settled in 1792-93. In 1860, the Black Sea Cossack Army was merged with the two left regiments of the Caucasian Line Army and became known as the Kuban Cossack Army.

Some of the Zaporozhye Cossacks settled in the swamps and swamps of the Belarusian Polesie, on the territory of the Mozyr district (the villages of Borusk, Big and Small Avtyuki, now Kalinkovichi district). Typical surnames are: Garkusha, Malashchenko, Stepanenko, Kom, Kapitan, Shesholko, etc. Many of their descendants “made it into the people,” distinguished by their special desire and ability to learn.

Letter to the Turkish Sultan

Repin, Ilya Efimovich, “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan,” 1880-1891.

The most famous written monument of the history of the Zaporozhye Sich is the letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan (given from the Extract from the book of the Darwin collection of the history of the Zaporozhye Sich, stored in Public Library city of St. Petersburg, the Message dates back to the end of the 17th century.) Letter from the Sultan: “Sultan Mohammed IV - to the Zaporozhye Cossacks. I, the Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, brother of the Sun and Moon, viceroy of Allah on Earth, ruler of the kingdoms - Macedonian, Babylonian, Jerusalem , Greater and Lesser Egypt, king above kings, lord above lords, incomparable knight, no one invincible warrior, owner of the tree of life, persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks. Sultan Mohammed IV."

To this letter the Cossacks replied: “You, Sultan, are the Turkish devil, and the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lutseper’s own secretary. What kind of a knight are you in the devil if you don’t kill a jackass with your bare ass. The devil is dying, and yours is devouring. you son of a bitch, the blue Christian mothers under you, we are not afraid of your army, we will fight with you by land and water, forgive your mother, cook of Babylon, charioteer of Macedon, brawer of Jerusalem, goat-cutter of Alexandria, pig of Great and Lesser Egypt, Armenian villain, Tatar sagaydak, Kamenets kat, the whole world has a blaze, the gaspid himself is the grandson and our x... hook. And now it’s over, because the date is unknown and the calendar is not possible, the month is in the sky, the year is in the prince, and we have the same day as you, for this kiss on our ass Signed: Koshevoy Ataman Ivan Sirko! with all the Zaporozhian cats."

Revival of the Cossacks

The revival of the Cossacks began in the late 80s: several Cossack partnerships arose in Zaporozhye almost simultaneously. In 1994, the Zaporizhian Grassroots Cossack Army emerged from the Zaporozhian Sich partnership. Cossack Troops set themselves noble goals: military-patriotic education of youth, preparation for military service, protection of public order, development of the Cossack economy, propaganda of Cossack ideas.

In 1988, the Museum of the History of the City of Zaporozhye on the territory of Khortytsia Island was repurposed into the Museum of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Preparations are underway for the construction of the historical and cultural complex “Zaporizhian Sich” on the island of Khortytsia.

In 1996, on the basis of the Zaporozhye Grassroots Army, the All-Ukrainian Union of Cossacks was formed, which now includes representatives of 16 regions of the country. The Supreme Ataman of the Army is Coronet General Alexander Panchenko.

Today, the regional organization of the Union of Cossacks of Ukraine consists of over 2,500 Cossacks, 17 Cossack special squads for the protection of public order, 16 Jura schools of young Cossacks, the flagship of which is the Jura school under the direction of Colonel Valery Narizhny. At the “Jur School,” children study Cossack traditions, learn hand-to-hand combat, and cultivate a patriotic spirit and national identity.

Literature

Yavornitsky D.I. History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks (in three volumes). - St. Petersburg, 1892-97; 2nd ed., M., 1990.

Yavornitsky D.I. History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks (in three volumes). - K., Naukova Dumka, 1990.

Yavornytskyi D. I. History of the Zaporizian Cossacks (in three volumes). From the Russian translation by Ivan Svarnik. - Lviv, publishing house “Svit”, 1990; TO.,

Naukova Duma, 1991.

Aleksandrov P. G. Liquidation of Zaporozhye Sich. // Memory grows. - 1997. - No. 1.

Mazepa N.N. Batashev’s myths about the Zaporozhye Sich. - Kharkov, “Time”, 2004.

Zaporizhzhya Sich(Ukrainian: Zaporozka Sich), Grassroots army Zaporozhian- socio-political and military organization of the Ukrainian Cossacks beyond the Dnieper rapids in the 16th-18th centuries.

Beginning of the Zaporozhye Sich

First mentions and origin

The steppe area below the Dnieper rapids has long been called Zaporozhye. It was here, on the border of the forest and the wild steppe, at the junction of Slavic settled constancy and the wild life of nomads, that Zaporizhian Cossacks.

In 1397 Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh transferred the Horde lands (Kiev region, Podolia, Chernigov region and part wild field) to the Lithuanian prince Vytautas in exchange for protection from Tamerlane, the rest of the lands for a long time were considered no one's, intended only for nomadism. In addition, due to the frequent raids of the Tatars, these lands were considered a cursed place, and people were afraid to settle on them.

Sources speak of the existence of Cossacks in Crimea at the end of the 13th century. One of the founders of Russian historiography, V.N. Tatishchev, wrote in “Russian History from the Most Ancient Times”:

- V.N. Tatishchev, Russian History, M.-L. 1963, vol. II, p. 240

In the first mentions, the Turkic word “Cossack” meant “guard” or vice versa - “robber”. Also - “exile”, “adventurer”, “tramp”. This word often denoted free, “nobody’s” people who lived with weapons. It was in this meaning that it was assigned to the Cherkasy people with the Horde Christian Cossacks who joined them from the mid-15th century.

The first memories of such Cossacks date back to 1489. During the campaign of the Polish king Jan-Albrecht against the Tatars, Christian Cossacks showed the way to his army in Podolia. In the same year, detachments of atamans Vasily Zhila, Bogdan and Golubets attacked the Tavan crossing in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and, having dispersed the Tatar guards, robbed the merchants. Subsequently, the khan's complaints about Cossack attacks became regular. According to Litvin, given how habitually this designation is used in documents of that time, it can be assumed that the Russian Cossacks were known for more than one decade, at least from the middle of the 15th century, it is also possible that among their neighbors from the Turkic-speaking (mainly Tatar) environment, the Zaporozhye Cossacks borrowed not only the name, but also many other words, signs of appearance, organization and tactics, and mentality.

N.I. Karamzin expressed the following version:

Torki and Berendey were called Cherkasy: Cossacks were also...<…>Multiplying more and more in number, nourishing the spirit of independence and brotherhood, the Cossacks formed a military Christian Republic in the southern countries of the Dnieper, began to build villages and fortresses in these places devastated by the Tatars; They undertook to be defenders of the Lithuanian possessions on the part of the Crimeans and Turks and gained the special patronage of Sigismund I, who gave them many civil liberties along with the lands above the Dnieper rapids, where the city of Cherkasy was named after them.

— N.M. Karamzin. History of Russian Goverment. Volume 5

According to researchers, the first fortress beyond the Dnieper rapids (the so-called Khortitsa castle, a prototype of the Zaporozhye Sich) was built by the Volyn prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky in 1553 on the island of Malaya Khortitsa and existed until 1557. Currently this island bears the name Baida.

Historians of the 20th century were characterized by a “more Slavic” point of view on the origin of the Cossacks of the Sich. So, according to I.M. Kamanin, the Cossacks:

The original landowning and agricultural native southern Russian population, conscious of its national peculiarity and devoted to his faith, who, having first voluntarily recognized the power of the Tatars, and then coming under the rule of Lithuania, with the invasion of alien gentry-Catholics into his life, began to strive for isolation, to develop his own forms; but due to the absence of a strong central power, combined Polish-Turkish pressure from the outside, constant unrest within, it was forced to develop only in a multilateral struggle that weakened it, which is distinctive feature Cossack history

Since the mid-1580s, the lower-ranking (Zaporozhye) Cossacks were called Sich and lived in a separate state (Kosh) from the rest (registered) Cossacks.

Etymology of the names Sich and Kosh

The Sich was a fortification, inside of which stood a church, outbuildings and living quarters (kureni). The name of the location of the Cossack headquarters - Sich comes from the word “sekti”, “to carve”, and is associated with the palisade surrounding the settlement, which had sharp edges carved out. (Sometimes the word “palanka” was used to designate the Sich fortification.) The Sich was the center of activity and management of all military affairs, the residence of all the chief elders who stood at the head of the lower Cossacks (that is, operating in the lower reaches of the Dnieper).

The word “Kosh” was often used with the word “Sich” and the Zaporozhye Army was sometimes called the Zaporozhye Kosh. The Cossacks, using the word “Sich,” meant the permanent capital of the Troops, and by the word Kosh - the entire territory of the nomadic Troops, including temporary headquarters and usual routes of movement, as well as pastures used by the Cossacks. This explains the signatures on the letters “Dan to Kosha of the Zaporozhye Sich”, that is, from the Zaporozhye Sich, “Dan from Kosha at the Bug” - that is, from the temporary camp at the Bug.

According to the historian N.I. Ulyanov, the most striking stamp was left on the Cossacks by the Tatar era of steppe history that was closest to it in time:

The word "shepherd", for example, meaning a sheep shepherd, is borrowed from the Tatars. The word “ataman”, a derivative of “odaman”, meaning the head of the shepherds of the consolidated herd, was also borrowed from them. The consolidated flock consisted of ten united flocks, each with a thousand sheep. Such a herd was called “khosh”. The Cossack “kosh” - encampment camp, gathering place, and “koshevoy ataman” came out of this steppe vocabulary. This is where “kuren” and “kuren ataman” come from. “The meaning of kuren,” according to Rashided-Din, “is this: when in a field there are many tents standing around in the form of a ring, then it is called kuren.”

— Origin of Ukrainian separatism

Number and order of Zaporozhye Sichs

Location of the Zaporozhye Sich in different periods of its history

According to researchers, in the entire history of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, there were 8 sections, which were located mainly in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, beyond the rapids of the river bend, and existed from 5 to 40 years each. In total, the Zaporozhye Sich existed for about two and a half centuries.

All Sich existed, replacing one another. As a rule, the Sich was located near the crossing of the Dnieper. This made it easier to control the Crimean raids on Right Bank Ukraine. To plunder the Left Bank of Ukraine, the Crimeans used the Muravsky Way.

List of Zaporozhye Sichs:

Khortytska, 1556-1557
Tomakovskaya, 1564-1593
Bazavlutskaya, 1593-1638
Nikitinskaya, 1639-1652
Chertomlinskaya, 1652-1709.
Kamenskaya, 1709-1711
Aleshkinskaya, 1711-1734.
Novaya (Podpolnenskaya), 1734-1775.

Conditions for admission to Sich

According to D.I. Yavornitsky, admission of a new arrival to the Zaporozhye Sich was carried out subject to the following conditions:

he had to be free and unmarried (the definition of “free” meant that the newcomer could be a nobleman, a priest, a Cossack, a Tatar, a Turk);
had to speak Little Russian (Ukrainian) speech well (if the newcomer was not Ukrainian, he had to forget his native language and speak Ukrainian);
had to swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar (swearing in the church that he would faithfully serve the sovereign until the end of his life);
had to profess the Orthodox faith, observe fasts, know the symbols of faith and prayer (if the person who came was a Catholic or Lutheran, then he had to convert to Orthodoxy, if he was a Jew or a Muslim, then he had to be baptized into the Orthodox faith);
had to undergo full training upon arrival in the Sich - study military formations, learn “Sich knighthood,” and only after that enroll as “tested comrades,” which could happen no earlier than seven years later).

Newly accepted Cossacks were given new surnames in the Cossack manner: Ne-Ridai-mene-mati, Shmat, Lisitsya, Ne-drink-beer, Ne-drink-water, etc.

In its composition, the Sich mainly consisted of “Little Russian Cherkasy” (later they began to be called Little Russian Cossacks). But besides this, Poles, Lithuanians, Tatars, Turks, Armenians and people of other nationalities came there.

Sich device

Military and territorial division

Kuren. Reconstruction in the Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, Khortytsia Island

In military terms, the Zaporozhye community was divided into 38 kurens. In military terms, kuren meant a hundred, a regiment, an independent part of the Army. The word kuren had a double meaning. It also meant the home of the Cossacks. In appearance, the residential kuren was a long barracks, 30 meters long and about 4 meters wide. The most suitable comparison with the modern organizational structure of the armed forces for the kuren is the concept of “company”.

The Zaporozhye army was divided into Sich and Winter Cossacks. The first were called “knighthood” or “companionship” (Ukrainian partnership). Only these Cossacks had the right to choose a foreman from among their ranks, receive a cash salary and manage all the affairs of the army. Winter Cossacks were not allowed into the Sich, but lived near it and were also part of the Zaporozhian army.

[edit] It also meant the home of the Cossacks. By

The Rada of Zaporizhian Cossacks was the highest administrative, legislative and judicial body. At the military councils, all the most important issues in the life of the Cossacks were discussed: about peace, about campaigns against enemies, about the punishment of important criminals, about the division of lands and lands, about the choice of a military foreman. Military councils were held without fail on January 1 (the beginning of the new year), October 1 on Intercession (the temple holiday of the Sich) and on the 2nd or 3rd day of Easter. In addition, the Rada could be convened at any day and time at the request of the majority of the Army. The decisions of the Rada were binding on every Cossack.

[edit] Administrative and judicial authorities in the Zaporozhian Troops

Military Council of the Sich. Diorama in the Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks, Khortytsia Island

The total commanding staff in the Sich, according to various sources, numbered from 49 to 149 people. The main thing in the Sich was the Koshevoy Ataman. Next came the judge, captain, clerk and kuren atamans. It was actually the government of the Zaporozhye Sich. Next came the lower command staff: signatory, captain, cornet, etc.

The Koshevoy ataman united military, administrative, judicial and spiritual power and in wartime had the powers of a dictator. He had the right to sign death sentences for Cossacks who committed crimes. The Koshevoy Ataman entered into diplomatic relations with neighboring states: Moscow, Poland, Crimea, Turkey, etc. He had the official title “His Majesty, Mr. Koshevoy Ataman.” The symbol of power of the Koshe chieftain is the mace. At the same time, without a decision from the Rada, the Koshevoy Ataman could not make a single decision on his own.

In January 1663, after the abdication of Yuri Khmelnytsky, in contrast to the punishable hetman Yakim Samko, the “koshevoy hetman” - Ivan Bryukhovetsky - was proclaimed in the Zaporozhye Sich. Hetman Yakim Samko told the royal envoy Fyodor Lodyzhensky that the culprit of this was Bishop Methodius of Mstislav and Orsha “and Bryukhovetsky, by the mischief of his name, hetman; but they haven’t had a hetman in Zaporozhy for centuries, but there were atamans, just like on the Don... and there has never been a special dekoshevoy hetman in Zaporozhy, the same thing happened again ... ".

[edit] Hetmans, atamans and colonels of the Zaporozhye Army

List in chronological order:

Dashkevich, Evstafiy (1480 - died in 1536)
Ivan Podkova (xxxx - executed in 1578)
Vishnevetsky, Dmitry Ivanovich, (1516 - executed in 1563)
Samoilo Koshka, (1530—killed in 1602)
Grigory Loboda, (xxxx - killed in 1596)
Nalivaiko Severin, (1560 - executed in 1596)
Sagaidachny, Pyotr Kononovich, (1570—died of wounds in 1622.)
Nechai Danilo, (1612-1651)
Serko, Ivan Dmitrievich, (1610 - died in 1680)
Sulima, Ivan Mikhailovich, (1615 - executed in 1635)
Doroshenko, Pyotr Dorofeevich (1627 - died in 1698)
Vygovsky, Ivan Evstafievich, (xxxx - shot in 1664)
Khmelnitsky, Bogdan Mikhailovich, (1595—died 1657)
Krivonos, Maxim, (xxxx - died of wounds 1648)
Bogun, Ivan, (xxxx - shot in 1664)
Kost Gordienko, (xxxx - died in 1733)
Bryukhovetsky, Ivan Martynovich (xxxx - torn to pieces by a crowd in 1669)
Samoilovich, Ivan (xxxx - executed in 1695)
Kalnishevsky, Pyotr Ivanovich (1690—died 1803)

[edit] Trials, punishments and executions in the Sich

Cossack weapons

Theft was considered the most serious crime in the Sich. Even for petty theft there was one punishment - death. The court was guided in its conduct of business by the customs of the Sich, and was fast and accessible. Before the court, everyone was equal - the commander and the simple Cossack. The following were considered serious criminal offenses: murder of a Cossack by a Cossack, beating of a Cossack while intoxicated, communication with a woman and the “sin of Sodom,” defamation of a woman, insolence towards superiors, desertion, robbery of the (Orthodox) population. The punishments were: chained to a wooden post in the square or to a cannon, mounted on a wooden mare, beaten with a whip or cues.

A terrible penalty was applied for the murder of a Cossack. The murderer was placed alive in a dug hole, and a coffin with the murdered man was lowered on top of him and buried. The most popular execution among the Cossacks was stoning at the pillory. This applied to thieves, adulterers, sodomites and deserters.

Churches and monasteries

Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Khortitsa Island, Modern reconstruction

Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Samara Desert Nicholas Monastery
Trinity Cathedral

The Zaporozhye Cossacks were deeply religious people, they adhered to Christian Orthodox faith. The church sanctified all the most important stages of the life and activity of the Cossacks.

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Orthodox faith was brutally persecuted, especially after the Church Union of Brest in 1596. In general, there was no church as a social institution.

Only in 1620 Orthodox Church began to revive, and the Orthodox hierarchy appeared on the territory of modern Ukraine. This happened thanks to the diplomatic talent of Hetman Petro Sagaidachny and the support of the people (see).

TO mid-17th century centuries, the clergy and church of the Sich belonged to the Kyiv Metropolitan, through him the supremacy of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Jerusalem was recognized. In the second half of the 17th century, when Ukraine became part of Russia on the basis of autonomy with the power of an elected hetman at its head, the Zaporozhye Sich enjoyed autonomy in relation to the hetman's government. Important features of the Zaporozhye church were democracy and autonomy from tsarism and from the highest Russian church hierarchy.

Revered by the Cossacks, the ancient Orthodox Mezhigorsk Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery was subordinate directly to the patriarch and was independent of the synod and the Kyiv metropolitan.

Protection of the borders of the Zaporozhye Sich

The main sources of income in the Sich were: military booty and robbery during campaigns, foreign and domestic trade, wine sales, tribute from transportation, royal grain and cash salaries. According to custom, the Cossacks gave the best part of the booty to the church, and divided the rest among themselves. Concealing part of the loot by a Cossack was considered a crime. The second significant part of the income came from the taverns located on the lands of the Zaporozhian Army and the collection from the troops of merchants, merchants, industrialists and Chumaks passing through the lands. A significant part of the income came from “smoke”, that is, a tax on housing within the Army. The last source of income was the salary received by the Cossacks from the Polish king, and then from the Moscow Tsar.

Literacy and schools

An analysis of the letters of the foremen of the Zaporozhye Army indicates that these were literate people, they wrote in Ukrainian not only competently, but also stylistically correctly. Literate people were highly valued in the Sich, because “they read the holy letter and teach dark people good things.”

In addition, in the Sich itself there were schools. Zaporozhye schools were divided into Sich, monastery and parish schools. Boys who were forcibly taken by Cossacks to the Sich or brought by their parents studied in Sich schools. The monastery school existed at the Samara Hermitage-Nicholas Monastery. Parochial schools existed at all parish churches on the territory of the Zaporozhian Army.

Armament and troops of the Sich

The army was divided into three types of troops - infantry, cavalry and artillery. The elite part of the army was the cavalry. In terms of its fighting qualities, this unit represented the most formidable force of the Cossacks.

The army was divided into regiments and hundreds. The hundred was a tactical unit of the army and numbered 180 people. The regiment consisted of three hundred with a total number of 540 people. During the campaigns, the Cossacks set up a camp, that is, a quadrangular or round row of carts, which were installed in several rows and fastened with chains.

Modern reconstruction of a Cossack costume

military ranks, hierarchy :

Asaul
interpreter
bunchuk
blockhead, etc.

some customs and clothing :

head shaving
wearing:
- bloomers
- wide colored belts,
- morocco boots with pointed toes
- tall pointed hats
- cloth, oriental cut, caftans

food :

feta cheese (sheep cheese)
postramu (dried meat)
buzu (a type of sour milk)

A common means of transport during steppe campaigns among the Cossacks was a camp, that is, a quadrangular or round row of carts, which could be installed in several rows and fastened with chains.

Among the Zaporozhye Cossacks, kleinods were the name given to military insignia, regalia or attributes of power, in which rads took place and which were used by the elders, in accordance with their position. Kleinods were first granted to the Zaporozhian Army in the 16th century by the Polish king Stefan Batory. Kleinods included maces, banners, banners, horsetails, seals, feathers and reeds. All of them were decorated with precious stones, gold thread and were of significant value.

, gold thread and was of significant value.

Campaigns on land were mainly undertaken against the Poles, Tatars, Turks and Russians (see Sagaidachny). Campaigns along rivers and seas were almost always undertaken against the Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Empire. In land campaigns, cavalry always prevailed over infantry. Land campaigns always began in the spring; for this purpose, a gathering of Cossacks in the Sich was announced. Just before leaving the Sich, a prayer service was served, which ended with a shot from the largest cannon. The movement of the troops proceeded with great caution along gullies and ravines. During the hike, it was forbidden to make fires, talk loudly, or smoke cradles. Scouts walked ahead of the troops. The main objective of the land campaign was a surprise attack on the enemy. The Cossacks went against not only the Tatars and Turks;

According to E. P. Savelyev

The Cossacks, numbering 10 thousand, pestered Dmitry I in his fight with Godunov. Then, after the battle of Dobrynichi, another 7 thousand came to their aid. Seeing the instability of the boyars in the oath and hating everything Moscow, in 1606 they took Pronsk, Mikhailov, Zaraysk, Ryazan, and then in 1611 they attacked Kozelsk, in 1612 they took Vologda and exterminated all its inhabitants for their loyalty to the arrogant boyars. In 1615, according to some Polish and Russian chronicles, the Zaporozhye Cossacks and policemen surpassed not only the Poles, but even the Tatars in cruelty. In 1617, the Cossacks attacked the Novgorod region, where they burned and robbed. Then they devastated the districts: Uglitsky, Poshekhonsky, Vologda and went to the Pomeranian places, were in Navga, Totma, Ustyug, Dvina land, Yarensk, then in Olonets, in the Sumy fort, Zaonezhye, in Luda, near the Arctic Sea and returned to Kargopol, and from there through Novgorod to Little Russia with many prisoners, who were sold into slavery to the Tatars and Poles.

In 1618, a campaign against Moscow took place led by the Polish prince Vladislav. The Cossacks were led by Koshevoy Ataman Pyotr Sagaidachny. The Belsk Chronicle testifies to the beginning of this campaign, marked by the capture of the small town of Livny (now Oryol region) by the Cossacks. Livny was a small town from the “zasechnaya” line on the route of the Crimean raids on Russia along the Muravsky Way:

“...And he came, Pan Sagadachna, from Cherkasy near the Ukrainian city of Livny, and took Livny by storm, and shed a lot of Christian blood, he flogged many Orthodox peasants with their wives and children innocently, and he committed desecrations to many Orthodox Christians and desecrated the temples of God and he destroyed and plundered all Christian houses and took many wives and children captive...”

Sea voyages had the same emphasis. The difference was that the Cossacks went on a campaign on the so-called seagulls - large boats (see Khortytska Sich). There were two types of boats - river and sea. From 50 to 70 Cossacks boarded one boat, each of whom had a saber, two guns, ammunition and food. Autumn time was chosen for sea voyages, especially cloudy days and dark nights. The seagulls came straight from the Sich and rafted to the Black Sea. The news of the Cossacks going to sea terrified the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Turkey. Landing on the shore, the Cossacks destroyed people, engaged in robbery, and returned to the Sich with booty.

Protection of the borders of the Zaporozhye Sich

Sich Watchtower, Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks

Living near the Tatars, the Zaporozhye Cossacks took measures to protect their borders from their sudden invasion. The Cossacks' means of security were beckets, radutas, figures and graves. Bekets were the name given to the mounted patrols of the Cossacks along the eastern and southern borders. Raduts are premises for guard bequets. They were placed along the left bank of the Dnieper at distances of 15–18 km from each other, so that one could see another from one rainbow. The figures are a series of barrels tied together and placed on top of each other. A bunch of straw was placed at the top, which was lit when the Tatars appeared. Then a bunch of straw was lit on the next figure, etc. The smoke from the burning barrels notified the Sich of the Tatar attack.

Pereyaslav Rada (1654)
Main article: Khmelnitsky Uprising

After the signing of the union between Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Union of Lublin, 1569) on the formation of a single federal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, especially, the signing later in 1596 of a union uniting the Orthodox and Catholic churches in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ( Union of Brest) the situation of the Orthodox population of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania changed dramatically due to religious oppression by Catholics (Poles). Before the signing of the Union, Lithuanians, mostly pagans, treated Orthodox Christians with tolerance and respect. Below is a fragment of a poem by an outstanding Ukrainian poet XIX century Taras Shevchenko, describing the mood of that time:
Taras Shevchenko, Kobzar,
"To the Poles"

The Cossacks squealed like they did,

And the union was almost there,
It was such a fun life!
Fraternized with free Poles,
They wrote in free steps,
They swung and bloomed in the gardens,
Otherwise, lilies, girls.
Written by my mother's sons,

Sinami free... Grew up,
The blue ones grew and had fun
Old sorrowful years...
Already in the name of Christ
The ksyondzi came and set fire
Our quiet paradise. I bottled
A wide sea of tears and blood,
And the orphans in the name of Christ

Peter failed to win over the Cossacks to his side either with letters or money. Hetman Mazepa continued to win over the Cossacks, declaring that “the tsar wants to drive all the Little Russian people beyond the Volga, and that Moscow troops are ruining Ukraine more than the Swedes.” Koshevoy ataman Gordienko also called for action against the tsar. “The Koshevoy thief writes station wagons for Dn?pr in Chigirin, enticing parties to Mazepina?”, Prince G. Dolgoruky reports to Menshikov on March 16, 1709. And on April 3, he reports to the tsar that Gordienko “still continues his evil poison, he constantly writes charmingly to the other side beyond the Dnieper, so that they beat their foreman, and they themselves would cross the Dnieper before him, that there is already such a canal there for the Dnieper?” industrial kupami collects and breaks the pas?ki...”
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Cossack-Hetman-Swedish Union
Main article: Treaty of Union between Hetman Mazepa, Charles XII and the Zaporozhye Sich

Tsar Peter I, according to D.I. Yavornitsky, lost the diplomatic war. On March 27 (April 7), 1709, Koshevoy Ataman Kost Gordienko and Hetman Mazepa signed an alliance treaty with King Charles XII. In this agreement, Zaporozhye joined the Hetman-Swedish alliance against Tsar Peter I.
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Destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich (1709)

At the Rada, held in March, the Cossacks took the side of Charles XII and began military operations against Russian troops, both independently and together with Swedish troops. In a skirmish in the town of Tsarichevka, the Cossacks captured several Russian soldiers, whom they sent to the Swedish king, who was then stationed in the town of Budishchi. But in most cases, the Sich were defeated, so they were defeated in a skirmish with the detachment of Colonel Boltin, together with the Swedes they failed at the town of Sokolna from General Renne.
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Peter's order

After Kost Gordienko and Hetman Mazepa signed an alliance treaty with Charles XII, Tsar Peter I ordered Prince Menshikov to move three regiments of Russian troops from Kyiv to the Zaporozhye Sich under the command of Colonel Yakovlev in order to “exterminate the entire nest of rebels to the ground.” Colonel Yakovlev, who approached the Sich, tried to negotiate with the Cossacks “in a good way” in order to avoid bloodshed, but knowing that Koshevoy Sorochinsky with the Tatars could come to the aid of the besieged from the Crimea, he began to storm the Sich. The Cossacks managed to repulse the first assault, while Yakovlev lost up to three hundred soldiers and officers. The Cossacks even managed to capture a certain number of prisoners, whom they “shamefully and tyrannically” killed.

On May 11, 1709, with the help of the Cossack colonel Ignat Galagan, who knew the system of defensive fortifications of the Sich, the fortress was taken, burned and completely destroyed.

From the report to the tsar on the destruction of the Sich (Chertomlinskaya):
Elders and Cossacks from 300 people, guns, and ammunition were taken alive in that city... And from the noblest thieves who were taken alive, I ordered them to be kept, and the rest to be executed according to their dignity, and to carry out the previous decree over the Sich, and also to destroy all their places , so that this treacherous nest can be completely rooted out."

A memorial sign commemorating the first victories of Bohdan Khmelnytsky over the troops of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Museum of Zaporizhian Cossacks on the island of Khortytsia.

From the report of Koshe Ataman Stepanenko to Hetman Skoropadsky:

In order to weaken the impression made on the Ukrainian people by the extermination of the Sich Cossacks, the tsar issued a letter on May 26 in which he said that the reason for the destruction of the Sich was the betrayal of the Cossacks themselves, because they had relations with the enemies of Russia, the Swedes. Peter immediately ordered the Cossacks who did not give up their weapons to be seized, thrown into prison and executed.
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Sich in 1709-1775
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Kamenskaya and Aleshkinskaya Sich

Tsar Peter I did not allow the Sich to be restored until his death, although there were such attempts. On the territory controlled by the Ottoman Empire, the Cossacks tried to found the Kamenskaya Sich (1709-1711). However, in 1711, Moscow troops and regiments of Hetman I. Skoropadsky attacked the fortress and destroyed it. After this, the Aleshkin Sich was founded (1711-1734), this time under the protectorate of the Crimean Khan, but it did not last long
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New Sich (Podpolnenskaya)

Only in 1733, when the war between Russia and Turkey began and the Crimean Khan ordered the Cossacks to move to the Russian border, General Weisbach, who was organizing the Ukrainian line of fortresses, handed them a charter from Empress Anna Ioannovna in the Krasny Kut tract, 4 versts from the old Chertomlytsky Sich. pardon and acceptance of Russian citizenship; The Cossacks lived here until 1775.

They pledged to protect the border from the Tatars and for this they received the former lands, which they divided into 5 palanki (districts), each under the command of a colonel and his sergeant major; all the Cossacks who moved from Crimea numbered 7,268 people. Subsequently, their number reached 13 thousand;

Their life had changed significantly: most were already married people; however, married people did not enjoy either the right to vote in the Rada or the right to be elected to positions and were obliged to pay “smoke” to the Sich treasury, that is, a type of family tax; full-fledged (single) Cossacks lived either in the Sich or in settlements on palankas (in winter quarters). The palancas were controlled by elected colonels and foreman (esul and clerk).

Cossacks in Peaceful time They were engaged in fishing, hunting, cattle breeding and trade, their palankas were heavily built up, and there were up to 16 churches.

End of the Zaporozhye Sich (1775)

The fate of the Cossacks was finally decided on August 5, 1775 by the signing by the Russian Empress Catherine II of the manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province”:
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Manifesto of Catherine the Great
We wanted to announce throughout Our Empire... that the Zaporozhye Sich has already been completely destroyed with the extermination for the future of the very name of the Zaporozhye Cossacks... We now considered ourselves obligated before God, before Our Empire and before humanity itself to destroy the Zaporozhye Sich and the name of the Cossacks borrowed from it . As a result of this, on June 4, our Lieutenant General Tekelius, with the troops entrusted to him from us, occupied the Zaporozhye Sich in perfect order and in complete silence without any resistance from the Cossacks... Now there is no Zaporozhye Sich in its political ugliness, therefore there are no Cossacks of this name..."

Reasons for the end of the Sich

The reason for the appearance of this act was a combination of several events. By the end of the 18th century, after numerous political and military victories of the Russian Empire, its priorities for developing the lands conquered from Turkey changed. With the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty (1774), Russia gained access to the Black Sea, the Dnieper defensive line was created, the Crimean Khanate, which had terrorized Ukraine and Russia for several centuries, was annexed. The second historical enemy of the Cossacks, the Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was on the verge of partition.

Thus, there was no further need for the Cossacks to protect the southern borders. At the same time, conflicts arose from time to time between the Cossacks and the imperial authorities, which were developing the lands of Tavria. Empress Catherine the Great feared support for Pugachev's uprising from the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Cossacks repeatedly destroyed colonies of Serbian settlers due to land disputes. Under these conditions, Catherine II ordered the disbandment of the Zaporozhye Sich, which was carried out by Grigory Potemkin.

General Tekeli's ultimatum

On June 5, 1775, the troops of General Peter Tekeli divided into five divisions and surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. The suddenness of the action of the Russian troops demoralized the Cossacks. Tekeli read out an ultimatum, and Koshevoy Peter Kalnyshevsky was given two hours to think.

The elders, with the participation of the clergy, after a long discussion, decided to surrender the Sich. However, the overwhelming number of ordinary Cossacks intended to join the fight against royal troops. Koshevoy Pyotr Kalnyshevsky and the head of the Sich clergy Vladimir Sokalsky made a lot of efforts to convince the Cossacks to submit. They explained their position by their reluctance to shed Orthodox blood. The treasury and archives were confiscated from the Sich. After this, Tekeli's artillery leveled the empty fortress. For performing a bloodless operation, Tekeli was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky

Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks.
Khortytsya Island.
In the distance you can see the buildings of the historical and cultural complex “Zaporozhye Sich”

The fate of the Cossacks

After the disbandment of the Sich, the Cossacks were left to their fate, the former foremen were given nobility, and the lower ranks were allowed to join the hussars and dragoons. But Catherine did not forgive the three Cossacks for their previous insults. Pyotr Kalnyshevsky, Pavel Golovaty and Ivan Globa were exiled to different monasteries for treason towards Turkey. Kalnyshevsky lived in Solovki until he was 112 years old, and even after the amnesty of Alexander I, he chose to remain in his place of “exile.”

The external threat from Turkey remained; about five thousand Cossacks settled on the lands of the Turkish Sultan, in the Danube Delta, from which the Transdanubian Sich was formed (see below). And the disbandment of such a large military unit as the Zaporozhye Sich brought a number of problems. About 12 thousand Cossacks remained under the citizenship of the Russian Empire; many could not withstand the harsh discipline of regular army units. Therefore, it was decided...to restore the Cossacks and in 1787 the Cossack elders submitted a petition addressed to the Empress, in which they expressed their desire to continue to serve. Alexander Suvorov, who, by order of Empress Catherine II, organized army units in the south of Russia, began forming a new army from the Cossacks of the former Sich and their descendants. This is how the “Army of Faithful Cossacks” appeared and on February 27, 1788, in a solemn ceremony, Suvorov personally presented flags and other flags that were confiscated in 1775 to the elders Sidor Bely, Anton Golovaty and Zakhary Chepiga.

The Army of the Faithful Cossacks, renamed the Black Sea Cossack Army in 1790, took part in the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1792. At the end of the war, as a sign of gratitude from Catherine II, they were allocated the territory of the left bank of the Kuban, which they settled in 1792-93. The army took an active part in Caucasian War and other wars of the empire. In 1860, the Black Sea Army was united with two left regiments (Khopyorsky and Kubansky) of the Caucasian Linear Army into the Kuban Cossack Army, which has survived to this day.

The Sultan allowed the five thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey to found the Transdanubian Sich (1775-1828). In the new place, the Cossacks clashed with the Nekrasovites, and also took part in suppressing the uprisings against the Ottoman Empire of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans who shared their faith (Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, etc.). As a result, in 1828, the Cossacks with Koshevoy Josip Gladky went over to the side of Russia and were personally pardoned by Emperor Nicholas I. From them the Azov Cossack Army (1828-1860) was formed. It, like the historical sea voyages of the Cossacks, played mainly the coast guard of the Caucasian coast, and especially distinguished itself in Crimean War. In 1860, the army was disbanded and the Cossacks were relocated to Kuban. The last koshev of the Transdanubian Sich, the appointed ataman of the Azov Cossack army, Major General Osip Gladky, was buried in the historical homeland of the Cossacks in Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye).

Literary monument of the Sich - a letter to the Turkish Sultan (XVII century)

Repin I.E., “Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan.
(a portrait of a clerk was painted from D.I. Yavoritsky, followed by ataman Ivan Sirko with a pipe)", 1880-1891
Main article: Letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan

The most famous written monument of the history of the Zaporozhye Sich is a letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan, dating back to the end of the 17th century. (below is the text of the message based on an Extract from the book of Darwin’s collection of the history of the Zaporozhye Sich, stored in the Public Library of St. Petersburg)

Letter from the Sultan:

“Sultan Mohammed IV to the Zaporozhye Cossacks. I, the Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, brother of the Sun and the Moon, the viceroy of Allah on Earth, the ruler of the kingdoms - Macedonian, Babylonian, Jerusalem, Greater and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, lord over lords, incomparable knight, invincible warrior, owner of the tree of life , persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to force me to worry with your attacks. Sultan Mohammed IV."

The Cossacks replied:

Relations between Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks

The emergence of the Cossacks on the southern borders of the former Kievan Rus has much in common both on the territory of the Great Lithuanian and Moscow principalities. In general, “everything” is very similar among the Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, their life structure, goals, politics. Were there connections between these two groups, how and in what form did they manifest themselves, what evidence of this?

It is known that the Zaporozhye (about 17 thousand people, see Zaporozhian_Sich#Land and sea campaigns of the Cossacks) and Don Cossacks supported the Impostors during the Time of Troubles. The number of Don Cossacks reached 10 thousand people, they were headed by the Don Ataman Ivan Martynovich Zarutsky (later impaled).

1622. A joint campaign of Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks, numbering 700 people on 25 ships under the command of the Zaporozhye ataman Shilo, to the Turkish shores and capturing several coastal settlements. A detachment of galley ships sent from Constantinople defeated the Cossacks, capturing 18 ships and up to 50 Cossacks.

1624. A joint sea voyage of the Cossacks and Don Cossacks on 150 seagulls to the Black Sea and a raid on the coast of Turkey and the environs of the Bosphorus. To counter the raid on Constantinople, the Sultan sent up to 500 large and small ships to the mouth of the Bosphorus and ordered to stretch an iron chain across the Golden Horn, preserved from the times when the Greeks closed the bay to prevent the passage of ships of the Kyiv princes.

1625. A joint campaign of the Cossacks and Don Cossacks, numbering 15,000 people on 300 seagulls, across the Black Sea to Trebizond and Sinop. Met by the Turkish fleet of 43 galleys under the command of Kapudan Pasha Redshid Pasha, the Cossacks were defeated after a stubborn battle, losing 70 seagulls.

1637 The Cossacks, together with the Don people, took part in the siege of Azov...

1638. A joint sea voyage of Zaporozhye and Don Cossacks consisting of 1,700 people on 153 seagulls to the Black Sea. Significant sent against the Cossacks Turkish fleet under the command of Kapudan Pasha Rajab defeated the Cossacks. .

1669 All winter, [Stepan] Razin sends messengers to the hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine Pyotr Doroshenko and the ataman of the Zaporizhian army Ivan Sirko - he incites his comrades for their plan. A little later, he sends messengers to the disgraced Patriarch Nikon... And Sirko, and Doroshenko, and Nikon will suffer, ponder, stall for time, but they will not support Razin. if they supported it, “Rus would burst like a watermelon, and a completely different Russian history would fall out”

1707-1709 After the defeat of the uprising of Razin and Bulavin on the Don in 1708, many rebels fled to Zaporozhye. I tried to take advantage of this Ukrainian hetman I. S. Mazepa, who went over to the side of the Swedes in the Northern War of 1700-21. Frightening the Cossacks with reprisals from the tsarist government, Mazepa called on them to support him..

1773-1775 After the Pugachev uprising, in which Zaporozhye Cossacks participated, the government, fearing that the uprising would spread to Zaporozhye, decided to liquidate the Zaporozhye Sich

It is known that in the Sich (in all its territories), there was a Dinsky (Donskoy) kuren, in which people from the Don gathered. Subsequently, the kuren moved to Kuban, where there is now the village of Dinskaya.

Memorial sites of the Sich in Ukraine
the city of Zaporozhye (formerly Aleksandrovsk), Khortitsa island, Malaya Khortitsa island (Baida),

On the island of Khortytsia there is the Museum of the History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks with a corresponding exhibition. Next to the museum in Sovutina Balka, a reconstructed Sich with kurens, a church, and other artifacts of the life of the Sich was rebuilt. Opposite the museum is the DneproGES dam, located at the narrowest point (~175 m) in the lower reaches of the Dnieper after a long rapids section of the river. Here was the famous crossing of the Dnieper in Tavria - “Kichkas”. One of the branches of the Muravsky Way passed through the crossing - the route of the Crimean Tatars’ attack on Right Bank Ukraine and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This place was convenient for ambushes. The crossing was controlled by the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich. Between the DneproGES dam and the island of Khortytsia there are several small rapids. Each of the rapids has its own legend and name associated with the Zaporozhye Sich. So on one of them, in a giant granite cauldron, hollowed out in the stone body of the threshold, the Cossacks prepared dumplings for the entire Sich. There were several legends about another rapid, the “Bad Rock”: according to one of them, the Cossack community exiled guilty Cossacks here to get the “nonsense” out of their heads, and according to another, after the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava, on the orders of Peter I, Cossacks were flogged here for treason , supporters of Mazepa. In the village of Verkhnyaya Khortitsa (Zaporozhye region) there is a 700-year-old oak tree. According to legend, under this oak tree the Cossacks wrote their famous letter to the Turkish Sultan. Malaya Khortytsia (Baida) is an island located between the right bank part of Zaporozhye and the island of Khortytsia in the bed of the Old Dnieper River. On the island there was a wooden Khortytsia castle, a prototype of the Zaporozhye Sich (Khortytska Sich), which was built by Dmitry Vishnevetsky (nicknamed Baida), a Volyn prince from the Lithuanian family of Gediminovich.

Nikopol city (formerly Nikitinsky Rog), Dnepropetrovsk region,

5 of the 8 Zaporozhye Sichs were located near the city of Nikopol (Tomakovskaya, Bazavlukskaya, Nikitinskaya, Chertomlinskaya, Novaya (Podpolnenskaya)). After the spill of the Kakhovka Sea (reservoir), many places in the Sich located around the city were flooded.
In the old part of the city of Nikopol there is Bohdan Khmelnytsky Square, on which there is a memorial sign (a stand made of red granite): “In this area there was the Zaporozhye Nikitin Sich. In 1648, in this battle, the Zaporozhye Cossacks elected Bohdan Khmelnitsky hetman of Ukraine.”
~ 6-8 km from the center of Nikopol in the village of Kapulovka (place of the Chertomlinskaya Sich) there is a grave and monument to the outstanding chieftain of the Zaporozhye Sich, Ivan Sirk.

city of Tsyurupinsk (formerly Oleshki), Kherson region, - from 1711 to 1734. here was the Oleshkovskaya Sich.

village of Respublikanets, Kherson region, - from 1709 to 1711. and from 1728 to 1734. Kamenskaya Sich was here. Kost Gordienko (a supporter of I. Mazepa) founded the Kamenskaya Sich in 1709, and in 1712 the Oleshkovskaya Sich, which he headed until 1728. His grave is located in the village of Respublikanets, Kherson region, on the territory of Kamenskaya Sich.

5.08.1775 (18.08). – Liquidation of the Zaporozhye Sich in connection with Pugachev's rebellion

Zaporizhzhya Sich - the military and administrative center of the Little Russian Cossacks, which was located beyond the Dnieper rapids in the 16th–18th centuries. According to researchers, the first fortress beyond the Dnieper rapids (the so-called Khortitsky Castle) was built by Prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky in 1553 on the island of Malaya Khortitsa to repel the raids of the Crimean Tatars and existed until 1557. The name "Sich" comes from the word " sekti", "carve", this name is associated with the fact that the capital was surrounded by a palisade with sharp edges carved out. Inside there was a church, outbuildings and residential buildings - smoking areas. The residential kuren was a long barracks, 30 meters long and about 4 meters wide. This word also meant a military unit: there were 38 kurens in total. (The word “Kosh” was often used with the word “Sich” and the Zaporozhian Army was sometimes called the Zaporozhye Kosh. This word is of Turkic origin and means “nomadic camp”. The Cossacks, using the word “Sich”, meant the permanent capital of the Army, and by the word Kosh they meant the entire territory nomadic troops during campaigns.)

Reception of those who came to the Zaporozhye Sich was carried out, according to D.I. Yavornitsky, under the following conditions:
– status of a free and unmarried person
– good knowledge Russian language
- belonging to the Orthodox faith
– special military training.

Newly accepted Cossacks were given new surnames in the Cossack style, for example: Ne-Ridai-mene-mati, Shmat, Lisitsya, Ne-piy-voda, etc.

In terms of national composition, the Sich mainly consisted of Little Russian Cherkasy (i.e. Russians, not to be confused with Circassians). But in addition, among those accepted there were people different nationalities: Poles, Litvins, Tatars, Turks, Armenians, etc. The Zaporozhye army was divided into Sich and Winter Cossacks. The first were the color of the Cossacks and were called “knighthood” or “comradery”. Only these Cossacks had the right to choose a foreman from among their ranks, receive a cash salary and participate in government affairs. Winter Cossacks were not allowed to the Sich, but lived near it, but were also part of the Zaporozhian Army.

The Rada of Zaporizhian Cossacks was the highest administrative, legislative and judicial body. At the military councils, all the most important issues in the life of the Cossacks were discussed: about peace, about campaigns against enemies, about punishing criminals, about the division of lands and lands, about the choice of a military foreman. Military councils met without fail on January 1 (the beginning of the new year), October 1 (a temple holiday in the Sich), as well as on the 2nd or 3rd day. In addition, the Rada could be convened at any day and time at the request of the majority of the Army. The decisions of the Rada were binding on every Cossack.

The administrative and judicial authorities in the Zaporozhian Army numbered up to one and a half hundred people. The main thing in the Sich was the Koshevoy Ataman. Next came the judge, captain, clerk and kuren atamans. It was actually the government of the Zaporozhye Sich. Next came the lower command staff: signatory, podesaul, cornet, etc. The Koshevoy ataman united military, administrative, judicial and spiritual power and in wartime had the powers of a dictator. The symbol of power of the Koshe chieftain is the mace. However, without the decision of the Rada, the Koshevoy Ataman could not make a single decision on his own.

Before the court, everyone was equal - the commander and the simple Cossack. The following were considered serious criminal offenses: the murder of a Cossack by a Cossack, beating a Cossack while drunk, having sex with a woman and the “sin of Sodom,” defamation of a woman, insolence towards superiors, desertion, robbery of the population, concealing part of the loot, and drunkenness during campaigns. The judges were all military foreman. Punishments were: chained to a wooden post in the square, chained to a cannon, mounted on a wooden mare, beaten with a whip or cues, death. They were sentenced to death for theft, even petty theft. Pillorying with cues was used for thieves, adulterers, sodomites and deserters. For the murder of a Cossack by a Cossack, the killer was placed alive in a dug hole, and a coffin with the dead man was lowered on top of him and buried.

The Zaporozhye Cossacks, in addition to their favorite sabers, spears, daggers and other bladed weapons, were armed with self-propelled guns, pistols, cannons, howitzers, and mortars. The Zaporozhian army was armed with the most advanced weapons of that time, taken from all the opponents with whom the Cossacks fought. The army was divided into three types of troops - infantry, cavalry and artillery. The number of the entire army was 10,000 - 12,000 people, of which the infantry was about 6,000 people. The elite part of the army was the cavalry. The army was divided into regiments and hundreds. The hundred was a tactical unit of the army and numbered 180 people. The regiment consisted of three hundred with a total number of 540 people. A common vehicle used by the Cossacks during steppe campaigns was a camp, that is, a quadrangular or round row of carts, which could be installed in several rows and fastened with chains.

The campaigns were mainly undertaken against the Poles, Tatars, and Turks. Land campaigns always began in the spring; for this purpose, a gathering of Cossacks in the Sich was announced. Just before leaving the Sich, a prayer service was served and then the largest cannon was fired. The movement of the troops proceeded with great caution along gullies and ravines. During the hike, it was forbidden to make fires, talk loudly, or smoke cradles. Scouts walked ahead of the troops. The main task was a surprise attack on the enemy.

Sea voyages were carried out on the so-called “gulls” - large boats that could accommodate from 50 to 70 Cossacks; each had a saber, two guns, ammunition and food. Autumn time was chosen for sea voyages, especially cloudy days and dark nights. The seagulls came straight out of the Sich and descended to the Black Sea. The news of the Cossacks going to sea terrified the coastal regions of Turkey. The Cossacks viewed the Turks as infidel invaders who had come to these lands, and also as defenders and patrons of the Crimean Tatar invaders, with whom there was a continuous war. Landing on the shore, the Cossacks killed the inhabitants, took away all valuable property, weapons, money and returned to the Sich with booty.

Living near the Crimean Tatars, who considered their main occupation to be raiding Russians, the Zaporozhye Cossacks took measures to protect their borders from a sudden invasion. The Cossacks' means of security were horse patrols (bekets) of Cossacks along the eastern and southern borders. For guard beckets, raduts were built - outposts along the left bank of the Dnieper at distances of 15 - 18 km from each other, so that one could see the other from one radut. To warn of attacking Tatars, a pillar was made of barrels stacked on top of each other, on top of which a bunch of straw was lit.

Unfortunately, the Cossacks attacked not only the Tatars and Turks. Several thousand Cossacks came to the reign. In 1606 they plundered Pronsk, Mikhailov, Zaraysk, and Ryazan. Then in 1611 they continued to attack Kozelsk, and in 1612 they attacked Vologda. In 1618 they joined the campaign of the Polish prince Vladislav against Moscow; The Cossacks were led by Koshevoy Ataman Peter Sagaidachny. The Belsk Chronicle describes the capture by the Cossacks at the beginning of this campaign of the city of Livny (at the confluence of the Livenka and Sosna rivers, a tributary of the Don, now in the southeast of the Oryol region), led by Koshevoy ataman Pyotr Sagaidachny: “...And he came, Pan Sagadachny, with Cherkassy near the Ukrainian city near Livny, and took Livny by storm, and shed a lot of Christian blood, killed many Orthodox peasants with their wives and children innocently, and committed desecration of many Orthodox Christians, and desecrated and destroyed the churches of God, and robbed all Christian houses and many wives and captured the children..."

The main sources of income in the Sich were: military booty during campaigns, foreign and domestic trade, wine sales, tribute from transportation, and later also state cash salaries. According to custom, the Cossacks gave the best part of the booty to the church, and divided the rest among themselves. As noted by foreigners who visited the Sich on trade, embassy or other business, the money remaining after the division could be drunk by the Cossacks to the last penny. Concealing part of the loot by a Cossack was considered a crime. The second significant part of the income came from the taverns located on the lands of the Zaporozhian Army and the collection from the troops of merchants, merchants, industrialists and Chumaks passing through the lands. A significant part of the income came from “smoke”, that is, a tax on housing within the Army. The last source of income was the salary received by the Cossacks from the Polish king (registered Cossacks), and then from the Moscow Tsar.

An analysis of the letters of the foremen of the Zaporozhian Army indicates that these were literate people, they wrote in Russian not only competently, but also stylistically correctly. The Cossacks had their own schools: Sich, monastery and parochial. Boys who were forcibly taken by Cossacks to the Sich or brought by their parents studied in Sich schools. The monastery school existed at the Samara Hermitage-Nicholas Monastery. Parochial schools existed at all churches on the territory of the Zaporozhian Army.

The Zaporozhye Cossacks firmly adhered to the Orthodox faith. The church sanctified all the most important stages of the life and activity of the Cossacks. Since Little Russia was occupied by the Poles, and in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Orthodox faith was brutally persecuted, especially after, the defense of the faith fell to the lot of the Cossacks, giving them perseverance. This circumstance, together with the strengthening of Polish-Jewish oppression, became the cause of the Cossack uprisings.

In 1648, the Cossacks began liberation war, which was headed by the hetman (see the article about him). Unable to defeat the Poles on their own, the Cossacks turned to the Moscow Tsar for help. In 1654, it was convened, declaring the reunification of Little Russia with Russia. Russian troops supported the rebel Cossacks, which led to the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667. The war ended with the Andrusevsky Truce, under the terms of which the territories lying east of the Dnieper (left-bank Ukraine), as well as Kyiv and the surrounding area on the right bank, went to Russia; right-bank Ukraine remained with Poland.

So, despite the excesses of robbery (considered a crime by the Cossacks themselves), the Little Russian Cossacks played a historically important role in preserving Russian identity and restoring the Russian territorial affiliation of Little Rus'. At first, Little Russia was only formally part of the Russian Empire; the hetmans retained all income from the cities and villages of Little Russia. However, being under the authority of the Russian Tsars inevitably led to a limitation of their omnipotence and, accordingly, to discontent among the Cossack elders. Anti-Russian intrigues, “hush-ups”, treasonous transitions to the Polish side began...

However, the state unification of the Empire required strengthening the control of the central government over the annexed territories in the south. In 1764, she appointed the illustrious governor-general of Little Russia and released
. This reform did not cause discontent among the Little Russian population, because it improved their situation. Then in 1773 the terrible period began (1773–1775), in which the core of the rebels were the Ural Cossacks - and this aroused the Empress’s suspicions regarding the loyalty of the wayward Zaporozhye Cossacks, in whom sympathy for Pugachev was noticeable and many supported him. On August 5, 1775, a manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province” followed.

The main reason for the abolition of the Zaporozhye Sich was the state uselessness of the Cossacks in this place, because the previous external threats to which it resisted had disappeared. With the conclusion (1774), Russia regained access to the Black Sea and protected Crimea from Turkish influence, preparing to annex it. In the west, weakened by the “noble democracy,” the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was on the verge of collapse and the so-called so-called. .

Thus, there was no longer any need to maintain the presence of Cossacks in their historical homeland to protect the southern Russian borders. At the same time, their traditional way of life often led to conflicts with the Russian authorities - in particular in connection with the repeated pogroms of the Serbian settlers in Novorossiya by the Cossacks.

Catherine's Manifesto stated:

“We wanted to announce throughout Our Empire... that the Zaporozhye Sich has already been completely destroyed with the extermination for the future of the very name of the Zaporozhye Cossacks... We now considered ourselves obligated before God, before Our Empire and before humanity in general to destroy the Zaporozhye Sich and the name of the Cossacks from it borrowed. As a result of this, on June 4, our Lieutenant General Tekelius, with the troops entrusted to him from us, occupied the Zaporozhye Sich in perfect order and in complete silence without any resistance from the Cossacks... Now there is no Zaporozhye Sich in its political ugliness, therefore there are no Cossacks of this name...”

The Zaporozhye Cossacks were dissolved without any reprisals. Former petty officers were given nobility, and lower ranks were allowed to join the hussars and dragoons. But Catherine did not forgive the three Cossacks for their previous insults: Pyotr Kalnyshevsky, Pavel Golovaty and Ivan Globa were exiled to different monasteries for treason towards Turkey, although even here their fates were varied, for example, Kalnyshevsky on Solovki was able to live up to 112 years and even after amnesty, he chose to remain in his place of exile.

In 1787, former Cossack elders submitted a petition addressed to the Empress, in which they expressed their desire to continue to serve. The "Army of Faithful Cossacks" was formed, which participated in. At the end of the war, the army was transformed into the Black Sea Cossack Army, and as a sign of gratitude they were allocated the territory of the Kuban, which it settled in 1792–1793. In 1860, the Black Sea Cossack Army was merged with the two left regiments of the Caucasian Line Army and became known as the Kuban Cossack Army.

Of the 5 thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey, the Sultan allowed the founding of the Transdanubian Sich (1775–1828). But the Cossacks had to participate in suppressing the uprisings of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans who shared their faith. Unable to bear it, in 1828 the Transdanubian crossed over to the side of Russia and were pardoned. Of these, the Azov Cossack Army (1828–1860) was formed primarily for the coast guard and especially distinguished itself in. In 1860, the Azov Army was disbanded and the Cossacks were resettled to Kuban.

Today, when the revival of Cossack traditions has begun, it is important for us to maintain scientific and historical accuracy and to treat the history of the Cossacks honestly in an Orthodox manner. He had glorious pages and sacrificial deeds, and there were downfalls - just like in other parts of the Russian people. Our failures and sins should not be covered up and varnished, but taken out of them the right lessons so as not to repeat. In addition, many anti-Russian myths have long been propagated: supposedly the Cossacks are not Russians, but a separate nation that has always been oppressed by Muscovites in every possible way. Allegedly there were “Russian-Ukrainian” and “Russian-Cossack wars”. The abolition of the Zaporozhye Sich by Catherine the Great is presented as its “destruction to the ground” - which contradicts documentary data. There was no destruction of the New Zaporozhye Sich in 1775. All buildings were preserved and continued to serve their intended purpose for the new settlers. The former last Zaporozhye Sich was turned into the city of Pokrovsk.

The most famous written monument to the history of the Zaporozhye Sich is the response of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan at the end of the 17th century.

“Sultan Mohammed IV - to the Zaporozhye Cossacks. I, the Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, brother of the Sun and the Moon, the deputy of Allah on Earth, the ruler of the kingdoms - Macedonian, Babylonian, Jerusalem, Greater and Lesser Egypt, king above kings, lord over lords, incomparable knight, invincible warrior, owner of the tree of life , persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks. Sultan Mohammed IV."

The Cossacks responded to this letter:

“You, Sultan, are the Turkish devil, and the damned devil’s brother and comrade, the secretary of Lutseper himself. What the hell kind of knight are you if you can’t kill a dick with your bare ass. The devil is dying, and yours is being devoured. You son of a bitch, you son of a bitch, the blue Christian mothers will not be under you, we are not afraid of your army, we will fight you with land and water, forgive your mother. The Babylonian cook, the Macedonian charioteer, the Jerusalem bravirnik, the Alexandrian goatman, the pig of Great and Lesser Egypt, the Armenian villain, the Tatar sagaydak, the Kamenets kat, the whole world has a blaze, the gaspid himself has a grandson and our h... hook. You are a pig's face, a mare's ass, a breeding dog, an unchristened forehead, motherfucker... That's what the Cossacks said to you, shabby. You will not graze Christian pigs. Now it’s over, because the date is not known and the calendar is not possible, the month is in the sky, the year is in the sky, and the day is the same for us as it is for you, for this kiss on our ass! Signed: Kosh Ataman Ivan Sirko with all the Zaporozhian Kosh.” Sich Cossacks - that was the name of the Cossack border guards.
The Zaporozhye Sich is the very first state border drawn by the Romanovs (New Romans) between Muscovy Russia (Muscovy, Moscow Tartary, etc.) occupied by them in the 18th century and the “Crimean Khanate” (the unconquered remnant of Muscovy).
Initially, the Zaporozhye Sich was on the side of the legitimate government - the Moscow Kingdom. But, subsequently, they were bribed by the promise of the Romanovs, the so-called. " Cossack freemen"i.e., allowing the Cossacks to have their own land (in Muscovy, this was forbidden to them by law) and went over to the side of the Romanovs. This moment was captured by Repin - when the Cossacks who went over write an insulting message to their Tsar ("Turkish Sultan"). After This betrayal of the Cossacks, the Romanovs moved further south...

Very informative information, but I had some doubts. It is unlikely that the Zaporozhye Cossacks indulged in robbery and robbery under such strict discipline; most likely, the Haidamaks were guilty of such an unbecoming occupation.

Zaporizhzhya Sich- socio-political and military-administrative organization of the Ukrainian Cossacks, which emerged in the first half of the 16th century. beyond the Dnieper rapids in the area of the island of Khortitsa and existed until 1775. From a military center, the Zaporozhye Sich turned into peculiar public education - Cossack Orthodox democratic republic, which had a democratic socio-political system, a special military organization, a unique way of life, life and customs.

1. Formation of the Zaporozhye Sich. The formation of the Zaporozhye Sich is associated with the process of formation of the Ukrainian Cossacks and their development of the Ukrainian lands previously devastated by the Tatars between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug.

The first Cossacks in Zaporozhye appeared probably in early XVI V. Numerous detachments that were engaged economic development these lands and waged a constant struggle with the Tatars, they were forced to build fortifications from fallen trees on the outskirts (the so-called “Gorodets” and bins, or “sich”) for their own safety.

The appearance of a large fortified point beyond the thresholds, which would be a permanent base for an attack on the Crimean Khanate, is associated with the name of Vishnevetsky (Dmitry Vishnevetsky). In the first half of the 50s. XVI century (there are several versions regarding the time of foundation Khortytskyi Sich - from 1552 to 1556) he founded on about. Malaya Khortytsia (now Baida Island) is a castle that became a Cossack stronghold and a stronghold for large-scale campaigns against the Tatars. Later, the location of the Cossack capital changed several times, and several slaughters were recorded in the history of the Cossacks: Tomakovskaya (1564-1593), Bazavlukskaya (1593-1638), Nikitinskaya (1638-1652), Chertomlykskaya (1652-1709), Kamensky (1709-1711), Oleshkovskaya (1711-1734) and Novaya Sich (1734-1775).

The structures of the Sich made it a real fortress: Around the Cossacks dug deep ditches, built high earthen ramparts on which they built defensive towers with loopholes. There were cannons here, and armed Cossacks were on constant patrol.

In the middle of the Sich there was a vast square, where Cossack military councils were held, which resolved all issues of everyday life. The square was surrounded by Cossack dwellings - huts, built of wooden logs or wicker and covered with reeds; office, gun shop (gun workshop), church, foreman's houses. All these structures were well adapted for defense.

The territory of Zaporozhye was called "lands of the Zaporozhian Army." Zaporozhye Sich in terms of territory size at the beginning of the 18th century. (the territory of the Sich was constantly changing, borders were transferred) was approaching island England.

2. Governance bodies of the Zaporozhye Sich. According to the form of government, the Zaporozhye Sich was republic. The Zaporozhye Lower Army had certain characteristics of a democratic republic. There was no feudal land ownership or serfdom here; Formal equality reigned between all Cossacks (the right to use land and other lands, participate in councils, etc.). In the Sich the dominant force was electoral system governing bodies whose activities were monitored by Cossack Rada, Which was supreme body authorities. At the Sich Council, all the most important issues of the internal life of the Sich, issues of war and peace, diplomatic relations, the election of Cossack elders, the distribution of land between barns, etc. were decided.

Headed the Zaporozhye Sich elected hetman(after 1648 - Koshevoy ataman). The Hetman was vested with supreme judicial and executive powers, was the commander-in-chief, and represented the Zaporozhian Army in diplomatic negotiations.

In addition to the hetman, the Cossack Council also elected military sergeant, which was at the hetman's disposal. The military elders included: convoy (led the artillery), clerk (headed the military chancellery), judge (run the court), esauls (guarantees of the hetman).

With the help of the koshev system, the Cossacks were placed in basket- field camp during military campaigns and in the Sich itself. In the basket, the Cossacks were distributed into huts, (38 in total) - military-administrative units and at the same time Cossack housing. They were led by elected atamans.

3. Military tasks and functions of the Zaporozhye Sich. The Zaporozhye Sich, fulfilling the historical mission of defending its native land and saving the Ukrainian nation, defended Ukraine from Turkish-Tatar aggression. The Cossacks strengthened cities and towns with fortifications, created a military security, reconnaissance and guard system for the defense of the borders of Ukraine, which lasted for three centuries. There were constantly operating posts with regular guard detachments that monitored the steppe roads and river crossings. With the help of original signaling, the Cossacks warned the population about the advance of the Tatar hordes and tried to organize resistance to the enemy.

It was in the Zaporozhye Sich that it was created Zaporozhian Army, become organizational form armed forces of Ukraine. The Zaporozhye Army, whose constant and reliable reserve has always been all Ukrainian Cossacks, had its own fleet, artillery, cavalry and infantry. It developed a brilliant Cossack military art, superior to the strategy and tactics of feudal European armies.

Formed in conditions of a brutal struggle against the Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian feudal lords, on the one hand, and the Turkish-Tatar aggressors, on the other, the Zaporozhye Sich heroically defended its independence. The Lithuanian government, and later the government of the Polish gentry, being unable to liquidate the Sich, pointedly refused to legally recognize its existence. To prevent peasants from escaping to the Sich and completely isolate Zaporozhye from Ukraine, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth built the Kodak fortress on the Dnieper. However, the attempts of the Polish gentry to destroy the slaughter were unsuccessful.

4. Cossack customary law. In addition to its own governing bodies, Cossack law itself also functioned in the Sich, which was not a written law, but “ancient custom, verbal law and common sense.” If in general on the territory of Ukraine at that time various sources of law were in force (Russkaya Pravda, Lithuanian statutes, acts of royal power, Magdeburg law), then on the Zaporozhye Sich vital importance acquired Cossack customary law, which was based on the principles of collectivism, brotherhood and mutual assistance.

Based on customs and traditions, the rights and responsibilities of elders were clearly regulated. The norms of Cossack law approved the social relations that had developed among the Cossacks. They consolidated the military-administrative organization of the Zaporozhye Sich, established the rules of military operations, the activities of the judiciary, the procedure for land use, the conclusion of treaties, and determined the types of crimes and punishments. Cossack law was recognized foreign countries, and the Cossacks defended him in every possible way, fearing that written law could limit Cossack liberties.

5. Spiritual life. The basis of the Cossacks’ worldview, a kind of ideological foundation of the Cossack state, were freedom-loving and national-religious foundations. Deep religiosity, zealous defense of the Orthodox faith - characteristic features spiritual life of Zaporozhye. Suffice it to say that entry into Zaporozhye society began with the question: “Do you believe in God?” It was Orthodoxy that obviously largely influenced the formation romantic model knighthood, which became the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Indeed, in the Orthodox value system, deep spirituality is opposed to selfish individualism, and material interests fade into the background. The favorable attitude of the Cossacks towards religion is evidenced by the existence of more than 60 churches within the Liberties of the Zaporozhian Grassroots Army.

6. The fate of the Zaporozhye Sich after the National Liberation War of the Ukrainian people. The Zaporozhye Sich played a leading role in the National Liberation War of the Ukrainian people of 1648-1657, but after its completion most of the Cossacks were not included in the Cossack register. This caused discontent among the Sich and aggravation of their relations with the hetman’s authorities, even leading to armed conflicts.

During the Ruins period, the Cossacks repeatedly interfered into the struggle of various elder groups for hetman power. At the same time, they often supported candidates for hetmanship from among themselves - Ivan Bryukhovetsky, M. Khanenko, P. Sukhovy, who promised to put an end to the tyranny of the elders and the exploitation of ordinary Cossacks.

The position of the Zaporozhye Sich became especially complicated after Truce of Andrusovo 1667, when it was installed over it joint control Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moreover, under the terms of the truce, the Sich had to provide military assistance to both states, each of which sought to use the Cossacks to eliminate the independence of the Hetmanate. In April 1775, Russian Empress Catherine II decided to liquidate the Zaporozhye Sich.