The Zaporozhian Host () or Zaporozhian Voisko (, Zaporizke Viysko, sometimes translated as Zaporozhian Cossack Army), also called Zaporizhian Sich after its fortified capital, was a political, social, and military organization of Ukrainian (Ruthenian) Cossacks, from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It was established in the central Ukrainian territory called Zaporizhzhia, below the rapids of the Dnieper river. Its appearance challenged the authority of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovy, and Ottoman Empire, all of which desired to control its territories and people. It went through a series of conflicts and alliances involving Poland, the Crimean Khanate, and Muscovy, then came under the protection of Muscovy after the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654. This alliance was short-lived, however, and after the death of the great Ukrainian Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, his successor, Ivan Vyhovsky, initiated a turn towards Poland. The Host was formally recognized as a third consituent part of the Commonwealth (together with Poland and Lithuania) in the Treaty of Hadiach ratified by the Polish Sejm or parliament in 1659.

Organisation and history

The Zaporozhian Host was led by a hetman and the supreme government body called the Sich Rada. The most famous hetmans were Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Petro Konashevych, Pylyp Orlyk, and Ivan Mazepa. Cossack society was semi-militarized. Their territory was organized into regimental districts (polky), further subdivided into company districts (sotni) and villages (stanytsi). Senior officers were the starshyna.

After the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, the Host became at least nominally a part of the Russian state (Muscovy and later the Russian Empire), although for a long time it enjoyed nearly complete autonomy. Under Russia, the Host comprised the Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine, and Zaporozhia, centred around the fortress, Zaporizhian Sich. It was called Little Russia (Malorossia) by the Russians. After Bohdan Khmelnitsky's death the Zaporozhians maintained a separate government from Kiev. While the Hetmans ruled in Kiev's autonomous cossack state, the Zaporozhians elected their own leaders, known as koshovi otamany to one-year terms. During this time, there was frequent friction between the cossacks of Kiev and the Zaporozhians.

Cossacks fought for their independence from Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which attempted to turn them into serfs, and later began several uprisings against the Russian Tsar, in fear of their independence. In 1709, for example, the Zaporozhian Host led by Kost Hordiienko allied with Mazepa against tsar Peter the Great , who destroyed the Zaporozhian Sich in retaliation. After the Battle of Poltava, Ivan Mazepa, 500 of his starshyna officers, and most of the Zaporozhian cossacks fled from Ukraine, becoming that country's first diaspora. Mazepa's successor Pylyp Orlyk forged an alliance with the Crimean tatars and in 1711 a joint Zaporozhian/Tatar force attacked Russia, but was ultimately defeated after some early victories .. The Zaporozhians built a new sich under Ottoman protection at Oleshky on the lower Dnipro. Although some individual cossacks sought a return to Moscow's protection, their leader Hordiienko was resolute in his anti-Russian attitude and no rapproachment was possible until the popular leader's death in 1733 .

Russian Rule

In 1734 as Russia was preparing for a new war against the Ottoman Empire, an agreement was made with the Zaporozhian cossacks. Under the Treaty of Lubni, the Zaporozhian cossacks regained all of their former lands, priveledges, laws and customs in exchange for serving under the command of the Russian army stationed in the Hetmante in Kiev. A new sich (Nova Sich) was built to replace the one that had been destroyed by Peter the Great. Concerned about the possibility of Russian interference in Zaporozhia's internal affairs, the cossacks began to settle their lands with Ukrainian peasants fleeing serfdom in Polish and Russian-controlled territory. By 1762, 33,700 Cossacks and over 150,000 peasants populated Zaporozhia.

By the late 18th century, much of the Cossack officer class in Ukraine was incorporated into the Imperial Russian nobility (Dvoryantsvo), but many of the rank and file Cossacks, including a substantial portion of the old Zaporozhians, were reduced to peasant status. They were able to maintain their freedom and continued to provide refuge for those fleeing serfdom in Russia and Poland, including followers of the Russian cossack Emil Pugachev, which aroused the anger of the Russian empress Catherine II. On June 4, 1775, while the Zaporozhian cossacks were fighting the Turks, a Russian army under the command of General Tekeli surrounded the Sich and razed it to the ground. The last Zaporozhian leader, Petro Kalnyshevsky, was arrested and exiled to Siberia (where he lived to 105 years of age, despite latter pardon), while some of the cossacks (approximately 5,000) sought refuge on the Danube delta region in Turkey. In this way, the Russian empress finally destroyed the Zaporozhian Host.

In order to counteract the cossacks living in the Danube on Ottoman-controlled territory, in 1784 the Russian government settled the remaining Zaporozhians between the Bug and Dniester rivers. These were allowed to retain their Cossack status and formed the Boh Host and, later, the Black Sea Host. After a portion of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia they were used by the Russian army to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greek Albanians and Crimean Tatars. However after the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792 Beginning in 1795, some of the Black Sea Cossacks moved to the Kuban area where they formed the basis of the Kuban Cossack Host; these were joined by most of the Danube cossacks who moved there in 1828 and created between Berdyansk and Mariupol the Azov Cossack Host. The 30,000 descendents of those cossacks who refused to return to Russia in 1828 still live in the Danube delta region of Romania, where they pursue the traditonal cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing and are known as Rusnaks^*. In 1864 all of those who had returned to Russia were resettled in the North Caucasus and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host.

During the next century and a half, their descendents served the Russian state. Although the host was abolished during the Soviet times, independent Kuban Cossack regiments were allowed to be established in 1937 and proudly fought for the Red Army in the Second World War. After the war it was removed from service, along with the rest of the cavalry as it became obsolete. In 1989 the Great Kuban Cossack Host was once again reborn and to date has grown to number over 20,000 people in 2002. Much of the original Zaporozhian legacy remains in the Kuban peoples, including in their dialect, and in the folk music, although none ([http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_02.php?reg=38) consider themselves to be Ukrainian, and most hold exclussively patriotic position for the future of Russia.

References

See also

• Kuban Cossacks
• Cossack host
• Khmelnytsky Uprising
• Sloboda Ukraine
• Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks
• Dmytro Yavornytsky

Cossacks | History of Ukraine | Ukrainian historical regions

Saporoscher Kosaken | Kozacy zaporoscy | Запорожская сечь | Запорізька Січ