Editing Cossacks (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:Ukraine-Dyke Pole.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Map of the [[Wild Fields]] in the 17th century (superimposed on modern borders)|alt=]]
The origins of the Cossacks are disputed. Originally, the term referred to semi-independent [[Tatars|Tatar]] groups (''[[kazakhs|qazaq]]'' or "free men") who inhabited the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]], north of the [[Black Sea]] near the [[Dnieper|Dnieper River]]. By the end of the 15th century, the term was also applied to Slavic peasants who had fled to the devastated{{By whom|date=December 2024}} regions along the lower Dnieper and [[Don (river)|Don River]]s, where they established their self-governing communities. Until at least the 1630s, these Cossack groups remained ethnically and religiously open to virtually anybody, although the Slavic element predominated.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} There were several major [[Cossack host]]s in the 16th century: near the Dnieper, Don, [[Volga]] and [[Ural (river)|Ural River]]s; the [[Greben Cossacks]] in [[Caucasus|Caucasia]]; and the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]], mainly west of the Dnieper.<ref name="britannica"/>{{sfn|Witzenrath|2007|p=35—36}}

It is unclear when people other than the [[Brodnici]] and [[Berladnici]] (which had a Romanian origin with large Slavic influences)  began to settle in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the [[Don (river)|Don]] and the [[Dnieper]] after the demise of the [[Khazars]]. Their arrival was probably not before the 13th century, when the [[Mongols]] broke the power of the [[Cumans]], who had assimilated the previous population on that territory. It is known that new settlers inherited a lifestyle that long pre-dated their presence, including from that of the [[Cumans]] and the [[Circassia]]n Kassaks.<ref name="Shambarov">{{cite book |last1=Shambarov |first1=Valery |title=Kazachestvo Istoriya Volnoy Rusi |publisher=Algoritm Expo |location=Moscow |year=2007 |isbn=978-5-699-20121-1}}</ref> In contrast, Slavic settlements in southern Ukraine started to appear relatively early during Cuman rule, with the earliest, such as [[Oleshky]], dating back to the 11th century.

Early "Proto-Cossack" groups are generally reported to have come into existence within what is now [[Ukraine]] in the 13th century as the influence of Cumans grew weaker, although some have ascribed their origins to as early as the mid-8th century.<ref name="Galskow">Vasili Glazkov (Wasili Glaskow), ''History of the Cossacks'', p. 3, Robert Speller & Sons, New York, {{ISBN|0-8315-0035-2}} Vasili Glazkov claims that the data of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], [[Iran]]ian and [[Arab]] historians support that. According to this view, by 1261, Cossacks lived in the area between the rivers [[Dniester]] and [[Volga]] as described for the first time in Russian chronicles.</ref> Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origin, descending from [[East Slavs]], [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Tatars|Tatar]]s, and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe.<ref name="Newland1991">{{harvnb|Newland|1991}}</ref> Some [[Turkology|Turkologists]], however, argue that Cossacks are descendants of the native [[Cumans]] of [[Ukraine]], who had lived there long before the Mongol invasion.<ref name="Neumann132">{{cite book |last1=Neumann |first1=Karl Friedrich |title=Die völker des südlichen Russlands in ihrer geschichtlichen entwickelung |trans-title=The Peoples of Southern Russia in its Historical Evolution |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_XE1BAAAAIAAJ |year=1855 |publisher=B.G. Teubner |location=Leipzig |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_XE1BAAAAIAAJ/page/n143 132] |quote=The Cumans, who have been living in the land of the Kipchak since time immemorial, … are known to us as Turks. It is these Turks, no new immigrants from the areas beyond the Yaik, but true descendants of the ancient Scythians, who now again occur in world history under the name Cumans, … |access-date=2015-10-25 }}</ref> Some other just state that first Cossacks were [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] origin<ref>{{cite book |author1=Breyfogle, Nicholas |author2=Schrader, Abby |author3=Sunderland, Willard |title=Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland Colonization in ... |date=2007 |page=43}}</ref> according to [[Serhii Plokhy]] the first Cossacks were of Turkic rather than Slavic stock.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Serhii Plokhy |title=The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires |date=2012 |page=31 |author1-link=Serhii Plokhy }}</ref> [[Christoph Baumer]] states that predecessor from the thirteenth century onward were mainly of Turkic stock, but from the sixteenth century the Cossack were increasingly joined by Slavs such as Russians and Poles, [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-slavic]] [[Lithuanians]] and people from today's Ukraine, thus becoming a Slav-Tatar ethnic hybrid.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christoph Baumer |title=History of the Caucasus: Volume 2: In the Shadow of Great Powers |date=2023 |page=122}}</ref> Hypothesis of the non-Slavic origin of the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks|Zaporozhian]], [[Don Cossacks|Don]] and [[Kuban Cossacks]] is rejected by the low levels to absence of Caucasian and Asian component in the gene pool of these groups, with exception of the [[Terek Cossacks]] who lean towards some North Caucasian groups, likely as a result of the assimilation of these populations into Terek Host.<ref>{{Cite web |author=О. М. Утевская; М. И. Чухряева; Р. А. Схаляхо; Х. Д. Дибирова; И. Э. Теучеж; Anastasiya Agdzhoyan; Л. А. Атраментова; Е. В. Балановская; О. П. Балановский |lang=ru |title=ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИЕ ОСНОВНЫХ ГРУПП КАЗАЧЕСТВА ПО ДАННЫМ О ПОЛИМОРФИЗМЕ Y-ХРОМОСОМЫ |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288323161_PROISHOZDENIE_OSNOVNYH_GRUPP_KAZACESTVA_PO_DANNYM_O_POLIMORFIZME_Y-HROMOSOMY |website=researchgate.net |year=2015 |publisher=Odesa National University Herald Biology|page=66}}</ref>

As the grand duchies of [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Moscow]] and [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]] grew in power, new political entities appeared in the region. These included [[Moldavia]] and the [[Crimean Khanate]]. In 1261, Slavic people living in the area between the [[Dniester]] and the [[Volga River|Volga]] were mentioned in [[Ruthenians|Ruthenian]] chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant, as is the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

As early as the 15th century, a few individuals ventured into the [[Wild Fields]], the southern frontier regions of Ukraine separating Poland-Lithuania from the Crimean Khanate. These were short-term expeditions, to acquire the resources of what was a naturally rich and fertile region teeming with cattle, wild animals, and fish. This lifestyle, based on [[subsistence agriculture]], hunting, and either returning home in the winter or settling permanently, came to be known as the Cossack way of life.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Magocsi |first1=Paul Robert |title=Ukraine: An illustrated history |year=2007 |publisher=University of Washington Press |location=Seattle |page=84}}</ref> [[Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe]] caused considerable devastation and depopulation in this area. The [[List of Mongol and Tatar attacks in Europe|Tatar raids]] also played an important role in the development of the Cossacks.<ref>{{cite book |author=Subtelny, Orest |year=1988 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNIs9O3EmtQC&pg=PA105 |title=Ukraine: A history |pages=105–106 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8390-6 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729182451/https://books.google.com/books?id=HNIs9O3EmtQC&pg=PA105 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Minahan, James |year=2000 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwvoM-ZFoAgC&pg=PA216 |title=One Europe, Many Nations: A historical dictionary of European national groups |page=216 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing |isbn=978-0-313-30984-7 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-08-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804104801/https://books.google.com/books?id=NwvoM-ZFoAgC&pg=PA216 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Breyfogle, Nicholas |author2=Schrader, Abby |author3=Sunderland, Willard |year=2007 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0FlVD_oGjQC&pg=PA43 |title=Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland colonization in Eurasian history |page=43 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-11288-3 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919030047/https://books.google.com/books?id=d0FlVD_oGjQC&pg=PA43 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Sahansahname 130b.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Ottoman Turks in battle against the Cossacks, 1592]]

In the 15th century, Cossack society was described as a loose [[federation]] of independent communities, which often formed local armies and were entirely independent from neighboring states such as Poland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Crimean Khanate.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia |edition=6th, out of print |article=Cossacks |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2001–2004}}</ref> According to [[Mykhailo Hrushevsky]], the first mention of Cossacks dates back to the 14th century, although the reference was to people who were either Turkic or of undefined origin.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Mykhailo Hrushevsky |author=Hrushevsky, M. |title=Illustrated History of Ukraine |publisher=BAO |location=Donetsk |year=2003 |isbn=966-548-571-7}}</ref> Hrushevsky states that the Cossacks may have descended from the long-forgotten [[Antes people|Antes]], or from groups from the Berlad territory of the [[Brodnici]] in present-day [[Romania]], then a part of the Grand Duchy of Halych. There, the Cossacks may have served as self-defence formations, organized to defend against raids conducted by neighbors.

The first international mention of Cossacks was in 1492, when [[Crimean Khanate|Crimean]] Khan [[Meñli I Giray]] complained to Grand Duke of Lithuania [[Alexander Jagiellon]] that his Cossack subjects from Kiev and Cherkasy had pillaged a Crimean Tatar ship: the duke ordered his "Ukrainian" (meaning borderland) officials to investigate, execute the guilty, and give their belongings to the khan.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Serhii |last=Plokhy |title=The gates of Europe: a history of Ukraine |date=2015 |publisher=Basic |isbn=978-1-5416-7564-3 |oclc=1333156632}}</ref>{{Rp|page=76}} Sometime in the 16th century, there appeared the old Ukrainian ''Ballad of Cossack Holota'', about a Cossack near [[Kiliya, Ukraine|Kiliya]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ukrlib.com.ua/narod/printout.php?id=14&bookid=0 |script-title=uk:Дума про козака Голоту – Народні думи |trans-title=Ballad about Cossack Holota |series=National ballads |language=uk |work=ukrlib.com.ua |access-date=23 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005210908/http://www.ukrlib.com.ua/narod/printout.php?id=14&bookid=0 |archive-date=5 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Николай ПУНДИК (Одесса) |url=http://telegrafua.com/country/14013/print/ |script-title=ru:Кто ты, Фесько Ганжа Андыбер? |website=Telegrafua.com |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209200255/http://telegrafua.com/country/14013/print/ |archive-date=2016-02-09 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 16th century, these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organizations, as well as other smaller, still-detached groups:
* The Cossacks of [[Zaporizhzhia (region)|Zaporizhzhia]], centered on the lower bends of the Dnieper, in the territory of modern Ukraine, with the fortified capital of [[Zaporozhian Sich]]. They were given significant autonomous privileges, operating as an autonomous state (the Zaporozhian Host) within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, by a treaty with Poland in 1649.
*The Don Cossack State, on the River Don. Its capital was initially Razdory, then it was moved to [[Cherkassk]], and later to [[Novocherkassk]].

There are also references to the less well-known [[Tatars|Tatar]] Cossacks, including the [[Nağaybäklär]] and [[Meshchera language|Meshchera]]-speaking [[Volga Finns]], of whom Sary Azman was the first Don [[ataman]]. These groups were assimilated by the Don Cossacks, but had their own irregular [[Bashkirs|Bashkir]] and Meshchera Host up to the end of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.razdory-museum.ru/cossacks.html |script-title=ru:Донское казачество |website=Razdory-museum.ru |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003122732/http://www.razdory-museum.ru/cossacks.html |archive-date=2015-10-03 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Kalmyks|Kalmyk]] and [[Buryats|Buryat]] Cossacks also deserve mention{{clarify|date=April 2022}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kalm.ru/en/cossacks.html |publisher=Republic of Kalmykia |title=Cossacks |website=Kalm.ru |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209200310/http://www.kalm.ru/en/cossacks.html |archive-date=2016-02-09 |url-status=live }}</ref>