Editing Cossacks (section)

===Zaporozhian Cossacks===
{{Main|Zaporozhian Cossacks}}
[[File:Запорожский казак. 1884.jpg|thumb|Zaporozhian Cossack by [[Konstantin Makovsky]], 1884]]
The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] below the [[Dnieper Rapids]] (Ukrainian: ''za porohamy''), also known as the [[Wild Fields]]. The group became well known, and its numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European [[geopolitics]], participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], [[Tsardom of Russia|Russia]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The Zaporozhians gained a reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its [[vassal]]s, although they also sometimes plundered other neighbors. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the period of the Commonwealth (1569–1795).

====Emergence====
Prior to the formation of the Zaporozhian [[Sich]], Cossacks had usually been organized by [[Ruthenians|Ruthenian]] [[boyar]]s, or princes of the nobility, especially various [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuanian]] [[starosta]]s. Merchants, peasants, and runaways from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]], and Moldavia also joined the Cossacks.

The first recorded ''sich'' prototype was formed by the starosta of [[Cherkasy]] and [[Kaniv]], [[Dmytro Vyshnevetsky]], who built a fortress on the island of Little [[Khortytsia]] on the banks of the Lower [[Dnieper]] in 1552.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CV%5CY%5CVyshnevetskyDmytro.htm|title=Vyshnevetsky, Dmytro|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2020-02-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201135227/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CV%5CY%5CVyshnevetskyDmytro.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The Zaporozhian Host adopted a lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with those of the [[Knights Hospitaller]].

The Cossack structure arose, in part, in response to the struggle against Tatar raids. Socio-economic developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were another important factor in the growth of the Ukrainian Cossacks. During the 16th century, serfdom was imposed because of the favorable conditions for grain sales in Western Europe. This subsequently decreased the locals' land allotments and freedom of movement. In addition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government attempted to impose Catholicism, and to [[Polonization|Polonize]] the local Ukrainian population. The basic form of resistance and opposition by the locals and burghers was flight and settlement in the sparsely populated steppe.<ref name="Cossacks">{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Relations with surrounding states====

The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In the 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Ure, John |title=The Cossacks: An Illustrated History |location=London |publisher=Gerald Duckworth}}</ref> Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King [[Stephen Báthory]] granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of the government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Rudolf II]] in the 1590s.<ref name="Cossacks"/> [[Registered Cossacks]] formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.

[[File:Kremenets Mountains, Piatnitski (Cossack) cemetery, 27.08.2007 01.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Cossack cross]]es on a cemetery near [[Kremenets]], Ukraine]]
Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during the second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, [[Tatars]] living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the [[Dnieper]] river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of [[Constantinople]], forcing the [[Ottoman Sultan]] to flee his palace.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |title=Cossack Navy 16th–17th Centuries |website=Geocities |access-date=2 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020001446/http://geocities.com/unavy/aCossack1.html |archive-date=20 October 2009}}</ref> In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the [[Don Cossacks]], captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of [[Azov]], which guarded the Don.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Brian L. |last1=Davies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |via=Google Books |title=Warfare, State, and Society on the Black Sea Steppe |year=2007 |pages=89–90 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-55283-2 |access-date=2018-05-13 |archive-date=2020-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729181622/https://books.google.com/books?id=i5-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman [[Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny]], who launched successful campaigns against the Tatars and Turks. Tsar [[Boris Fyodorovich Godunov|Boris Godunov]] had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712}}</ref> In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for the Tsar ([[False Dmitry I|Dmitri I]]), against the Muscovite army.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunning, Chester S. L.|title=Russia's first civil war: the Time of Troubles and the founding of the Romanov dynasty|date=2001|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=0-271-02074-1|oclc=185670712|quote="The bulk of the rebels supporting Dmitrii were cossacks, petty gentry, lower status military servitors, and townsmen […] It is well known that Tsar Dmitrii maintained good relations with the Zaporizhian cossacks"}}</ref> By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dunning|first1=Chester S. L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|title=Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty|date=2010|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-04371-5|language=en|quote="to gather a force of approximately twenty five hundred men, about eleven hundred of whom were cavalry and infantry forces drawn from men into the service to the magnates and approximately fourteen hundred of whom were so called "cossacks". About two thirds of the latter group were, in fact, Ukrainians, and only about five hundred of Dmitrii's "cossacks" were true Ukrainian Cossacks."|access-date=2020-11-10|archive-date=2022-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071159/https://books.google.com/books?id=9NUYtSJaO8cC&q=polish-muscovite+war+1605|url-status=live}}</ref> On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the [[Battle of Klushino]], on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat a combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with [[Stanisław Żółkiewski]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm|title=Kluszyn 1610, Battle between Polish Commonwealth and Russia (Moscovy)|website=www.kismeta.com|access-date=2020-02-14|archive-date=2013-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515185814/http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/kluszyn.htm}}</ref>

The final attempt by [[Sigismund III Vasa|King Sigismund]] and [[Władysław IV Vasa|Wladyslav]] to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was [[Jan Karol Chodkiewicz]] who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of [[Dorogobuzh]] and [[Vyazma]] had surrendered. But a defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and [[Mozhaysk]], prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including [[Livny]] and [[Yelets]]. In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace was secured.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|title=Polacy rządzili na Kremlu. Syna Zygmunta III Wazy obwołano carem|last1=S.A|first1=Wirtualna Polska Media|date=2014-02-03|website=opinie.wp.pl|language=pl|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="For Poland, the Dymitriads found their end only at the turn of 1618 and 1619 of the truce contained in Dywilno. As a result of an earlier march of hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, supported by a Cossack army of 20,000, the capital of Russia was threatened again. At the same time, troops of Lisowczyk and Cossacks spread terror, ravaging nearby towns. Faced with the country's poor internal situation, Moscow could not afford to repeat the devastating struggle. Tsar Michał I Romanow decided to end the war."|archive-date=2020-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728230325/https://opinie.wp.pl/polacy-rzadzili-na-kremlu-syna-zygmunta-iii-wazy-obwolano-carem-6126018565142145a|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Peterson, Gary Dean.|title=Warrior kings of Sweden: the rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries|date=2007|publisher=McFarland & Co|isbn=978-0-7864-2873-1|oclc=237127678|quote="The treaty came none to soon for Russia as later that year Poland led a campaign led by Wladyslaw and supported by the Dnieper Cossacks that carried all the way to the gates of Moscow. A truce followed and an exchange of prisoners."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-14|quote="When Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny not only spread their fame through his successful campaigns against the Tatars and the Turks and his aid to the Polish army at Moscow in 1618"|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Верстовий стовп з Мошориного.jpg|thumb|One of the unique granite columns with which the Cossacks marked their territory]]
Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the [[Habsburg monarchy]] sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against the Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the [[Moldavian Magnate Wars]] (1593–1617) to the [[Battle of Cecora (1620)]], and campaigns in the [[Polish–Ottoman War (1633–34)|Polish–Ottoman War]] of 1633–1634.

====Conflict with Poland====

Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by [[peasantry|peasants]] escaping [[serf]]dom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the ''[[szlachta]]'' to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the formerly strong Cossack loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambitions for recognition as equal to the ''szlachta''. Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a [[Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth]] made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian ''szlachta'' of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the ''szlachta''. The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] also put them at odds with officials of the [[Roman Catholic]]-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the [[Union of Brest]]. The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish.<ref name="Plokhy2001">{{cite book |author=Serhii Plokhy |author-link=Serhii Plokhii |title=The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCzzxNisc1MC&pg=PR4 |access-date=1 August 2015 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-924739-4 |page=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624122655/https://books.google.com/books?id=NCzzxNisc1MC&pg=PR4 |archive-date=24 June 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wilson2002">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Andrew |title=The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4f324_LVBL4C&pg=PA62 |access-date=1 August 2015 |year=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09309-4 |pages=62, 143 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527050350/https://books.google.com/books?id=4f324_LVBL4C&pg=PA62 |archive-date=27 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After the Ottoman-Polish and Polish-Muscovite warfare ceased, the official Cossack register was again reduced. The registered Cossacks (''reiestrovi kozaky'') were isolated from those who were excluded from the register, and from the Zaporizhian Host. This, together with intensified socioeconomic and national-religious oppression of the other classes in Ukrainian society, led to many Cossack uprisings in the 1630s. The nobility, which had obtained legal ownership of vast expanses of land on the Dnipro from the Polish kings, attempted to impose feudal dependency on the local population. Landowners utilized the locals in war, by raising the Cossack registry in times of hostility, and then radically decreasing it and forcing the Cossacks back into serfdom in times of peace.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine|title=Ukraine {{!}} History, Geography, People, & Language|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-11|archive-date=2020-01-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124023022/https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine|url-status=live}}</ref> This institutionalized method of control bred discontent among the Cossacks. By the end of the 16th century, they began to revolt, in the uprisings of [[Kosiński uprising|Kryshtof Kosynsky]] (1591–1593), [[Nalyvaiko Uprising|Severyn Nalyvaiko]] (1594–1596), [[Hryhory Loboda|Hryhorii Loboda]] (1596), [[Marko Zhmaylo|Marko Zhmailo]] (1625), [[Taras Fedorovych]] (1630), [[Ivan Sulyma]] (1635), [[Pavlyuk uprising|Pavlo Pavliuk]] and Dmytro Hunia (1637), and [[Ostryanyn uprising|Yakiv Ostrianyn]] and Karpo Skydan (1638). All were brutally suppressed and ended by the Polish government. [[Cossack rebellions]] eventually culminated in the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]], led by the hetman of the Zaporizhian Sich, [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|title=Cossacks|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com|access-date=2020-02-17|archive-date=2015-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720181731/http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Under Russian rule====

[[File:Zaporozhian Cossacks Officer in 1720.JPG|thumb|An officer of the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1720]]

The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own [[Zaporizhian Sich|"Lower" Zaporozhian Host]], and its own land.
In 1775, the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host was destroyed. Later, its high-ranking Cossack leaders were exiled to Siberia,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zM6XT8LP69sC&q=cossack+leaders+exiled+to+siberia+in+1775&pg=PA51 |title=The History of Ukraine |last1=Kubicek |first1=Paul |year=2008 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-34920-1 |language=en |access-date=2020-11-10 |archive-date=2022-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071148/https://books.google.com/books?id=zM6XT8LP69sC&q=cossack+leaders+exiled+to+siberia+in+1775&pg=PA51 |url-status=live }}</ref> its last chief, [[Petro Kalnyshevsky]], becoming a prisoner of the [[Solovetsky Islands]]. Some Cossacks moved to the [[Danube Delta]] region, where they established [[Danubian Sich|a new sich]] under Ottoman rule.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FRUMENKOW/uzniki_monastyrya.txt_with-big-pictures.html |script-title=ru:Георгий Георгиевич Фруменков. Узники соловецкого монастыря |website=Lib.ru |access-date=2015-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209200330/http://lib.ru/HISTORY/FRUMENKOW/uzniki_monastyrya.txt_with-big-pictures.html |archive-date=2016-02-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowed them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later to reorganize into other hosts, of which the [[Black Sea Cossack Host|Black Sea Host]] was most important. Because of land scarcity resulting from the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among landlords, they eventually moved on to the [[Krasnodar krai|Kuban region]].

The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Groups were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period,{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region are bilingual, speaking both Russian and [[Balachka]], the local Kuban dialect of central [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]. Their folklore is largely Ukrainian.{{efn|This is also true of the Don Cossacks of the Lower Don, where the local dialect is related to Ukrainian. Many Ukrainian peasants joined the Terek Cossacks in the 1820s–30s, influencing local dialects. But among the Terek Cossacks, the Grebensky (Row) Cossacks, who had deep [[Adyghe people|Adyghe]] roots through intermarriage, still speak an old northern Russian Viatka dialect which likely has connections to the old dialects of the [[White Sea]] shores. The Middle Don dialects are related to northern Russian dialects, the Belarusian language, and the [[Volyn Oblast|Volyn]] dialects of Ukrainian. The Volyn dialects are close to Belarusian dialects, only the Upper Don dialects being from southern Russia.}} The predominant view of ethnologists and historians is that its origins lie in the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ngkub.ru/news/old_265 |script-title=ru:Есть ли на Кубани мова? |trans-title=Is there "(Ukrainian) language" in Kuban? |language=ru |website=Ngkub.ru |date=22 October 2009 |access-date=2 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606012617/http://ngkub.ru/news/old_265 |archive-date=6 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Bogdan Zolotarevsky |url=http://www.ukrterra.com.ua/developments/history/modern/zolotarevsky-kub.htm |script-title=ru:Кубань – Украина: вопросы истории и политики |trans-title=Kuban – Ukraine: Historical and political questions |language=ru |publisher=Institute of Social Studies |year=2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522141817/http://www.ukrterra.com.ua/developments/history/modern/zolotarevsky-kub.htm |archive-date=22 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Tatiana Stepanovna Malykhina |url=http://pedsovet.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,99614/Itemid,118/ |script-title=ru:Кубанская балачка |trans-title=Kuban balachka (language) |language=ru |work=pedsovet.org |date=11 January 2013 |access-date=5 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312001452/http://pedsovet.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,99614/Itemid,118/ |archive-date=12 March 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>