5_Cossacks

This is the fifth #generalhistory note, following 4_Polish_Lithuanian Rule.

Origins of the Cossacks

• For the first time since Kyivan Rus, the line of settlements began advancing into the steppe territories in the east and south. This expansion was reflected in the emergence of a new dialect in these territories, which combined elements of the two previously dominant ones (Polisian and Carpatho-Volhynian).
• These changes were driven by developments in the steppe itself:
  • After a succession struggle, the Golden Horde disintegrated in the mid-fifteenth century.
  • The Crimean, Kazan, and Astrakhan Khanates emerged to replace it.
  • Crimea broke away from the Horde in 1449 under the leadership of Haji Devlet.
  • In 1478, the Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim power that had replaced Byzantium in 1453.
  • The Ottoman Empire took direct control of the southern shores of Crimea, with Jaffa (modern-day Feodosiia) serving as their main city.
  • Various Tatar tribes dominated southern Ukraine, with the Noghay gradually emerging as the most powerful.
• This takeover of Crimea and parts of southern Ukraine was primarily motivated by the Ottoman Empire's demand for slaves. Due to their faith, the Ottomans could not enslave fellow Muslims residing in the Khanate, so they tasked the Crimean Tatars with conducting large-scale raids into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to capture non-Muslims, primarily Ukrainians.
• The slave trade supplemented the local agricultural economy, meaning that bad harvests often correlated with an increase in raids.
• While Ukraine's inclusion in Baltic trade was driven by high demand for grain, its role in Mediterranean trade stemmed from Tatar slave raids.
• These raids were notably successful, with some estimates suggesting that over a million Ukrainians were captured. Many endured harsh lives—men were often subjected to grueling manual labor or forced into administrative positions at the cost of becoming eunuchs, while women faced lives of servitude or were placed in harems.
• There were exceptions, such as Roxelana, a Ukrainian woman who became the wife of Süleyman the Magnificent, with her son succeeding him. However, her story was exceptional and is mentioned here for completeness.
• This history left deep scars in Ukrainian memory, leading to the glorification of those who saved and freed slaves. These figures became central to many folk stories and were referred to as Cossacks.
• The answer to the question of who the Cossacks were depends on the time period:
  • The word "Cossack" is of Turkic origin and can mean guard, freeman, or freebooter, depending on the context.
• These terms all applied to the earliest Cossacks, who lived in small bands in the steppe, surviving through fishing, trapping, and banditry. They frequently attacked merchants traveling through their territory. The first documented mention of the Cossacks comes from such an incident.
• This reference appears in a complaint by the Tatars, who protested that a band of warriors had pillaged one of their ships. In response, the Grand Duke of Lithuania ordered his Ukrainian (a term he himself used) officials to "find the Cossacks responsible and put them to the sword."
• It is unknown whether this order was carried out. However, if it was, it proved ineffective, as the following year (1499), the Cossacks were accused of attacking a Muscovite messenger and ransacking a Tatar fortress.
• These incidents likely occurred due to the dilemma faced by Lithuanian officials. On the one hand, they wanted to curb Cossack raids; on the other, they recognized that the Cossacks were their best defense against the Tatars.
• In 1553, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky built a large fortress on the border with the Khanate. This provoked an attack by the Khanate, which Vyshnevetsky (according to legend) heroically repelled. He was subsequently given the rank of the first-ever Hetman. The term "Hetmanate," referring to the societal structure of the Cossacks, is derived from this title, which will be relevant for understanding later terminology.
• By the mid-sixteenth century, the region south of Kyiv was full of settlements:

"And the Kyiv region, fortunate and thriving, is also rich in population, for on the Borysthenes and other rivers that flow into it are plenty of populous towns and many villages," On the origins of the settlers: "Some are hiding from paternal authority, or from slavery, or from service, or from (punishment for) crimes, or from debts, or from something else; others are attracted to (the region), especially in spring, by richer game and more plentiful places. And, having tried their luck in its fortresses, they never come back from there.": Michalon the Lithuanian, The Gates of Europe_A History of Ukraine page 76

• Judging from further texts by Michalon, the Cossacks survived through fishing, hunting, and robbery.
• Initially, they consisted mainly of town-dwellers, but by the late sixteenth century, peasants increasingly joined their ranks. This development largely settled the question of Cossack identity—they became an unmistakably Ukrainian group, consisting mostly of those who had fled Polish-Lithuanian serfdom, drawn by the promise of "duty-free zones." However, these privileges eventually expired, pushing peasants further into the steppe, often into the ranks of the Cossacks.
• The settlement of the new steppelands was a process in which both the Dnieper Cossacks and the Volhynian Princes played a role. In 1559, one such prince, Kostiantyn Ostrozky, became the Palatine of Kyiv, placing responsibility for the Cossacks firmly in his hands.
• He recognized the problem of the Cossacks both aiding and hindering his objectives—aggravating the Tatars but also proving effective in defending against them. His attempted solution was to integrate them into his fighting forces, which would allow for stricter control without sacrificing their military potential.
• The demand for Cossack fighters increased with the Livonian War (covered in the previous note), and several Cossack units were formed in the 1570s.
• This shift from irregular militias employed by border officials to regular fighting units under army command marked a new era of Cossackdom. The term "registered Cossack" came into use to describe fighters employed by the crown, who were supposed to receive various benefits, including exemptions from taxation and the jurisdiction of local officials, as well as a salary.
• However, the crown was willing to employ only a limited number of Cossacks, and the benefits of registration applied only during active service.
• This led to dissatisfaction, as unregistered Cossacks refused to accept the stripping of their rights, ultimately resulting in major conflicts.
• In an attempt to address this, the Commonwealth Diet decreed the creation of a force of 1,000 registered Cossacks to defend the borderlands from the Tatars—and the Tatars from the unregistered Cossacks. However, little came of this decree.

Conflicts

• By 1591, the first Cossack uprising occurred.
• The cause of this uprising was not the Commonwealth but the Volhynian princes. The Ostrozkys invested significant effort into expanding their territories from their base in Kyiv. In the process, they took over the lands of several regional leaders. Kryshtof Kosynski, a registered Cossack quasi-noble who controlled land coveted by the Ostrozky family, was among those whose lands were seized.
• The attempt to suppress Kosynski sparked an uprising, which was quelled in 1593 with the help of a group of registered Cossacks. Yet, within a year, these same Cossacks launched their own rebellion—one of many to follow—which was eventually suppressed.
• If examined in detail, this story highlights the different Cossack factions at the time.
  • The Cossacks who initially helped suppress the uprising were based around Kyiv and joined the expedition hoping to obtain the special rights associated with military service.
  • Another group, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, consisted of unregistered, formerly peasant warriors who had established a fortified settlement called the Sich. Independent of royal authority, they attracted dissatisfied townsmen and peasants from the Commonwealth. Their independence also manifested in their frequent low-level conflicts with the Tatars.
  • The Zaporozhians later struck a deal with the leader of the Kyivan Cossacks under the command of Nalyvaiko, leading to an uprising even larger than the one Kosynski had led.
  • When the Royal Army arrived to suppress the revolt (after princely forces had failed), the Zaporozhian Cossacks betrayed Nalyvaiko, handing him over to the Poles in exchange for amnesty. He was executed, making him a martyr for both the Orthodox and Cossack causes.
• The Cossacks were not only involved in internal conflicts within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but also fought in wars involving major powers like the Ottomans and Russians.
• In 1598, Muscovy was embroiled in a succession crisis following the death of Tsar Feodor I, who left no heir, thus ending the Rurik dynasty. This crisis persisted until 1613, when Michael I Romanov ascended the throne. During this prolonged period of instability, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took advantage of the situation, deploying an army—including 20,000 Cossacks—to march on Moscow and successfully reclaim Chernihiv. While the Cossacks played a crucial role in the Commonwealth's military successes, they also complicated relations with the Ottomans.
• Their resentment toward the Khanate's practice of abducting Ukrainians and selling them into slavery peaked with an unregistered Cossack raid in 1606. This culminated in the 1616 attack on Kaffa, a major slave-trading city within the Khanate, which resulted in the liberation of numerous captives.
• The campaign was astonishingly successful, prompting the French ambassador to Istanbul to remark:

"Every time the Cossacks are near here on the Black Sea, they seize incredible booty despite their weak forces and have such a reputation that strokes of the cudgel are required to force the Turkish soldiers to do battle against them on several galleys that the grand seigneur (the sultan) sends there with great difficulty.": Count Philippe de Harlay, The Gates of Europe_A History of Ukraine page 81

• By that point, the Ottomans were already planning an invasion of the Commonwealth by land, alongside continued naval operations. These plans culminated in the 1620 invasion, in which 20,000 Ottoman soldiers crossed into Polish-Lithuanian territory. While they justified their campaign as retaliation for Cossack raids, they likely had broader objectives, including defending their vassal states from growing Commonwealth influence.
• The first attack ended in a decisive Ottoman victory against a 10,000-strong Polish force. With this army destroyed, the Poles scrambled to assemble new defenses for the next Ottoman advance, which came the following year with a force of approximately 120,000 soldiers.
• This massive force was met at Khotyn by a 40,000-strong Commonwealth army, half of whom were Cossacks under the command of Petro Konashevych Sahaidachny, the leader of the Kaffa raid.
• The battle lasted for a month, with no clear victor emerging. Nevertheless, it was celebrated as a major success in the Commonwealth, as they had managed to halt a much larger force at their border and secure a peace treaty without territorial concessions.
• Under these conditions, the Cossacks gained a massive reputational boost for the first time, as their contributions had been undeniably crucial to the battle’s outcome. For a brief period, they were celebrated across the entire country.

Repression and Integration

• With their newfound power, the Cossacks became more capable of advocating for their agenda within the Commonwealth.
• Their main demand was the granting of knight status to Cossack officers, if not the entire Cossack army. This would have elevated them close to noble status.
• That demand was never fulfilled, leading to uprisings in 1625 and 1630. Both revolts were crushed, and the Cossack register was reduced to 6,000 before later being increased to 8,000.
• During these revolts, the Cossacks portrayed themselves as defenders of the Orthodox faith, winning significant support. In response, the Commonwealth took steps to accommodate the Orthodox Church to counteract this growing influence (details in 6_Religious Interlude).
• This strategy proved effective, as the uprisings of 1637 and 1638 did not receive support from the Church.
• However, these revolts pushed the Commonwealth to seek a long-term solution, which involved granting Cossack warriors a better legal status in exchange for their integration into the Commonwealth’s social and legal structure.
• This concretely manifested in the improved status of Cossack officers, who were now recognized as a distinct social class with their own rights (beyond their previously time-limited royal service privileges), including the right to inheritance. The Commonwealth, however, sought to control this new class by restricting access to its ranks.
• Polish authorities also reduced the Cossack registry to 6,000 and placed the entire Cossack military structure under Polish command.
• With the Cossacks pacified, the Commonwealth entered a period known as the "Golden Decade", marked by further colonization of the steppe, population growth, and economic expansion.
• The Cossacks had evolved:
  • from small bands of fishermen to settlers of new lands,
  • from private militias to a formidable fighting force respected throughout the region,
  • from adventurers and refugees to a distinct social class capable of negotiating with the government.
• However, the Commonwealth would only be able to utilize the Cossacks productively if it managed to fulfill their social demands.

Continuation

Continues in 6_Religious Interlude

Sources

This information was gathered from The Gates of Europe_A History of Ukraine (Pages 73-84).