Zaporizhian Sich
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Zaporizhian Sich or Zaporozhian Sech (Ukrainian: Запорізька Січ,Zaporiz'ka Sich) original Slavonic name "Zaporizhska Sich'" was the center of the Cossacks of Zaporizhzhia. The term has also been metonymically used as an informal reference to the whole Zaporizhzhia or to the Zaporozhian Host.
Initially the Zaporizhian Sich was a fortified military camp the foundation for which was laid out on the Isle of Khortytsia (Mala Khortytsia, Khortytsia Minor) in 1556 by D.I. Vyshnevetsky. But only in 1618 did Hetman Petro Konashevych Sahaidachny order his Cossacks to build the earthen perimeter with the log walls on top of it. The log fort was surrounded with the massive abatis made from entire trees. Hence the term "Sich": it is a noun derived from the verb "to cut" and denotes the abatis type of fortification: by cutting the forest.
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[edit] The Sich as a pirate republic
From the social and economic point of view, the Sich originated as a typical pirate republic of the 16th century. Its population was quite international. It included Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish peasants that ran away from their feudal masters, outlaws of every sort, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish galleys, etc. The remoteness of the place and rapids on the Dnepr river effectively guarded the place from invasions of revenge-seeking powers. The natural business of this motley crowd was robbery. The main target – rich settlements on the Black Sea shores of the Ottoman Empire.
[edit] Defence from Crimean Tatars
From other point of view, Zaporizhian Sich emerged as a natural way of defence of Ukrainian people from frequent devastating raids of Crimean Tatars, who captured to slavery not only hundreds thousand Ukrainians, but also Russians, Belarusians and Poles. Such operations were called "the harvesting of steppe". Some researchers say, that mainly a constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of cossackdom. During the revenge raids to the Black Sea shores of the Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate cossacks not only robbed rich settlements, but liberated their compatriots from slavery.
[edit] Further development
In later years Sich become the center of Cossack dwellings situated to the south of the borders of Muscovy (in the so called "borderland", or Russian: "украина" ). Zaporozhian Host, was governed by the Sichova Rada and sometimes the term Zaporizhian Sich is applied to the "Cossack state". After the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654), the Host split into two, the Hetmanate with its capital at Chyhyryn, and the more autonomous region of Zaporizhzhia which continued to be based at the Sich (although the Sich changed location several times).
The period after 1654, before it sided with Mazepa and was disbanded in 1709, soon after the Baturyn was razed, is sometimes referred to as the Old Sich (Stara Sich). From 1734 to 1775 the New Sich (Nova Sich) existed, disbanded after the failure of the Pugachev Uprising.
[edit] See also
- Dmytro Yavornytsky, historian of the Zaporozhian Cossacks who mapped the locations of the various Siches.
- Zaporozhets - a Soviet/Ukrainian car, whose name means Zaporizhia's citizen (like New Yorker in New York).
- Danubian Sich, formed by the Zaporozhian Cossacks in the delta of Danube, in the territory of the Ottoman Empire.
- Cossackdom
[edit] External link
- Zaporizhia - Encyclopedia of Ukraine
