Sotnia

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Sotnia was a traditional division of the Cossack regiments from earliest records of the Zaporizhian Sich, and means 'a hundred'.

During the Cossack service in the Imperial Russian Armies the typical regiment had five sotnias or squadrons. In the foot Cossack regiments the name was still used, although it represented an infantry company). The unit term was retained until the 1917 Russian Revolution.

During the Second World War, the basic combat unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was a kuren or kurin (literally a village; also used for the 11th lowest Cossack rank^[1]), equivalent to a battalion of four to eight hundred members, divided into three or four sotnias.

Each sotnia contained three or four chotas (singular chot - count; platoons), and each chot was assembled from three riys (singular riy(Ukrainian), roy (Russian)), literally 'a swarm'; Section of 10 to 12 men). Every roy was usually equipped with one light machine gun, two or three automatic weapons, and at least seven rifles.

[edit] References

Mikaberidze, Aleksander, The Russian officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Savas Beatie, New York, 2005