[[Image:Repin Cossacks.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey. Painted by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.]] Cossack (Polish language ''Kozak''; plural, ''Kozacy'', Russian language ''Kazak'' (''Казак''); plural, ''Kazaki'' (''Казаки''), Ukrainian language ''Kozak'' (''Козак''); plural, ''Kozaky'' (''Козаки'')) is the name given to a portion of the population of Eastern Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia. Cossacks settled in parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, particularly in areas now comprising southern Russia and Ukraine. They were known for their military skills although in the Soviet Union their special service was discontinued and the Cossack culture was suppressed. Their culture began a revival in Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The name is derived from the Turkic languages ''quzzaq'', "adventurer", "freeman". The term is first mentioned in a Ruthenian document dated 1395. Cossacks should not be confused with the Kazakhs (''Kazakh'' is spelled ''Qazaq'' (''Казак'') in the native language). "Cossacks" (Kozacy) was also the name given to a kind of light cavalry in Poland-Lithuania regardless of ethnicity. == History of Cossacks == ''Main article: History of Cossacks'' It is not clear when the Slavic peoples started to settle in the lower reaches of the Don River, Russia and the Dnieper river. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongol hordes broke the power of Cumans and other Turkic tribes on that territory. Proto-Cossacks could have come to existence in the territories of today's Ukraine in the mid-13th century, when crowds of Slavs fled south to escape the Tatar yoke. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Russian chronicles. More peasants escaped to the Don and the Dnieper's cataracts in the following centuries, when the system of serfdom started to develop in Poland and Russia. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant. In the 15th century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, often merging into larger units of a military character, entirely separate and mostly independent from any other local countries (like Poland, Muscovy or khanate of Crimea). By the 16th century these Cossack societies were merged into two relatively independent territorial organisations: * The Cossacks of Zaporizhia, on the lower bends of the river Dnieper, between Russia, Poland and the Tatars of the Crimea, with the fortified capital, Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the Zaporozhian Host, by treaty with Poland in 1649. * Don Cossack State, on the river Don, separating the then weak Russian state from the Mongol and Tatar tribes, vassals of the Ottoman Empire [[Image:Bohdan Chmielnicki z Tuhaj Bejem pod Lwowem Matejko.JPG|250px|right|thumb|"Bohdan Chmielnicki with Tuhaj-Bej at Lwow", oil on canvas, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw. Chmielnicki Uprising 1648-1654. Painted by Jan Matejko]] Historical documents of that period refer to those states as sovereign nations with a unique warrior culture, whose main source of income was the pillaging their neigbours. They were renowned for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals (like the Tatars), although they didn't shy from pillaging other neighbours. Their actions increased the tension at the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Kresy), which resulted in almost constant low-level warfare taking place in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Commonwealth. In 1539 the Grand Duke Vasili III of Russia asked the Ottoman Sultan to curb the Cossacks and the Sultan replied "The Cossacks do not swear allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please." In 1549 the Czar Ivan the Terrible, replied to a request of the Turkish Sultan to stop the aggressive actions of the Don Cossacks, stating, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge." Similar exchanges passed between Russia, Ottomans and the Commonwealth, each of which tried to use Cossack warmongering for its own purposes. Cossacks for their part were mostly happy to plunder everybody more or less equally, although in the 16th century, with Commonwealth dominance extending south, the Zaporojian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded as subjects of the Commonwealth. Registered Cossacks (Polish ''Kozacy rejestrowi'') were a part of Commonwealth army until 1699. Around the end of 16th century, the relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottomans, which were not very cordial to begin with, further worsened with the growing number of independent actions by the Cossacks. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding (''chadzki'') territories under Ottoman rule. The Commonwealth could not control fiercely independent Cossacks, but was held responsible for them, since at that time they were nominally under Commonwealth rule. Reciprocally Tatars living under Ottoman rule were raiding the Commonwealth, mostly in the south-east which were fairly sparsely inhabited, while the Cossacks were raiding the heart of Ottoman Empire, its wealthy merchant port cities, which were just two days away from mouth of river Dniepr Cossacks used as their main transportation route. By 1615, Cossacks had even burned the townships on the outskirts of Istanbul. Consecutive treaties between Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth called both parties to curb Cossacks and Tatars but its execution was almost nonexistent on both sides of the border. In internal agreements, forced by Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However boats could be rebuilt fast, and the Cossacks' style of life required glory and booty. Sometimes Cossacks just needed money to live and sometimes Habsburgs bribed them to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks hated Tatars, who after all burned their estates and villages (the feeling was quite mutual here). Cossacks almost yearly raided the Ottomans territories and vassals near the Black Sea, almost always causing the retaliatory Tatar raids (or vice versa). The ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire south-eastern Commonwealth border into a low-level warzone and led to the escalation of the Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars to the Battle of Cecora and Wars in 1633-1634. Cossacks numbers expanded with peasantry immigration from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by Szlachta to turn Zaporoijan Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognized as equal to szlachta were constantly rebuffed and plans for transforming the Two-Nations Commonwealth (Polish-Lithuanian) into Three Nations (with the Cossack and Ruthenian people) were limited to a small minority of forward-thinking men. Waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachta's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth in the early 17th century. The largest of these was the Chmielnicki Uprising, which together with The Deluge is considered to be one of the events which brought an end to the Golden Age of the Commonwealth. This uprising freed Cossacks from the Commonwealth sphere of influence, only to make them servants of the Russian Empire after the Treaty of Pereyaslav and Treaty of Andrusiv. The final attempt to rebuild the Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commwealth in the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach came to nought after military intervention of Muscovy combined with the infighting among Cossacks themselves. After this point, the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two semiautonomous republics of Muscovy: the Cossack Hetmanate , and the more independent Zaporozhia. A Cossack organization was also established in the Muscovite colony of Sloboda Ukraine. These organizations gradually lost their independence, and were abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia, Sloboda Ukraine the Kharkiv province, and Zaporozhia was absorbed into New Russia. Valuing the relative freedom they enjoyed in Imperial Russia, the Cossacks mainly fought against Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War of 1919, both within the White movement and as partisans. At the same time, many poor Cossacks also joined the Red Army. This notwithstanding, after the victory of the Soviet Union, the new regime repressed the Cossack culture and way of life. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union the Cossacks once again joined opposing sides of the conflict. At the end of World War II, about British troops "repatriated" more than 150,000 Cossack men, women, and children to the USSR. Many of these people had never been Soviet citizens. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, efforts to revive the Cossack traditions have grown. ==Cossack Organization== In early times, Cossack tribes were commanded by an ataman (later called hetman). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada, as were the other important tribe officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, a ''bulava''. The ataman had executive powers and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislature was given to the Tribal Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called ''starshyna''. In the absence of written laws, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the common, unwritten law. Cossack society and government was militarized. The nation was called a host (''vois’ko'', sometimes translated "army"), and subdivided into regimental and company districts, and village posts (''polky'', ''sotni'', and ''stanytsi''). After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the Poland-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks are known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks. ==The Cossack Image== [[Image:Kozacka piesn.jpg|thumb|right|A modern Cossack, Ostrap Kindratchuk, playing the bandura on a Old Market in Poznan]] Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealising freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against enemies of the Russian people have contributed to this favorable image. For others they have been a symbol of repression because of their role in suppressing popular uprisings during the Tsarist period, as well as their frequent role in deadly anti-Jewish attacks. Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian literature: one might particularly mention the work of Nikolai Gogol (Taras Bulba), Leo Tolstoy and of Mikhail Sholokhov. == Terminology == ===Ukrainian Cossacks === [[Image:Tabor.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Tabor (military unit), Poland.]] * Hetman - a Ukrainian Cossack supreme military leader * bulava - a ceremonial mace, a symbol of Hetman's authority * starshyna - officers ** polkovnyk - colonel ** oboznyi ** osaul ** khorunzhyi ** otaman - lieutenant * Tabor (formation) - a tactic using a set of horse-drawn wagons, mastered by Cossacks in 16-17th century ===Russian Cossacks === *Voisko (Slavic word, literally means "army", probably of Polish language origin ("Wojsko" in polish) - a major cossack military and administrative unit. *Ataman - a Russian cossack military leadership or subordinate leader (possibly derived from ''Hetman'', which in its turn derived from German language ''Hauptmann'' ("headman" or "captain") or more likely derived from "ataman" in Turkish) *Sotnia ("hundred") - a military unit. *Stanitsa - cossack settlement, a village. * Cossack, Prikazny, Uryadnik (minor and major), Podkhorunzhiy, Khorunzhiy, Sotnik, Podyesaul, Yesaul, Voiskovoy starshina, -- cossack military ranks (from lowest up) ==See also== * Cossack motorcycle * Kosinski Uprising * Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks == External links == * [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages/Z/A/ZaporizhiaThe.htm Zaporizhian Cossacks] * [http://www.armymuseum.ru/kaz1_e.html History of Cossacks] * [http://encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/C/O/Cossacks.htm Ukrainian Cossacks History of Ukrainian Cossacks] * [http://www.cossacks.kiev.ua/ Ukrainian Cossacks] Ukrainian history Polish history Russian history Cossacks Cavalry
The original article here simply said "From an old encylcopedia". It is obviously from the 1911 EB article, available at http://63.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CO/COSSACKS.htm, so I am editing the remark accordingly. -- User:Jmabel 00:27, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC) Where did you found this bullshit? What about Wikipedia:Neutral point of view? Can you tell me some valuable sources (books or internet resources)? User:62.138.55.46 18:20, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC) :"where?" - the references are in the text. :"NPOV?" :*if you have something to contibute, you are welcome. :*if you know or suspect that something ''specific'' is wrong, you are welcome to correct or raise doubt. :*if you think it is bullshit and have nothing more to say, GFY. User:Mikkalai 20:17, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC) I have found that in this article (there are also other) ''Cossack'' (in meaning warrior on ukrainian territory, Zaporizhzhya) and ''Kazak'' (rusified offsprings of ''Cossack'' in Imperial Russia. They lived in Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semiryechensk, Amur, and Ussuri voiskos) often used in the same meaning. It seems to me that some peoples means that ''Cossacks'' were nation. This is wrong! Today there are no ''Cossacks'' but there are ''Kazaks''. My english is not good enought to write such a stuff but i will try to find some sources in Internet and will post here. User:62.159.105.210 11:51, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC) == and Jews == I removed the following piece: :''The Cossacks are known of of anti-Jewish pogroms, both in Poland (Bohdan Chmielnicki) and in Imperial Russia.'' It appears that this phrase mixes oranges and orangs here. While it is generally true, but it is not so easy. While the case of Chmielnicki is clear, in Imperial Russia the main History of cossacks article claims that Jews were not allowed to settle in the cossack territory, hence we can speak about anti-Semitism in this case, but not about pogroms. User:Mikkalai 18:44, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC) --- The sentence removed: ''Most present-day Cossacks live in or near the Ukraine.'' : As it stands, the sentence is meaningless ad hardly verifiable. First of all, "cossacks" is not a nationality, therefore it is difficult to count them; no census data of today has an item "cossack". Second, the number of those who can consider themselves as descendants of cosacks in Russia vastly greater than in Ukraine, for various reasons. User:Mikkalai 01:10, 24 May 2004 (UTC) Agreed, I think it is fair comment however to say that the Cossacks evolved in the Ukraine despite the fact that they were employed by the Russian authorities to carry out almost all their invasions, raids, conquests and pogroms resulting in their dispersal throughout the former Soviet areas and even beyond.User:210.118.226.38 08:58, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC) == Ataman == An anon added: ''or more likely derived from "ataman" in Turkish''. What does in mean in Turkish, when did the word enter Turkish language; what is the relation with Hauptmann? User:Mikkalai 18:39, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Some thoughts == I'm reading Mikhail Sholokhov's 'And quiet flows the Don' and checked out this article to get some historical context. Would it be possible to add in the role of the Don Cossacks in WWI? That's the main focus of the book and it is almost entirely absent in this article. Also -- could some info be added about the "mercenary" status of the Cossacks until WWI? That's the impression I get from Sholokhov, how true is it to reality? I think the book itself should be mentioned in the article, along with Polish and Ukrainian works (unfortunately I'm not too familiar with them) It's quite a jumble with sorting out the Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian (not to mention Soviet) versions of history and trying to make everything mostly fair and impartial. You're to be commended for your efforts! User:Matthias5 23:24, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
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[[Image:Repin Cossacks.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey. Painted by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.]] Cossack (Polish language ''Kozak''; plural, ''Kozacy'', Russian language ''Kazak'' (''Казак''); plural, ''Kazaki'' (''Казаки''), Ukrainian language ''Kozak'' (''Козак''); plural, ''Kozaky'' (''Козаки'')) is the name given to a portion of the population of Eastern Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia. Cossacks settled in parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, particularly in areas now comprising southern Russia and Ukraine. They were known for their military skills although in the Soviet Union their special service was discontinued and the Cossack culture was suppressed. Their culture began a revival in Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The name is derived from the Turkic languages ''quzzaq'', "adventurer", "freeman". The term is first mentioned in a Ruthenian document dated 1395. Cossacks should not be confused with the Kazakhs (''Kazakh'' is spelled ''Qazaq'' (''Казак'') in the native language). "Cossacks" (Kozacy) was also the name given to a kind of light cavalry in Poland-Lithuania regardless of ethnicity. == History of Cossacks == ''Main article: History of Cossacks'' It is not clear when the Slavic peoples started to settle in the lower reaches of the Don River, Russia and the Dnieper river. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongol hordes broke the power of Cumans and other Turkic tribes on that territory. Proto-Cossacks could have come to existence in the territories of today's Ukraine in the mid-13th century, when crowds of Slavs fled south to escape the Tatar yoke. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Russian chronicles. More peasants escaped to the Don and the Dnieper's cataracts in the following centuries, when the system of serfdom started to develop in Poland and Russia. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant. In the 15th century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, often merging into larger units of a military character, entirely separate and mostly independent from any other local countries (like Poland, Muscovy or khanate of Crimea). By the 16th century these Cossack societies were merged into two relatively independent territorial organisations: * The Cossacks of Zaporizhia, on the lower bends of the river Dnieper, between Russia, Poland and the Tatars of the Crimea, with the fortified capital, Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the Zaporozhian Host, by treaty with Poland in 1649. * Don Cossack State, on the river Don, separating the then weak Russian state from the Mongol and Tatar tribes, vassals of the Ottoman Empire [[Image:Bohdan Chmielnicki z Tuhaj Bejem pod Lwowem Matejko.JPG|250px|right|thumb|"Bohdan Chmielnicki with Tuhaj-Bej at Lwow", oil on canvas, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw. Chmielnicki Uprising 1648-1654. Painted by Jan Matejko]] Historical documents of that period refer to those states as sovereign nations with a unique warrior culture, whose main source of income was the pillaging their neigbours. They were renowned for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals (like the Tatars), although they didn't shy from pillaging other neighbours. Their actions increased the tension at the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Kresy), which resulted in almost constant low-level warfare taking place in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Commonwealth. In 1539 the Grand Duke Vasili III of Russia asked the Ottoman Sultan to curb the Cossacks and the Sultan replied "The Cossacks do not swear allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please." In 1549 the Czar Ivan the Terrible, replied to a request of the Turkish Sultan to stop the aggressive actions of the Don Cossacks, stating, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge." Similar exchanges passed between Russia, Ottomans and the Commonwealth, each of which tried to use Cossack warmongering for its own purposes. Cossacks for their part were mostly happy to plunder everybody more or less equally, although in the 16th century, with Commonwealth dominance extending south, the Zaporojian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded as subjects of the Commonwealth. Registered Cossacks (Polish ''Kozacy rejestrowi'') were a part of Commonwealth army until 1699. Around the end of 16th century, the relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottomans, which were not very cordial to begin with, further worsened with the growing number of independent actions by the Cossacks. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding (''chadzki'') territories under Ottoman rule. The Commonwealth could not control fiercely independent Cossacks, but was held responsible for them, since at that time they were nominally under Commonwealth rule. Reciprocally Tatars living under Ottoman rule were raiding the Commonwealth, mostly in the south-east which were fairly sparsely inhabited, while the Cossacks were raiding the heart of Ottoman Empire, its wealthy merchant port cities, which were just two days away from mouth of river Dniepr Cossacks used as their main transportation route. By 1615, Cossacks had even burned the townships on the outskirts of Istanbul. Consecutive treaties between Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth called both parties to curb Cossacks and Tatars but its execution was almost nonexistent on both sides of the border. In internal agreements, forced by Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However boats could be rebuilt fast, and the Cossacks' style of life required glory and booty. Sometimes Cossacks just needed money to live and sometimes Habsburgs bribed them to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks hated Tatars, who after all burned their estates and villages (the feeling was quite mutual here). Cossacks almost yearly raided the Ottomans territories and vassals near the Black Sea, almost always causing the retaliatory Tatar raids (or vice versa). The ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire south-eastern Commonwealth border into a low-level warzone and led to the escalation of the Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars to the Battle of Cecora and Wars in 1633-1634. Cossacks numbers expanded with peasantry immigration from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by Szlachta to turn Zaporoijan Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognized as equal to szlachta were constantly rebuffed and plans for transforming the Two-Nations Commonwealth (Polish-Lithuanian) into Three Nations (with the Cossack and Ruthenian people) were limited to a small minority of forward-thinking men. Waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachta's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth in the early 17th century. The largest of these was the Chmielnicki Uprising, which together with The Deluge is considered to be one of the events which brought an end to the Golden Age of the Commonwealth. This uprising freed Cossacks from the Commonwealth sphere of influence, only to make them servants of the Russian Empire after the Treaty of Pereyaslav and Treaty of Andrusiv. The final attempt to rebuild the Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commwealth in the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach came to nought after military intervention of Muscovy combined with the infighting among Cossacks themselves. After this point, the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two semiautonomous republics of Muscovy: the Cossack Hetmanate , and the more independent Zaporozhia. A Cossack organization was also established in the Muscovite colony of Sloboda Ukraine. These organizations gradually lost their independence, and were abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia, Sloboda Ukraine the Kharkiv province, and Zaporozhia was absorbed into New Russia. Valuing the relative freedom they enjoyed in Imperial Russia, the Cossacks mainly fought against Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War of 1919, both within the White movement and as partisans. At the same time, many poor Cossacks also joined the Red Army. This notwithstanding, after the victory of the Soviet Union, the new regime repressed the Cossack culture and way of life. During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union the Cossacks once again joined opposing sides of the conflict. At the end of World War II, about British troops "repatriated" more than 150,000 Cossack men, women, and children to the USSR. Many of these people had never been Soviet citizens. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, efforts to revive the Cossack traditions have grown. ==Cossack Organization== In early times, Cossack tribes were commanded by an ataman (later called hetman). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada, as were the other important tribe officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, a ''bulava''. The ataman had executive powers and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislature was given to the Tribal Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called ''starshyna''. In the absence of written laws, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the common, unwritten law. Cossack society and government was militarized. The nation was called a host (''vois’ko'', sometimes translated "army"), and subdivided into regimental and company districts, and village posts (''polky'', ''sotni'', and ''stanytsi''). After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the Poland-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks are known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks. ==The Cossack Image== [[Image:Kozacka piesn.jpg|thumb|right|A modern Cossack, Ostrap Kindratchuk, playing the bandura on a Old Market in Poznan]] Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealising freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against enemies of the Russian people have contributed to this favorable image. For others they have been a symbol of repression because of their role in suppressing popular uprisings during the Tsarist period, as well as their frequent role in deadly anti-Jewish attacks. Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian literature: one might particularly mention the work of Nikolai Gogol (Taras Bulba), Leo Tolstoy and of Mikhail Sholokhov. == Terminology == ===Ukrainian Cossacks === [[Image:Tabor.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Tabor (military unit), Poland.]] * Hetman - a Ukrainian Cossack supreme military leader * bulava - a ceremonial mace, a symbol of Hetman's authority * starshyna - officers ** polkovnyk - colonel ** oboznyi ** osaul ** khorunzhyi ** otaman - lieutenant * Tabor (formation) - a tactic using a set of horse-drawn wagons, mastered by Cossacks in 16-17th century ===Russian Cossacks === *Voisko (Slavic word, literally means "army", probably of Polish language origin ("Wojsko" in polish) - a major cossack military and administrative unit. *Ataman - a Russian cossack military leadership or subordinate leader (possibly derived from ''Hetman'', which in its turn derived from German language ''Hauptmann'' ("headman" or "captain") or more likely derived from "ataman" in Turkish) *Sotnia ("hundred") - a military unit. *Stanitsa - cossack settlement, a village. * Cossack, Prikazny, Uryadnik (minor and major), Podkhorunzhiy, Khorunzhiy, Sotnik, Podyesaul, Yesaul, Voiskovoy starshina, -- cossack military ranks (from lowest up) ==See also== * Cossack motorcycle * Kosinski Uprising * Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks == External links == * [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages/Z/A/ZaporizhiaThe.htm Zaporizhian Cossacks] * [http://www.armymuseum.ru/kaz1_e.html History of Cossacks] * [http://encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/C/O/Cossacks.htm Ukrainian Cossacks History of Ukrainian Cossacks] * [http://www.cossacks.kiev.ua/ Ukrainian Cossacks] Ukrainian history Polish history Russian history Cossacks Cavalry
Cossack
The original article here simply said "From an old encylcopedia". It is obviously from the 1911 EB article, available at http://63.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CO/COSSACKS.htm, so I am editing the remark accordingly. -- User:Jmabel 00:27, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC) Where did you found this bullshit? What about Wikipedia:Neutral point of view? Can you tell me some valuable sources (books or internet resources)? User:62.138.55.46 18:20, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC) :"where?" - the references are in the text. :"NPOV?" :*if you have something to contibute, you are welcome. :*if you know or suspect that something ''specific'' is wrong, you are welcome to correct or raise doubt. :*if you think it is bullshit and have nothing more to say, GFY. User:Mikkalai 20:17, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC) I have found that in this article (there are also other) ''Cossack'' (in meaning warrior on ukrainian territory, Zaporizhzhya) and ''Kazak'' (rusified offsprings of ''Cossack'' in Imperial Russia. They lived in Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semiryechensk, Amur, and Ussuri voiskos) often used in the same meaning. It seems to me that some peoples means that ''Cossacks'' were nation. This is wrong! Today there are no ''Cossacks'' but there are ''Kazaks''. My english is not good enought to write such a stuff but i will try to find some sources in Internet and will post here. User:62.159.105.210 11:51, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC) == and Jews == I removed the following piece: :''The Cossacks are known of of anti-Jewish pogroms, both in Poland (Bohdan Chmielnicki) and in Imperial Russia.'' It appears that this phrase mixes oranges and orangs here. While it is generally true, but it is not so easy. While the case of Chmielnicki is clear, in Imperial Russia the main History of cossacks article claims that Jews were not allowed to settle in the cossack territory, hence we can speak about anti-Semitism in this case, but not about pogroms. User:Mikkalai 18:44, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC) --- The sentence removed: ''Most present-day Cossacks live in or near the Ukraine.'' : As it stands, the sentence is meaningless ad hardly verifiable. First of all, "cossacks" is not a nationality, therefore it is difficult to count them; no census data of today has an item "cossack". Second, the number of those who can consider themselves as descendants of cosacks in Russia vastly greater than in Ukraine, for various reasons. User:Mikkalai 01:10, 24 May 2004 (UTC) Agreed, I think it is fair comment however to say that the Cossacks evolved in the Ukraine despite the fact that they were employed by the Russian authorities to carry out almost all their invasions, raids, conquests and pogroms resulting in their dispersal throughout the former Soviet areas and even beyond.User:210.118.226.38 08:58, 13 Jul 2004 (UTC) == Ataman == An anon added: ''or more likely derived from "ataman" in Turkish''. What does in mean in Turkish, when did the word enter Turkish language; what is the relation with Hauptmann? User:Mikkalai 18:39, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC) == Some thoughts == I'm reading Mikhail Sholokhov's 'And quiet flows the Don' and checked out this article to get some historical context. Would it be possible to add in the role of the Don Cossacks in WWI? That's the main focus of the book and it is almost entirely absent in this article. Also -- could some info be added about the "mercenary" status of the Cossacks until WWI? That's the impression I get from Sholokhov, how true is it to reality? I think the book itself should be mentioned in the article, along with Polish and Ukrainian works (unfortunately I'm not too familiar with them) It's quite a jumble with sorting out the Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian (not to mention Soviet) versions of history and trying to make everything mostly fair and impartial. You're to be commended for your efforts! User:Matthias5 23:24, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
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CA | CB | CD | CE | CF | CG | CH | CI | CJ | CK | CL | CM | CN | CO | CP | CR | CS | CT | CU | CW | CX | CY | CZ |Words begining with Cossack:
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