Ukrainian Cossack History

A vocabulary set covering the terminology, key dates, and historical concepts of the Ukrainian Cossack era from its origins to its liquidation.

Cossack

A term derived from the Turkic language meaning a free, armed person.

1489

The year of the first written mention of Cossacks, found in Martin Bielski's Polish chronicle.

Wild Fields (Dyke Pole)

The sparsely populated steppe territories in southern Ukraine where the Cossacks first emerged.

Ukhodnyky

Peasants, townspeople, or nobles who seasonally ventured into the steppe for hunting, fishing, and gathering meat and honey.

Zaporozhian Sich

A fortified military headquarters or 'staff' for the Cossacks, first established on Khortytsia Island.

1556

The year the first Zaporozhian Sich was founded on Khortytsia Island by Dmytro 'Baida' Vyshnevetsky.

Register

An official list of Cossacks who served the Polish King and received a salary, land, and weapons.

Universal

An official decree or order, such as the one issued by Sigismund Augustus in 1572 to establish the first Cossack register.

Era of Heroic Campaigns

The period during the first two decades of the 17th century marked by successful Cossack raids against Crimea and the Ottoman Empire.

Chaikas

Small, maneuverable Cossack boats that were highly effective in sea battles against large Ottoman galleys.

Deulino Truce (1618)

A treaty where Muscovy ceded Smolensk and Chernihiv-Sivershchyna to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth following a campaign led by Sahaidachny.

Taras Night

A 1630 event during Taras Fedorovych's uprising where Cossacks infiltrated a Polish camp at night and destroyed an elite unit.

Kodak

A Polish fortress built near the Zaporozhian Sich to control the Cossacks, destroyed by Ivan Sulyma in 1635.

Ordinance of the Zaporozhian Host (1638)

A Polish document that severely restricted Cossack rights, abolished the election of a Hetman, and recognized only 6,000 registered Cossacks.

Golden Peace (1638–1648)

A decade in Polish history characterized by the absence of Cossack uprisings following the Ordinance of 1638.

Zboriv Treaty (1649)

An agreement establishing the Cossack state in three voivodeships (Kyiv, Bratslav, Chernihiv) with a register of 40,000 men.

March Articles (1654)

A treaty between Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Moscow that placed the Cossack state under the protection of the Russian Tsar with a register of 60,000.

The Ruin (1657–1687)

A devastating period of civil war and foreign intervention in Ukraine following the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

Grand Duchy of Ruthenia

The proposed status of Ukrainian lands within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Hadiach Treaty of 1658.

Andrusovo Truce (1667)

A treaty between Poland and Muscovy that divided Ukraine along the Dnipro River for a period of 13.5 years.

Eternal Peace (1686)

A treaty that permanently divided Ukraine between Poland and Muscovy, giving Moscow control over the Left Bank, Kyiv, and Zaporizhzhia.

Little Russian Collegium

An administrative body of Russian officials established by Peter I to govern the Hetmanate and bypass the Hetman's authority.

Zadunaiska Sich

A Cossack settlement established within the Ottoman Empire's territory after the Russian liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775.