Chapter V: The Cossack

Cossack is a Tartar word. In the sixteenth century the term was used all over Russia to designate floating labor--the kind that has no definite occupation nor permanent abode. During the kingdom of Moscow mercenary soldiers were called Cossacks. In southwestern Russia, Little Russians made serfs by the Polish gentry known as Shliachta escaped into the steppes to the so-called Ukraina. Here they organized into bands to fight the invading Tartars, and here originated the Little Russian Cossack.

At the end of the fifteenth century, hunters from Kiev went south into the steppes to “Cossack,” that is, to trade in fish and game. These hunters made most of their money by inciting raids against the Tartars and the Turks, and this incensed these races against Poland. Poland wished to make soldiers of the Cossacks in time of war, and workmen in time of peace. But that displeased the unbridled Cossacks. They established a center of their own called Zaporojie, which means “Beyond the Rapids.” These rapids are on the River Dnieper, and there a camp of armed traders was formed. Their number was greatly augmented by the Cossacks of the Ukraina, when they felt the yoke of the Poles intolerable. Eventually any malcontent or adventurer was received by the Cossacks regardless of race or creed. There was no conception of nationality among them. They regarded Turkey, Moldavia, and even Moscow as sources of plunder, and they considered the Polish gentry their worst enemies. They offered their services to the Emperor of Germany against the Turks, to Turkey against Moscow, and had no scruples in siding with Moscow and Crimea against the Poles.

In the Seventeenth Century the Cossacks learned that an alliance had been entered into by the Polish king with the Polish pans (gentry) and the Jews, and that they were all preparing to make war upon the Church of Russia. Thereby the Cossacks, being also orthodox, were drawn into a religious war with the Poles. In 1625, the Metropolitan of Kiev called upon the Cossacks to defend the Russian Church.

In the middle of the Seventeenth Century the Cossack commander, Bogdan Chmelnitzky, decided to rid his country of the Polish yoke and forever free the Ukraina, the real home of the Little Russian. He instigated an attack against the Poles through the Khan of Crimea, and marched into Poland with the Crimean Tartars and Cossacks. Poland was defeated, but the Little Russians could not rid themselves of the Poles completely. So they appealed to the Russian Tzar Alexis, and begged him to receive Little Russia under his protection, and asked that all Little Russians be accepted as his subjects. In case the Tzar would refuse, they threatened to form an alliance with the Sultan of Turkey.

Upon Alexis taking in the Cossacks, there followed a war with Poland. At first the Russians were successful and took Smolensk and Lithuania, but in the second war (1664) the Russians lost because of a previous five years’ exhausting war with the Swedes.

When Nicholas I parcelled off to the Cossacks of the Ukraina certain lands, and told them to farm them, a great many became dissatisfied, saying they were warriors, not tillers of the soil. So they became the warrior population, guarding the southern and eastern frontiers of their country; hence the Kuban Cossacks, the Don Cossacks, the Ural Cossacks, etc. They retained the privilege of electing their own ataman, or chief, who appointed all officers, and at first they took orders from him only, and not even the Russian War Minister had power to dictate to them. All commands were given directly by the Tzar to the ataman, and his subordinates executed the orders.

The Cossacks constitute the most loyal body of men the Emperor has to this day. It was told in the last revolution that an ultimatum was sent to the Jews by the Cossacks to the effect that if they did not discontinue their agitation against the Tzar, the Cossacks would march against them five hundred thousand strong, and annihilate them. This declaration had its effect, and while some few soldiers mutinied, no Cossack was found wanting. The Cossacks are the backbone of Russia; take them away and she will go to pieces.

Socially, the Cossacks are delightful, big-hearted people, very hospitable and jolly. In many ways they resemble the cowboys as they were twenty years ago in the West. Like the cowboys, they are excellent shots, even better riders, though they cannot handle the lasso at all.

As no foreigner is allowed in Kerki, I risked my liberty for daring to enter this forbidden military zone]