History of the Cossacks: Difference between revisions

Several theories speculate about the origins of the Cossacks. According to one theory, [[Cossacks]] have [[Slavic peoples |Slavic]] origins,<ref>{{cite book|last1= Hill|first1= Fiona|last2= Gaddy|first2= Clifford G.|title= The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MtmQM_fDrsEC&pg=PT81|year= 2003|publisher= Brookings Institution Press|isbn= 0-8157-9618-8|page= 81|chapter= Siberia - Plenty of Room for Error}}</ref> while another theory states that the [[Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk]] of 1710 attests to [[Khazar]] origins.<ref>The connection is in part supported by old Cossack ethnonyms such as ''kazara'' ({{lang-ru|казара}}), ''kazarla'' ({{lang-ru|казарла}}), ''kozarlyhi'' ({{lang-ua|козарлюги}}), ''kazare'' ({{lang-ru|казарре}}); cf. N. D. Gostev, "About the use of "Kazarа" and other derivative words", ''Kazarla'' ethnic magazine, 2010, No.1. [[Www.kazarla.ru|(link)]] The name of the Khazars in Old Russian chronicles is ''kozare'' ({{lang-ua|козаре}}).</ref> Modern scholars believe that Cossacks have both [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] and [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] origins.<ref>In the 19th century, [[Peter V. Golubovsky]] of [[Kiev University]] explained that the [[Severians]] made up a significant part of early-medieval Russians and Khazars. He described the Khazar state as the "Slavic stronghold in the East". Many Khazars, like Cossacks, as described in [[The Cossacks (novel)| ''The Cossacks'']] by Leo Tolstoy, could be Slavic-Turkic bilinguals. *{{in lang|ru}} Golubovsky Peter V. (1884) [http://www.runivers.ru/lib/book3143/10047/ ''Pechenegs, Torks and Cumans before the invasion of the Tatars. History of the South Russian steppes in the 9th-13th Centuries''] (Печенеги, Торки и Половцы до нашествия татар. История южно-русских степей IX—XIII вв.); available at [[Runivers.ru]] in [[DjVu]] format. Later [[Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov|Mikhail Artamonov]] and his school confirmed many of Golubovsky's conclusions.</ref> The Academician [[Ivan Zabelin]] mentioned that peoples of the prairies and of the woods had always needed "a live frontier", and even ancient Borisphenites ([[DnieprDnieper]] [[Scythians]]) and [[Tanais | Tanaites]] could be the predecessors of the Cossacks,<ref>Ivan Zabelin. The history of Russian life. http://az.lib.ru/z/zabelin_i_e/text_0050.shtml</ref> not only the Khazars who may have assimilated, but this also includes the [[Severians]], [[Goths]], [[Scythians]], and other ancient inhabitants, as insisted by Cossack folklore, by the Constitution of [[Pylyp Orlyk]], and by numerous Cossack historians. Because of the need of both the [[Soviet]] and the [[White movement|anti-Bolshevik]] forces to deny any separate Cossack ethnicity, the traditional post-[[Russian Empire|imperial]] [[historiography]] dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14th-15th centuries. Non-mainstream theories, however, have borrowed the date 948 from imperial historiography, and ascribe an earlier Cossack existence to the tenth century, but deny Cossack links both to "the old people" (Khazars) and to "the new people" (Russians and Ukrainians; the very terms "old people" and "new people" being coined by the 11th-century [[Hilarion of Kiev| Metropolitan Ilarion]] of Kiev),<ref name=Galskow>Vasili Glazkov (Wasili Glaskow), ''History of the Cossacks'', p. 3, Robert Speller & Sons, New York, {{ISBN|0-8315-0035-2}}

Cossacks were{{when?|date=April 2021}} mainly East Slavs.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cossack|title= Cossack {{!}} Russian and Ukrainian people|encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date= 2018-08-24|language= en}}</ref> In the 15th century, the term originally described semi-independent [[Tatar]] groups which lived on the [[DniproDnieper River]], which flows through [[Ukraine]], [[Russia]], and [[Belarus]].

* [[Zaporozhian Host|Zaporizhia]], on the lower bends of the river [[Dnieper|Dnipro]] in Ukraine, between Russia, Poland, and the Tatars of the Crimea, with their centre as the [[Zaporozhian Sich]]

The Don cossacksCossacks known for their attacks on the [[Ottoman Empire]] and its [[vassal]]s (like the Tatars), although they did not shy away from pillaging other neighbouring communities. Their actions exacerbated the tension at the southern border of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] ([[Kresy]]), resulting in almost constant low-level warfare in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Commonwealth.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Performing Russia : folk revival and Russian identity|last=Olson, Laura J.|date=2006|publisher=RoutledgeCurzon|isbn=9780415326148|pages=163|oclc=775318938}}</ref>