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Zaporozhian Sich
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Zaporozhian Sich
The Zaporozhian Sich was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Zaporozhian Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries. For the latter part of that period, it was an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossack Hetmanate. The lands of Zaporozhian Sich were centred around the Great Meadow region of Ukraine, spanning the lower Dnieper river. In different periods the area came under the sovereignty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate (itself a vassal of the Ottoman Empire), the Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy), and the Russian Empire.
The establishment of the Zaporozhian Sich was an important factor in the defense of Ukraine and Russia from Crimean-Nogai raids. Simultaneously, the Cossack raids originating from it caused similar destabilising effects in the region. In c. 1650, its total population consisted of 100,000. In 1657–1687, the Zaporizhian Sich was practically independent, possessing its own administration and armed forces consisting of 12,000–20,000 Cossacks. It was reliant on population growth, mainly consisting of Ukrainian refugees from devastated lands.
In 1775, shortly after Russia annexed the territories ceded to it by the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774), Catherine the Great disbanded the Sich. She incorporated its territory into the Russian province of Novorossiya.
The term Zaporozhian Sich can also refer metonymically and informally to the whole military-administrative organisation of the Zaporozhian Cossack host.
The name Zaporizhzhia refers to the military and political organization of the Cossacks and to the location of their autonomous territory 'beyond the rapids' (za porohamy) of the Dnieper River. The Dnieper rapids were a major portage on the north–south Dnieper trade route. The term sich is a noun related to the East Slavic verb sich (сѣчь), meaning 'to chop' or 'cut'; it may have been associated with the usual wood sharp-spiked stockades around Cossack settlements.
The full, official name of the polity centred around the Sich was the Free Lands of the Lower Zaporozhian Host (Ukrainian: Вольностi Вiйська Запорозького Низового, romanized: Volnosti Viyska Zaporozkoho Nyzovoho), where host is a name for a large army or other military congregation.
The Sich was located in the region around the Great Meadow (Velykyi Luh) in today's south-eastern Ukraine, which was flooded by the Kakhovka Reservoir from the construction of the Kakhovka Dam in 1956 until its destruction in 2023. The area was also known under the historical term Wild Fields.
A possible precursor of the Zaporozhian Sich was a fortification (sich) built on the Tomakivka island the Tomakivka Sich, in the middle of the Dnieper in the present-day Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. However, there is no direct evidence about the exact time of the existence of Tomakivka Sich, whereas indirect data suggest that at the time of Tomakivka Sich there was no Zaporozhian Sich yet.
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Zaporozhian Sich
The Zaporozhian Sich was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Zaporozhian Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries. For the latter part of that period, it was an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossack Hetmanate. The lands of Zaporozhian Sich were centred around the Great Meadow region of Ukraine, spanning the lower Dnieper river. In different periods the area came under the sovereignty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Crimean Khanate (itself a vassal of the Ottoman Empire), the Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy), and the Russian Empire.
The establishment of the Zaporozhian Sich was an important factor in the defense of Ukraine and Russia from Crimean-Nogai raids. Simultaneously, the Cossack raids originating from it caused similar destabilising effects in the region. In c. 1650, its total population consisted of 100,000. In 1657–1687, the Zaporizhian Sich was practically independent, possessing its own administration and armed forces consisting of 12,000–20,000 Cossacks. It was reliant on population growth, mainly consisting of Ukrainian refugees from devastated lands.
In 1775, shortly after Russia annexed the territories ceded to it by the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774), Catherine the Great disbanded the Sich. She incorporated its territory into the Russian province of Novorossiya.
The term Zaporozhian Sich can also refer metonymically and informally to the whole military-administrative organisation of the Zaporozhian Cossack host.
The name Zaporizhzhia refers to the military and political organization of the Cossacks and to the location of their autonomous territory 'beyond the rapids' (za porohamy) of the Dnieper River. The Dnieper rapids were a major portage on the north–south Dnieper trade route. The term sich is a noun related to the East Slavic verb sich (сѣчь), meaning 'to chop' or 'cut'; it may have been associated with the usual wood sharp-spiked stockades around Cossack settlements.
The full, official name of the polity centred around the Sich was the Free Lands of the Lower Zaporozhian Host (Ukrainian: Вольностi Вiйська Запорозького Низового, romanized: Volnosti Viyska Zaporozkoho Nyzovoho), where host is a name for a large army or other military congregation.
The Sich was located in the region around the Great Meadow (Velykyi Luh) in today's south-eastern Ukraine, which was flooded by the Kakhovka Reservoir from the construction of the Kakhovka Dam in 1956 until its destruction in 2023. The area was also known under the historical term Wild Fields.
A possible precursor of the Zaporozhian Sich was a fortification (sich) built on the Tomakivka island the Tomakivka Sich, in the middle of the Dnieper in the present-day Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. However, there is no direct evidence about the exact time of the existence of Tomakivka Sich, whereas indirect data suggest that at the time of Tomakivka Sich there was no Zaporozhian Sich yet.
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