Zaporizhian Sich

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Zaporizhian Sich or Zaporozhian Sech (Ukrainian: Запорізька Січ,Zaporiz'ka Sich) original Slavonic name "Zaporizhska Sich'" was the center of the Cossacks of Zaporizhzhia. The term has also been metonymically used as an informal reference to the whole Zaporizhzhia or to Zaporozhian Host.

Initially Zaporizhian Sich was a fortified military camp the foundation for which was laid out on the Isle of Khortytsia (Mala Khortytsia, Khortytsia Minor) in 1556 by D.I. Vyshnevetsky. But only in 1618 Hetman Petro Konashevych Sagaidachny ordered his Cossacks to build the earthen perimeter with the log walls on top of it. The log fort was surrounded with the massive abatis made from entire trees. Hence the term "Sich": it is a noun derived from the verb "to cut" and denotes the abatis way of fortification: by cutting the forest.

1 Sich as a pirate republic
2 Further development
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] Sich as a pirate republic

From the social and economic point of view, Sich originated as a typical pirate republic of the 16th century. Its population was quite international. It included Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish peasants that run away from their feudal masters, outlaws of every sort, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish galleys, etc. Remoteness of the place and rapids at the Dnepr river effectively guarded the place from invasions of revengeful powers. The natural business of this motley crowd was robbery. The main target – rich settlements on the Black Sea shores of the Ottoman Empire.

[edit] Further development

In later years Sich become the center of Cossack dwellings situated to the south of the borders of Muscovy (in the so called "borderland", or Russian: "украина" ). Zaporozhian Host, was governed by the Sichova Rada and sometimes the term Zaporizhian Sich is applied to the "Cossack state". After the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654), the Host split into two, the Hetmanate with its capital at Chyhyryn, and the more autonomous region of Zaporizhzhia which continued to be based at the Sich (although the Sich changed location several times).

The period after 1654, before it sided with Mazepa and was disbanded in 1709, soon after the Baturyn was razed, is sometimes referred to as the Old Sich (Stara Sich). From 1734 to 1775 the New Sich (Nova Sich) existed, disbanded after the failure of the Pugachev Uprising.

[edit] See also

Dmytro Yavornytsky, historian of the Zaporozhian Cossacks who mapped the locations of the various Siches.
Zaporozhets - a Soviet/Ukrainian car, whose name means Zaporizhia's citizen (like New Yorker in New York).