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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



the wide steppe just deserted by the Tartars, 

 which separated the Muscovite territory toward 

 the Black Sea from the empire of the sultans of 

 Stamboul. Krassnov, himself a Cossack, asserts 

 that "it was not known whence they came; but 

 speecb, religion, and, still more, inviolable at- 

 tachment and devotion to the czars, disclose a Rus- 

 sian origin." Still, perceptible signs and inveterate 

 habits prove the " long-previous existence " of 

 this confederacy. 



It was not only fugitives from Tartar despot- 

 ism, and inhabitants of disorganized countries 

 from which their conquerors had just been driven, 

 that swelled the ranks of the community. Many 

 who had experienced the republican freedom of 

 the free state of Novgorod fled before the sharp 

 discipline of the Muscovite czars to the steppes 

 of Southern Russia. Thus a democratic spirit 

 and a knowledge of democratic institutions, which 

 became so marked a feature of the Cossack polity, 

 allied themselves to the warlike and adventurous 

 genius of the earlier members of the body. The 

 genuine "Free Cossack," as we learn from Mr. 

 Mackenzie Wallace, lived beyond the frontiers of 

 Muscovy, or Russia, or Poland, and there formed 

 " self-governing communities." Every river flow- 

 ing toward the south was held by some Free Cos- 

 sack confederacy, which permitted neither Chris- 

 tian nor Tartar to pass through its territory with- 

 out its leave. Officially, they were Russians by 

 race, Christians by religion, and — except the 

 Cossacks of the Dnieper, who owned the sway of 

 the kings of Poland — loyal subjects of the czars. 

 In effect, they were anything but the last. They 

 obeyed the mandates of the czar, and were ac- 

 knowledged by him as his subjects whenever it 

 was convenient to both parties. If disobedience 

 were more pleasing to them, they readily dis- 

 claimed their allegiance ; and, on the other hand, 

 if they had proved unduly troublesome to neigh- 

 bors with whom Muscovy was at peace, they were 

 unhesitatingly disavowed. 



South of Russia (before the empire reached 

 the Euxine and the former dominions of Poland) 

 extended a wide tract of country in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Dnieper known as the Ukraine, a 

 word which — as Jonas Hanway wrote a hundred 

 and twenty-five years ago — signifies frontier. 

 This was the chosen home of many Cossack con- 

 federacies. An important branch was known by 

 the name of Zaporoghes or Zaporovians. They 

 established their seicha or capital on an island on 

 the Dnieper, the Korlitz-koi-Ostrof. The mar- 

 ried people lived in villages on the steppe and 

 the river-banks, and the single in their fortified 



headquarters on the island of Karlitzkoi. Mr. 

 Wallace's description of their mode of life is 

 very interesting. The setcha contained thirty- 

 eight enormous wooden sheds or barracks, in 

 each of which lived a troop of Cossacks some 

 six hundred strong, called a kuren. These build- 

 ings must have borne a considerable resemblance 

 to the extensive timber structures which sur- 

 rounded the court-yard of a Japanese daimio's 

 yashiki, and which housed his numerous retain- 

 ers. Each kuren. assembled at common meals — 

 a reminder of the (rva-ff'iTia of the ancient Spar- 

 tans. No woman was admitted within the in- 

 closure of the citadel. The members of this 

 military brotherhood called themselves Lytsars, a 

 corruption of the German liittcr, or knight, in 

 acknowledgment of the similarity of their mode 

 of life to that of some of the ecclesiastico-mili- 

 tary fraternities of the middle ages. All offices 

 were elective, and the period of incumbency was 

 a year. The head of a kuren was chosen by his 

 fellows, and any member was eligible to the post ; 

 any head of a kuren might be elected attaman 

 (hetman). 



Cossacks of all branches were ready to turn 

 their arms against any power with whom they 

 had a quarrel, even against that to which they 

 professed allegiance. At one time they were in 

 the habit of furnishing troops to the Voivodes 

 established in the Ukraine by the Lithuanian 

 princes. The expenses of these troops they bore 

 themselves, to be recouped, it should be under- 

 stood, for their outlay by the plunder of the ene- 

 my's country. In the sixteenth century the Mus- 

 covites seem to have strengthened their hold on 

 some important branches of the great Cossack 

 confederacy. In 1579 they made their appear- 

 ance for the first time in the Russian armies. In 

 1580 those who served the Polish kings were first 

 divided into pulks, or regiments, while defending 

 Tshegrin against the Tartars. A few years later 

 King Stephen divided them into ten regiments of 

 infantry and a body of horse numbered at 2,000. 

 The sovereigns of Poland requited their services 

 by what they considered encroachments on their 

 rights. These gave rise to a long series of con- 

 tentions, and in the end they sought the protec- 

 tion of Russia, to which they transferred their 

 allegiance in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury. ' They remained faithful to their new mas- 

 ters until the period of the invasion of Russia by 

 Charles XII., when they offered their services to 

 that monarch. It is with this branch of the 

 Cossack family that the romantic fable of Ma- 

 zeppa is connected. Peter the Great disbanded 



