Ukrainian Cossack



In the 15th century a new martial society, the Cossacks was beginning to evolve in Ukraine’s southern steppe frontier.



These where venturesome men who entered the steppe seasonally for hunting, fishing.



Their numbers were continually increased by peasants fleeing serfdom and adventurers from all walks of life, including the nobility.



Banding together for mutual protection, the Cossacks had developed a military organization of a peculiarly democratic kind, with a general assembly as the supreme authority with elected officers, including the commander in chief, or hetman.



Their centre was the Sich, an armed camp in the lands of the lower Dnieper “beyond the rapids” hence, the Zaporozhia.