 The Ukrainian Navy Chronological Discrepancy By Serhiy KHARCHENKO |
Ukraine may be the only country to have voluntarily relinquished its status of one of Europe's oldest continuous seagoing states. While this may not seem important alongside other problems facing the country's military, the nation's naval historians view it as much more than a mere historical glitch.
On April 5, 1992, President Leonid Kravchuk signed a decree creating a navy for the resurrected country. That date was not chosen accidentally. Five hundred years earlier, on April 5, 1492, Zaporizhyan Cossacks attacked a large Turkish galley near Teginey, freeing a large group of captives. Ukrainian historian Mikhail Grushevsky determined early in the 20th century that this battle was the earliest credible mention of Zaporizhyan Cossacks at sea.
Had Kravchuk's decree recited a chronology of the history of the Ukrainian navy, officially recognizing the institution's roots, he would have established an unbroken lineage from the Cossack seamen. This would have been important, naval historians say, because it would have coincided with naval tradition. Absent a clear connection, tradition requires that the date of the first naval victory to be the day the national fleet was inaugurated.
That's what happened in the United States, whose navy celebrates the day a fleet headed by John Paul Jones was first victorious over British vessels during the war for independence in 1775.
In 1996, Russians officially observed the 300th anniversary of its navy. This celebration marks the first victory of the Russian Navy over Turks in 1696. That battle ended in the seizure of the Azov fortress.
However, in 1992 there was no celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Ukrainian navy. Later, President Leonid Kuchma buried the disturbing April date in oblivion, signing a decree establishing August 1 as the annual Navy day celebrations. If this date bears any significance to our navy, it is obscure.
Part of the problem with recognizing the Cossack sailors as the country's earliest navy is that they did not serve a Ukrainian state.
Historian Mikhail Dragomanov called Zaporizhya Sich the Christian Cossack Republic, and maintained that it had all the necessary attributes of a state. He said that strict rule let the republic mobilize its resources to challenge the greatest naval country of the time - the Ottoman Porta, which also had the strongest army in the world.
Another historian, Elena Adamovich, admits that, unlike other countries, the Zaporizhya Sich fleet did not have diverse ships with different functions. But that did not prevent the Cossacks from solving complicated strategic military problems.
Cossacks sailed in sail-and-oar powered vessels known as chayka (seagulls). The small fleet was capable of carrying out independent military operations. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was called a "mosquito fleet".
The Cossack mosquito fleet was located on Hortytsya Island, near the fortress of Zaporizhya Sich, from which its naval campaigns were launched. One ship could carry as many as 60 Cossacks. The seagulls were equipped with small cannon, and could attack an enemy's big ships almost undetected. Those attacks usually ended with an assault boarding of the enemy vessel.
The naval Cossacks had developed many tactical techniques. They could initiate assaults on many fortresses simultaneously, delivering an unexpected fatal blow. Adamovich says that the swift, tiny ships were able to cross the Black Sea quickly. With more than 300 ships and 20,000 seamen, it was a formidable naval force.
In about 1500, the Turkish sultan devised a plan to keep the chayka fleet corralled by blocking the Danube's estuary with chains to block access to the sea. Then, the sultan threatened Poland with war if it did not eliminate the Zaporizhya Sich.
The mosquito fleet continued to dominate the Black Sea, however, leading some to dub it "the Cossack Sea." Among the fleet's many prominent commanders was Admiral Petro Sagaydachny. According to written records, ships under his command gained a large number of victories. European historians compared him with Karl the Great, but the Turkish sultan called Sagaydachny his personal enemy.
Military historian Vladimir Kravtsevich-Rozhnetsky said that the Cossack fleet attacked fortresses believed to have been unimpregnable, including Ochakov, Kiliya, Kafa, Sinop and Kinburn. In 1615, Sagaydachny organized an attack on the Turkish coast and the capital. One of Sagaydachny's paramount tasks was the systematic elimination of the centers of the Turkish and Tatar slave trade in Crimea, Anatolia and Bulgaria.
Kravtsevich-Rozhnetsky says the Cossack navy began its third century as a part of the Russian Empire's navy. In 1737, Zaporizhya Cossacks played the leading role in the assault of the Turkish fortress at Ochakov.
Turkish fortresses at Berezan, Sulim and the "most unassailable" Izmayil subsequently surrendered. Cossacks participated in all of these attacks. The Russian army simply did not have similar elements.
After playing the important role in the history of Eastern Europe for 300 years, the Zaporizhyan "mosquito fleet" was ended. The tsarist government relocated the fleet to the Taman peninsula on the shore of the tiny Azov Sea.
For three centuries, the Cossack mosquito fleet proved with courageous victories that the triumph near Teginey in 1492 was neither accidental nor exceptional. But in 1992, there were enough opponents to successfully block recognition of the Cossack contribution to Ukrainian naval traditions.
Ukraine's first naval commander, Rear Adm. Boris Kozhin, remembers that in 1992 when they started to create the navy, Ukraine was under pressure from Russian sailors and the Russian-speaking population of Sevastopol, who considered Ukrainian sailors strangers in Crimea who received everything on the shores of the Black Sea, yet encroached upon the "glory of the Russian weapons."
Retired Capt Anatoly Sivak said that, if in 1995-1996, during the division of the Black Sea Fleet, we had mentioned two dates of birth - 300 years and 500 years - perhaps the struggle of Ukrainian sailors for a place in Sevastopol's bays would not have been so dramatic.
Sivak remembers that Ukraine put all its efforts into keeping one of the seven bays in Sevastopol.
Today, Ukraine has almost no desire to bring up the subject of the division again. The commander, Rear Adm. Igor Knyaz, said recently that the nation's naval forces were adopting the so-called brigade structure. Worldwide practice indicates that such a structure does not imply a territorial expansion, and considerably limits the navy's function.
Historical records indicate that the Cossack mosquito fleet may have strayed as far as the shores of Africa. Today's Ukrainian mariners are unlikely to make a similar foray. Although the country has indicated that it wishes to take part in anti-terrorist patrols in the Mediterranean with NATO ships, the country has no such plans in the future, said Knyaz.
He said that Ukrainian naval forces will follow the NATO program in 2005 in accordance with the 1997 charter outlining a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the alliance.
While Ukraine is not strengthening its position on the international naval arena, the Russian Federation is actively asserting itself as a naval power in the Black Sea.
Russian Adm. Viktor Kuroedov, who commands the Black Sea fleet, said that in 2005 the navy would be supplied with submarines. Russia plans to send its Black Sea ships to India and organize missile practice led by the cruiser Moscow. These two actions will be held for the first time since 1990.
The admiral emphasized that the ships of the Black Sea fleet would be regular partners with NATO during patrols in the Mediterranean. Historian Sivak said that he thinks Russia's strategic purpose might be to create a permanent presence in the Mediterranean.
The participants of the 2004 Yalta European summit declared that Europe cannot control either the Mediterranean or the Black Seas without Ukraine. With Ukraine's naval forces in a state of stagnation, it is quite possible the Russian navy will take a leading role in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea basins, says Sivak.
He also foresees that Ukraine's Navy will most likely move to the outskirts of the Black Sea - to the so-called Donuzlav. Donuzlav is the lake situated away from Sevastopol's bays and connected to the sea by a canal.
Knyaz says it is not inconceivable that part of the ships will be relocated from Sevastopol to Donuzlav, as Streletzky Bay - the Sevastopol bay that belongs to Ukraine - is not large.
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Read also previous issue' articles:
Are Ukraine's Political Habits Unique?
Is Ukraine's Economic Growth Speculation-led?
Ukraine is Drifting to the West - Slowly but Surely
The Unfinished Orange Revolution?
Vacuums, Reforms and the Need to Regain the Initiative
Pirates of the 21st century
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