 The Cossacks and the haidamaks are respected and worshipped in Ukraine. The Cossacks were soldiers that defended their motherland and fought against invaders. All Ukrainians seem to know who the Cossacks were. This word requires no special definition. The haidamaks were insurgents that fought against landlords, occupiers, and nobles. They defended social freedoms, the Orthodox faith and Ukraine's independence. Our enemies have always portrayed the Cossacks as idlers, revelers, topers, and willful rioters. These characteristics do not, however, explain why Polish kings, Turkish sultans and Russian tsars were so afraid of the Cossacks.
Our foes have always characterized the haidamaks as hooligans, robbers and bandits but the armies of Poland and Russia were forced to unite to defeat them.
As far as the common people, they composed many legends, songs and stories about the Cossacks and the haidamaks, admiring them as heroes and defenders. They were paragons of courage, patriotism and dignity many parents used to bring up their children. The haidamak movement arose in Podillya at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The haidamaks fought in bands against Polish occupiers, Jewish landlords and Uniats, whose church was in communion with the Roman Catholic Church but retained Orthodox rites and codes of canon law. Thus the movement was not only social and national but also religious. The movement was also caused by Russia's withdrawal from its agreement with Poland on mutual defense. Ukrainians could not tolerate Poland's plan to impose serfdom and introduce Catholicism. The occupiers destroyed or took away churches, windmills, taverns and other enterprises. Then they began torturing Orthodox infidels, and such cruel practices were quite widespread. Once led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky to destroy Poland and regain their freedom, Ukrainians could not put up with tortures and humiliation.
The first uprising occurred in the summer of 1734, having immortalized those who led it: Goly, Medvid, Hryva, Moskal, Pysarenko, Motorny, Gylko, and Verlan.
In the summer of 1750, another rebellion shattered Podillya. The rebels liberated Vinnytsya, Uman, Radomyshel and other towns but then stopped, without leaders.
The greatest uprising broke out at the beginning of 1786. Called Koliyivshchyna, it was the culmination of the movement. Each pupil in Ukraine knows its details, for Taras Shevchenko described Koliyivshchyna in his poem The Haidamaks. Although the author resorted to a few metaphorical exaggerations, the book quite realistically pictures mutual cruelty, hatred and inability to reconcile. Cossack Maksym Kryvonis, who was a well-educated man with excellent knowledge of military techniques, led thousands of oppressed surfs. Near Uman, four hundred Cossacks led by Ivan Gonta joined his army. They believed they would win because the Russian empress had allegedly promised military assistance. They hoped to wipe out the Poles and root out serfdom in Ukraine.
The Polish government felt it was unable to cope with such a great uprising and asked the Russian tsarina for help. Like the Poles, Catherine II was afraid of the people's wrath. She found it very difficult to bridle her serfs and could never yoke Ukrainian peasants.
She sent her troops against the haidamaks. The rebels thought the Russians were coming to help and so welcomed them credulously. The rioters were seized and later executed.
Ivan Gonta was given to Poland where he was tortured inhumanly for two weeks before his death. The Poles pulled out his heart, chopped his body into twelve pieces, and then exhibited the parts in market squares to intimidate the peasants.
The Russian government was slightly more compassionate. Maksym Zaliznyak was whipped and caned and later sent to Siberia, his nostrils torn.
Thousands of Ukrainians were impaled along the road from Kholodny Yar to Warsaw. Even today, two centuries later, old people still stop on this road for a minute to pray and honor the tortured heroes.
The haidamak movement was also active in western Ukraine, which belonged to Poland. The rebels were called opryshkas and led by the Zaporizhyan Cossacks, thereby applying similar military tactics.
Their most prominent leader was the legendary Oleksa Dovbush. It took the Poles, who were terrified of Dovbush and his comrade in arms, Ivan Boychuk, several years to defeat their bands. Other insurgents acting along the Dniester River in Halychyna were called deineky.
Remembering those events, Shevchenko wrote: "Ukraine was roaring, burning and flooded with blood..."
Unfortunately, the ocean of blood and torments did not prevent Ukrainian-Polish conflicts in the twentieth century.
When our country became independent and Poland free, the two nations apologized and forgave each other. They decided to peacefully coexist and cooperate. What they could not settle with fire and weapons was eventually settled with the power of Christian love. The clock of peace, mutual respect and friendship was restarted. We all wish it had never stopped.
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