The Cossack army was known not only in Ukraine's neighboring states such as the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, Poland, Valahiya and the Moscow Principality but also in the wider areas of Central and Western Europe.
Powerful and professional, it was the military force of no state. Members of the Cossack army were not mercenaries but joined voluntarily. The army had its own rules, structure, original tactics and territory, which it seized in battles with greater states.
It was formed to preserve mental, social, religious and national features and traditions of the oppressed Ukrainian people and had lots of patriots helping Ukrainians survive hardships. Said to be very democratic, the Cossacks were also self-disciplined and self-denying when defending their nation's freedom and independence.
Democratically elected leaders ruled the army. It consisted of regiments of different strength. Each commander had his own staff and one deputy in charge of border divisions and intelligence officers, and also a record-keeper. There were many other people: interpreters, treasurers, judges, and drivers. The most esteemed subdivision within the army was artillery. Artillerists, also known as harmashes, served in infantry, cavalry, and supply units.
Another great advantage of the army was that its members were well educated. Among their leadership were many graduates of the Ostrog Academy, Kyiv Mohyla Academy and other prominent universities of Europe. No surprise, most of them spoke a couple of languages. There was a school in the Zaporizhzhya Sich where Cossacks were taught to read and write.
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ZAPORIZKY SHIP AND SEAGULLS.
XIXth SENTURY ENGRAVING
| The selection of recruits to the Cossack army was quite unique. While any Orthodox Christian male who was ready to sacrifice his life for his people could join the Cossack army, many Cossacks grew up in the Sich. They were dzhurs, mostly orphans from around Ukraine. These boys were taught to write, read, sing and play music. Later they were drilled as soldiers. Then some of them continued their education at schools and even academies in big cities.
Some of these boys became priests at one of the forty-four churches and monasteries built under the Cossack patronage. Each church had a school and thus they also often served as teachers. Those who were faster, more agile and smarter than other adopted teens became Cossacks.
But one could become a real Cossack only after taking part in a sea raid. Being in perfect physical form, they easily mastered military arts. Although their army was sometimes defeated, Ukraine's neighbors knew they were brilliantly trained and always willing and able to fight against an apparently stronger rival.
There were battles in which they lost a hundred men but killed thousands. Their most prominent commander, Ivan Sirko, is one of very few commanders in history who was never defeated.
Good education helped the Cossacks improve their fighting ability because they could study modern weaponry and tactics of Europe's most powerful empires. But they also developed their own rules and tactics that often made them invincible. Not surprisingly, they managed to stop the advance of the powerful Ottoman army in Central Europe.
Their military tactics and maneuvers were smart and cunning. They also artfully used weapons.
The Cossacks were particularly good at "moving camp" tactics. When attacked, they formed groups behind vehicles moving in train and thus could move on wheels backwards and forwards. Each of their carts could carry ten Cossacks armed with muskets and a light cannon. Eyewitnesses claimed a few Cossacks could resist an assault carried out by a thousand horsemen. When they had more time, they dug a network of moats, making their camp impregnable.
The Cossacks rarely took fortresses by storm in order to avoid taking high numbers of casualties. They usually looked for some weak points in their enemy's defense. Seemingly unassailable Turkish and Tatar fortresses on the Azov Sea coast were usually assaulted from sea or at night from land, or in some other unconventional way. Their contemporaries noted that this unconventionality was a characteristic feature of the Cossack military art that could not be foreseen. Their sea assaults were truly impressive and spectacular. The Ottoman Empire dominated Ukraine's two seas, but a Cossack light boat was its terrifying foe.
It took the Cossacks a couple of weeks to build such a boat, which is commonly known as chaika (seagull). They used lindens and dry canes to build their fleet, which no storm and no weapon could sink. One boat carried up to sixty armed warriors and about six light cannons.
Turks vigilantly guarded the Dnipro estuary to prevent Cossack boats entering the Black Sea. But the Cossacks dragged their boats to the sea by land.
Having reached the Black Sea, the Cossacks needed about forty hours to reach any place on the Turkish shore. Their speed and agility made the whole empire panic, for nobody knew where they would appear.
When Turks attempted to attack the Cossack mosquito fleet, they often lost hundreds of people. The Cossacks boarded their ships at night, setting them on fire and drowning their sailors.
Two centuries later, Ukrainian "Green" rebels, led by Nestor Makhno, applied the same tactics in the 1919-1922 Civil War. His detachment of a few hundred people soon grew into a huge army that defeated the "White" army General Anton Ivanovich Denikin, whom the Bolsheviks were able to defeat only by amassing a "Red" army of some one million men. Makhno's detachments, as well as groups of other rebels, emerged seemingly from nowhere and always disappeared undetected. Like their ancestors, the rebels masterfully used weapons. Makhno's soldiers fought on tachankas, a horse-driven vehicle, usually a cart or an open wagon with a stationary heavy machine gun installed in the back. One can see an impressive tachanka monument in the Kherson steppe. Tanks were the tachankas of the Great Patriotic War, which people later also honored in monuments.
Not only did the Cossacks leave us their knowledge and spirit with which to build a state, which is so often remembered in Ukraine, but they also gave us their military experience, which has helped Ukrainians fight for their independence.
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