In Russian history, Cossacks can be seen at many important moments. Especially during the expansion period of Tsar Peter, the Cossacks followed his expedition to the Sea of Azov, attacked Sweden and Persia, and participated in two Russian-Polish wars, six Russian-Turkish wars, and Caucasus wars (which lasted for 60 years).
Later, the Cossacks also participated in the Great Patriotic War (1812) and marched into Siberia. As Tolstoy said, "It was the Cossacks who created Russia...they represent the future of Russia!"
The grace of the Cossacks and Russia Gratitude and resentment, how is it evaluated by today's people?
Departing to Sweden triggers division of Cossacks
In 1701 Peter went to Sweden, and a large number of Ukrainian Cossacks participated in the Russian army as cavalry.
After Peter defeated Sweden in 1702, St. Petersburg was built at the mouth of the Neva River. In the construction of the new capital, Peter recruited the Cossacks of Zaporozhye (now a southeastern Ukraine) to serve him in labor. This move aroused the dissatisfaction of the Ukrainian Cossacks, because "registered" means that the Cossacks have military status and are not required to perform corvée like serfs.
There are also rumors that Peter will abolish the Cossack chief Mazepa and replace him with a Russian general.
Panicked, Mazepa secretly made contact with Sweden in 1705 through the King of Poland as an intermediary.
At this time, the informant Kechubai from the Cossack capital Baturin (now Baturin, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine), and the head of the Cossack regiment in Poltava (in present-day Poltava Oblast, Ukraine), Stella, tipped off to Peter the Great, that Mazepa had rebelled.
Peter didn't believe it, he thought it was the conflict between the Cossack leaders that led to the two framed the lord, so he beheaded the two; another theory is that Peter handed them over to Mazepa for disposal, Mazepa Kill them, and as a result the Poltava Cossacks have since fallen to Moscow.
In 1708, King Charles XII of Sweden made his way to Moscow by way of Ukraine. Peter built fortifications in Poltava, northern Ukraine, in an attempt to defeat the Swedish army at ease.
Peter ordered the Cossacks to adopt a policy of fortifying the country and burning down the villages and towns in an attempt to trap the Swedish army. This policy once again caused dissatisfaction among the "registered Cossacks".
Fifty-four years after the conclusion of the Pereaslav Agreement, the "registered Cossacks" had replaced the Polish nobility as the landlord class of Left Bank Ukraine (Eastern Ukraine). There are as many as 500,000 farmers in Mazepa's own estate.
The policy of clearing the wall and clearing the field has shaken the loyalty of the "registered Cossacks" to the tsar.
Charles XII
Many Cossacks feared the Protestant Swedes, as well as Russian reprisals.
Later, when the Swedes approached the Cossack capital of Baturin, Peter refused to send troops to support Mazepa.
Helpless Mazepa, on October 28 of this year, led 5,000-7,000 Cossack soldiers to join the Swedish army of Charles XII.
The Ukrainian Cossack chief who supported the tsar in the past, like his predecessor Vykhovsky, chose "chaoqin and twilight".
However, "it happened in a hurry", Mazepa was not ready to fight with Peter, and only brought the army directly under the capital Batulin to Sweden.
Whether the Mazepa uprising can succeed or not depends on the attitude of the powerful local Cossack leaders.
Contrary to Mazepa's expectations, not most Cossacks followed their lead. Many Cossacks feared the Protestant Swedes, and at the same time they were afraid of Russian reprisals, so they held back.
In response to the Cossack leaders of Mazepa, there were only Apostol, the head of the Cossacks of Mirgorod, and Gorkyenko, the leader of the Cossacks of Zaporozhye.
A considerable number of Ukrainian Cossacks chose to be loyal to Peter, such as Skolopatsky, the Cossack head of Starodub (now southwestern Russia's Bryansk Oblast); Peter appointed him as the new Ukrainian Cossack chief in recognition of his loyalty.
1709, Battle of Poltava
The powerful Chernihiv Cossack leader Polubotok also led his troops to join the Russian side.
The Cossack split in the Vykhovsky era was repeated in the Mazepa era; the Cossacks split in two around whether to follow Russia.
Returning home and dismembering the Cossacks
For the Cossacks who took refuge in Sweden, the Russians used severe repression.
Furious, Peter ordered the Metropolitan of Kyiv to declare Mazepa "apostate" and expel him from the Orthodox Church.
Peter also ordered Ukrainian Governor Menshkov to raze the city of Baturin in Mazepa and the village of Zaporozhye in Gorkyenko as punishment for "killing chickens to show the monkeys".
In June 1709, in the final battle of Poltava, Charles XII, Mazepa's army and Peter's Russian army faced each other.
With the help of Skolopatsky's Cossack corps, Peter greatly outnumbered the Swedish-Mazepa side. It is said that Skolopatsky's Cossack regiment, as well as the Cossacks of Chernihiv and Poltava, joined.
Apostol, who originally responded to Mazepa's "wall grass", led the Cossacks of Mirgorod (located in present-day Poltava Oblast, north-central Ukraine) "to surrender" to Skolopatsky, resulting in pro-Russian Cossack forces Three times as much as Mazepa!
The result of the battle was the defeat of the Swedish king. Mazepa and his subordinates, the Cossacks, fled to Moldova, which was then ruled by the Ottoman Turks.
In October of the same year, Mazepa died in Moldova.
His successor, Orrik, compiled the Cossack constitution in Moldova, which is regarded by today's Ukrainian government as the earliest Ukrainian constitutional document.
After Mazepa's death, Peter started the aftermath of Ukraine. First, the Cossack capital of Mazepa's time was moved eastward from the ruined Baturin (located in present-day Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine) to near Russia. Khrushiv on the Ukrainian border (now Khrushiv, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine) to strengthen control over the Cossack state.
Next, Peter began to dispose of Mazepa's Territory.
In 1712, the territory of the Chihilin regiment directly under Mazepa on the right bank of the Dnieper was returned to Poland, and its population was relocated to the left bank of the Dnieper under Russian control, and the Chihilin regiment perished; The territory of the Uman regiment on the right bank of the Dnieper River captured by the hands was also returned to Poland.
At this point, the independent Ukrainian Cossack state has finally become history, and Ukraine has actually become a province of Russia.
Although the Ukrainian Cossacks still elect "Hetmans" as their ancestors did, it was only a formality, and the power was in the hands of the governor appointed by Moscow.
Skolopatsky, the chief of the Cossack emirate supported by Peter, died in 1722; after that, Russia established the "Little Russian Management Committee" to supervise the internal affairs of the Cossack state, and the Cossack state actually became a Russian vassal.
For the disobedient Cossack leaders, Peter adopted a tough policy and arrested Polubotok, the most powerful Cossack leader of the Chernihiv Cossacks, and imprisoned him in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.
In 1764, Tsar Catherine II abolished the post of chief of the Cossack emirates, and the "Little Russia Management Committee" took full control of Ukrainian affairs.
Despite the disappearance of the Cossack emirate, Catherine worried about the unruly Cossack head of the Ukrainian locality.
She first chose the Zaporozhye Cossacks for surgery. Zaporozhye, as the "ancestral family" of the Cossacks, maintained considerable independence even in the era of the Ukrainian Cossack Emirate and was not organized into a Cossack regiment. Not only that, in the Great Northern War, the Zaporozhye Cossacks also participated in the Mazepa side.
Catherine II
At this point, the independent Ukrainian Cossack state has finally become history, and Ukraine has actually become a province of Russia.
According to the will of Empress Catherine, the Russian Empire mobilized 31 regiments of troops to surround Zaporozhye in 1775. 5,000 of the Zaporozhye Cossacks fled and 12,000 were disarmed.
Zaporozhye's Cossack fortress was demolished for the second time, following Peter's razing of Zaporozhye in 1709; the Cossack leader was captured by the Russians and exiled to a desert island in the Arctic Circle. The Zaporozhye Cossacks thus lost their independence.
After the demolition of Zaporozhye, Empress Catherine changed the territory of each Cossack head to the tsar, which can be called the Russian version of "returning to the homeland".
At this point, the era of the Cossack leaders' separatism ended.
The Empress was obsessed with the land of the Cossacks on the right bank of the Dnieper River, which had been allocated to Poland in 1667. In 1793, the Russian Empire participated in the division of Poland, and the land west of the Dnieper River controlled by Poland originally belonged to the Cossack Cherkasy Regiment, Uman Regiment, etc., and was taken into the bag by the Queen; Russia" (now the northern coast of Ukraine's Black Sea), the whole of Ukraine has been included in the territory of the Russian Empire (excluding Galicia occupied by the Austrians).
Ukrainian nation building needs Mazepa
Mazepa, like his predecessor Khmelnitsky, believes in the power of the agreement and also firmly believes that Ukraine and Russia are a military alliance and that Russia has an obligation to protect Ukraine.
However, Khmelnitsky did not expect that, after the armistice between Russia and Poland, Russia would call the shots on behalf of the Ukrainian Cossacks and ceded the right bank of the Dnieper River to Poland; Mazepa also did not expect that when the Swedish army approached Baturin, Peter the Great refused. Fulfilling the "Pereaslav Agreement" did not fulfill the obligation to send troops to protect the Ukrainian Cossacks.
The level of bureaucracy and centralization of the entire Cossack state was very low, and it was actually a union of various Cossack heads.
Russians recreate the battle of Poltava
Mazepa head portrait of Ukrainian 10 hryvnia banknote
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Russia competed with Poland, Sweden, and Turkey for hegemony. The Ukrainian Cossacks can only choose to rely on the strong and be "a chess piece", not a chess player. Eventually, it was annexed by Russia, which promised to protect itself.
Mazepa's failure was not all the result of Russia and Sweden competing for Ukraine, and the internal conflict of the Cossacks was also the reason for its downfall.
Although the Cossack state already has official positions such as secretary and chief judge, the level of bureaucracy and centralization of the entire Cossack state is very low, and it is actually a union of various Cossack heads.
As the ruler of the Cossack country, Mazepa has limited actual power and is restrained by the heads and leaders of the Cossack countries. Without the response of the head of the regiment, Mazepa could only use his own army. In order to become the chief of the Cossacks, the Cossack leaders from all over the country did not hesitate to take refuge in Russia and betray their kin. In the historical trend of the competition between Russia and Switzerland, the Cossack country is destined to fall into the hands of strong neighbors.
In the era of imperial Russia, even a poet as talented and free-thinking as Pushkin, in his work "Poltava", belittled Mazepa as a despicable villain with a desire for power. During the Soviet era, due to the nationalist rebellions led by Petliura and Bandera, Mazepa was also regarded by the Soviet regime as a traitor for splitting the country.
Khrushchev commemorated the 300th anniversary of the "Russian-Ukrainian merger" in 1954 with great fanfare, and commemorated Khmelnitsky, the leader of the Ukrainian national uprising against Poland, as one of the founders of the multi-ethnic state of the Soviet Union. He is still critical of Mazepa who rebelled against Tsarist Russia.
After Ukraine became independent in 1991, the idea of unification in the imperial Russia and Soviet eras lost its market, and Ukrainian nationalism prevailed. However, despite Khmelnitsky's allegiance to the tsar and being criticized by some Ukrainian nationalists, the Ukrainian government still regards him as the father of the country and believes that he led the 1648 anti-Polish uprising and established the first Ukrainian nation-state .
While advocating Khmelnitsky, the discourse of Ukrainian nationalist consciousness brought Mazepa to the altar.
In the eyes of Ukrainian nationalists, Mazepa is not a tsarist, but an ally of Peter; Mazepa is not a traitor described by Pushkin, but a man who revives Ukrainian culture and serves the Ukrainian motherland. A passionate hero who fights for interests.
The Ukrainian Central Bank marked Mazepa's face on the 10-hryvnia banknote as a commemoration.
Although the territory of the Ukrainian Cossack state does not include the Polish-Lithuanian rule of western Ukraine, nor the north coast of the Black Sea, which was later conquered by Empress Catherine, the "New Russia", the Ukrainian government still regards itself as the Ukrainian Cossack Emirate. Inheritor.
The Ukrainian national anthem sings: "Compatriots, we will specify that we belong to the Cossack nation."
Since Kravchuk, successive Ukrainian presidents have used Khmelnitsky's scepter when taking the oath of office, indicating that they are still Cossack chief - successor to "Hetman".