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166-504: The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops: Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons, while Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers. The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts . Each host had

332-466: A revolt , and, with the help of Denmark , blockaded maritime trade to neutral Elbląg (Elbing). Báthory, unable to penetrate the city's extensive fortifications, succumbed to the demands for greater privileges and freedoms. However, his successful Livonian campaign ended in the annexation of Livonia and the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (modern-day Estonia and Latvia , respectively), thus expanding

498-581: A Cossack near Kiliya . In the 16th century, these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organizations, as well as other smaller, still-detached groups: There are also references to the less well-known Tatar Cossacks, including the Nağaybäklär and Meshchera -speaking Volga Finns , of whom Sary Azman was the first Don ataman . These groups were assimilated by the Don Cossacks, but had their own irregular Bashkir and Meshchera Host up to

664-689: A Romanian origin with large Slavic influences) began to settle in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the Don and the Dnieper after the demise of the Khazars . Their arrival was probably not before the 13th century, when the Mongols broke the power of the Cumans , who had assimilated the previous population on that territory. It is known that new settlers inherited a lifestyle that long pre-dated their presence, including that of

830-660: A centuries-long tradition of a nobles' democracy ( Golden Liberty ). Henry already posed as a candidate before Sigismund's death and received widespread support from the pro-French factions. The choice was a political move aimed at curtailing Habsburg hegemony, ending skirmishes with the French-allied Ottomans , and profiting from the lucrative trade with France. It was also believed that an Austrian Archduke could be too powerful and attempt to limit noble privileges. French envoys had also offered large amounts of bribes, amounting to several hundred thousand ecus . Upon ascending

996-504: A century, from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th, while its neighbours stabilised their internal affairs and increased their military might. The Commonwealth did eventually make a serious effort to reform its political system, adopting in 1791 the Constitution of 3 May 1791 , which historian Norman Davies calls the first of its kind in Europe. The revolutionary Constitution recast

1162-498: A combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with Stanisław Żółkiewski . The final attempt by King Sigismund and Wladyslav to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was Jan Karol Chodkiewicz who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of Dorogobuzh and Vyazma had surrendered. But

1328-500: A contract with merchants of Gdańsk, who controlled 80% of this inland trade, to ship the grain north to that seaport on the Baltic Sea . Countless rivers and waterways in the Commonwealth were used for shipping purposes, including the Vistula , Pilica , Bug , San , Nida , Wieprz , and Neman . The rivers had relatively developed infrastructure, with river ports and granaries . Most of

1494-696: A defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and Mozhaysk , prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including Livny and Yelets . In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace

1660-652: A lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with those of the Knights Hospitaller . The Cossack structure arose, in part, in response to the struggle against Tatar raids. Socio-economic developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were another important factor in the growth of the Ukrainian Cossacks. During the 16th century, serfdom was imposed because of the favorable conditions for grain sales in Western Europe. This subsequently decreased

1826-493: A mass scale were opened to satisfy the demands of the nobility as consumers. At the height of the Great Northern War a coalition ( Warsaw Confederation ) against Augustus II was formed by Stanisław Leszczyński and other magnates sponsored by Sweden. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formally neutral at this point, as Augustus entered the war as Elector of Saxony. Disregarding Polish negotiation proposals supported by

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1992-472: A mixture of: The end of the Jagiellonian dynasty in 1572 – after nearly two centuries – disrupted the fragile equilibrium of the Commonwealth's government. Power increasingly slipped away from the central government to the nobility. When presented with periodic opportunities to fill the throne, the szlachta exhibited a preference for foreign candidates who would not establish

2158-441: A nobleman's landholding comprised a folwark , a large farmstead worked by serfs to produce surpluses for internal and external trade. This economic arrangement worked well for the ruling classes and nobles in the early years of the Commonwealth, which was one of the most prosperous eras of the grain trade . The economic strength of Commonwealth grain trade waned from the late 17th century on. Trade relationships were disrupted by

2324-611: A prisoner of the Solovetsky Islands . Some Cossacks moved to the Danube Delta region, where they established a new sich under Ottoman rule. To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowed them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later to reorganize into other hosts, of which

2490-649: A reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals , although they also sometimes plundered other neighbors. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the period of the Commonwealth (1569–1795). Prior to the formation of the Zaporozhian Sich , Cossacks had usually been organized by Ruthenian boyars , or princes of

2656-519: A series of blows during the following decades. Władysław's brother, John II Casimir , proved to be weak and impotent. The multicultural and mega-diverse federation already suffered domestic problems. As persecution of religious and ethnic minorities strengthened, several groups started to rebel. A major rebellion of self-governed Ukrainian Cossacks inhabiting south-eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth rioted against Polish and Catholic oppression of Orthodox Ukraine in 1648, in what came to be known as

2822-608: A state that was unusual for its time, although somewhat similar political systems existed in the contemporary city-states like the Republic of Venice . Both states were styled "Serenissima Respublica" or the " Most Serene Republic ". At a time when most European countries were headed toward centralization , absolute monarchy and religious and dynastic warfare, the Commonwealth experimented with decentralization , confederation and federation, democracy and religious tolerance . This political system unusual for its time stemmed from

2988-416: A strong and long-lasting dynasty . This policy often produced monarchs who were either totally ineffective or in constant debilitating conflict with the nobility. Furthermore, aside from notable exceptions such as the able Stefan Batory from Transylvania (1576–86), the kings of foreign origin were inclined to subordinate the interests of the Commonwealth to those of their own country and ruling house. This

3154-451: A substantial increase in the power of the Polish magnates , and the transformation of szlachta democracy into magnate oligarchy . The Commonwealth's political system was vulnerable to outside interference, as Sejm deputies bribed by foreign powers might use their liberum veto to block attempted reforms. This sapped the Commonwealth and plunged it into political paralysis and anarchy for over

3320-468: A term used from 1573 on), included: The three regions (see below) of the Commonwealth enjoyed a degree of autonomy . Each voivodship had its own parliament (sejmik), which exercised serious political power, including choice of poseł ( deputy ) to the national Sejm and charging of the deputy with specific voting instructions. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania had its own separate army, treasury and most other official institutions. Golden Liberty created

3486-411: A territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsas . They inhabited sparsely populated areas in the Dnieper , Don , Terek , and Ural river basins, and played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and parts of Russia. The Cossack way of life persisted via both direct descendants and acquired ideals in other nations into the twentieth century, though

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3652-610: A waterway connecting this lake (by Gastaldo labeled Ioanis Lago , by Mercator Odoium lac. Iwanowo et Jeztoro ) to Ryazan and the Oka River. Mercator shows Mtsensk ( Msczene ) as a great city on this waterway, suggesting a system of canals connecting the Don with the Zusha ( Schat ) and Upa ( Uppa ) centered on a settlement Odoium , reported as Odoium lacum ( Juanow ozero ) in the map made by Baron Augustin von Mayerberg , leader of an embassy to

3818-571: Is a broad, deep waterway capable of transporting oil tanker size vessels. It is one of two which enables ships to depart the Caspian Sea , the other, a series, connected to the Baltic Sea . The level of the Don where connected is raised by the Tsimlyansk Dam, forming the Tsimlyansk Reservoir . For the next 130 kilometres (81 mi) below the Tsimlyansk Dam, the sufficient depth of the Don

3984-529: Is maintained by the sequence of three dam-and-ship-lock complexes: the Nikolayevsky Ship Lock ( Николаевский гидроузел ), Konstantinovsk Ship Lock ( Константиновский гидроузел ), and the best known of the three, the Kochetovsky Ship Lock ( Кочетовский гидроузел ). The Kochetovsky Lock, built in 1914–19 and doubled in 2004–08, is 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) downstream of the discharge of

4150-656: Is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia , it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire . Its basin is between the Dnieper basin to the west, the lower Volga basin immediately to the east, and the Oka basin (tributary of the Volga) to the north. Native to much of

4316-669: The Black Sea Cossack Host together with Loyal Zaporozhians. Most of the remaining Cossacks who had stayed in the Danube Delta returned to Russia in 1828. They settled in the area north of the Azov Sea , becoming known as the Azov Cossacks . The majority of Zaporizhian Cossacks who had remained loyal to Russia despite the destruction of Sich became known as Black Sea Cossacks . Both Azov and Black Sea Cossacks were resettled to colonize

4482-666: The Black Sea Host was most important. Because of land scarcity resulting from the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among landlords, they eventually moved on to the Kuban region . The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Groups were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period, and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in

4648-649: The Cossack szlachta . The uprising was one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth, known as The Deluge , which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later. Influential relatives of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian szlachta in Moscow helped to create the Russian–Polish alliance against Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, portrayed as rebels against order and against

4814-739: The Crimean Khanate . In 1261, Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant, as is the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period. As early as the 15th century, a few individuals ventured into the Wild Fields , the southern frontier regions of Ukraine separating Poland-Lithuania from

4980-499: The Danube River , never again to threaten central Europe. John Sobieski's death in 1696 arguably ended the period of national sovereignty, and Poland's relative authority over the region dwindled swiftly. By the 18th century, destabilization of its political system brought the Commonwealth to the brink of civil war and the state became increasingly susceptible to foreign influence. The remaining European powers perpetually meddled in

5146-727: The Danubian Sich . While Ukrainian folklore remembers the Danubian Sich, other new siches of Loyal Zaporozhians on the Bug and Dniester rivers did not achieve such fame. Other Cossacks settled on the Tisa river in the Austrian Empire , also forming a new Sich. During the Cossack sojourn under Turkish rule, a new host was founded that numbered around 12,000 people by the end of 1778. Cossack settlement on

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5312-577: The Dnieper Rapids (Ukrainian: za porohamy ), also known as the Wild Fields . The group became well known, and its numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics , participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Russia , and the Ottoman Empire . The Zaporozhians gained

5478-825: The Don Republic and the Kuban People's Republic , and the revived Hetmanate emerged in Ukraine. Cossack troops formed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army , and Cossack republics became centers for the anti-Bolshevik White movement . With the victory of the Red Army , Cossack lands were subjected to decossackization and the Holodomor famine. As a result, during the Second World War, their loyalties were divided and both sides had Cossacks fighting in their ranks. Following

5644-632: The Four-Year Sejm 's May Constitution , came too late. The country was partitioned in three stages by the Russian Empire, the German Kingdom of Prussia , and the Austrian Habsburg monarchy . By 1795, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been completely erased from the map of Europe. Poland and Lithuania were not re-established as independent countries until 1918. The political doctrine of

5810-599: The Khmelnytsky Uprising . Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654) brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule. The Sich, with its lands, became an autonomous region under the Russian protectorate. The Don Cossack Army, an autonomous military state formation of the Don Cossacks under the citizenship of the Moscow State in the Don region in 1671–1786, began a systematic conquest and colonization of lands to secure

5976-544: The Khmelnytsky Uprising . It resulted in a Ukrainian request, under the terms of the Treaty of Pereyaslav , for protection by the Russian Tsar. In 1651, in the face of a growing threat from Poland, and forsaken by his Tatar allies, Khmelnytsky asked the Tsar to incorporate Ukraine as an autonomous duchy under Russian protection. Russian annexation of Zaporizhian Ukraine gradually supplanted Polish influence in that part of Europe. In

6142-512: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , existing from 1569 to 1795. This state was among the largest and most populated countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its peak in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth spanned nearly 1,000,000 km (390,000 sq mi) and supported a multi-ethnic population of approximately 12 million as of 1618. The official languages of

6308-587: The Kuban steppe , a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the Caucasus . In 1860, more Cossacks were resettled to the North Caucasus , and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host . The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe, and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula , then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to

6474-636: The Ottoman Empire . In 1683, the Battle of Vienna marked the final turning point in the 250-year struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottomans. For its centuries-long opposition to Muslim advances, the Commonwealth would gain the name of Antemurale Christianitatis (bulwark of Christianity). During the next 16 years, the Great Turkish War would drive the Turks permanently south of

6640-631: The Polish Enlightenment began to sprout. In 1764, aristocrat Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected monarch with the connivance and support of his former lover Catherine the Great , a German noblewoman who became Empress of Russia. Poniatowski's attempts at reform were met with staunch resistance both internally and externally. Any goal of stabilizing the Commonwealth was dangerous for its ambitious and aggressive neighbours. Like his predecessors, he sponsored artists and architects. In 1765 he founded

6806-401: The Polish–Ottoman War of 1633–1634. Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by peasants escaping serfdom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the formerly strong Cossack loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambitions for recognition as equal to

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6972-401: The Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations (1791). In the preamble of the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations (1791) the dualistic nature of the state was confirmed and separate monarchial titles of Stanisław August Poniatowski were included: King of Poland ( Polish : Krol Polski ) and Grand Duke of Lithuania ( Polish : Wielki xiązę litewski ), also the land envoys of the Polish Crown and

7138-505: The Roman Catholic -dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the Union of Brest . The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish. After the Ottoman-Polish and Polish-Muscovite warfare ceased, the official Cossack register was again reduced. The registered Cossacks ( reiestrovi kozaky ) were isolated from those who were excluded from

7304-411: The Seversky Donets and 131 kilometres (81 mi) upstream of Rostov-on-Don . It is at 47°34′07″N 40°51′10″E  /  47.56861°N 40.85278°E  / 47.56861; 40.85278 . This facility, with its dam, maintains a navigable head of water locally and into the lowermost stretch of the Seversky Donets. This is presently the last lock on the Don; below it, deep-draught navigation

7470-430: The Third Statute of Lithuania in which it was stated that the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is a federation of two countries – Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland where both countries have equal rights within it. In the 17th century and later it was also known as the 'Most Serene Commonwealth of Poland' ( Polish : Najjaśniejsza Rzeczpospolita Polska , Latin : Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae ),

7636-581: The Thirty Years' War ; this neutrality spared the country from the ravages of a political-religious conflict that devastated most of contemporary Europe. During this period, Poland was experiencing a cultural awakening and extensive developments in arts and architecture; the first Vasa king openly sponsored foreign painters, craftsmen, musicians and engineers, who settled in the Commonwealth at his request. Sigismund's eldest son, Ladislaus succeeded him as Władysław IV in 1632 with no major opposition. A skilled tactician, he invested in artillery , modernised

7802-448: The Union of Vilnius and Radom and the Union of Grodno . Lithuania's vulnerable position and rising tensions on its eastern flank persuaded the nobles to seek a closer bond with Poland. The idea of a federation presented better economic opportunities, whilst securing Lithuania's borders from hostile states to the north, south and east. Lesser Lithuanian nobility were eager to share the personal privileges and political liberties enjoyed by

7968-406: The United States . Max Vasmer 's etymological dictionary traces the name to the Turkic word kazak , kozak , in which cosac meant 'free man' but also 'conqueror'. The ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root. In written sources, the name is first attested in the Codex Cumanicus from the 13th century. In English , Cossack is first attested in 1590. The origins of

8134-521: The Warsaw Confederation Act of 1573 , though the practical degree of religious freedom varied. Poland acted as the dominant partner in the union. Polonization of nobles was generally voluntary, but state efforts at religious conversion were sometimes resisted. After a long period of prosperity, the Commonwealth entered a period of protracted political, military, and economic decline. Its growing weakness led to its partitioning among its neighbours, Austria , Prussia , and Russia , during

8300-449: The Warsaw Corps of Cadets , the first state school in Poland for all classes of society. In 1773 the king and parliament formed the Commission of National Education , the first Ministry of Education in European history. In 1792, the king ordered the creation of Virtuti Militari , the oldest military decoration still in use. Stanisław August also admired the culture of ancient kingdoms, particularly Rome and Greece; Neoclassicism became

8466-414: The bourgeoisie , resulted in a fairly slow process of urbanization and thus a rather slow development of industries . The nobility could also regulate the price of grain for their advantage, thus acquiring much wealth. Some of the largest trade fairs in the Commonwealth were held at Lublin . Several ancient trading routes such as the Amber Road ( Pic. 4 ) extended across Poland–Lithuania, which

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8632-403: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took an active part in post-Soviet conflicts . In the 2002 Russian Census , 140,028 people reported their ethnicity as Cossack. There are Cossack organizations in Russia, Kazakhstan , Ukraine , Belarus , and the United States . The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe below

8798-405: The suzerainty of the Russian Tsar from 1667 but was ruled by local hetmans for a century. The principal political problem of the hetmans who followed the Pereyeslav Agreement was defending the autonomy of the Hetmanate from Russian/Muscovite centralism. The hetmans Ivan Vyhovsky , Petro Doroshenko and Ivan Mazepa attempted to resolve this by separating Ukraine from Russia. Relations between

8964-431: The szlachta . Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian szlachta of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the szlachta . The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church also put them at odds with officials of

9130-427: The 1630s, these Cossack groups remained ethnically and religiously open to virtually anybody, although the Slavic element predominated. There were several major Cossack hosts in the 16th century: near the Dnieper, Don, Volga and Ural Rivers ; the Greben Cossacks in Caucasia ; and the Zaporozhian Cossacks , mainly west of the Dnieper. It is unclear when people other than the Brodnici and Berladnici (which had

9296-487: The 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects. Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King Stephen Báthory granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of

9462-412: The 16th century. From Gdańsk, ships carried cargo to the major ports of the Low Countries , such as Antwerp and Amsterdam . The land routes, mostly to the German provinces of the Holy Roman Empire such as the cities of Leipzig and Nuremberg , were used for the export of live cattle (herds of around 50,000 head) hides , salt, tobacco, hemp and cotton from the Greater Poland region. In turn,

9628-548: The 1990s, numerous regional authorities consented to delegate certain local administrative and policing responsibilities to these reconstituted Cossack hosts. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate themselves with the Cossack cultural identity across the world even though the majority, especially in the Russian Federation, have little to no connection to the original Cossack people because cultural ideals and legacy changed greatly with time. Cossack organizations operate in Russia , Ukraine , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Canada , and

9794-419: The Americas rendered the Commonwealth's supplies less crucial which resulted in financial losses. Augustus III spent little time in the Commonwealth, instead preferring the Saxon city of Dresden . He appointed Heinrich von Brühl as viceroy and minister of Polish affairs who in turn left the politics to Polish magnate families, such as the Czartoryskis and the Radziwiłłs . It was also during this period that

9960-461: The Commonwealth entirely ceased to exist only four years after its adoption. The economy of the Commonwealth was predominantly based on agricultural output and trade, though there was an abundance of artisan workshops and manufactories – notably paper mills , leather tanneries , ironworks , glassworks and brickyards . Some major cities were home to craftsmen, jewellers and clockmakers. The majority of industries and trades were concentrated in

10126-426: The Commonwealth imported wine, beer, fruit, exotic spices, luxury goods (e.g. tapestries , Pic. 5 ), furniture, fabrics as well as industrial products like steel and tools. The agricultural sector was dominated by feudalism based on the plantation system ( serfs ). Slavery was forbidden in Poland in the 15th century, and formally abolished in Lithuania in 1588, replaced by the second enserfment. Typically

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10292-402: The Commonwealth of the Polish Kingdom, or the Commonwealth of Poland. Western Europeans often simplified the name to 'Poland' and in most past and modern sources it is referred to as the Kingdom of Poland, or just Poland. The terms 'Commonwealth of Poland' and 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' ( Polish : Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów , Latin : Res Publica Utriusque Nationis ) were used in

10458-472: The Commonwealth was our state is a republic under the presidency of the King . Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that Rex regnat et non-gubernat ("The King reigns but [ lit. 'and'] does not govern"). The Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king ( Pic. 1 ). The king was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Henry's Articles as well as in pacta conventa , negotiated at

10624-469: The Commonwealth were Polish and Latin , with Catholicism as the state religion. The Commonwealth was established as a single entity by the Union of Lublin on 1 July 1569. The two nations had previously been in a personal union since the Krewo Agreement of 1385 and the subsequent marriage of Queen Jadwiga of Poland to Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania , who was crowned jure uxoris King of Poland. Their descendant, Sigismund II Augustus , enforced

10790-454: The Commonwealth's influence into the Baltics . Most importantly, Poland gained the Hanseatic city of Riga on the Baltic Sea . In 1587, Sigismund Vasa – the son of John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon – won the election, but his claim was overtly contested by Maximilian III of Austria , who launched a military expedition to challenge the new king. His defeat in 1588 at the hands of Jan Zamoyski sealed Sigismund's right to

10956-408: The Cossack starshyna (nobility), their property, and their autonomy under his rule; and freed the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence and the land claims of the Ruthenian szlachta . Only some of the Ruthenian szlachta of the Chernigov region, who had their origins in the Moscow state, saved their lands from division among Cossacks and became part of the Cossack szlachta . After this,

11122-412: The Cossack starshyna , including hetman Ivan Vyhovsky . The treaty failed, however, because the starshyna were divided on the issue, and it had even less support among rank-and-file Cossacks. As a result of the mid–17th century Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Zaporozhian Cossacks briefly established an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764). It was placed under

11288-417: The Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Russian Tsardom: the Cossack Hetmanate , and the more independent Zaporizhia . These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by Catherine II in the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia , and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia . With the destruction of

11454-428: The Cossacks are disputed. Originally, the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups ( qazaq or "free men") who inhabited the Pontic–Caspian steppe , north of the Black Sea near the Dnieper River . By the end of the 15th century, the term was also applied to peasants who had fled to the devastated regions along the Dnieper and Don Rivers , where they established their self-governing communities. Until at least

11620-504: The Crimean Khanate. These were short-term expeditions, to acquire the resources of what was a naturally rich and fertile region teeming with cattle, wild animals, and fish. This lifestyle, based on subsistence agriculture , hunting, and either returning home in the winter or settling permanently, came to be known as the Cossack way of life. Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe caused considerable devastation and depopulation in this area. The Tatar raids also played an important role in

11786-409: The Dnieper via Pereyaslavl . This area was settled by a population of free people practicing various trades and crafts. Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic , was a federative real union between

11952-461: The Don was influenced by the Byzantine Empire because the river was important for traders from Byzantium. In antiquity, the river was viewed as the border between Europe and Asia by some ancient Greek geographers. In the Book of Jubilees , it is mentioned as being part of the border, beginning with its easternmost point up to its mouth, between the allotments of the sons of Noah , that of Japheth to

12118-661: The Empire in order to abolish slavery and harsh bureaucracy, and to maintain independence. The Empire responded with executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–1708, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708, and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host after Pugachev's Rebellion in 1775. After

12284-552: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( Polish : posłow ziemskich Korony Polskiey, y Wielkiego Xięstwa Litewskiego ) were mentioned. The English term Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and German Polen–Litauen are seen as renderings of the 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' variant. Other informal names include the 'Republic of Nobles' ( Polish : Rzeczpospolita szlachecka ) and the 'First Commonwealth' ( Polish : I Rzeczpospolita ) or 'First Polish Republic' ( Polish : Pierwsza Rzeczpospolita ),

12450-767: The Hetmanate and their new sovereign began to deteriorate after the autumn of 1656, when the Muscovites, going against the wishes of their Cossack partners, signed an armistice with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Vilnius . The Cossacks considered the Vilnius agreement a breach of the contract they had entered into at Pereiaslav. For the Muscovite tsar, the Pereiaslav Agreement signified the unconditional submission of his new subjects;

12616-599: The Kingdom of Poland; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was more rural and its economy was driven by farming and clothmaking. Mining developed in the south-west region of Poland which was rich in natural resources such as lead , coal, copper and salt. The currency used in Poland–Lithuania was the złoty (meaning "the golden") and its subunit, the grosz . Foreign coins in the form of ducats , thalers and shillings were widely accepted and exchanged. The city of Gdańsk had

12782-483: The Kuban region are bilingual, speaking both Russian and Balachka , the local Kuban dialect of central Ukrainian . Their folklore is largely Ukrainian. The predominant view of ethnologists and historians is that its origins lie in the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks. The waning loyalty of the Cossacks, and the szlachta 's arrogance towards them, resulted in several Cossack uprisings against

12948-560: The Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars (1593–1617) to the Battle of Cecora (1620) , and campaigns in

13114-507: The Poles to take and occupy Moscow for the next two years. The disgraced Vasili IV of Russia was transported in a cage to Warsaw where he paid a tribute to Sigismund; Vasili was later murdered in captivity. The Commonwealth forces were eventually driven out on 4 November 1612 (celebrated as Unity Day in Russia). The war concluded with a truce that granted Poland–Lithuania extensive territories in

13280-671: The Polish szlachta , but did not accept Polish demands for the incorporation of the Grand Duchy into Poland as a mere province, with no sense of autonomy. Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł (Radvila Rudasis) and his cousin Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł , two prominent nobles and military commanders in Lithuania, vocally opposed the union. A fierce proponent of a single unified Commonwealth was Sigismund II Augustus , who

13446-492: The Polish government. Cossack rebellions eventually culminated in the Khmelnytsky Uprising , led by the hetman of the Zaporizhian Sich, Bohdan Khmelnytsky . The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own "Lower" Zaporozhian Host , and its own land. In 1775, the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host was destroyed. Later, its high-ranking Cossack leaders were exiled to Siberia, its last chief, Petro Kalnyshevsky , becoming

13612-482: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to create a third constituent, comparable in status to that of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Union of Hadiach provoked a war between the Cossacks and the Muscovites/Russians that began in the fall of 1658. In June 1659, the two armies met near the town of Konotop . One army comprised Cossacks, Tatars, and Poles, and the other was led by a top Muscovite military commander of

13778-658: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Lower Dnieper (Nyzovyi in Ukrainian) Cossack Host under the joint protectorate of Russia and the Commonwealth. By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate ( sosloviye ), "a military class". The Malorussian Cossacks (the former Registered Cossacks also known as "Town Zaporozhian Host") were excluded from this transformation, but were promoted to membership of various civil estates or classes (often Russian nobility), including

13944-507: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to accede to the demand to expand the Cossack Registry prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky Uprising , that began in 1648. Some Cossacks, including the Polish szlachta in Ukraine, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, divided the lands of the Ruthenian szlachta , and became

14110-919: The Pugachev rebellion, the Empire renamed the Yaik Host, its capital, the Yaik Cossacks, and the Cossack town of Zimoveyskaya in the Don region to try to encourage the Cossacks to forget the men and their uprisings. It also formally dissolved the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Cossack Host, and destroyed their fortress on the Dnieper (the Sich itself). This may in part have been due to the participation of some Zaporozhian and other Ukrainian exiles in Pugachev's rebellion. During his campaign, Pugachev issued manifestos calling for restoration of all borders and freedoms of both

14276-533: The Russian border was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the sultan . Yet internal conflict, and the political manoeuvring of the Russian Empire led to splits among the Cossacks. Some of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia, where the Russian army used them to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greeks, Albanians and Crimean Tatars. After the Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792 , most of these Cossacks were absorbed into

14442-755: The Russian navy had no Cossack ships and units. Cossack service was considered rigorous. Cossack forces played an important role in Russia's wars of the 18th–20th centuries, including the Great Northern War , the Seven Years' War , the Crimean War , the Napoleonic Wars , the Caucasus War , many Russo-Persian Wars , many Russo-Turkish Wars , and the First World War . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

14608-502: The Ruthenian szlachta refrained from plans to have a Moscow Tsar as king of the Commonwealth, its own Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki later becoming king. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish–Cossack alliance and create a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach . The treaty was approved by the Polish king and the Sejm , and by some of

14774-598: The Soviet Union disbanded the Cossack units within the Soviet Army, leading to the suppression of many Cossack traditions during the rule of Joseph Stalin and his successors. However, during the Perestroika era in the late 1980s, descendants of Cossacks began to revive their national traditions. In 1988, the Soviet Union enacted a law permitting the re-establishment of former Cossack hosts and the formation of new ones. Throughout

14940-708: The Swedish parliament, Charles crossed into the Commonwealth and vanquished the Saxe-Polish forces at the Battle of Kliszów in 1702 and at the Battle of Pułtusk in 1703. Charles then succeeded in dethroning Augustus and coercing the Sejm (parliament) to replace him with Stanisław in 1704. Augustus regained the throne in 1709, but his own death in 1733 sparked the War of the Polish Succession in which Stanisław once more attempted to seize

15106-553: The Tanais as Silys . According to an anonymous Greek source, which historically (but not certainly) has been attributed to Plutarch , the Don was home to the legendary Amazons of Greek mythology . The area around the estuary has been speculated to be the source of the Black Death in the mid-14th century. While the lower Don was well known to ancient geographers, its middle and upper reaches were not mapped with any accuracy before

15272-457: The Tatars and Turks. Tsar Boris Godunov had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him. In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for

15438-416: The Tsar ( Dmitri I ), against the Muscovite army. By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks. On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the Battle of Klushino , on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat

15604-400: The Tsardom of Russia in 1661. In modern literature, the Don region was featured in the work And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov , a Nobel-prize winning writer from the stanitsa of Veshenskaya . At its easternmost point, the Don comes within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the Volga . The Volga–Don Canal , 101 kilometres (65 mi), connects the two. It

15770-634: The Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service. Cossacks also served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders, as had been the case in the Caucasus War. During the Russian Civil War , Don and Kuban Cossacks were the first people to declare open war against the Bolsheviks . In 1918, Russian Cossacks declared their complete independence, creating two independent states,

15936-570: The Turkic Cumans and the Circassian Kassaks. In contrast, Slavic settlements in southern Ukraine started to appear relatively early during Cuman rule, with the earliest, such as Oleshky , dating back to the 11th century. Early "Proto-Cossack" groups are generally reported to have come into existence within what is now Ukraine in the 13th century as the influence of Cumans grew weaker, although some have ascribed their origins to as early as

16102-408: The Ukrainian hetman considered it a conditional contract from which one party could withdraw if the other was not upholding its end of the bargain. The Ukrainian hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who succeeded Khmelnytsky in 1657, believed the Tsar was not living up to his responsibility. Accordingly, he concluded a treaty with representatives of the Polish king, who agreed to re-admit Cossack Ukraine by reforming

16268-782: The Volga-Don river region was the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans around 4,000 BC. The Don river functioned as a fertile cradle of civilization where the Neolithic farmer culture of the Near East fused with the hunter-gatherer culture of Siberian groups, resulting in the nomadic pastoralism of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The east Slavic tribe of the Antes inhabited the Don and other areas of Southern and Central Russia . The area around

16434-476: The Zaporizhian Sich, a number of Ukrainian-speaking Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks fled to the territory under control of the Ottoman Empire . Together with Cossacks of Greater Russian origin , as well as the vast majority of Old Believers and other people from "Greater Russia" ( Muscovy ), they settled in the area of the Danube river, and founded a new Sich. Many Ukrainian peasants and adventurers later joined

16600-601: The army and fiercely defended the Commonwealth's eastern borders. Under the Treaty of Stuhmsdorf , he reclaimed regions of Livonia and the Baltics which were lost during the Polish-Swedish wars. Unlike his father who worshipped the Habsburgs, Władysław sought closer ties with France and married Marie Louise Gonzaga , daughter of Charles I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua , in 1646. The Commonwealth's power and stability began waning after

16766-459: The ascendance of the szlachta noble class over other social classes and over the political system of monarchy. In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges (such as those established by the Nihil novi Act of 1505) that no monarch could hope to break the szlachta's grip on power. The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as

16932-477: The assembly in protest. Sigismund II used his authority as grand duke and enforced the Act of Union in contumaciam . In fear, the absent nobles promptly returned to the negotiations. The Union of Lublin was passed by the gathered deputies and signed by attendees on 1 July, thus creating the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Sigismund's death in 1572 was followed by an interregnum during which adjustments were made to

17098-440: The basin were Slavic nomads. The Don rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres (37 mi) southeast of Tula (in turn 193 kilometres (120 mi) south of Moscow), and flows 1,870 kilometres to the Sea of Azov . The river's upper half meanders subtly south; however, its lower half consists of a great eastern curve, including Voronezh , making its final stretch, an estuary , run west south-west . The main city on

17264-761: The borders on the Volga , the whole of Siberia (see Yermak Timofeyevich ), and the Yaik (Ural) and Terek Rivers . Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring Cossack loyalty, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democracy, self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as Stenka Razin , Kondraty Bulavin , Ivan Mazepa and Yemelyan Pugachev led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in

17430-478: The conditions of the Union of Hadiach. In 1660, however, the hetman asked the Polish king for protection, leading to the period of Ukrainian history known as The Ruin . Historian Gary Dean Peterson writes: "With all this unrest, Ivan Mazepa of the Ukrainian Cossacks was looking for an opportunity to secure independence from Russia and Poland". In response to Mazepa's alliance with Charles XII of Sweden , Peter I ordered

17596-534: The conservative magnates and Pope Innocent XII , who in turn voiced their endorsement. Imperial Russia and Habsburg Austria also contributed by financing Frederick, whose election took place in June 1697. Many questioned the legality of his elevation to the throne; it was speculated that the Prince of Conti had received more votes and was the rightful heir. Frederick hurried with his armies to Poland to quell any opposition. He

17762-450: The constitution as the "contagion of democratic ideas". Meanwhile, Prussia and Austria used it as a pretext for further territorial expansion. Prussian minister Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg called the constitution "a blow to the Prussian monarchy", fearing that a strengthened Poland would once again dominate Prussia. In the end, the 3 May Constitution was never fully implemented, and

17928-408: The constitutional system; these adjustments significantly increased the power of the Polish nobility and established a truly elective monarchy . On 11 May 1573, Henry de Valois , son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici , was proclaimed King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in the first royal election outside Warsaw . Approximately 40,000 nobles cast a vote in what was to become

18094-577: The country's affairs. Upon the death of a king, several royal houses actively intruded in the hope of securing votes for their desired candidates. The practice was common and apparent, and the selection was often the result of hefty bribes directed at corrupt nobles. Louis XIV of France heavily invested in François Louis, Prince of Conti , in opposition to James Louis Sobieski , Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria and Frederick Augustus of Saxony . The latter's conversion from Lutheranism to Catholicism awed

18260-527: The country. Russia feared the revolutionary implications of the 3 May Constitution's political reforms and the prospect of the Commonwealth regaining its position as a European power. Catherine the Great regarded the May constitution as fatal to her influence and declared the Polish constitution Jacobinical . Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin drafted the act for the Targowica Confederation , referring to

18426-536: The crown, this time with the support of France. The Pacification Sejm culminated in Augustus III succeeding his father. The relative peace and inactivity that followed only weakened Poland's reputation on the world stage. Aleksander Brückner noted that Polish customs and traditions were abandoned in favour of everything foreign, and neighbouring states continued to exploit Poland to their advantage. Moreover, Western Europe's increasing exploitation of resources in

18592-470: The development of the Cossacks. In the 15th century, Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, which often formed local armies and were entirely independent from neighboring states such as Poland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Crimean Khanate. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky , the first mention of Cossacks dates back to the 14th century, although the reference

18758-409: The dominant form of architectural and cultural expression. Politically, however, the vast Commonwealth was in steady decline and by 1768, it started to be considered by Russians as a protectorate of the Russian Empire despite the fact that it was still an independent state. A majority of control over Poland was central to Catherine's diplomatic and military strategies. Attempts at reform, such as

18924-453: The east and marked its largest territorial expansion. At least five million Russians died between 1598 and 1613, the result of continuous conflict, famine and Sigismund's invasion. The Polish–Ottoman War (1620–21) forced Poland to withdraw from Moldavia in southeastern Europe, but Sigismund's victory over the Turks at Khotyn diminished the supremacy of the Sultanate and eventually led to

19090-462: The end of the 19th century. The Kalmyk and Buryat Cossacks also deserve mention. The Zaporizhian Sich became a vassal polity of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate . The Hetmanate was initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky against Polish and Catholic domination, known as

19256-531: The era, Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy . After terrible losses, Trubetskoy was forced to withdraw to the town of Putyvl on the other side of the border. The battle is regarded as one of the Zaporizhian Cossacks' most impressive victories. In 1659, Yurii Khmelnytsky was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian Host/Hetmanate, with the endorsement of Moscow and supported by common Cossacks unhappy with

19422-502: The erstwhile Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Polish–Lithuanian federal state with a hereditary monarchy and abolished many of the deleterious features of the old system. The new constitution: These reforms came too late, however, as the Commonwealth was immediately invaded from all sides by its neighbors, which had been content to leave the Commonwealth alone as a weak buffer state, but reacted strongly to attempts by king Stanisław August Poniatowski and other reformers to strengthen

19588-488: The government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with Emperor Rudolf II in the 1590s. Registered Cossacks formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699. Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during

19754-476: The gradual conquest of the area by the Tsardom of Russia in the 16th century. The Don Cossacks , who settled the fertile valley of the river in the 16th and 17th centuries, were named after the river. The fort of Donkov was founded by the princes of Ryazan in the late 14th century. The fort stood on the left bank of the Don, about 34 kilometres (21 mi) from the modern town of Dankov , until 1568, when it

19920-460: The king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was constantly supervised by a group of senators . The Sejm could veto the king on important matters, including legislation (the adoption of new laws), foreign affairs, declaration of war, and taxation (changes of existing taxes or the levying of new ones). The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the " Golden Liberty " ( Latin : Aurea Libertas or Polish : Złota Wolność ,

20086-658: The late 18th century. Shortly before its demise, the Commonwealth adopted a major reform effort and enacted the 3 May Constitution , which was the first codified constitution in modern European history and the second in modern world history after the United States Constitution . The official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( Polish : Królestwo Polskie i Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie , Lithuanian : Lenkijos Karalystė ir Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė , Latin : Regnum Poloniae Magnusque Ducatus Lithuaniae ). The Latin term

20252-562: The latter relatively common in historiography to distinguish it from the Second Polish Republic . In Lithuania, the state is referred to as 'Republic of Both Nations' ( Lithuanian : Abiejų Tautų Respublika ). The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania underwent an alternating series of wars and alliances across the 13th and 14th centuries. The relations between the two states differed at times as each strived and competed for political, economic or military dominance of

20418-614: The locals in war, by raising the Cossack registry in times of hostility, and then radically decreasing it and forcing the Cossacks back into serfdom in times of peace. This institutionalized method of control bred discontent among the Cossacks. By the end of the 16th century, they began to revolt, in the uprisings of Kryshtof Kosynsky (1591–1593), Severyn Nalyvaiko (1594–1596), Hryhorii Loboda (1596), Marko Zhmailo (1625), Taras Fedorovych (1630), Ivan Sulyma (1635), Pavlo Pavliuk and Dmytro Hunia (1637), and Yakiv Ostrianyn and Karpo Skydan (1638). All were brutally suppressed and ended by

20584-411: The locals' land allotments and freedom of movement. In addition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government attempted to impose Catholicism, and to Polonize the local Ukrainian population. The basic form of resistance and opposition by the locals and burghers was flight and settlement in the sparsely populated steppe. The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In

20750-471: The merger to strengthen frontiers of his dominion and maintain unity as he remained childless. His death in 1572 marked the end of the Jagiellonian dynasty and introduced an elective monarchy , whereupon members of domestic noble families or external dynasties were elected to the throne for life. The Commonwealth's parliamentary system of government and elective monarchy , called the Golden Liberty ,

20916-606: The mid-8th century. Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origin, descending from East Slavs , Turks , Tatars , and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe. Some Turkologists , however, argue that Cossacks are descendants of the native Cumans of Ukraine , who had lived there long before the Mongol invasion. some other just state that first Cossacks were Turkic origin according to Serhii Plokhy first Cossacks were of Turkic rather than Slavic stock. Christoph Baumer state that predesecessor from

21082-657: The mouth of the Dnieper river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of Constantinople , forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the Don Cossacks , captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of Azov , which guarded the Don. The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny , who launched successful campaigns against

21248-533: The murder of Osman II . This secured the Turkish frontier for the duration of Sigismund's rule. In spite of the victories in the Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629) , the exhausted Commonwealth army signed the Treaty of Altmark which ceded much of Livonia to Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus . At the same time, the country's powerful parliament was dominated by nobles ( Pic. 2 ) who were reluctant to get involved in

21414-533: The new monarch. The nobles simultaneously elected Stephen Báthory as co-regent, who ruled jure uxoris . Báthory's election proved controversial – Lithuania and Ducal Prussia initially refused to recognise the Transylvanian as their ruler. Piotr Zborowski supported Bathory as he wanted to promote a princely or ducal candidate. He also endorsed the Duke of Ferrara . The wealthy port city of Gdańsk (Danzig) staged

21580-438: The newly created civil estate of Cossacks. Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times, or to the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks had to obtain their cavalry horses , arms, and supplies for their military service at their own expense, the government providing only firearms and supplies. Lacking horses, the poor served in the Cossack infantry and artillery. In the navy alone, Cossacks served with other peoples as

21746-459: The nobility remained apprehensive believing that William would not secure domestic interests. Instead, they turned to Jogaila , the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Jogaila was a lifelong pagan and vowed to adopt Catholicism upon marriage by signing the Union of Krewo on 14 August 1385. The Act imposed Christianity in Lithuania and transformed Poland into a diarchy , a kingdom ruled over by two sovereigns; their descendants and successive monarchs held

21912-430: The nobility, especially various Lithuanian starostas . Merchants, peasants, and runaways from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovy , and Moldavia also joined the Cossacks. The first recorded sich prototype was formed by the starosta of Cherkasy and Kaniv , Dmytro Vyshnevetsky , who built a fortress on the island of Little Khortytsia on the banks of the Lower Dnieper in 1552. The Zaporozhian Host adopted

22078-404: The north and that of Shem to the south. During the times of the old Scythians it was known in Greek as the Tanaïs ( Τάναϊς ) and has been a major trading route ever since. Tanais appears in ancient Greek sources as both the name of the river and of a city on it, situated in the Maeotian marshes . Greeks also called the river Iazartes ( Ἰαζάρτης ). Pliny gives the Scythian name of

22244-444: The private property of the Ruthenian Orthodox szlachta . Don Cossacks' raids on Crimea left Khmelnitsky without the aid of his usual Tatar allies. From the Russian perspective, the rebellion ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav , in which, in order to overcome the Russian–Polish alliance against them, the Khmelnitsky Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the Russian Tsar . In return, the Tsar guaranteed them his protection; recognized

22410-442: The privilege of minting its own coinage. In 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko began issuing the first Polish banknotes. The country played a significant role in the supply of Western Europe by the export of grain (rye), cattle (oxen), furs, timber, linen , cannabis , ash , tar , carminic acid and amber . Cereals, cattle and fur amounted to nearly 90% of the country's exports to European markets by overland and maritime trade in

22576-430: The refurbishment of the Warsaw Royal Castle into a modern palatial residence. Countless landmarks and monuments in the city bear a name referencing the Saxon kings, notably Saxon Garden , Saxon Axis and the former Saxon Palace . The period saw the development of urban planning, street allocation, hospitals, schools ( Collegium Nobilium ), public parks and libraries ( Załuski Library ). First manufactories producing on

22742-449: The region. In turn, Poland had remained a staunch ally of its southern neighbour, Hungary . The last Polish monarch from the native Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great , died on 5 November 1370 without fathering a legitimate male heir. Consequently, the crown passed onto his Hungarian nephew, Louis of Anjou , who ruled the Kingdom of Hungary in a personal union with Poland . A fundamental step in developing extensive ties with Lithuania

22908-405: The register, and from the Zaporizhian Host. This, together with intensified socioeconomic and national-religious oppression of the other classes in Ukrainian society, led to many Cossack uprisings in the 1630s. The nobility, which had obtained legal ownership of vast expanses of land on the Dnipro from the Polish kings, attempted to impose feudal dependency on the local population. Landowners utilized

23074-405: The river is Rostov-on-Don . Its main tributary is the Seversky Donets , centred on the mid-eastern end of Ukraine, thus the other country in the overall basin. To the east of a series of three great ship locks and associated ponds is the 101-kilometre (63 mi) Volga–Don Canal . The name Don could stem from the Avestan word dānu- ("river, stream"). According to the Kurgan hypothesis ,

23240-466: The river shipping moved north, southward transport being less profitable, and barges and rafts were often sold off in Gdańsk for lumber. Grodno become an important site after formation of a customs post at Augustów in 1569, which became a checkpoint for merchants travelling to the Crown lands from the Grand Duchy. Urban population of the Commonwealth was low compared to Western Europe. Exact numbers depend on calculation methods. According to one source,

23406-523: The sacking of the then capital of the Hetmanate, Baturyn . The city was burnt and looted, and 11,000 to 14,000 of its inhabitants were killed. The destruction of the Hetmanate's capital was a signal to Mazepa and the Hetmanate's inhabitants of severe punishment for disloyalty to the Tsar's authority. The Zaporizhian Sich at Chortomlyk , which had existed since 1652, was also destroyed by Peter I's forces in 1709, in retribution for decision of its otaman Kost Hordiyenko , to ally with Mazepa. Under Russian rule,

23572-420: The second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, Tatars living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from

23738-432: The sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society as much as any other part of Russia; many Cossacks migrated to other parts of Europe following the establishment of the Soviet Union , while others remained and assimilated into the Communist state. Cohesive Cossack-based units were organized and many fought for both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II . After World War II,

23904-402: The thirteenth century on were mainly of Turkic stock, but from the sixteenth century the Cossack were increasingly joined by Slavs such as Russians and Poles, Balto-slavic Lithuanians and people from today's Ukraine, thus becoming a Slav-Tatar ethnic hybrid. As the grand duchies of Moscow and Lithuania grew in power, new political entities appeared in the region. These included Moldavia and

24070-415: The throne of Poland and Sweden. Sigismund's long reign marked an end to the Polish Golden Age and the beginning of the Silver Age. A devout Catholic, he hoped to restore absolutism and imposed Roman Catholicism during the height of the Counter-Reformation . His intolerance towards the Protestants in Sweden sparked a war of independence , which ended the Polish–Swedish union . As a consequence, he

24236-402: The throne, Henry signed the contractual agreement known as the Pacta conventa and approbated the Henrician Articles . The Act stated the fundamental principles of governance and constitutional law in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In June 1574, Henry abandoned Poland and headed back to claim the French crown following the death of his brother and predecessor, Charles IX . The throne

24402-421: The time of his election. The monarch's power was limited in favour of a sizable noble class. Each new king had to pledge to uphold the Henrician Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system (and included near-unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance ). Over time, the Henrician Articles were merged with the pacta conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From that point onwards,

24568-404: The titles of king and grand duke respectively. The ultimate clause dictated that Lithuania was to be merged in perpetuity ( perpetuo applicare ) with the Polish Kingdom; however, this did not take effect until 1569. Jogaila was crowned as Władysław II Jagiełło at Wawel Cathedral on 4 March 1386. Several minor agreements were struck before unification, notably the Union of Kraków and Vilnius ,

24734-400: The urban population of the Commonwealth was about 20% of the total in the 17th century, compared to approximately 50% in the Netherlands and Italy ( Pic. 7 ). Another source suggests much lower figures: 4–8% urban population in Poland, 34–39% in the Netherlands and 22–23% in Italy. The Commonwealth's preoccupation with agriculture, coupled with the nobles' privileged position when compared to

24900-425: The wars, and the Commonwealth proved unable to improve its transport infrastructure or its agricultural practices. Serfs in the region were increasingly tempted to flee. The Commonwealth's major attempts at countering this problem and improving productivity consisted of increasing serfs' workload and further restricting their freedoms in a process known as export-led serfdom. The owner of a folwark usually signed

25066-428: The years following, Polish settlers, nobles, Catholics and Jews became the victims of retaliation massacres instigated by the Cossacks in their dominions. The other blow to the Commonwealth was a Swedish invasion in 1655, known as the Deluge , which was supported by troops of Transylvanian Duke George II Rákóczi and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg . Under the Treaty of Bromberg in 1657, Catholic Poland

25232-475: Was a succession crisis arising in the 1380s. Louis died on 10 September 1382 and, like his uncle, did not produce a son to succeed him. His two daughters, Mary and Jadwiga (Hedwig), held claims to the vast dual realm. The Polish lords rejected Mary in favour of her younger sister Jadwiga, partly due to Mary's association with Sigismund of Luxembourg . The future queen regnant was betrothed to young William Habsburg, Duke of Austria , but certain factions of

25398-472: Was an early example of constitutional monarchy . The General Sejm , the bicameral Parliament , held legislative power; its lower house was elected by all szlachta (some 15% of the population). The king and his government were bound by a constitutional statute, the Henrician Articles , which tightly circumscribed royal authority. The country also exhibited unusual levels of ethnic diversity and great religious tolerance by European standards, guaranteed by

25564-419: Was childless and ailing. According to historians, it was his active involvement which hastened the process and made the union possible. A parliament ( sejm ) convened on 10 January 1569 in the city of Lublin , attended by envoys from both nations. It was agreed that the merger will take place the same year and both parliaments will be fused into a joint assembly. No independent parliamentary convocation or diet

25730-481: Was crowned as Augustus II in September and Conti's brief military engagement near Gdańsk in November of the same year proved fruitless. The House of Wettin ruled Poland–Lithuania and Saxony simultaneously, dividing power between the two states. In spite of his controversial means of attaining power, Augustus II lavishly spent on the arts and left an extensive cultural and architectural ( Baroque ) legacy in both countries. In Poland, he expanded Wilanów and facilitated

25896-422: Was deposed in Sweden by his uncle Charles IX Vasa . In Poland, the Zebrzydowski rebellion was brutally suppressed. Sigismund III then initiated a policy of expansionism , and invaded Russia in 1609 when that country was plagued by a civil war known as the Time of Troubles . In July 1610, the outnumbered Polish force comprising winged hussars defeated the Russians at the Battle of Klushino , which enabled

26062-451: Was destroyed by the Crimean Tatars , but was soon restored at a better fortified location. It is shown as Donko in Mercator 's Atlas (1596). Donkov was again relocated in 1618, appearing as Donkagorod in Joan Blaeu 's map of 1645. Both Blaeu and Mercator follow the 16th-century cartographic tradition of letting the Don originate in a great lake, labeled Resanskoy ozera by Blaeu. Mercator follows Giacomo Gastaldo (1551) in showing

26228-404: Was especially visible in the policies and actions of the first two elected kings from the Swedish House of Vasa , whose politics brought the Commonwealth into conflict with Sweden, culminating in the war known as the Deluge (1655), one of the events that mark the end of the Commonwealth's Golden Age and the beginning of the Commonwealth's decline. The Zebrzydowski Rebellion (1606–1607) marked

26394-411: Was forced to renounce its suzerainty over Protestant Prussia ; in 1701 the once-insignificant duchy was transformed into the Kingdom of Prussia , which became a major European power in the 18th century and proved to be Poland's most enduring foe. In the late 17th century, the king of the weakened Commonwealth, John III Sobieski , allied with Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to deal crushing defeats to

26560-402: Was henceforth permitted. Subjects of the Polish Crown were no longer restricted in purchasing land on Lithuanian territory and a single currency was established. Whilst the military remained separate, a unified foreign policy meant that Lithuanian troops were obliged to contribute during a conflict not to their advantage. As a result, several Lithuanian magnates deplored the accords and left

26726-428: Was in 1492, when Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray complained to Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon that his Cossack subjects from Kiev and Cherkasy had pillaged a Crimean Tatar ship: the duke ordered his "Ukrainian" (meaning borderland) officials to investigate, execute the guilty, and give their belongings to the khan. Sometime in the 16th century, there appeared the old Ukrainian Ballad of Cossack Holota , about

26892-422: Was secured. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the Habsburg monarchy sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against

27058-713: Was situated in the heart of Europe and attracted foreign merchants or settlers. Countless goods and cultural artefacts continued to pass from one region to another via the Commonwealth, particularly that the country was a link between the Middle East , the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe. For instance, Isfahan rugs imported from Persia to the Commonwealth were incorrectly known as "Polish rugs" (French: Polonaise ) in Western Europe. Don (river) [REDACTED]   Ryazan Oblast , [REDACTED]   Lipetsk Oblast , [REDACTED]   Voronezh Oblast , [REDACTED]   Volgograd Oblast , The Don ( Russian : Дон , romanized :  don )

27224-430: Was subsequently declared vacant. The interregnum concluded on 12 December 1575 when primate Jakub Uchański declared Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor , as the next king. The decision was condemned by the anti-Habsburg coalition, which demanded a "native" candidate, known as "Piasts". As a compromise, on 13 December 1575 Anna Jagiellon – sister of Sigismund Augustus and a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty – became

27390-443: Was to people who were either Turkic or of undefined origin. Hrushevsky states that the Cossacks may have descended from the long-forgotten Antes , or from groups from the Berlad territory of the Brodnici in present-day Romania , then a part of the Grand Duchy of Halych. There, the Cossacks may have served as self-defence formations, organized to defend against raids conducted by neighbors. The first international mention of Cossacks

27556-487: Was usually employed in international treaties and diplomacy. By concluding the 1569 Union of Lublin the Grand Duchy of Lithuania remained a separate state from the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland with its own name, laws, and territory. The name 'Commonwealth of Two Nations' ( Polish : Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów ) came into force during the reign of Stephen Báthory (since 1582, and was officially used until 1795). On 28 January 1588, Sigismund III Vasa has confirmed

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