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62-523: Geographically, it was the western part of the so-called Wild Fields that sprawled to the north of the Black Sea between the Dniester and Dnieper rivers. It lies east of Budjak and Bessarabia , south of Podolia and Zaporizhzhia , and west of Taurida . Since the mid-20th century, the territory has been divided between southwestern Ukraine and southeastern Moldova (southern Transnistria ). "Yedisan"

124-417: A large hatchery of carp has successfully operated since 1967. On the banks of the river, in the floodplain wetlands, there are abundant water frogs , toads (especially green toad ), smooth and great crested newts and less common grass snake , dice snake and European pond terrapin . Human activities, mainly cultivation of the steppes, resulted in the disappearance of animals formerly common in

186-587: A new state of Cossack Hetmanate was established on the territory of the Wild Fields. Hetman Khmelnytsky made a triumphant entry into Kiev on Christmas 1648, where he was hailed as a liberator of the people from Polish captivity. As ruler of the Hetmanate, Khmelnytsky engaged in state-building across multiple spheres: military, administration, finance, economics, and culture. He invested the Zaporozhian Host under

248-501: A number of attempts were made to revive shipping, in particular, for the sake of the possibility of water transportation of minerals in the Donbass. One of the enthusiasts of the project was D. I. Mendeleev, who wrote about the need to “arrange the Donets […] for our Russian needs […] because the Donets, due to the importance of the interests involved in it, is most necessary”[39]. The developer of

310-548: A result of the treaty, the Zaporozhian Host became an autonomous Hetmanate within the Tsardom of Russia . The period of Hetmanate history known as "the Ruin ", lasting from 1657 to 1687, was marked by constant civil wars throughout the state. The newly re-installed Yurii Khmelnytsky signed the newly composed Pereyaslav Articles that were increasingly unfavorable for the Hetmanate and later led to introduction of serfdom rights. In 1667,

372-605: Is 25 m /s (880 cu ft/s) near the source and 200 m /s (7,100 cu ft/s) at the confluence to the Don. The Donets originates on the Central Russian Upland , near Podolkhi village, Prokhorovka area, north of Belgorod , at an elevation of 200 m (660 ft) above sea level. Its basin contains over 3000 rivers, of which 425 are longer than 10 km (6.2 mi) and 11 are longer than 100 km (62 mi); 1011 of those rivers directly flow into

434-579: Is Turkic for "Seven Titles"; doubtless the sept was made up of seven subgroups. Yedisan was also sometimes referred to as Ochakov Tartary after Ochakov (Ochakiv), the main fortress of the region. Names for the region in different language include: Ukrainian : Єдисан [ Yedysan ]; Russian : Едисан [ Yedisan ]; Romanian : Edisan ; Crimean Tatar and Turkish : Yedisan ; German : Jedisan ; Polish : Jedysan . The Magyars could have been in Yedisan ( Etelköz ) before eventually migrating to Pannonia . It

496-594: Is also another, small Tanais, which originates in the Seversky Principality (for this reason it is called Donets Seversky) and flows into the large Tanais above Azov ". The Donets is the largest river in eastern Ukraine and the largest tributary of the Don . Its total length is 1,053 km (654 mi) and the basin area is 98,900 km (38,200 sq mi). Most of the river's length 950 km (590 mi) stretches across Ukraine. The average annual flow

558-590: Is contaminated by industrial and communal wastes of Belgorod, Izium and Shebekino cities, but the water is partially purified through the Pechenizke Reservoir. The density of plants and thus the contamination increase downstream in Donetsk and Luhansk areas, especially around Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk , about 400 km from the mouth. Some tributaries of the Donets, such as Kozenyi Butt, Bakhmut and Lugan are so polluted that consuming fish caught there

620-518: Is dangerous. The purest segment of Donets is between the source and Belgorod, and between the Pechenizke Reservoir and Chuhuiv . Average water salinity is 650–750 mg/L, and it increases in winter to 1000 mg/L mostly due to industrial wastewater. The Donets hosts 44 species of fish, predominantly small fishes such as European perch , rutilus and common rudd . Medium and large species include bream , perch , catfish and pike and are becoming increasingly rare. Near Pechenizke Reservoir

682-541: Is dissected by gullies. The left bank is more flat, contains numerous swamps, lakes and oxbow lakes , the largest of which is lake Lyman. The river is meandering, especially above the Oskil tributary. Upstream, above Belgorod, the river contains several dams and small reservoirs. Downstream, below the confluence with the Wolf River (Volchiya River), there is the Pechenizke Reservoir (volume 86 km ), which supplies water to

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744-625: The Black and Azov Seas and Crimea in the south. In a broad sense, it is the name of the entire Great Eurasian Steppe , which was also called Great Scythia in ancient times or Great Tartary in the Middle Ages in European sources and Desht-i-Kipchak in Eastern (mainly Persian) sources. According to Ukrainian historian Vitaliy Shcherbak, the term appeared sometime in the 15th century for territory between

806-628: The Crimean Khanate . And in 1552 the first Ukrainian proto-state Zaporozhian Sich was established. The Wild Fields were traversed by the Muravsky Trail and Izyumsky Trail , important warpaths used by the Crimean Tatars to invade and pillage the Grand Duchy of Moscow . The Crimean-Nogai Raids , a long period of raids and fighting between the Crimean Tatars and Nogai Horde on one side and

868-502: The Dniester and mid- Volga when colonization of the region by Zaporozhian Cossacks started. Shcherbak notes that the term's contemporaries, such as Michalo Lituanus , Blaise de Vigenère , and Józef Wereszczyński , wrote about the great natural riches of the steppes and the Dnieper basin . Due to its location, this region has long been among the least populated in Europe. However, from

930-608: The Donets , is a river on the south of the East European Plain . It originates in the Central Russian Upland , north of Belgorod , flows south-east through Ukraine ( Kharkiv , Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts ) and then again through Russia ( Rostov Oblast ) to join the river Don , about 100 km (62 mi) from the Sea of Azov . The Donets is the fourth-longest river in Ukraine, and

992-599: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow on the other side, caused considerable devastation and depopulation in the area before the rise of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who periodically sailed down the Dnieper in dugouts from their base at Khortytsia and raided the coast of the Black Sea. The Turks built several fortress towns to defend the littoral, including Kara Kerman and Khadjibey . What made

1054-598: The Great Northern War broke out between Russia and Sweden . Mazepa and some Zaporozhian Cossacks allied themselves with the Swedes on October 28, 1708. The decisive battle of Poltava (in 1709) was won by Russia, putting an end to Mazepa's goal of independence, promised in an earlier treaty with Sweden. The Liquidation of the autonomy of the Cossack Hetmanate has begun. During the reign of Catherine II of Russia ,

1116-513: The Historical Dictionary of Ukraine , "The population consisted of military colonists from hussar and lancer regiments, Ukrainian and Russian peasants, Cossacks, Serbs, Montenegrins, Hungarians, and other foreigners who received land subsidies for settling in the area." In the 20th century, after the collapse of the USSR, the region was divided among Ukraine, Moldova , and Russia . In 1917,

1178-794: The Nogais who were clients of the Ottoman Porte and the Russian -sponsored Zaporizhian Cossacks . In the late 18th century, Imperial Russia under Catherine the Great began to expand into the area. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 , the Ottomans ceded to Russia the region east of the Southern Bug . Through the 1792 Treaty of Jassy (Iaşi) which concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792 ,

1240-738: The Sich and razed it to the ground. The Russian troops disarmed the Cossacks, and the treasury archives were confiscated. This marked the end of the Zaporozhian Cossacks . After a series of Russo-Turkish wars waged by Catherine the Great , the area formerly controlled by the Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 1780s, during which nomadic life in these territories ceased to exist in its ancient version. The Russian Empire started active colonization and built many of

1302-601: The War in Donbas , Luhansk Oblast was roughly split along the river between the Luhansk People's Republic , which controlled most of the portion of the oblast south of the Donets, and the Ukrainian government, which controlled most of the territory north of the Donets. In May 2022, Russian attempts to cross the Donets above Lysychansk were stopped in the operationally decisive Battle of

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1364-559: The "wild field" so forbidding were the Tatars. Year after year, their swift raiding parties swept down on the towns and villages to pillage, kill the old and frail, and drive away thousands of captives to be sold as slaves in the Crimean port of Kaffa , a city often referred to by Russians as "the vampire that drinks the blood of Rus'...For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. Although estimates of

1426-517: The 16th and 17th centuries. In a narrow sense, it is the historical name for the demarcated and sparsely populated Black Sea steppes between the middle and lower reaches of the Dniester in the west, the lower reaches of the Don and the Siverskyi Donets in the east, from the left tributary of the Dnipro — Samara , and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug — Syniukha and Ingul in the north, to

1488-588: The 17th century, the east part of the Wild Fields had been settled by runaway peasants and serfs , who made up the core of the Cossackdom . During the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Uprising (from 1648 to 1657) the north part of this area was settled by Cossacks from the Dnieper basin and came to be known as Sloboda Ukraine . After a successful uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky , in which he allied with Crimean Tatars ,

1550-509: The 18th century, when old oaks were cut down along its banks. The industrial development of the 19th century reduced the groundwater levels of the basin. This resulted in shallowing of the river and slowed navigation. Until the mid-19th century, the river was rich in fish which population rapidly declined since then. The water quality is graded as level IV (polluted) to V (dirty). The main pollutants are fertilizers , petroleum , phenols , zinc , chromium and copper . In Kharkiv Oblast, water

1612-644: The Cossack Hetmanate's autonomy was progressively destroyed. After several earlier attempts, the office of hetman was finally abolished by the Russian government in 1764, and his functions were assumed by the Little Russian Collegium, thus fully incorporating the Hetmanate into the Russian Empire . On May 7, 1775, Empress Catherine II issued a direct order that the Zaporozhian Sich was to be destroyed . On June 5, 1775, Russian artillery and infantry surrounded

1674-552: The Cossacks for the third time in 1653, Khmelnytsky realized he could no longer rely on Ottoman support against Poland, and he was forced to turn to Tsardom of Russia for help. Final attempts to negotiate took place in January 1654 in the town of Pereiaslav between Khmelnytsky with Cossack leaders and the Tsar's ambassador, Vasiliy Buturlin , in which the Pereiaslav agreement was signed. As

1736-539: The Donets. These rivers are mostly fed by melting snow, and thus the water supply is uneven during the year. The spring flood lasts about two months, from February to April – during this period the water level rises by 3 to 8 m (9.8 to 26.2 ft). Excessive flooding is rare due to numerous artificial water reservoirs constructed along the river. The width of the river mostly ranges between 30 and 70 m (98 and 230 ft), sometimes reaching 100–200 m (330–660 ft) and even 4 km (2.5 mi) in

1798-576: The Kharkiv Oblast. North of Izium , there are still broadleaf forests, and pine forests are found near Chuhuiv . Many species of wild plants survive near floodplain wetlands. These include willow , downy birch , alder and krushinnik. Along the river banks, there are cane , swamp horsetail, carex , kizlyak, swamp sabelnik and other types of grass. The Donets is regarded as one of the most scenic rivers of East European Plain and contains many hiking and biking routes along its banks. Canoe rafting

1860-461: The Kochetok Reservoir was created and coupled to the water system of Kharkiv. By the 1950s, this measure proved insufficient, and in the 1960s, Pechenizke Reservoir was constructed in place of the Kochetok Reservoir. It has with the capacity of 400 million m and provides about 75% of water consumed by Kharkiv. To supply water to southern Donbas and Donetsk, the 130-km long Donets-Donbas channel

1922-553: The Pontic steppes of the Wild Fields — Tanais , Olbia , Borysthenes , Nikonion , Tyras . The rule of Great Khazaria on these lands was replaced by Kievan Rus , and Kievan Rus was replaced by the Mongol Empire . The steppes of the Wild Fields were suitable for the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, and crafts, which led to their colonization as early as the Kievan state. This

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1984-626: The Russian frontier was extended to the Dniester River and the takeover of Yedisan was complete. Following the Russian takeover, the city of Odesa was founded in 1794 and the area was settled as part of New Russia by Moldavian , Russian and Ukrainian colonists along with a significant German element. The area came to form parts of the Kherson Governorate and is nowadays part of the Ukrainian Odesa and Mykolaiv oblasts , and of

2046-894: The Russo-Polish war ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo , which split the Cossack Hetmanate along the Dnieper River: Left-bank Ukraine enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Tsardom of Russia, while Right-bank Ukraine remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was temporarily occupied by the Ottoman Empire in the period of 1672-1699. After the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, Poland managed to recover Right-bank Ukraine by 1690, except for

2108-470: The Siverskyi Donets . Being one of the largest rivers in Ukraine, the Donets is very intensively used in farming and industry. Ukraine alone uses more than 2 km (0.48 cu mi) of river waters per year, half of which is returned as polluted discharges; this consumption effectively reduces river runoff by 32 m /s (1,100 cu ft/s). Donets suffered greatly even back in

2170-569: The Wild Fields, when these lands became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Thus, the Wild Fields were partly inhabited by the Zaporizhian Cossacks , as reflected in works of the Polish theologian and Catholic bishop of Kiev Józef Wereszczyński, who settled there in the 15th century under the condition that they would fight off expansion by the Nogai Horde and the growing danger from attacks by

2232-453: The ages, the river banks were populated by tribals of various cultures, including Mousterian , Yamna , Catacomb , Scythian , Alan , Khazar and later Slavic cultures. Many of the related tribals had nomadic lifestyle characteristic of Kipchak people , Golden Horde and later of Cossacks . The river flows through the historic lands of Sloboda Ukraine as well as the lands of Don River Host. The many Cossacks became later assimilated into

2294-408: The basin in the 1960s brought insectivorous birds new to this area, such as Streptopelia , European magpie and shrikes . From the traditional bird types, still common are several species of ducks, crows, Charadriiformes , Podiceps , great reed warbler and much less common are herons and storks . Only 12 individuals of demoiselle cranes remain in the area, near Sviatohirsk city. During

2356-408: The basin, such as tarpan , steppe antelope, saiga antelope , marmots and others. Back in the 1960s–1970s, especially near Oskil River, it was not unusual to meet bobak marmot , Eurasian deer , wild boar and Russian desman . Current mammals of the basin include European beaver , Dipodidae , suslik , mice, European otter , European mink , weasel and bats . The number of bird species of

2418-601: The beginning of the first millennium BC to the middle of the second millennium AD, it became an arena of intense struggle between settled agricultural tribes and steppe nomads. Since ancient times, the nomadic way of life has prevailed in the Wild Fields, and settled life (civilization) was established with great difficulty. For centuries, the region was only sparsely populated by various nomadic groups such as Scythians , Sarmatians , Alans , Huns , Cumans , Khazars , Bulgars , Pechenegs , Kipchaks , Turco-Mongols , Tatars and Nogais . There were Pontic Greek colonies on

2480-462: The cities in the Wild Fields, including Odessa , Yekaterinoslav , and Nikolaev . The definition of Wild Fields does not include the Crimean Peninsula. The area was filled with Russian and Ukrainian settlers, and the name "Wild Fields" became outdated; it was instead referred to as New Russia ( Novorossiya ). At the end of the 18th century, the name "Wild Fields" ceased to be used. According to

2542-410: The city of Donetsk ( Rostov Oblast ), 222 km from the mouth. Navigation on the last section is supported by six dams, built from 1911 to 1914. Each consists of a 100–150-meter (330–490 ft) long concrete dam and a single-chamber sluice, 100 m (330 ft) long, 17 m (56 ft) wide and 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) deep. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries,

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2604-659: The city of Kharkiv . Below the Pechenizke Reservoir, the Donets is fed by the Udy and by its largest tributary, the Oskil. There the valley widens and its floodplain creates numerous oxbow lakes. Within Ukraine, the river flows between the Cisdesna plateau and the Donets lowland. In its middle, the river is partly fed by the Dnieper waters, which are brought though the Dnieper–Donbas–Seversky Donets channels which provide water to

2666-452: The city of Kiev , and reincorporated it into their respective voivodeships of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while all the Hetmanate administration was abolished between 1699 and 1704. The period of the Ruin effectively ended when Ivan Mazepa was elected hetman, serving from 1687 to 1708. He brought stability to the Hetmanate, which was again united under a single hetman. During his reign,

2728-562: The coal industry of the Donets Basin (usually called the Donbas). Near the Russian city of Donetsk (Rostov oblast) , the river crosses the Donets Ridge and flows in a narrow valley with steep and rocky slopes. In the lower part of the Donets lowland, the flow is interrupted by sluices and is slow. At the delta, it splits into three distributaries . At present, the Donets is navigable up to

2790-516: The dams and their old age slowed the navigation of the river, which is currently rather limited. The river played a crucial role for its ancient settlers as a source of water and food, means of transportation and trade route. The first archaeological evidence of settlers relates to Cheulean and Acheulean periods of Lower Paleolithic through stone tools (axes) found on the river banks near Izium city of Kharkiv Oblast and in Luhansk Oblast. Over

2852-504: The early medieval times. In the 2nd century CE Ptolemy knew the river Don, into which the Donets flows, as Tanais , and Western Europeans recognized that the Don had a significant tributary which they called either the small Tanais or Donetz . The Slavic name of Seversky Donets derived from the fact that the river originates from the land of Severians . As the Italian-Polish chronicler Alexander Guagnini (1538–1614) wrote: "There

2914-516: The end of the 18th century, and the mill dams interrupted navigation on the river. Industrialization in the 20th century shifted interests to mineral exploitation in Donbas , with water-hungry plants concentrated mostly in Kyiv , Luhansk and Donetsk . Already by the 1930s, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk were lacking water forcing the authorities to gradually create a network of canals and reservoirs. In 1936,

2976-434: The fall of the river is 195 m (640 ft) with the average gradient of 0.18 m/km. The flow is slow, between 0.15 m/s (0.49 ft/s) at Chuhuiv and 1.41 m/s (4.6 ft/s) near Lysychansk . The river valley is wide: from 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) in the upper part and up to 20–26 km (12–16 mi) downstream, and is asymmetrical. The right bank is usually high, sometimes with chalk cliffs, and

3038-457: The khan of the Golden Horde. After the devastation of these lands by the Tatar-Mongols , the Black Sea steppes were called the "Wild Field" (wilderness) for a long time. In 1441, the western section of the Wild Fields, Yedisan , came to be dominated by the Crimean Khanate , a political entity controlled by the expanding Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onward. The 14th and 15th centuries were particularly favorable for Ukrainians to settle

3100-414: The largest in eastern Ukraine , where it is an important source of fresh water. It gives its name to the Donets Basin, known commonly as the Donbas , an important coal-mining and industrial region in Ukraine. The names Don and its diminutive Donets are derived from Iranic , Sarmatian Dānu "the river". Scytho-Sarmatians inhabited the areas to the north of the Black Sea from 1100 BC into

3162-402: The leadership of its Hetman with supreme power in the new Ruthenian state, and he unified all the spheres of Ukrainian society under his authority. This involved building a government system and a developed military and civilian administration out of Cossack officers and Ruthenian nobles, as well as the establishment of an elite within the Cossack Hetman state. After the Crimean Tatars betrayed

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3224-431: The migratory season, the region is visited by greylag and black geese. Banks of the river used to contain groves of trees, which were cut during the 18th–19th centuries. Some of the trees were used for shipbuilding during the Russian-Turkish wars in the time of Peter I . By the 20th century, most meadows along the river banks were converted into farmers' fields. Only a small part of the old groves remains, mainly in

3286-523: The number of captives taken in a single raid reached as high as 30,000, the average figure was closer to 3000...In Podilia alone, about one-third of all the villages were devastated or abandoned between 1578 and 1583. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth considered the Ukrainian lands to the east and south of Bila Tserkva to be the Wild Fields, and distributed them to magnates and nobility as private property as uninhabited, although Ukrainians lived there. By

3348-464: The project was the Russian hydraulic engineer Nestor Platonovich Puzyrevsky, known for his contribution to the Volga-Don Canal project. In 1903-1904, he conducted a detailed study of the channel of the Seversky Donets and proposed a project to restore the navigation of the Seversky Donets to the city of Belgorod, which involves the construction of a large number of locks were interrupted by World War I , Russian Civil War and lack of funds. The design of

3410-476: The reservoir area. The river bottom is sandy and uneven, with the depth varying between 0.3 and 10 m (1 ft 0 in and 32 ft 10 in) and the average value of 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in). The river freezes from around mid-December until late March and is covered by 20–50 cm (7.9–19.7 in) thick ice. It flows into the Don 218 km (135 mi) from the latter's mouth, at an elevation of 5.5 m (18 ft) above sea level; thus

3472-460: The river basin reduced sharply over the past 100–150 years. The disappeared species include steppe eagle , tirkusha, sociable lapwing , bustard , black and winged lark . Less common are geese, swans, golden eagle , white-tailed eagle , peregrine falcon , honey buzzard and osprey . The reduction is mainly caused by the destruction of forests, especially old groves along the river banks. The creation of artificial forest belts ( windbreaks ) in

3534-417: The southern breakaway Transnistria (de jure part of Moldova). Wild Fields The Wild Fields is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th to 18th centuries to refer to the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea and Azov Sea . It was the traditional name for the Black Sea steppes in

3596-412: The strengthening Russian Empire, which had rebuilt and reinforced the fortress of Belgorod and cities of Kyiv , Izium , Luhansk , Chuhuiv and others in order keep defensive lines against the raids of nomads from the south-east. Later, the protective role of the river basin gave way to economic needs. In the 18th–19th centuries, the river was extensively used for watermills, which numbered by hundreds by

3658-502: The world's first anarchist state was formed on the territory of Wild Fields — Makhnovia . The territory of Wild Fields is located in the modern Dnipro , Donetsk , Zaporizhzhia , Kirovohrad , Luhansk , Mykolaiv , Odesa , Poltava , Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts of Ukraine . Siverskyi Donets The Seversky Donets ( Russian : Се́верский Доне́ц ) or Siverskyi Donets ( Ukrainian : Сіверський Донець , lit.   'Northern Donets'), usually simply called

3720-404: Was a part of historic Podolia , sometime in the 17th century it was occupied by the Ottomans partitioning between Podolia Eyalet and Silistra Eyalet . The area at times was incorporated into the Ottoman administrative structure as part of Silistra (Özi) Eyalet with the fortresses of Khadjibey (Odesa) and Özi (Ochakiv) as major centers. It was also part of a larger nomadic conflict between

3782-410: Was built around 1958 starting near Raigorodok city, and in compensation, the Dnieper-Donbas channel was created to supply water from Dnieper River to the upstream of the Donets via the Bereka River. As a result of the industrial activity, the wild nature of Donets Basin transformed into an industrial settlement. After the breakup of the USSR, most of the basin territory became part of Ukraine. During

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3844-403: Was hindered by the raids of steppe nomads that roamed these lands in waves. After the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' , the territory was ruled by the Golden Horde until the Battle of Blue Waters (1362), which allowed Algirdas to claim it for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . As a result of the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399, his successor Vytautas lost the territory to Temür Qutlugh ,

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