Strategy Six Pack 10 (Illustrated) E-Book

George Alfred Townsend

• Herausgeber: Enhanced Media Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
- Niccolò Machiavelli.

A study of legendary Russian military force The Cossacks, an essay on Thomas Jefferson, a history of The Knights Templar, a biography of Louis XIV ‘The Sun King,’ a short history of Spain and a study of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. It’s all here and more in Strategy Six Pack 10:

The Cossacks by William Penn Cresson.
Thomas Jefferson by Elbert Hubbard.
The History of the Knights Templar by Charles Addison.
The Sun King – A biography of Louis XIV by John Abbott.
A Short History of Spain by Mary Platt Parmele.
The Lincoln Assassination by George Alfred Townsend.

Includes image galleries for The Cossacks and The History of the Knights Templar.

Leseprobe

Strategy Six Pack 10

––––––––

The Cossacks

Thomas Jefferson

The Sun King

The Knights Templar

A Short History of Spain

The Lincoln Assassination

Strategy Six Pack 10

The Cossacks by William Penn Cresson. First published as The Cossacks; their history and country by W. P. Cresson in 1919.

Thomas Jefferson by Elbert Hubbard. From Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 - Little Journeys To The Homes Of American Statesmen by Elbert Hubbard. First published in 1916.

The History of the Knights Templar by Charles Addison. First published in 1852.

The Sun King – A biography of Louis XIV by John Abbott. First published as Louis XIV by John Abbott in the Makers of History series in 1904.

A Short History of Spain by Mary Platt Parmele. First published in 1898.

The Lincoln Assassination by George Alfred Townsend. First published as The life, crime, and capture of John Wilkes Booth, with a full sketch of the conspiracy of which he was the leader, and the pursuit, trial and execution of his accomplices by George Alfred Townsend in 1865.

Strategy Six Pack 10 published 2016 by Enhanced Media.

Table of Contents

The Cossacks

Their History and Country

William Penn Cresson

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE "FREE PEOPLE''

II: THE ZAPOROGIAN COSSACKS

III: YERMAK AND THE COSSACK CONQUEST OF SIBERIA

IV: BOGDAN HMELNICKY; A COSSACK NATIONAL HERO

V: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE UKRAINE

VI: MAZEPPA

VII: THE END OF THE FREE UKRAINE: LITTLE RUSSIA

VIII: POUGATCHEV

IX: THE HETMAN PLATOV

X: THE COSSACKS OF TO-DAY: ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT

XI: THE COSSACKS OF TO-DAY: THE DON

XII: THE FRONTIERS OF EUROPE

IMAGE GALLERY

Thomas Jefferson

By Elbert Hubbard

The History of the Knights Templar

Charles Addison

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

IMAGE GALLERY

The Sun King

A biography of Louis XIV

By John Abbott

I: Birth and Childhood (1615-1650)

II: The Boy-King (1650-1653)

III: Matrimonial Projects (1653-1656)

IV: The Marriage of the King (1658-1661)

V: Festivities of the Court (1661-1664)

VI: Death in the Palace (1664-1670)

VII: The War in Holland (1670-1679)

VIII: Madame de Maintenon (1649-1685)

IX: The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1680-1686)

X: The Secret Marriage (1685-1689)

XI: Intrigues and Wars (1690-1711)

A Short History of Spain

Mary Platt Parmele

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XIV

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

The Lincoln Assassination

By George Alfred Townsend

LETTER I: THE MURDER

LETTER II: THE OBSEQUIES IN WASHINGTON

LETTER III: THE MURDERER

LETTER IV: THE ASSASSIN'S DEATH

LETTER V: A SOLUTION OF THE CONSPIRACY

LETTER VI: THE DETECTIVES' STORIES

LETTER VII: THE MARTYR

LETTER VIII: THE TRIAL

LETTER IX: THE EXECUTIONS

EXTRA MURAL SCENES

The Cossacks

Their History and Country

William Penn Cresson

––––––––

A Zaporozhian Cossack, 17th-18th century traditional clothing.

I: THE ORIGIN OF THE "FREE PEOPLE''

––––––––

THE level plains and steppes of South Russia were known to the ancients as the broad channel followed by the ebb and flow of every fresh wave of conquest or migration passing between Europe and Asia. The legions of Rome and Byzance found this territory as impossible to occupy by military force as the high seas. The little known history of ‘Scythia’ — from the earliest times until the thirteenth century of the Christian era — presents a confused picture of barbarous tribes pressing one upon another, the stronger driving the weaker before them from the more favoured hunting grounds. Often, voluntarily or by force, the victors included the vanquished in their own "superior" civilization. There are many reasons why it is difficult or impossible to follow with any degree of certainty the national history of these races. "Their long-forgotten quarrels, their interminglings and separations, above all the constant changes in their names and habitat make the study of their history as difficult as it is unprofitable." (Lesur, Histoire des Kosaques.)

This ignorance of the changes — political and economic — which are constantly taking place along the amorphous racial frontiers of Eastern Europe, has continued to our own times. But at recurrent intervals these Slav borderlands separating the Occident from the Orient become the scene of political upheavals so vast in their consequences that the very foundations of European civilization are shaken in their turn.

The great Tartar invasion which, during the thirteenth century swept out of Asia and spread across the steppes of Southern Russia, was an occurrence of such magnitude that its echoes travelled to the most distant states of Europe. The arrival of fugitive bands of Khomans, Black Bulgars, and other wild steppe tribesmen at the court of Bela IV, King of Hungary, first spread the fame and terror of these new invaders. From these refugees and their descriptions of the enemy the sovereigns of Christendom learned with horror of the fate which in the short space of a few months had overtaken the most powerful strongholds of the princes of Rus and Muscovy. Even the Poles — whose more civilized and warlike state was generally considered the bulwark separating the "barbarians" of ancient Scythia from the communities of Europe — had been forced to make the best terms possible: by paying a degrading tribute to the invaders.

The powers of Europe now beheld upon the frontiers of their own empires an enemy far more redoubtable than the Saracen "infidels" against whom they had waged their mystical crusades. Turning from his dream of rescuing the Holy Sepulchre the Emperor Frederick II exercised all his eloquence to unite the Christian princes in a league against the Mongols. The Roman Pontiff, fearing for the Christian religion, preached a Holy War. Saint Louis prepared to march in person against the barbarians.

"All of civilized Europe was given over to anxiety and apprehension. The Tartars were represented as monsters living upon human flesh." "Even the most reasonable believed that the end of the world was at hand. The people of Gog and Magog advancing under the command of the Antichrist were about to bring about the destruction of the universe."*

Suddenly, as though by common agreement or following some general command, the widely scattered hordes of horsemen turned once more towards the East, finally settling in great armed camps upon the fertile steppes near the shores of the Volga. In this inexplicable action, as mysterious as their first appearance from the heart of Asia, the writers of the time perceived the hand of an unseen Providence. The avenging wrath of the Deity had been turned aside by the intercession of the priests and holy men of Christendom.

* Memoires de Joinville.

Yet complete as the conquest of the Tartars appeared to be it was not destined to outlast the century which saw its rise. As usual in Oriental despotisms the seeds of its dissolution came from within.

The first result of these disaffections — notably a revolt of the Nogai tribesmen against the princes of the Golden Horde — was the disappearance of the crude administrative system exercised by the Tartar rulers over the old tribes of the steppes. These began once more to reassert their independence. Bands of Scythian refugees, Khosars, Khomans and "Khosaks," began to leave the marshy deltas of the great rivers such as the Don and Dnieper — where they had found in common a precarious refuge — and mounted on horses stolen from the Tartars returned to their familiar haunts. Here a terrible desolation spoke everywhere of "Tartar Peace." How complete had been the destruction of whole tribes and settlements of the previous inhabitants — caught by the overwhelming avalanche of Tartar horsemen — is pictured by the monkish chroniclers of a previous generation. In Hakluyt's Voyages these travellers describe how "for over three hundred leagues" they passed through great fields of whitening bones, "the only signs that might recall the presence of previous inhabitants of the steppes."

The wars of the princes of Tartary with the revolted Nogai and the struggles of the latter with the Russians now gave to the miserable remnants of the ancient lords of Scythia an opportunity to recover something of their ascendency, over the wildest and most deserted parts of the steppes. As these scattered tribesmen became more skilled in desert warfare, both Russians and Tartars occasionally sought their alliance and the aid of their ill-armed cavalry in settling their quarrels. But whether gathered in armed camps or Slovods, or else leading an errant nomad life, these ‘war bands,’ composed of refugees and renegades of every origin, were a constant menace to the frontiers of their more civilized neighbours; pirating on the great rivers and attacking the caravans of Russian or Tartar merchants with indifferent zeal. In the precarious existence of these rovers, we find the first traces of the frontier "civilization" of the Cossacks.

No problem of Russian history has given rise to more controversy than that of the origin of the Cossack race. It now appears established that the influence of the geographic and climatic conditions which exist on the steppes, modifying to a common type the characteristics of the peoples and tribes (often of wholly different origin) who in turn have inhabited the ancient lands of the Scyths — is the paramount factor in solving this problem. The tracing of blood ties and relationships would therefore seem of less importance than an understanding of the conditions under which the characteristic Cossack civilization has been developed.

The Russian word Kasah — of which "Cossack" is the English equivalent — still signifies in several Tartar dialects a "Horseman" or "Rover." By a not unnatural association of ideas this term has been adopted at different times and in widely separated localities as a tribal name by nomad peoples of the steppes. But the attempt not infrequently made to trace a direct connection between these tribes and the famous Kasahi of modern Russia is generally based upon far-fetched historical analogies.

In Clarke's famous Travels in the Ukraine the ingenious theory is advanced that the country of Kasachia mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenetes was the original homeland of the modern ‘tribes’ of Russia which have taken the general name of Kasak or Cossack. But the relative unimportance of this people lost among powerful neighbours whose history has survived to the present day is the strongest argument against such a supposition. Moreover, as we have already pointed out, other tribes of this name have more than once risen to temporary importance in the annals of the steppes.

It was not until the latter half of the fifteenth century that the ebbing tide of Tartar invasion, which for nearly two centuries had submerged the richest lands of the great Russian plain, once more opened to settlement from the North the rich steppes of the ‘Black Earth’ district, and the scarcely less fertile lands to the South and East. During this long period of subjection the Russian nation had been held back from its richest heritage.

Scattered among the Finnish aborigines of the great northern forests — in that fabulous land of "Cimmerian darkness" where, as Herodotus states, the inhabitants "spend half their time in slumber"— the men of "Rus" had kept alive the faith of their ancestors while learning their long lesson of patience and endurance. Thus it came about that so many of the old centres and cities of Holy Russia are found today in the most barren and unattractive parts of the great Russian plain.

"When the prairies of the Ukraine — the "border land" — had ceased to be the hunting grounds of roving nomads, and the Asiatic hordes had withdrawn with their flocks and herds to the oases of their native deserts, the peasant population of Northern Russia became filled with a restless fever for emigration. Out of the dark fir wilderness came bands of pioneers, — dazzled by the bright sunlight of the steppes, — pressing ever southward. Thus settlers of true Russian blood began once more to populate the war-worn plains of Scythia where free land and, dearer still, personal freedom rewarded the daring of the adventurer.

While fear and hunger had kept them submissively huddled about the wooden fortresses of the boyars, no laws had been necessary to chain the peasants to the glebe. Serfdom now began in Russia at the time when the feudal system of Europe was sinking into decay. For when the princes and nobles of these northern principalities found their apanages and broad grants of forest land fast reverting to wilderness through the flight of the agricultural laborers, legal steps were taken to preserve their "rights." In edicts of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godounov, we find the legislative traces of this great southern movement. Yet, in spite of terrible punishments and laws enacted to keep the peasants from roving, the moujiki continued to join themselves to the remnants of the wild Asiatic tribes and the no less barbarous ‘Cossacks’ of their own race, who had established themselves in vagabond communities following close upon the receding frontier of Tartar invasion.

It would appear that about this time the term Cossack or Kasak was first used to describe a "masterless man," one who refused to identify himself with the Krestianin or ordinary agricultural laborer (a class about to fall wholly into the condition of serfdom). The same word may previously have been used by the Tartars after their conquest of Russia to denote tribesmen who, refusing to settle in towns or colonies, preferred to continue the nomad and adventurous life of their ancestors. The name also began to be applied to soldier-mercenaries from the steppe "war bands," who, while maintaining the warlike traditions of this wandering life, refused to become incorporated among the men-at-arms attached to the great boyars or to take permanent service in the paid militia formed by the Tsars after the reign of Ivan IV.

To the brutal methods of Tartar dominion may be ascribed traits which have left a deep mark on the government and policy of the empire of the Tsars. Russian historians are now the first to recognize the depth and force of this influence. Naturally democratic in their ideals and personal relations, long subjection to the Tartars taught the Slav people subservience, and (together with later principles borrowed by Peter the Great from the Prussian system) furnished their rulers a model of greedy despotism and autocratic power. Even the excesses of revolution in our own day show the persistence in the Russian state of these pernicious alien influences.

Under the ruthless sword-strokes of Czar Vasili, and his successor Ivan the Terrible, began the upbuilding of the great modern state of Russia — engulfing in an ever-widening circle of dominion the liberties of lesser princelings and the bourgeoisie of the forest "City Republics." Such was the fate of Pskov, of the Free Republic of Vologda and the city of "Lord Novgorod the Great."

Meanwhile, on the vast southern plains, under the leadership of dispossessed boyars, renegade Polish nobles, Turkish janissaries, or even some far-wandering French or German adventurer, the characteristic civilization of the Ukraine Cossack communities steadily grew and strengthened. Recruited from sturdy vagabonds of every race and clan, "stolen youths, thieves and patriots" armed with the weapons they had brought with them from Russia or with the bows and arrows of their Tartar neighbours, they fought for and gradually obtained the right to exist and to remain free.

In view of the importance of geographical conditions upon the inhabitants of these plains, it now becomes necessary to consider at greater length some of the phenomena peculiar to the South Russian Steppes. For thousands of years — until the coming of the railways in recent times — the problems of life on the Russian prairies must have presented themselves again and again under the same inevitable forms. The nations who established their permanent home in this fertile ‘smiling wilderness’ were all endowed with similar characteristics.

Their lives were passed on horseback and their existence depended on their skill as breeders of half-wild cattle and hunters of wary game. The Greek legend of the Centaurs was, in their case, scarcely an exaggeration. In plains so vast as to be almost without natural limits or defensible frontiers a necessary factor of effective occupation became the ability to defend a chosen area at any moment in hand to hand encounters with a mobile foe. Highways of trade and communication could be shifted — in the absence of all natural obstacles — with the same ease that a new course can be steered at sea. For this reason, the objects of steppe warfare were different from those of ordinary strategy. In reading of the military campaigns of the Ukraine we must often be prepared to draw our comparisons from naval rather than from land operations.

The country known as the Ukraine, where the characteristic Cossack civilization arose and developed, is, as the name indicates, a continental ‘border land,’ neither European nor Asiatic. On the wide steppes of the Black Sea basin even the climatic influences of north and south meet without blending. Thus, while during the short summer months a true southern climate prevails, yet the return of winter is marked by a cold nearly subarctic in its intensity.

In the famous Black Earth region about Kiev and Poltava, the brief harvest season forms the climax of a miracle of growth. Under the rays of an almost tropical sun the wide fields of grain change from silvery green to tawny gold in the space of days rather than weeks. But with the advent of another season the arctic winds sweep straight from the Polar seas, unchecked by hill or mountain range, all conquering, across the whole level expanse of New Russia. Upon the sunny steppes tightens once more the icy grip of the Empire of the North. There can be no softening of the fibre, no slackening of the powers of sturdy resistance which above all else characterize the Russian race in the population of such a land. Both in physique and temperament the lithe dark inhabitant of the Ukraine presents the type of a southerner. While sprung from the same stock he is as distinct from the blond dweller of the north as the Provencal of France is different from the blue-eyed Norman. To his Slav nature the brief vision of southern summer has added a touch of imagination, a capacity for boisterous enjoyment, lacking, at any rate less apparent, in the Russian of "Muscovy."

Before the coming of the farmer and his plough the plains of the Ukraine were everywhere covered by high waving grasses, similar to the vanished prairies of far western America, or the Vegas of southern Andalusia. Often this growth is so thick that a horseman can only with difficulty force his way, and the half-wild cattle almost disappear in the richness of their pasture. Not even a tree or bush breaks the straight sky line of the horizon. Meandering in wide curves, often with a scarcely-perceptible fall from north to south, four great rivers form the most striking geographical features of these plains: the Dnieper, the Don, and farther eastward the mighty "Mother Volga" and her lesser companion, the Ural. "Her rivers," says Rambaud, "are the only allies of man against Russia's great enemy — distance." In winter their frozen surface, and in summer their broad tide, are the principal pathways from one part of this great land to another.

It was upon the shores of the great river Dnieper, known to the Ancients as the Borysthenes, that the first permanent Cossack communities established had their settlements.

By slow degrees, under the increasing influence of peasant immigration from the North (bringing with it the religion of Russia and such rude civilization as the northern woods had developed) the Asiatic and "tribal" features of Cossack life began to disappear. During the early days of the XVIth century they had so strengthened their hold upon the broad lands lying between the Dnieper and the Don, that we find the terms "Free Cossacks of the Ukraine" and even "The Republic of the Don" used to describe their settlements.

But the early condition of these wandering Cossack communities must have been a matter of scorn even to the primitive tribes of the Boujiak Tartars who were their neighbours. Family life or social organization were all but impossible under the conditions of their harried existence. Some of these steppe bands (as we shall later observe in the case of the "Brotherhood" of the Zaporogian Cossacks, inhabiting the shores and islands of the Dnieper) even appear to have forbidden the presence of women in their camps.

In the growing Cossack settlements or slovods only the sturdiest of the children were allowed to survive. As a preparation for a lifelong struggle with the forces of the steppes "their mothers were wont to plunge them at birth either into a snowdrift or in a mixture of salt and water." (Histoire de la Guerre des Kosaques. P. Chevalier. Paris, 1668.) None of the scanty provisions of the tribe could be wasted upon weaklings or those of unpromising physique. When scarcely able to walk, the young Cossacks were placed on horseback and "soon learned to swim wide rivers thus mounted" (ibid). At an early age they were only allowed food when by their unaided skill with bow and arrow they had brought down the wild game which supplied the family cook-pot. The clothing of the first Cossack tribesmen was contrived from sheepskins or the hides of wild beasts. Only the chieftains of the highest rank were able to afford garments of coarsely woven cloth dyed in brilliant colours (ibid). In case of sickness the Cossack remedy was to mount on horseback and, after galloping across the plain until both steed and rider were exhausted, to open a small vein in the shoulder of their mount and drink the warm blood.

As their flocks and herds multiplied upon the generous pasturage there grew up in the former "Tartar desert" a characteristic light-hearted civilization peculiar to the steppes. In the Little Russians of the present day we may still trace the manners and customs of this Free Cossack ancestry. Moreover as their ability to resist the encroaching tyranny of the Russian boyars increased, the Free Cossacks sought an early opportunity to renew relations with their European kinsmen. A common danger and their mutual hatred of the Turks and Tartars were forces tending to unite them with their Christian kindred the Russians and Poles. But in Poland the feudal land holders could find no place in their aristocratic state for freemen not of the noble classes, while in Russia the condition of the moujiki warned the Cossacks against the dangers of a too binding alliance with the Tsar.

In order to secure the military aid of the Cossacks, the Polish kings were forced to allow them to establish lists or "Registers" of "Free Soldiers" to whom claim of serfage was relinquished by the feudal lords. These latter, however, always claimed possession of the lands occupied by the Cossacks and their right to liberty as a caste was never recognized. This, as we shall later see, was the cause of the great uprising ending in the separation of the Cossack Ukraine from the Polish crown.

In spite of these differences, however, the eastern Cossack steppes began, soon after the downfall of the Tartars, to be considered the defensive frontiers of both Poland and the Muscovite empire. The Cossack warriors of the Polish Ukraine, though clinging tenaciously to their liberties and denying any right on the part of an alien government to claim their services, often entered the feudal military companies of the Polish nobles as volunteers or paid men-at-arms, while farther to the eastward, their kindred entered the service of the Tsar.

The last stronghold of the Tartars in Russia — Kazan — was captured by Ivan the Terrible after a long siege ending October 2, 1551. We find in the list of troops taking part in these operations the presence noted of a large contingent of Cossacks: "Cossacks of the town and Cossacks of the country." These together with the newly-formed Russian streltzi or regular troops took a prominent part in the assault. From 1553 to 1555 Ivan completed his conquests along the whole course of the Volga, finally capturing Astrakhan near the shores of the Caspian. Their admiration for the Tsar's exploits against the common enemy, and perhaps a wholesome realization of the fact that his armies now controlled an easy base of approach to the strongholds of their "republic," led the Cossacks inhabiting the shores of the Don to place themselves under his protection. The Cossacks of the Dnieper remained, however, in the pay of Poland. Thus occurred the first great separation in the loose confederation of the "Free Companions of the Steppes."

After the more or less voluntary submission of the "Free Cossacks of the Don" the Russian Tsars soon began to make use of their matchless skill in frontier warfare. An arrangement mutually favorable was now perfected and the Cossacks became the basis of a system of defensive militia policing the steppes against the Crimean Tartars. Although the Muscovite peasants were brave and (above all) docile foot soldiers, their usefulness as cavalry was limited. Previous to the time when Cossacks were enrolled for this purpose, it had been found necessary — in order to defend the open frontiers of Muscovy — to mobilize every year a force of about 65,000 men. Owing to the fact that the rendezvous chosen lay on the banks of the river Oka, this was called the annual "banks service." In the early days this duty had been performed by the feudal levies of the great boyars, whose serf and peasant troops attended the annual musters unwillingly and often at great inconvenience to themselves during the harvest season (a time therefore usually chosen by the Tartars for their raids). As early as 1571 a Russian boyar. Prince Borotinsky, began to employ a system of mixed Cossack and militia patrols which appears to have differed but little from the military colonies or stanitzi of the later Cossack "armies." During the seasons less favorable to the Tartar raids a protective service alone was maintained. This was called the "Watch and Post Service" and consisted of Cossacks living in rude blockhouses linked together by small fortified camps. This first line of defense was intended, however, rather to impede the march of the Tartar raiders — and to give warning of their sudden coming — than to attempt any serious resistance.

Mobile outposts composed of squads of two, four or six horsemen, to each of which was assigned a regular "ride" of about a day's journey, joined together the Cossack encampments or settlements which were generally set upon high places from whence an outlook could be kept across the plains. In each of these encampments horses stood ready saddled, so that upon the appearance of suspicious signs — the distant black dots in the yellow waste, denoting the scouts of the enemy, or the inevitable clouds of dust raised by the hoofs of their horses — the news could be immediately communicated to the nearest fortified town.

The importance of the services thus rendered will be realized when we consider that according to a contemporary English writer — Fletcher — the Tartars of the Crimea were accustomed to attack the confines of the Muscovite empire in considerable force once or twice every year.

These raids were sometimes carried out at Trinity time, but more often during the harvest season. Now and again a winter raid was undertaken, when the frozen surface of the swamps and rivers facilitated long marches, which only the endurance of the sturdy little Tartar ponies rendered possible. Through constant familiarity with the Russian borderland and the intervening steppes the Tartars learned to know the best trails and bridle tracks, and, most important of all, where the richest booty could most easily be obtained. "Avoiding all river crossings and picking their way along the trackless plateaus — at the same time carefully hiding their movements from the Muscovite steppe riders — they would suddenly penetrate in a solid mass into some populous district for a distance of about a hundred versts. Then turning in their track and, throwing out long wings to either side of the main body like a flock of wild geese — they would sweep away everything that lay in the path."

Kaffa, in the Crimea, was the principal slave market where the prisoners captured in these raids, men, girls and children, (the latter carefully transported in panniers carried for the purpose) were sold to the Turkish markets.

In protecting the Tsar's dominions against the intolerable suffering caused by these raids, the Cossack became an invaluable adjunct to the armies of the empire. When the Tartars ceased to be a menace a new era of discovery opened to Cossack enterprise; when, after absorbing all neighboring Russian states, the power of the Great Princes of Moscow was turned towards the East in an irresistible movement of expansion which was to extend across Asia to the continent of the New World. Cossack troops played the principal part in these expeditions. Leaders — of whom the Donskoi hetman Yermak was the chief and prototype — crossed Siberia looking for a land passage. An obscure Cossack adventurer engaged in this quest was the first European to set eyes upon the Western coast of the great Alaskan peninsula. Had not the grey waters of the Straits of Behring rolled between — the matchless energy of these frontiersmen might have claimed the western coast of America for the Tsar.

II: THE ZAPOROGIAN COSSACKS

––––––––

WHETHER the political condition of the early Cossack settlements of the Ukraine — the wide debatable frontier region lying between Poland, Russia and the Mussulman states to the south and west — ever entitled the "Free People" to be considered a separate state or nationality has been a subject of long and fruitless controversy. Matchless frontiersmen, the Cossacks could neither defend nor define the vague boundaries of their own "Free Steppes." At every crisis their undisciplined ways and hatred of a central authority led to internal divisions — and these in turn to inevitable subjection by one of the stronger nations surrounding them.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible the majority of the Don Cossacks of their own will became subjects of the Russian Tsar while claiming privileges and immunities which have differentiated them from the Russian moujik to the present day. The Eastern branch of the Cossack race thus became part of the great Muscovite empire (although they appear to have continued to use the title of "republic" among themselves until a recent date.)

During the first half of the sixteenth century the Cossacks inhabiting the shores of the Dnieper, found themselves inevitably drawn into more or less close "alliance" with the Poles against the raids of the Turks and Tartars. While resisting to the utmost the claims of the Polish magnates, whose vague feudal rights extended over a great part of the lands tilled and defended by the Cossacks, the border stanitzi or settlements remained generally subject to the Polish crown.

The kings of Poland soon sought to direct to their own advantage the courage and warlike capacity which their Cossack neighbors had developed through generations of warfare against the common enemy. Under King Sigismond a Cossack hetman (called by the Polish chroniclers Ostaphaeus) proposed to the Polish Senate that his countrymen be formed into a border guard or militia to defend the frontiers of the kingdom against the Tartars.

His plan contemplated the building of a flotilla on the Dnieper below the cataracts, capable of transporting two thousand men and four hundred horses to any threatened point on the long line of river frontier "which it was necessary to hold against these invaders." He assured the Polish king that even this small force disciplined in Cossack fashion could effectually stop the hordes of the Ghirai Khans of the Crimea, who "were everywhere forced to cross the broad stream by swimming their horses and could thus be taken at a disadvantage."

Under a successor of Ostaphaeus, the Hetman Ruchinskov, the Cossacks of the Dneiper in return for a promised subsidy of lands and money from the Polish crown, adopted a method of frontier defense, which later formed the basis of the celebrated military organization of the "Zaporogians." The general plan of this military system in many ways recalls the conditions of modern Cossack military service. To the older men, the weaklings and to the veterans of several campaigns was reserved the privilege of family life in the Cossack settlements or stanitzi, scattered along the shores of the upper Dnieper, near Kiev. Here they cultivated the soil and tended the flocks which formed the principal riches of the community.

Meanwhile, the younger men gathered in armed camps and outposts on the islands below the cataracts, ready for any martial adventure that might present itself. These military gatherings, or musters, were especially frequented during the summer months or at any time when hostile raids might be expected. If no foray of the Turks or Tartars threatened the Cossacks' settlements — or the lands of the Polish republic they were paid to defend — expeditions were organized against the Turkish colonies on the shores of the Black Sea. Long Cossack boats, manned by chosen warriors, would then shoot the rapids of the Dnieper, falling with the suddenness of a thunderbolt upon some distant point of the Turkish littoral, even before rumours of their approach could reach the outposts of the enemy.

In winter only the more strategic or threatened points among the islands were fortified and left in charge of a tried garrison consisting of a few thousand men. These chosen troops (called by the Poles Proesidenti) were the bands which became famous at a later day under the local name of Za Porogi — or men from "beyond the rapids." The principal camp of the Zaporogians protected by outposts and a rude fortress was known as the sitch.

The early military organization and strategy of these Dnieper Cossacks was probably but little different from that of the Tartar levies. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, not only the garrisons of the sitch but also the troops and militia stationed in the agricultural settlements along the upper Dnieper, had developed a characteristic system of military service.

In the Hetman Bogdan Kostchinskoi, whose power was recognized by a majority of the free Cossacks settled along the Polish frontiers, King Stephen Bathory found a leader capable of bringing order and discipline out of the anarchy which had previously existed. Upon Bogdan he formally conferred the dignity of "Hetman of the Ukraine" and at the same time presented him with splendid regalia composed of the Asiatic symbols recognized by the Cossacks as those of supreme authority, namely: the boulava or baton of the commander-in-chief; the buntchuk or horse-tail standard similar to that carried before the conquering generals of Genghis Khan. To these were added the tokens conferred on Polish frontier officials — a great seal of office and the standards that distinguished the mercenaries employed by the kings of Poland.

In the agricultural settlements or stanitzi of the Ukraine the Cossack levies were divided into regiments or polki. These, in turn, were subdivided into companies of one hundred men called sotnia, an organization which has persisted in the Cossack forces of the present day. Although a general of artillery, or obozni and a secretary, or pisari were nominated by the Polish king to assist the hetman (and at the same time to oversee the more technical details of military organisation) the warlike customs of the Cossacks were not interfered with and their peculiar methods of fighting and discipline were generally maintained.

Desirous at first of building up the strength of the Cossack class, the Polish nobles allowed these tribesmen to extend their homesteads and settlements into southern Podolia and Volhynia, permitting them to enroll as "Free Cossacks" all of the fugitive Russian serfs and other strangers who succeeded in joining their forces. By this wise policy Bathory intended to interpose between the frontiers of Poland and the rising power of Russia a military state or province devoted to the interests of the elective kingdom. At the same time, by bringing into cultivation the rich steppes of the Ukraine which had lain desolate for so many centuries through fear of the Tartar raiders, he opened new channels for the commerce of the Polish cities.

That these wise plans were not destined to be fully realized was due to several causes difficult to foresee.

In considering the history of the Ukraine, a distinction must be made between the agricultural Cossack settlements of the Upper Dnieper and the outposts or garrisons of the "Za-Porogi" to which the former were tributary. The cataracts of the Lower Dnieper are divided just below the modern city of Ekaterinoslav by an archipelago of hundreds of rocky islands covered with a shaggy growth of stunted timber and underbrush. To navigate the secret channels of this watery labyrinth requires rare skill with the paddle, a knowledge to be obtained only through constant familiarity. By throwing up a few entrenchments of logs and earthworks any of these islands, isolated by the rapids, was capable of offering an almost impregnable defense against the attacks of an army not supplied with artillery.

The principal camp or sitch of the Cossack garrison was established on one of the larger islands, or at some inaccessible point on the river. This main camp was, moreover, frequently transferred from one place to another so that the mystery which surrounded its location hid the varying numbers of its garrison and added to the difficulties of attack.

The military capabilities and peculiar organization of the Zaporogian Cossacks was a source of considerable interest and inquiry among contemporary military authorities. Many writers of the eighteenth century — wholly ignorant of their real condition — compared these famous frontier troops to military orders of chivalry such as the Knights of the Sword in Lithuania, or even the Knights of Malta. Others compared them to the "Free Archers" of Charles the Seventh, or the "military colonies" of Sparta and of the early Grecian states. As Lesur points out, a more reasonable and modern parallel is to be found in that strange republic of filibusters who almost contemporaneously established their piratical state among the islands of the West Indies. If this comparison does some injustice to the Zaporogians (to whom must be allowed the merit of holding in check, at a critical time, the ravages of the Mussulman invaders) it will appear more reasonable if viewed in the light of the intolerable nuisance to which their pretensions gave rise at a later date. For, while the Cossack settlements, as we shall presently see, became in the course of time absorbed by the civilization of their Russian neighbours, the "Free Companions" of the sitch refused to adapt themselves in any way to the new modes of life made necessary by the passing of frontier conditions.

Long after their territory had become surrounded by peaceful agricultural colonists, the Zaporogians continued to live their own boisterous life as in the days when the Tartar raids almost hourly threatened the community.

As far as the author is aware, no historian has ever attempted to trace the development of the crude system of island outposts until these became merged in the famous military brotherhood of the semi-independent Zaporogians, or, as they generally styled themselves, "The Free and Independent Community Beyond the Rapids." Nevertheless, the history of the long struggle between Poland and Russia for the fertile provinces of the Ukraine is very largely concerned with the doings of this turbulent faction among the Cossack "nation." To form a true idea of the appearance of the famous sitch or stronghold one must imagine rather an encampment or gathering of rude huts set down amidst a clearing in the forest. These were defended by the rapids of the Dnieper, or by rude earthworks in no way recalling a mediaeval fortress. Great sheds or barracks built of saplings, covered with horse or cow-hides, sheltered the garrison and divided it into definite units or kourens. The members of each kouren sleeping under one roof, eating their kasha or buckwheat meal from a single great kettle, enjoyed in common a kind of boisterous family life. In spite of the iron discipline which their exposed and dangerous position rendered necessary, the government of the sitch was jealously maintained on the most democratic lines. The chief of this warlike republic was known as the koshovoy ataman.

Although possessed of almost unlimited powers, this officer was liable at any moment to be deposed from his high position by a public meeting of the brotherhood. These assemblies were called together by the most informal means — the clashing of cymbals or the tumultuous cries of any party strong enough to rouse the general interests. Together with his aide-de-camp or jessoul and his clerk, or pissar, the koshovoy ataman might thus be summoned on the most frivolous pretext to stand before the assembled garrison. Taking his station beneath the horsetail standard that denoted his rank, he was expected to wait, cap in hand, the outcome of the noisy debate which decided whether or not his administration was satisfactory to the Free Companions. The ceremony just described was generally preceded by a drinking bout wherein quantities of gorilka, brandy (with which the hardy warriors braced themselves when called upon to make any momentous decision), were consumed as a necessary preliminary to the mental effort required. It is, therefore, not surprising to learn that such elections, more often than not, ended in bloodshed. Whenever the tumult seemed to indicate that their services were no longer required, it was the custom of the officials composing an unpopular "administration" formally to salute their comrades, and clapping on their shaggy sheepskin headgear, to return to the ranks of their own kouren thus resuming their rights as Free Cossacks.

"The election of a new koshovoy ataman then proceeded under conditions which made the acceptance of this high honour as humiliating as possible for the successful candidate. The kouren from which the ataman was to be chosen having first been decided upon, an individual member was next singled out by the noisy shouts of his adherents. Ten of the most insolent and intoxicated elders of the general assembly were usually deputed to announce to the new chieftain the honour conferred upon him. It was no false modesty that often caused the responsibilities of this high position to be declined. Like Caesar, etiquette demanded that the newly elected koshovoy should at least twice refuse the dangerous distinction offered him. It was only after being knocked half senseless by the back slapping and rough congratulations of his electors that he might properly consent to be dragged beneath the red horsetail standard where the final indignity connected with his installation awaited him. The oldest Cossacks present, gathering up handfuls of mud from the river bank, proceeded in turn to smear with this filth the beard and face of their newly-chosen leader. In this condition he was obliged — though now enjoying the dignity of remaining covered before the uncapped assembly — to make a long speech thanking his comrades for the honours literally thrust upon him.

As additional safeguard to the democratic institutions of the Zaporogians, it was further decreed (by laws none the less binding because only part of the unwritten traditions of the community) that except during an active campaign the koshovoy ataman should exercise no real authority in the sitch. When, however, war had once been declared, even his most despotic commands were implicitly obeyed.

In ordinary times the administration of the affairs of the Zaporogian sitch lay in the hands of a council of subordinate atamans elected by the different kourens. These were generally selected from among the most popular members of the community and only kept themselves in office by exercising arts of the basest flattery and slavish generosity. No ataman might receive any pay, except the privilege of renting stalls to the Jews and other traders venturesome enough to establish themselves among the Zaporogians. Commerce was held in so little esteem that nearly all human rights were denied these despised shopkeepers. Any moment might see their stock in trade looted before their eyes, yet the high prices which after some successful raid the Cossacks were liable to toss to the "peddlers" rather than demean themselves by bargaining, always attracted a motley crowd of vendors willing to submit to all the humiliations which might be heaped upon them in return for the rich profits to be gained.

Although these periods of iron discipline and the relaxations of ensuing debauch were characteristic of the life of the sitch, contemporary writers give the Zaporogians credit for certain homely virtues. They were always honest with each other. Convicted thieves were treated with cruel severity: lashed to a post in the centre of the camp, if they or their friends were unable to make restitution at the end of a period of three days, they might be beaten to death by their victims. The murderer of a comrade was chained to his victim's corpse and buried alive in the same grave. But besides these cruel laws born of the necessities of early times, there grew up a more civilized code based upon the celebrated medieval "Institutes of Magdeburg," — regulations which were applied in the merchants' quarters of the Polish towns.

A custom of the sitch doubtless growing out of the dangers constantly threatening the first garrisons and the state of constant watchfulness and alarm in which they were forced to live, has gained no little attention from contemporary writers. This was the law rigorously excluding women, under pain of death, from the community of the Zaporogians. If a Zaporogian desired to take up the burdens and pleasures of family life he returned to the Cossack settlements, while his name was inexorably erased from the rolls of the Free Company. From the accounts of this custom many ludicrous errors have arisen. Some writers have described the Zaporogians as a kind of monkish militia, constantly at war with the infidels in the defense of Christianity. Others have described them as a religious order of chivalry with vows of chastity resembling those taken by the Knights of the Sword, who ruled in Lithuania.

Although any parade of piety seems strangely out of place in such a rough community, it was considered necessary for each new recruit to belong to the Orthodox Greek religion. Matters of doctrine, we read, were the cause of many bloody quarrels among them. Every year two priests and their attendant deacons were sent from a monastery near Kiev to the encampment charged with celebrating a daily mass. "A deep bass voice and ability to drink a fair share of Cossack brandy" were, according to Lesur, considered part of the necessary equipment for ministering to the spiritual needs of this strange parish. In the face of the fanatical religious zeal of the Turks and Tartars the Zaporogians could hardly allow themselves to be outdone in this respect. To the battle cry of "Allah! Allah!" the Zaporogians answered with the rallying cry of "Jesus!" On the banners of these strange crusaders were emblazoned the symbols of favourite saints and martyrs of the Ukraine. Their feuds with the Turkish colonies established on the Black Sea, were embittered by religious hatred as well as love of plunder.

In their fragile river craft they set out fearlessly across the Black Sea in reckless forays against the Turk: protecting the low sides of their canoes in stormy weather by mats made of reeds, or else by lashing their boats together to form catamarans. These typical Cossack boats, or cholni, were often sixty feet in length. They were built in shipyards hidden among the reedy islands of the lower Dnieper by skilful artisans held in high respect among Zaporogians. Often as many as fifteen oars on a side were manned by Cossack rowers, while a small cannon was set on a platform at the prow. On account of their size and "handiness" the Cossack "navy" was capable of disconcerting manoeuvres unknown to Turkish strategy, so that even the great war galleys of the "All-conquering" Sultan Murad fell victims to their attack.

These exploits, for which enthusiastic volunteers were never lacking, kept up the military spirit and discipline of the Zaporogians. Whenever a short peace with the Tartars of the Crimea (the foe with which they were most concerned) permitted such relaxations, some chieftain was always ready to lead an expedition against the Sultan. Even when their allies were at peace with the Porte, it was impossible to prevent these raids on the "Land of the Infidel." In order to avoid unnecessary quarrels, it was only after returning to the sitch that the division of the booty took place. On such occasions the whole community would indulge in a huge masquerade. Their usual rough and tattered garments were then replaced with silken Turkish cloaks and the costly velvet cloths of Damascus. Rich damasks were ruthlessly cut up to make zippoun, the characteristic trousers of portentous width affected by all true Cossacks of the old school. Thus arrayed and with their shaggy calpacks, decorated with ostrich feathers and jewelled aigrets, the Cossacks would march in procession to pay their respects to the neighboring settlements, forcing all whom they met upon the road to drink with them — Polish nobles or Cossack peasants alike. "Four or five days were spent in drinking, dancing and boastful discourses. Everywhere the Cossacks were accompanied by a rude orchestra and by serving men bearing huge jars of beer, hydromel and Cossack brandy. Thus, at the end of a few days all the profits of their perilous expeditions would be dissipated."

When after the Cossack revolution led by Bogdan Hmielnicki, the principal Cossack settlements of the Ukraine passed under the Russian rule, it became apparent (especially after the rise of the Romanov dynasty) that there was no place for such an aggressively independent community as that of the Zaporogians within the borders of the Empire ruled by the Tsar. Unlike the loosely held frontiers of the Polish kingdom, the Russian marches were guarded by imperial troops. Yet the remoteness of the Cossack settlements and the position occupied by the sitch, preserved for a century or more the "national" pretensions of the Zaporogians. But the later history of this warlike brotherhood presents only a series of episodes without signs of political development or progress. The rare documents of this period, preserved in the convents of the Ukraine, are records of achievements startling in their bravery, sometimes chivalrous, but often base and cruel. The love of personal freedom, at a time when their neighbours were bound in shameful subjection, alone gives character and unity to their story.

An attempt will now be made to give, in the language and spirit of the original report (made to the Ataman Dorochenko by the great Zaporogian koshevoy Sirko), some account of a famous foray of the "Free Companions" against the Crimean Tartars and their allies. This document may be taken as a typical example of the rare "sources" of Cossack history which have survived to the present day — although the golden days of the sitch at the close of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth were probably filled with episodes similar to the one described. The author has resisted all temptation (in the interest of "historical truth") to tamper with the characteristic bombast which marks the original. These rare written records of Cossack days and the joyous "diplomatic" correspondence which accompanies them are, moreover, of especial interest as having suggested to the great Russian historical painter Repnin, the subject for his well-known Cossack pictures in the Tretiakov Gallery of Moscow.

"It was only when the Dnieper was filled with floating ice floes, and the steppes covered with soft snow that the ever-vigilant Cossack garrison of the sitch could feel themselves in a measure safe from the attacks of their implacable enemies, the Tartars of the Crimea. During this season the fast of St. Phillip, which occurs shortly before Christmas, was always strictly kept by the members of the orthodox Zaporogian brotherhood. Following this period of abstinence, if the weather and the conditions of the plains afforded their usual protection, it was an equally honoured custom for the Cossacks to indulge in a period of feasting and drunkenness."

In the year 1675, profiting by intimate knowledge of their habits gained by many years of warfare, the Khan of the Crimea determined to attack the community of the sitch at this time. Turkish troops had been loaned to the Khan of the Crimea by the Turkish Sultan for reinforcements and a serious attempt was to be made to put an end to the depredation of the Cossacks in Turkish territory.

By following the course of the Dnieper, yet remaining at a distance of several miles from its frozen banks, the vigilance of the Cossack patrols was avoided and a large force of Crimean Tartars and Turkish Janissaries reached the neighbourhood of the Zaporogian encampment unnoticed by its defenders.

In judging of the numbers which composed this important expedition, we can only depend on the evidence in the Cossack accounts. Let us then state, once for all, that (if the worthy Cossack pissar or clerk can be believed) "on one side were engaged no less than 15,000 Janissaries or regular Turkish troops," besides a "multitude" of Tartar tribesmen, while the usual winter garrison of the sitch did not, as a rule, exceed 2,000 men.

On arriving at a spot nearly opposite the island fortress occupied by the Zaporogians, the "perfidious" Mussulmen had the good fortune to find the entire Cossack outpost guarding this important point overcome by their libations in honour of the "Holy Day" preceding. (The Cossack historian, in strong and convincing language here sets forth the iniquity of an attack made at such a time!) Through the "base advantage" thus gained nearly the entire force of Janissaries and "numerous" Tartars were enabled actually to penetrate undiscovered within the narrow streets of the encampment where they proceeded to surround each of the kouren, or wooden barracks, in which the Cossack companies were housed. It was at this juncture that their presence was made known to the garrison by a Cossack named Chefchika who, "moved by God" chanced to glance out of a window and, by the light reflected from the snow, saw to his "grim amazement," the silent ranks of the enemy drawn up and awaiting the signal to attack.

His courage in no way affected by this sight, he proceeded quietly to awaken his sleeping comrades. It was determined that the best method of meeting the attack would be to place at the few available windows the most skilful of the Cossack marksmen, while the others should load and pass to them guns and pistols in rapid succession. This system of defense in which the other kourens presently joined, was apparently so disconcerting to the Turkish troops, that when the gallant defenders sallied out for a final assault they found only a demoralized mob of the enemy upon whom to wreak their vengeance.

Following the example of the Cossack historian we shall pass over the minor tactical details of the struggle which ensued, confining ourselves to the glorious outcome. The results of this indiscreet invasion, according to the chronicler, was a "loss of no less than 13,500 men among the Janissaries alone, while on the Cossack side a loss of but fifty killed is recorded, besides eighty wounded" (sic). The first pious duty of the Cossacks was to bury their own dead in consecrated ground, while the wounded were given over "to the care of the barber." In the meantime some two thousand cavalrymen started out in pursuit of the Khan of Crimea, who, on the defeat of his Turkish allies, had "fled like a wolf" to his distant stronghold. To judge by the account we have quoted, one of the principal "annoyances" caused by this invasion was the question of how to dispose of the numerous bodies, of slain Tartars and Janissaries, which encumbered the streets of the Cossack encampment. These, after much discussion (recorded at even greater length in the original manuscript than the account of the actual fighting itself) were pushed under the ice of the river Dnieper through holes laboriously cut for that purpose, whence they were swept away by the swift current.

The "facts" contained in the above short summary are at least borne out by the tone of the correspondence which ensued between the Zaporogian Cossacks and the Turkish Sultan, whose disloyal actions during a time of peace had been so signally punished. One letter reads as follows:

"To the Khan of Tartary

Our Unworthy Neighbour:

We, the Cossack troops of the sitch, would never have conceived the idea of entering upon this war had you not commenced hostilities. You have sent against us (what treachery!) not only your savage Tartars, but also the troops of that old fool, the Sultan. Had it not been for the intervention of our constant friend, the great Lord Jesus — we might all have perished in our sleep! Now, since your disloyal ways have brought upon you disaster — refrain from troubling us. Otherwise, we will treat you after our fashion, and that of our noble Cossack ancestors, by beating down your own gates!

We wish your Majesty a long and prosperous reign.

Signed by Ivan Sikko, —Koshovoy Ataman (for the whole community). "

––––––––

At the same time a letter was written to the Sultan in Constantinople, Mahmoud III — beginning with a parody of his imperial titles as set forth at the beginning of a letter admonishing the Cossacks to keep the peace. The epithets show a cunning knowledge of what would be most insulting to a pious Moslem.

––––––––

"Thou Turkish Devil:

Brother and Companion of Lucifer himself!

Who dares call himself Lord of the Christians — but is not! Babylonish cook! Brewer of Jerusalem! Goat-keeper of the herds of Alexandria! Swineherd of Great and Lesser Egypt! Armenian Sow and Tartar Goat! Insolent Unbeliever! May the Devil Take you! The Cossacks refuse every demand and petition that you now make to them — or that you may in future invent. Thank us for condescending to answer you!

(Signed) Ivan Sirko and the Cossack troops. "

––––––––

The originals of the above epistles, which, for obvious reasons, have been considerably condensed and modified, are to be found in the annals of Kiev, Vol. II, pp. 371, 382, 1891. See also a pamphlet published in Petrograd in 1902 by Professor I. Evarnitzky.

III: YERMAK AND THE COSSACK CONQUEST OF SIBERIA

ACCORDING to Lesur, the French historian (who, at Napoleon's bidding, wrote a careful and erudite History of the Cossacks