Ukraine

Igor S from Lithuania - Ukraine - 09.04.2024

Cossacks . national heroes

The Cossacks were originally peasant fugitives from serfdom or oppression in -

Russia, Lithuania and Poland - or just adventurous spirits - who became selfgoverning communities on the Steppes. There were three main Cossack hosts, of which the Ukrainian Cossacks were one.

The term Cossack comes from a Turkish word meaning “free man.” Their origins are disputed, but most scholars agree that they were a multiethnic group formed from tribes living in the area, as well as from burghers, peasants, and escaped serfs who fled to the steppe. Ukraine’s Cossacks are first mentioned in sources of the late fifteenth century, and their rights as an independent community were abolished by the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century. 

Cossacks were mainly East Slavs. In the 15th century, the term originally described semi-independent Tatar groups which lived on the Dnipro River, which flows through Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

Some historians suggest that the Cossack people had mixed ethnic origins, descending from Russians, Khazars, Ukrainians, Tatars, and others who settled or passed through the boundless Pontic–Caspian steppeland that stretches from central Asia to southeastern Europe.

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