Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Isle, fortress, garrison, flooded, razed, discriminated, rapids

2) Give definitions to the following:

Dnieper rapids, encampment, separatist, abatis, fortification

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. Where was the first Sich established?

2. What reason motivated the establishing of Sich?

3. Why did Cossacks build their strongholds mainly on the islands or behind the rapids?

4. What does the term “Sich” mean?

5. Why did Cossacks go to the Crimean Khanate in 1711?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about the Sich fortress?

Unit 9: Destruction of Zaporizhian Sich

This theme is dealt with in a lot of historical sources. The following citation is to illustrate this:

“In May 1775, General Pyotr Tekeli received orders to occupy the main Zaporizhian fortress, the Sich, and to destroy it. The order was given by Grigory Potemkin, who was formally admitted into Cossackdom a few years earlier. Potemkin was given direct orders from Empress Catherine.

On June 5 1775, General Tekeli surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. He postponed the assault and even allowed visits while the head of the Host, Petro Kalnyshevsky, was deciding how to react to the Russian ultimatum. Under the guidance of the starshyna Lyakh, a conspiracy was formed among a group of 50 Cossacks to pretend to go fishing in the river Inhul next to the Southern Buh in the Ottoman provinces. The pretext was enough to allow the Russians to let the Cossacks out of the siege, who were joined by numerous others. The fleeing Cossacks travelled to the Danube Delta where they formed a new Danube Sich, as a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire.

When Tekeli realised the escape, the remaining Cossacks were nothing left but to surrender. The Sich was razed to the ground. Petro Kalnyshevsky was arrested and exiled to the Solovetsky Islands (where he reputedly lived to the age of 112 in the Solovetsky Monastery). All high level starshynas were repressed or exiled. Lower level starshynas who remained and went over to the Russian side were given Army ranks and all the privileges that accompanied them, and allowed to join Hussar and Dragoon regiments. Most of the ordinary Cossacks were made state peasants and serfs. The Ukrainian writer Adrian Kaschenko (1858-1921) and historian Olena Apanovich note that the final abolition of the Zaporizhian Sich, the historic Cossack stronghold perceived as the bastion of the protection of the Ukrainians and their ways of life, had such a strong symbolic effect that the memories of the event remained for the long time in local folklore. …”

The complete version of this text is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhian_Sich

Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Orders, Empress, to surround, conspiracy, pretext, surrender, razed, regiment, stronghold

2) Give definitions to the following:

Formally admitted, direct orders, assault, symbolic effect

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. Can you say that Potemkin betrayed theCossacks?

2. Who were the direct orders to destroy the Sich given by?

3. What happened on June 5 1775?

4. How old was Kalnyshevsky before his death?

5. What happened to the elite of Cossacks after the destruction of the Sich?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about this well-known painting?

Unit 10: Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen

This theme is dealt with in a lot of historical sources. The following citation is to illustrate this:

“The unit was formed in 1914 at the initiative of the Supreme Ukrainian Council in August 1914. The unit was composed of members of different Ukrainian paramilitary organizations in Galicia. It participated in hostilities on the Russian front and later with Austria's disintegration became the regular military unit of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. During German and Austrian occupation of Ukraine in 1918 the unit was stationed in Southern Ukraine. Former soldiers of the unit participated in the formation of Sich Riflemen — military unit of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1919 the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen expanded into Ukrainian Galician Army. They participated in the Polish–Ukrainian War around Lviv and suffered heavy losses.

A number of Ukrainian paramilitary and youth organizations appeared in Galicia as early as 1894 and were the expression of growing national consciousness of Galicia's Ukrainians.

The pro-Austrian faction prevailed as only units loyal to the Habsburg monarchy were allowed to exist. From the inception the Sich Riflemen saw Russia as their main enemy and were preparing for "liberation of Ukrainian lands" in the Russian Empire. In Galicia and Bukovyna Sich Riflemen were also circulating a magazine "Vidhuk" (Review). In 1914 a statute of USS was published, which outlined the order of service, uniforms of the units and provided military terminology and commands in the Ukrainian language. That same year ammunition and rifles were bought for a first 10,000 men-strong company of the Sich Riflemen that paraded through Lviv on June 28, 1914.

In two months the First World War broke out and the newly established Supreme Ukrainian Council published in the Lviv newspaper "Dilo" a call on Galician Ukrainians to form volunteer units for the war with the Russian Empire. The Austrian war ministry was not prepared for this initiative of the Supreme Ukrainian Council and allowed creation only of a unit with 5,000 men. The first volunteers were mainly members of Ukrainian patriotic organizations such as Sich, Sokil and Plast. …”

The complete version of this text is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_People%27s_Republic