Time of resurgence for steppe warriors signifies the revival of much that was lost or destroyed
KHORTYTSYA ISLAND – When Viktor Bilyayev helped found the Zaporizhsky Cossack organizationin 1990, there were only a dozen Ukrainians who identified themselves as Cossacks.
Today, Bilyayev estimates the number to be more than 3,000.
While the Cossacks have undergone a resurgence in the last nine years, it is still unclear whether it is anything more than a show. Nowhere was this more evident than at the reburial of the legendary Zaporizhska Sich Cossack Ivan Sirko on Khortytsya on Aug. 21.
The ritual started out solemn enough with patriotic Cossack songs and plenty of bowing and oath-taking by major Cossack Ottomans. But an hour into the ceremony the majority of the colorfully dressed participants were too busy spinning yarns and drinking beer to pay much heed to the Orthodox priests blessing the burial site. A crowd surrounded one large Cossack Hetman who was making quite a spectacle with his drunken gestures and booming voice.
“For me Cossack life today looks like some sort of theater,” said invited guest and filmmaker Marlen Matus.
But others feel the event was a symbol of something deeper.
“We have been reviving everything that was destroyed – the Cossack spirit, the Cossack culture and Cossack science,” explained Oleksandr Smakota, a member of the Knighthood of Honor and Glory, a group that is active in re-establishing Cossack traditions.
The Cossacks, whose name derives from a Turkish word meaning free person, once accounted for 80 percent of the population of Ukraine. As residents of the first land to be referred to as Ukrainian, their history and lifestyle was strongly suppressed under Soviet rule.
But the legendary warriors who survived Catherine the Great also survived what Kyiv-Mohyla Academy history professor Yuri Mytsyk calls the Soviets “virtual war” against them.
In eastern Ukraine it is not hard to find reminders of the once-great Cossack steppe. The city of Dnipropetrovsk rests on what was once a settlement for elderly Cossacks no longer able to fight. Two of the city’s parks are the former gardens of the elderly Cossack Lazer Globa.
It is in this territory that Sirko reigned during the 17th century. A famous warrior and diplomat who fought for a free Ukraine, Sirko was elected Hetman or leader of the Zaporizhska Sich eight times.He won 55 battles and was well known enough to fight with the French army.
Although Sirko died in 1680, he has never really rested in peace. His grave was first dug up and reburied during the rein of Czar Peter I in 1708. He was unearthed once again in 1967 when the building of a nearby reservoir threatened to wash his grave away. This time he was moved to Khortytsya in the heart of what was once Zaporizhska Sich territory. But he was buried without his skull, which was sent to Russia so an accurate reconstruction could be made. A portrait and then a bust were created but for 42 years the skull remained in Russia. Mytsyk thinks the reason the skull remained in limbo so long is simply because no one cared.
“We didn’t love our Ukrainian history,” explains Lidiya Holubchyk, director of the Dnipropetrovsk Historical Institute.
Soviet suppression did not help. Under Soviet rule, publication of books and newspapers about Cossacks was prohibited, and in 1989, when the 500-year Cossack anniversary rolled around, there was no ceremony.
By 1990 things had changed. Not only was the anniversary marked and a number of Cossack organizations founded, it was decided to rebury Sirko’s skull. But lack of money and organization delayed the process another 10 years.
Instead of marking the end of a lengthy journey, the reburial marks a beginning for both Ukrainian and Russian Cossacks. After the coffin was once again placed underground, several Hetmans voiced their thoughts. Almost all, both Russian and Ukrainian, spoke of the founding of a Cossack state.
“Sirko’s goal of building our own [Cossack] state has been revived again,” said Yarosh, Hetman of a Zaporizhska Sich Kurin.
The head of all the Zaporizhsky Sichs, Hetman Ivan Zabolotny, promised Sirko’s spirit that his dream of a Cossack state would be achieved. Working toward this goal an agreement was signed between several Russian and Ukrainian Cossack organizations.
But the battle is far from over with many Cossacks voicing discontent over the Russian-Ukrainian alliance. Volodymyr Makohur, a writer in a Zaporizhska Sich Kurin, feels Sirko made a mistake when he fought the Crimean Tatars who had been planning an attack on Moscow. Makohur and his friends feel Sirko helped seal the fate of Ukraine and thus secured its loss of freedom.
“Sirko’s one fault is he saved Russia but he couldn’t save Ukraine,” Makohur said.
Another area of discontent is even more fundamental and involves the very definition of a Cossack. Some say it involves discipline and abstaining from alcohol, while others think it is an attitude or a sort of social club.
Those at the celebration ranged from the solemn-and-sober to the drunk-and-disorderly.
Most participants were robed in classic Cossack attire complete with swords, fur hats, bright sharovary pants and scalp locks.
Smakota points to the festivities with a wave of his hand. “Everything going on here is theater. You won’t find the real Cossack life here.”
