| Cossack raids into Russia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofPolish-Russian wars andCrimean-Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe | |||||||
 Zaporozhian Cossack byFriedrich Wilhelm von Bergholz | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Zaporozhian Cossacks[a] Grand Duchy of Lithuania Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth[b].svg) Crimean Khanate Don Cossacks (sometimes) | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Notable commanders:
| Notable commanders:
| ||||||
TheCossack raids into Russia, also referred as theCherkassian invasions of Russia[3][5] orCherkassian raids into Russia, were a series of military expeditions by theZaporozhian Cossacks into the Russian borderlands and beyond that took place from the end of the 1500s until the mid-1600s.
The raids often took place in a parallel with Cossack regiments joining the Russian service, with the main actions taking place in the end of the 1500s,[6] when the "Cherkassians" were actively attacking Russianstanitsas and other settlements.[7] Sometimes, the Cossacks carried full-scale attacks deep into the Russian territory, as happened during the campaigns of1618 and1633-1634 that are believed to have secured the Commonwealth victories in its wars against Muscovy in the mid-1600s.[8][9] Cossack incursions played a significant role in the history of colonisation of theWild Fields.
TheCossacks as a fighting force began to emerge around the year 1500; their appearance in theWild Fields is deeply connected to theLithuanian colonisation of the region. The early Cossack groups did not have a direct conflict with the Russia; however, some of their raids targeted the Russian convoys. Particularly, one of the first mentions of the word "Cossacks" is tied to the year 1489, when the people ofJerzy Pac attacked the Muscovite convoy nearTavan.[10] Similar actions later took place in 1493 and 1497. The context of the Cossack incursions into Russian lands is often compared with theCossack attacks on theOttoman Empire and its vassals, as the Russian borderlands were one of the sources of loot,[11] and the initial Ukrainian raids were nothing more than looting as well. However, some of their further invasions were a direct attempt to settle in Russian territories without pledging the allegiance to the Russian tsar.[12] Some of the raiders managed to settle in the Russian borderlands, particularly the lands that would become known asSloboda Ukraine later, but they were forced to fight against the Russian forces and loyal Cossacks; many of them were later expelled.
The first Cossack attacks into the Russian territories were carried out byOstap Dashkevych in an alliance withCrimean Khanate, particularly in 1515 and 1521.[13] The first campaign was carried as a part of the ongoingMuscovite-Lithuanian wars and ended in a failure, while during the second one, approximately 300 Cossacks joined theCrimean invasion that ended successfully. The first major Cossack raid into Russia after the mentioned campaigns was in 1563.[14] The princeMichał Wiśniowiecki devastatedNovhorod-Siverskyi andPochep.[15] Eight years later, the Cossacks fromKaniv attacked Russia and raidedKolomak.[16] In 1585, the Cossacks defeated a Russian unit on the river Bagatyi Zaton.[17] In 1589, one of the largest anti-Russian campaigns took place. The Polish-Lithuanian troops attacked several settlements, particularly in the Russian borderlands,[18] while the Cossacks captured a loot with a cost of about 5000 rubles, and killed and captured over 200 people, although their attempts to captureRylsk andOskol ended in failure.[19]
Another successful raid was carried out by theZaporozhian Cossacks into theDon Host, where they captured Vlas Yakovlev and Semen Novgorodets.[20] In a parallel with this, some Cossacks led byataman Matviy Fedorov joined the Russian service.[21] His unit's first military operation was a battle with a Cossack raiders, which ended in a Russian victory and a capture of Senka Kovpak.[21] On the next year, however, he returned to the Polish service.[22]
In April 1590, thecherkassians fromKaniv,Pereyaslav, andCherkasy came toVoronezh to supposedly assist the Russian state in fighting with theTatars.[23] Thevoivode Ivan Andreyevich, not suspecting anything, allowed them to enter the city. That night, they attacked the city, killed the local voivode, and burned the city to the ground,[24][25] with most of local civilians being killed. The loot, captured by Cossacks, had a total cost of40000 Rubles.[19]
In 1592, the residents ofChernihiv had a conflict with the Cossacks, who had attacked the Russians nearPryluky and forced them to withdraw, capturing their horses.[26]
In the summer of 1598, the Cossacks once again invaded Russia. This time, a Russian unit led by Konstantin (or Ivan) Myasnoy, which was sent to pursue the retreatingTatars, blocked the path for Cossacks and defeated them.[27][28]
The start of Cossack campaigns in Russia appeared with the beginning ofDimitriads and a subsequentPolish–Russian war. According to Tatyana Tairova, over12000 Zaporozhian Cossacks fought alongside the army ofFalse Dmitry I: they participated in the capture of Moscow by False Dmitry's army in 1605.[29]
In 1611, the Poles and the ZaporozhianscapturedSmolensk. At that time, a small detachment of Zaporozhians forced the voivodes in theRyazan region to surrender. In the middle of 1611, some Muscovites organized a militia with the aim of recapturingMoscow. However, after an unsuccessful attempt to storm the city, they stopped nearMoscow.[30]
In 1612, the Polish-Lithuanian-Cossack army led by prince Semen Lyko captured and completely destroyedBelgorod.[31][32]
In 1617, the Zaporozhian and Don Cossacks capturedOskol and tried to captureVoronezh but were defeated.[32] Eventually, they were pushed back by princeIvan Khovanskiy, who decisively defeated them near Oskol.[32]
DuringSahaidachny's campaign toMoscow, the Cossacks captured and plundered several Russian cities. After the main Cossack army of Petro Sahaidachy captured and sackedLivny andYelets, a major[g] unit led byMykhailo Doroshenko attacked the Russian rear and captured several settlements, includingLebedyan,Dankov,Skopin,Ryazhsk,Pyesochnia,Sapozhok, andShatsk.[33][34] The joint actions of Doroshenko and Sahaidachny led to an occupation ofVoronezh uyezd by the Cossacks as of August 1618. Later, Sahaidachny sent a 2,000-strong unit under the command of Fyodor Borispolets to raid the Russian territory. This unit capturedKasimov andRomanov (Tutayev).[33] Following thesiege of Moscow, which led to peace talks, parts of the Cossacks deserted from the main army and started looting Russian territories. On November 30, the Cossacks attackedVologda but were forced to withdraw after an artillery attack by the Russians. On 4 December, the main Cossack forces attackedKaluga, devastated it, and besieged the Russian garrison in a fortress. The siege was lifted on 1 January 1619 after the Cossacks received an order fromWładysław IV to withdraw from Muscovy.[33] By the 1620s, the damage from the campaign of Sahaidachny was almost completely repaired.[4]
In 1631, the Cossack raiders had defeated the Russian unit ofataman Grigory Kaidalov.
One of the most devastating series of Cossack raids happened during theSmolensk War.[35] In April 1633, the Cossacks invaded the main territory of Russia, attackedValuyki, and sacked it. Then they approachedBelgorod and besieged it, but due to the stubborn resistance from the Russian garrison, were forced to withdraw. The siege ofPutyvl byJeremi Wiśniowiecki and registered Cossacks, as well as the raid onRylsk and a Cossack-Lithuanian attempt to captureKaluga, ended in a failure. In October, after the siege of Smolensk was lifted, Polish kingWładysław IV sent a 3,000-strong Cossack-Polish unit to raid Dorogobuzh. The raid was successful.[36]
In 1634, the Cossacks led byTymofiy Orendarenko andTaras Fedorovych defeated the Russians at thebattle of Shchelkanovo. Same year, Cossack ataman Hyria Kanevets was killed nearNovhorod-Siverskyi.[37] Cossack and Tatar raids into southern Russia caused a mass desertion inside theMikhail Shein's army underSmolensk, which led to the surrender of Shein in February 1634 and the eventual defeat of Russia in the entire war.[38] Following the end of the Smolensk War, Zaporozhians withdrew from the Russian territories they controlled.
The Cossacks also often participated in Tatar andNogai raids into Russia. In 1643, the Cossack-Nogai army attacked the villages of Larok and Krivets just west of Kozlov. The invaders killed and captured 281 Russian civilians.[39]
In 1646, Russian units defeated a Cossack detachment. The "Thievish Cherkassians" lost two killed and one captured.[40]
Despite the main conflict being against the Cossack raiders and, later, illegal settlers, the "serving Cherkassians" were also not always loyal to the Tsardom. Their revolts mainly took place in the mid-1600s. In 1641, the Cossacks ofChuhuiv,Kursk, and Kostenkov organised an armed uprising against the Tsardom. The Chuhuiv Cossacks killedYakov Ostryanin and withdrew to Poland, while the other two revolts were suppressed.[41] The border conflicts between Russia and the Zaporozhian Cossacks[h] also took place duringVyhovsky's rebellion and theLeft-Bank Uprising, notably thebattle of Sevsk, but these were not frequent invasions but rather small-scale border raids with a goal of diverting Russian troops from the front line inHetmanate.
The Russian government was enraged with the Cossack actions.[22] The Cossack attacks were included in the list of "hurts", which was delivered toWarsaw by Afanasiy Ryazanov in 1596.[22] For the Russian voivodes, the Cossack attacks became one of the crucial problems in colonisation of theWild Fields.[42][43] To protect its territory from the continuous attacks by Cherkassians, the Russian Tsardom sped up the creation of major cities on the Russian border, as was explained toĞazı II Giray.[44] The Russian state in general treated the Cossack attacks similar to the Tatar ones, in spite of the Cossacks being considered almost as dangerous as Tatars,[45] while in some cases it was even harder to fight the Cossacks than the Tatars.[46] The Russian government also tried to expel the Cossack raiders from Russia several times, as well as launching a counter-raids into thePolish Ukraine. In 1585, after the battle of Bagatyi Zaton, the Russian government organised an expedition against the invaders led by Foma Buturlin and Yuri Bulgakov in order to expel the Zaporozhians from Don Host.[22] The demand of expelling the Ukrainian Cossacks was once again sent in 1600 by tsarBoris Godunov.[28] The Russian army expelled illegal Cossack settlers fromPutyvl' uyezd several times, particularly in 1627 and 1631.[47][48] During the Smolensk War, several Russian raids into theRuthenian-populated lands were carried.[4] The Myrhorod campaign of tsarist troops resulted in a Russian victory, while the raid onPoltava failed.[49] Fear of the Cossack attacks was reportedly one of the reasons whyTsar Alexis did not provide an immediate help toBohdan Khmelnytsky inhis revolt against the Commonwealth[50] and why the Russian state continued to treat the Zaporozhians with suspicion even after thePereiaslav Agreement was signed in 1654.[50]
But the Cossacks subsequently performed an invaluable military service in Prince Ladislaw's 1618 expedition against Moscow
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)