Danubian Sich

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The Danubian Sich (Ukrainian: Задунайська Сiч, Russian: Задунайская Сечь) was a fortified settlement (sich) of Zaporozhian Cossacks who settled in the territory of the Ottoman Empire (the Danube Delta, hence the name) after their previous host was disbanded and the Zaporizhian Sich was destroyed.

By the late 18th century the combat ability of Zaporozhia was greatly reduced, especially after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and the Russian annexation of Crimea, when the need was lost for the Host to guard the now extinct borders. At the same time the Zaporozhian's other enemy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was also weakened and on the verge of being partitioned. This meant that militarily the Zaporozhian Sich was becoming increasingly superfluous, but at the same time their existence caused friction with Imperial Russian authorities who wanted to colonise the New Russian lands that the Cossacks inhabited. After a number of attacks on Serbian colonies and with the support offered to Yemelyan Pugachev, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great issued an order to General Pyotr Tekeli to end the troublesome Sich.

Tekeli's operation, carried out in June 1775, was bloodless. The Zaporozhian Sich was surrounded with infantry and artillery. However while the Kosh otaman Petro Kalnyshevsky was deciding on how to approach the Empress's ultimatum. Under the guidance of a starshyna Lyakh, behind Kalnyshevky's back a conspiracy was formed with a group of 50 Cossacks to go fishing in the river Ingul next to the Southern Buh in Ottoman provinces. The pretext was enough to allow the Russians to let the Cossacks out of the siege, but in total the 50 Cossacks grew to five thousand ^[1] (approximately 30% of the Zaporozhian Cossacks).

Initially these, joined by numerous Ukrainian peasants fleeing from Russian Serfdom lived on the left bank of the Danube river (Budjak) then part of the Ottoman Empire, who allowed them to settle there. By 1778 they numbered 12 thousand men, and the Turkish Sultan decided that they would have much more use as a Cossack Host, and allocated them the land of Kuchungary (modern Transnistria) in the lower Dniester where they gave the oath to the Ottaman Empire. However the outbreak of the new Russo-Turkish War divided the Cossacks. Some returned to Russia and joined the new Host of Loyal Zaporozhians (later the Black Sea Cossack Host) formed out of the Cossacks who chose to remain in Russia in 1775. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, Bessarabia became part of Russia, and the Cossacks lost all of their initial allocated land.

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Following Turkey's defeat, some Cossacks retreated with the Turkish Army across the Danube River, where the Sultan allowed them to build a Sich in the settlement of Katerlez in the Danube Delta right next to existing settlements of Nekrasov Cossacks and Lipovans. The two groups became increasingly hostile over land allocation, as both depended on fishing as food source. In 1794, Nekrasovites attacked and destroyed Katerlez. Afterwards the Turkish authorities re-located the Danubian Zaporozhians further up the Danube next on the Brailov Island. The new location was much poorer for fishing and resulted in a group of 500 cossacks, led by Kosh Pomelo to return to Russia.

In 1800 the Balkan Peninsula erupted in uprisings led by Osman Pazvantoğlu who rebelled against the new Turkish Sultan Selim III. In order to gain momentum he promised the Nekrasovites all land on the lower Danube. Seeing an opportunity to settle the score with their rivals, the Danubian Zaporozhians instead sided with the Sultan. The resulting Civil War brought severe casualties to both Cossack groups. In the end the rebellion was put down, the Zaprozhians where rewarded by the Brailov Nazir, who allowed then to return to Katerlez in 1803. However the Nekrasovites found their own protector, the commandant of Izmail Pekhlevanoğlu. And in 1805, with his aid, they attacked the Sich, and once again sacked it. The surviving Zaporozhians fled to Brailov (modern Brăila, Romania).

The new Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812) caused further division in the Danubian Cossacks. After Russia overran the Danube, the Kosh Otaman Trofim Gaibadura and Ivan Guba with two groups offered their allegiance to Russia. They were permitted to settle in the Budjak region and by order of Alexander I and on 20 January 1807 formed the Lower-Danube Budjak Host (Усть-Дунайское Буджацкое Войско). The new host lasted only five months, during which many neghbouring Ukrainian and Moldovan landowners complained upon their serfs running off to Kiliya (modern Ukraine) and Galats (modern Galaţi, Romania) where the Host was based. Thus on 20 June, the host was disbanded, which by that point numbered only 1387 men. Approximately 500 of those moved to the Kuban. This however caused many of the remaining Danubians who initially wished to follow the Kosh and return to Russia, to reconsider.

The fate of the Nekarsovites was such that after successful negotiations with the Russian General Kutuzov, many were pardoned and allowed to return to Russia. The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest resulted in their homeland, the Danube delta to become part of Russia. With the old rivalry still strong, the Zaporozhian Danubians once again attacked their enemy, and in 1813 retook Katerlez. After a very brutal conflict, which shocked even the Turkish authorities, in 1814 Zaporozhians captured the Nekrasovite capital Upper Dunavets (modern Romania). There they founded their final Sich. This caused the end of the Nekrasov Cossack presence in the Balkans and afterwards many were re-located with other Nekrasovites already living in Anatolia, while those who remained mixed with the Danubians.

After a few years of rest, trouble once again came to the Balkans, with the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence. In 1821 Russian-Greek commander Alexander Ypsilantis moved the Eterian Greeks from Russia into Wallachia. In order to counteract the insurrection, the Danubian Cossacks, under command of Kosh Nikifor Beluga aided in his defeat. Afterwards five thousand Cossacks under the Kosh Semeon Moroz were sent to Greece to fight for the Turks. In 1824 they took part in the storming of Messolonghi. Many died there, and Moroz himself was killed in the naval battle next to the island of Chios.

During this time the Danube Sich seemed to reach its height, numbering between 10 to 15 thousand men, controlling all of the Danube delta region with six villages being in personal control of the Kosh. In the Upper Dunavets there were 38 kurens under old traditional names of the Zaporozhian Sich. However unlike its predecessor, the new Sich was already noticeably different. There were no longer any Host Starshynas, and only un-married Cossacks were considered as eligible for service. Polkovnyks were assigned temporarily by the Kosh. The Host lacked any cavalry, fleet, only infantry in boats. The social structure also began to fragment, instead of the former equality of all Cossacks, many fishing, tradesmen and landowners became the Rayah. In order to gain permission to do so, there must be at least a marriage link to a Cossack family.

The crises deepened in 1825 when Kosh otaman Litvin, after promising to form yet another expedition to Greece, fled the Sich without any trace. The Greek events once again put relations between Turkey and Russia at brink, and a new Russo-Turkish War was about to begin. Among the Danube Cossacks there was as ever a pro-Russian and a pro-Turkish split. The former, admitted they would agree to return to Russia if a pardon was accepted. Learning of this the head (Gradonachalik) of Izmail S.A. Tuchkov in 1827 entered into secret negotiations with Kosh Vasily Nezmayevsky. The conditions were not to allow a small group, but the whole host to return to Russia. Despite being a Russophile, Nezmayevsky was not ready to accept such a responsibility.

The role was accepted by a different man, Osip Gladky, himself originally from a rich landowner family from Poltava who in 1820 left his home to earn a living, but after a few failed business attempts in Crimea and Odessa, he left Russia and joined the Sich in 1822. He took part in the campaign against Messolonghi and afterwards was elected to be a Kuren Ataman of the Platnirovsky Kuren. After the failed negotiations with Nezmayevsky, Tuchkov approached Gladky, who upon the Kosh elections held on Pokrov (1 October) was elected to be the Kosh Ataman.

With the outbreak of the new Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), the Russian Army under command of Field-Marshal Peter Wittgenstein advanced. Threatening to overrun the Sich, the Sultan wished to relocate it to Adrianopol (modern Edirne, Turkey) and ordered the Kosh to rally the Dunubian Army to Silistra (modern Bulgaria). Gladky only gathered those that he suspected of having a pro-Turkish allegiance (about two thousand men) and set out for Silistra. After reaching there, he asked to return to the Sich to gather more. When he returned, he instead called for a Cossack Rada and announced his decision to side the whole Sich with Russia. On 10 May, 1828, Gladky along with 218 Cossacks and 578 Rayah crossed the Danube with all the Sich regalia, treasury and prised possessions. After landing on the left bank, they were taken to the Russian headquarters where they knelt before Emperor Nicholas I himself, who was quoted saying:

God will forgive you, the Motherland forgives you, and I too forgive

— ^[2]

The Cossacks were fully pardoned for their past, and managed to win over the Emperor's trust, which is confirmed when the Russian Army Crossed the Danube, Nicholas was in the same Boat that Gladky initially came over in, with Kosh Polkovniks rowing. The tsar let the Danubians continue their Cossack service and formed a new Special Zaporozhian Host (Отдельное Запорожное Войско), with Gladky as the appointed Ataman. The new Host was small with only a five infantry sotnias (~100 men each) that was passed under control of the Danube flotilla. Despite the small number of men, they soon became a prized asset due to their good knowledge of the complicated Danube Delta. They were even given the chance to prove themselves in combat and participated in the storm of Isaccea, 10 of whom were awarded the Cross of St. George.

For those Danubian Sich Cossacks who refused to follow Gladky, their fate was tragic. Learning of Gladky's betrayal, the Sultan called upon the Janissary corps to raze the sich, massacre its population and burn down its church. Even those that were in Silistra were disarmed and sent to forced labour deep in Turkey.

After the war ended, Russia gained extensive territory of the Danubian Principalities. After asked by numerous volunteers, Nicholas I decided to form yet another new Cossack group the Danube Cossack Host, which was perceived to allow descendants of the Zaporozhians who fled Russia in 1775 but did not join the Sultan and instead settled in Bessarbia. In addition it included loyal Nekrasovites as well as many volunteers from the Balkan peoples. It was based in many historical refuge areas, now part of Russia, where over the previous decades many Cossacks fleeing from Turkey found sanctuary such as Akkerman.

The larger Danube Cossack Host, thus made the former Danubian Sich Cossacks under Gladky small and ineffective. There were plans to relocate them to the Kuban, where Gladky visited in 1830. But the Caucasus War was in full swing, and the long journey for such a small group would have been too difficult. Instead the Tsar offered Gladky to remain in Novorossiya but to find a piece of land that was uninhabited, to which Gladky chose the northern coast of the Azov Sea, next to Berdyansk. In May 1832 Gladky carried his men over to the new land and there they formed the Azov Cossack Host, initially numbering 2336 people (including 687 women). The new host was the only Cossack Army in Russia which had a Naval role, acting as a coast guard for the Caucasus and Crimean coasts, by defending them from Turkish and Circassian raiders.

The now combat-ineffective Cossacks who managed to escape the Sultan's vengeance, but did not return to Russia moved into the Danube Delta, where in 1830 they numbered 1,095 families ^[3]. Over the years they were joined by other peasants fleeing serfdom in the Russian Empire. To date there is still a small Ukrainian minority living in the Dobruja region of Romania. In 1992 they numbered four thousand people according to official Romanian statistics ^[4] while the local community claims to number 20,000 ^[3]. Known as Rusnaks^[5] they continue to pursue the traditional Cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing.

The legacy of the Danube Cossacks survived in a lyrical-comic opera called "A Zaprorozhian Cossack beyond the Danube" (Zaporozhetz za Dunayem) composed in the 1850s by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, a student of Mikhail Glinka. Although the opera historically relates to the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-9, where according to a peace treaty, the Danube cossacks were granted the right to return to their homeland, Hulak-Artemovsky reset the opera to take place in the 18th century. The opera first opened in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theatre on 14 March 1863. After its premiere it was censored and restricted from performance.^{[citation needed]} In the 1870s it was revived by amateur Ukrainian theatre troupes and received a new lease of live. Today it is considered a Ukrainian opera classic.

• Cossacks in Turkey
• Zaporozhian Cossacks
• Azov Cossacks

• Shambarov, Valery (2007). Kazachestvo Istoriya Volnoy Rusi. Algoritm Expo, Moscow. ISBN 987-5-699-20121-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid prefix (help).
• Cossacks and military settlers on Dniester and Bug 18th-19th centuries by I.A.Antsupov. First published in Annual Almanach of Pridnestrovye, 1997, vol.1 p.30-39 Available online on www.cossackdom.com
• Olena Bachynska The Danube Territory-land of the traditions of the Ukrainian Cossacks 18th-19th centuries. First published in Наукових записок. Збірника праць молодих вчених та аспірантів". 2001. vol.6 p. 263-274 available online at www.cossackdom.com
• Alexander Bachinsky, The Danube Sich 1775-1828 Odessa State University [1]
• Danube Sich - by L.Malenko for the Small Enclyclopedia of Ukrainian Cossackdom. online

• Danubian Sich in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine