Glossary of Terms

Below is a listing of terminology common in dealing with Kozaks. The descriptions are based on entries in Encyclopedia of Ukraine. I've altered some of the transliterations and deleted excessive OOP information.

Bulava.

A type of mace, 50-80 cm. in length, consisting of a handle and head in the shape of a sphere or octahedron. The bulava was known among Eastern peoples and came into widespread use in Ukraine in the 13th century, first as a weapon, then as a symbol of authority. In the 16th-18th centuries Kozak officers bestowed the bulava on the elected hetman. The Russian tsars also endowed hetmans with the bulava. A smaller bulava, known as a pernach or shestoper, was carried by Kozak colonels.

Bunchuk.

A standard consisting of a staff topped by an orb or spearhead and decorated with a horsetail or tassels, during ceremonies and military campaigns. A symbols of a hetman's authority and part of his regalia of office.

Company system.

In the Kozak Hetman state and in Slobidska Ukraine the company (sotnya) administration consisted of the captain (sotnyk) and the company officers, including the town (horodovyj) or company otaman, secretary (pysar), aide-de-camp (osavul), and flag-bearer (khorunzhyj). The captain was the company's commander-in-chief and carried out in its territory military, administrative, fiscal, and judicial functions similar to those performed by the colonel in the regiment's territory, including keeping peace and public order in the company. He was head of the company court, which looked into civil and minor criminal matters involving Kozaks and sometimes even the civilian population in the company's territory (then representatives of the appropriate estate would be included in the court). In matters of great importance the captain was responsible to the colonel and the regimental administration and sometimes directly to the hetman. Originally the captain was elected by a company council and confirmed by a higher, regimental or hetman, government. The town or company otaman was the captain's lieutenant and assisted the captain in running the company chancery, supervised the police, and acted as the captain's assistant during campaigns. The company secretary supervised the company chancery. The company aide-de-camp and flag-bearer had their specific military and administrative functions. The company officers were usually appointed by the colonel.

Heneralnyj bunchuzhnyj or just Bunchuzhnyj (General standard-bearer).

A senior official in the Hetman state of the 17th and 18th centuries and member of the General Officer Staff. Formally he was responsible for safeguarding and displaying the symbol of the hetman's authority - the bunchuk - during ceremonies and military campaigns. He carried out various military, diplomatic, and judicial tasks assigned to him by the hetman.

Heneralnyj khorunzhyj (General flag-bearer).

Title of a low-ranking member of the General Officer Staff in the Hetman state. His role was primarily ceremonial: to carry the great military banner (vijskova khoruhva) on important occasions. He also performed political, diplomatic, and military tasks assigned to him by the hetman and could serve as acting hetman.

Heneralnyj oboznyj (General quartermaster).

Title of the head of the General Officer Staff in the Hetman state, who also commanded the army artillery and was responsible for army munitions, supplies, and transport. As the highest official after the hetman, he served as chief executive during an interregnum, as acting hetman, and, on occasion, as the hetman's special foreign envoy.

Heneralnyj osavul (General osavul).

Title of a senior officer in the Kozak army and, after 1648, of a member of the General Officer Staff in the Hetman state. As a rule, there were two general osavuls. Their primary role was military: supervising the army's condition, commanding large detachments in wartime, managing muster rolls, directing the army engineers, commanding mercenary troops, and occasionally serving as acting hetman. They also served as the hetman's envoys, supervised matters of internal security (including reconnaissance and the suppression of mutinies), and conducted annual regimental musters and inspections.

Heneralnyj pidskarbij (General treasurer).

Title of a senior officer in the Hetman state. His primary responsibility was to supervise government finances and to collect revenues through taxes, rents, and licenses. He also fulfilled other tasks assigned to him by the hetman.

Heneralnyj pysar (General chancellor).

The title of a senior member of the General Officer Staff in the Hetman State who managed the General Military Chancellery and supervised the hetman's domestic and foreign correspondence. The office was filled by an educated person who knew several languages and diplomatic protocol and had administrative experience, usually as a scribe or a regimental chancellor. He performed many senior diplomatic functions, guarded the state seal, supervised the state archives, and signed the hetman's decrees (universaly) in his absence. He also supervised the preparation of all decrees, charters and land grants by his many subordinates, prepared the agenda of meetings of the council of the General Officer Staff, and performed other tasks assigned to him by the hetman.

Heneralna starshyna (General Officer Staff).

The hetman's senior officers in the Hetman state. It's members were the general quartermaster, two general judges, the general chancellor, general treasurer, two general osavuls, the general flag-bearer, and the general standard bearer. They were elected by either a general Kozak council (rada) or the Council of Officers or were appointed by the hetman. All these titles, except for general treasurer, existed before 1648, when they designated the most senior officers in the Kozak army.

Heneralnyj suddya (General judge).

Title of the military judge of the Kozaks and, from 1648 to 1782, of a member of the General Officer Staff of the Hetman state. There were usually two general judges who collectively headed the General Military Court, the appellate court of the Hetman state. Most general judges had no legal experience. In addition to their judicial responsibility they also performed executive, advisory, and military functions and served as acting hetmans and diplomatic envoys.

Heneralnyj vijskovyj sud (General Military Court).

The highest judicial body in the Hetman state. It was based on the Kozak company and regimental courts. The hetman was its president, but in practice one of the two general judges, the hetman's permanent deputy, normally presided over it. The court was a collegial institution, consisting also of other members of the General Officer Staff and of notable military fellows, who served on the bench in important cases. Usually, however, only one judge heard a case; he was aided by a judicial scribe. For those disagreeing with regimental or company court rulings, the General Military Court served as an appellate court; for members of the General Officer Staff and individuals under the hetman's special protection it served as a court of first instance. Decisions of the court could be appealed only to the hetman.

Hetman (from the German Hauptmann and the Polish hetman: 'leader').

In the Polish kingdom in the 16th century, local military commanders and administrators were known as hetmans. The title was also used for the supreme military commander both in Poland and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian (Grand Hetman). At the end of the 16th century the commander of the Kozaks, originally known as the elder (starshyj), also became know as the hetman.
   The hetman had broad powers as supreme commander of the Kozak Host; the chief administrator and financial officer, presiding officer of the highest administrative body, the General Officer Staff; and the top legislator. The hetman issued administrative decrees, called hetman manifestos, which were binding on the whole population.
   The hetman's insignia included the bulava, bunchuk, flag, and seal. An officer who carried out temporarily the duties of a hetman was know as the acting hetman.

Khorunzhyj (Flag-bearer).

Military rank or administrative title. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the chorazy was a county official in command of the szlachta or local military unit, or the king's flag-bearer. Modeled on this role, a rank was created in the 17th century Kozak starshyna and state administration. Attached to each regiment was a regimental (polkovyj) khorunzhyj who was responsible for the regimental flags, banners, and other regalia. A heneralnyj khorunzhyj was attached to the General Officer Staff; he was responsible for the flag in battle, and afterwards represented the hetman at various ceremonies.

Kish (from the Turkic kosh or gosh, meaning camp, group of yurts, stable stall, or troop).

A Kozak encampment or settlement of Zaporozhian Kozaks. The title given to the leader of the Zaporozhian Sich - Kish otaman - is derived from the word.

Koshovyj otaman (Kish otaman).

The elective leader of the Zaporozhian Sich and chief executive officer in the 16th-18th centuries. Until the end of the 17th century he was also called hetman. The Kish otaman was elected for a one-year term by the Sich Council from among the more respected and influential Kozaks. He could be dismissed before the end of his mandate or re-elected; e.g., the last Kish otaman, Petro Kalnyshevsky, retained his post almost without interruption from 1765-1775. The Kish otaman, aided by the starshyna, wielded ultimate military and political power and was responsible for maintaining external diplomatic relations. He was the chief magistrate and had the power of final decision during wartime. In peacetime, his decisions could be appealed to the Sich Council. His symbol of authority was the bulava.

Kozak starshyna, or simply starshyna (officers).

General title applied to persons holding positions of authority in the Ukrainian Kozak regiments and in the administration of the Hetman state (1648-1781). The starshyna was divided into the General Officer Staff and the regimental and company staffs.
   The regimental starshyna consisted of a colonel (polkovnyk), a quartermaster/artillery commander (oboznyj), a judge (suddya), a chancellor (pysar), and aide-de camp (osavul, the colonel's closest aide), and a flag bearer (khorunzhyj). A company staff consisted of a captain (sotnyk), company of town otaman (lieutenant), a scribe (pysar), an osavul, and a flag-bearer.

Kozaky.

The name Cossack (Ukrainian: kozak is derived from the Turkic kazak (free man), meaning anyone who could not find his appropriate place in society and went into the steppes, where he acknowledged no authority. In Europe an sources the term first appears in a dictionary of the Cuman language in the mid-13th century. It is also found in Byzantine sources and in the instructions issued by Italian cities to their colonies on the Black Sea coast, where it applied to armed men who were engaged in military service in frontier regions and protected trade caravans traveling the steppe routes. By the end of the 15th century the name acquired a wider sense and was applied to those Ukrainians who went into the steppes to practice various trades and engage in hunting, fishing, beekeeping, the collection of salt and saltpeter, and so on.
   The history of Ukrainian Kozaks has three distinct aspects: their struggle against the Tartars and the Turks in the steppes and on the Black Sea; their participation in the struggle of the Ukrainian people against socioeconomic and national-religious oppression by the Polish magnates; and their role in building of an autonomous Ukrainian state. The important political roles played by the Ukrainian Kozaks in the history of their nation distinguishes then from Russian Cossacks.

Kurin [pl. kurini] (Plattoon).

A type of barracks at the Zaporozhian Sich as well as a military and administrative unit consisting of several companies. There were 38 kurins at the Zaporozhian Sich, each commanded by an elected otaman, who had both administrative and military functions.

Otaman (sometimes kurinyj otaman).

Chief officer of a kutin'.

Pernach (also pirnach, shestoper).

A mace used by Kozaks as a symbol of authority. Like the bulava, the pernach was of Eastern origin. It consisted of a silver or gilded shaft and a pear-shaped gold-plated head divided into six or eight sharp-edged flanges (pera). Eventually, the pernach became the special symbol of the colonel's office.

Palanka (from the Italian palanca and Latin phalanx).

An administrative-territorial unit in Zaporizhia, corresponding to the regiment in the Hetman state. A large fortified settlement defended by a Kozak garrison served as its center. A Kozak colonel [polkovnyk] had supreme judicial administrative, financial, and military authority over all Kozaks and peasants living on the territory of each palanka. With the aide of his starshyna he supervised the local administration, made up of the otamans and secretaries of the free settlements (slobody). The colonel and other palanka officers were not elected, but appointed by the koshovyj otaman of the Zaporozhian Sich.

Polk [pl. polky] (Regiment).

During the Princely era any separate military unit or expedition that a prince or his vicegerent commanded in time of war was known as a polk (e.g., as in the epic Slovo o polku Ihorevi). In the 14th and 15th century Lithuanian-ruled Ukraine military units raised by the inhabitants of towns and lands to repel Tatar attacks were also known as polky. In the late 16th century under Polish rule, the first regiments of registered Kozaks were formed and named after the towns where their colonel [polkovnyk] and chancery were located. Before the 1648-57 Kozak-Polish War six such regiments were based in Bila Tserkva, Cherkasy, Chyhyryn, Kaniv, Korsun, and Pereyaslav. Earlier, from 1625 to 1638, there was also a Myrhorod Kozak Regiment. In the Kozak Hetman state the regiment was not only a military but also an administrative-territorial unit. It also had mercenary (serdiuk) regiments of cavalry and infantry.

Polkovnyk (colonel).

Chief officer of a polk or palanka.

Polkovyj sud (Regimental court).

A criminal and civil court with jurisdiction in the territory of a given regiment of the Hetman state in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was composed of the regimental starshyna and was headed by the regimental judge. In grave criminal cases the colonel himself would preside over the court. It served also as a military court.

Regimental system.

The administrative, territorial, military, and judicial structure of the 17th- to 18th-century Hetman state and Slobidska Ukraine. Under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyj there were initially 22 regiments, which were named after the towns where their headquarters were located. The colonels and other officers (starshyna) had jurisdiction over both the Kozaks and the civilian population in their territories. The colonels belonged to the Hetman's Council of Officers. The regimental colonel was assisted by his senior staff, which included an oboznyj, a suddya, a pysar, one or two osavuly, and one or two khorunzhi. A regimental council of officers served as an advisory body to the colonel. The regimental chancellery was initially only a secretarial apparatus, but in the 18th century it served as a collegial administrative body that included the colonel and other regimental officers. The regiments were divided in to companies (sotni) commanded by captains (sotnyky). Chernihiv regiment had the fewest companies (7), and Bratslav, the most (22).

Reyestrovani Kozaky (Registered Kozaks).

Serdiuk regiments (Mercenary regiments).

Sloboda (pl. slobody).

Sotnya [pl. sotni] (Company).

A military and administrative-territorial unit. In the Princely era a company was a military unit of the people's militia (opolchennya) that at first numbered 100 men. In the 16th century companies of registered Kozaks appeared as subunits of Kozak regiments [polky]. In the Kozak register of 1649 the companies were named after their locality or their captain. In the Hetman state of the 17th -18th centuries and in Slobidska Ukraine a company was an administrative-territorial, judicial, and military entity within a regiment [polk]. Companies were named after the city or town in which their headquarters were located. Each company was divided into kurini [platoons]. The number of companies in a regiment was not uniform (ranging from 7 to 20) or fixed. The military strength of a company consisted of several dozen to a few hundred men (usually 200-250, and fewer in Slobidska Ukraine). A company was commanded by a captain [sotnyk], who was subordinate to the regimental authorities. Companies connected with the hetman's capital (Baturyn, Hlukhiv) or with the hetman's estates were directly subordinate to the hetman. There were also companies in volunteer and serdiuk (mercenary) regiments, but they had a strictly military function.

Sotnyk.

Captain of a Kozak company (sotnya).

Tabir (Kozak encampment).

Military tactic peculiar to the Ukrainian Kozaks in the 16th-17th centuries. The Kozak army marched under the protection of the encampment, that is, with five to six trains of supply wagons on either side of the marching column. On approaching the enemy the encampment would come to a halt, and the wagons would form a rectangle linked together by chains. The rectangle would be reinforced with a stockade and trench. This served as a base from which the Kozaks launched various operations - cannon bombardments, skirmishes, and infantry or cavalry attacks. The enemy usually tried to break the encampment.
   In the Princely era the armies of the princes used encampments for protection against the Cuman horsemen in the steppes. The tactic was used frequently in the Kozak wars: in 1596 H. Loboda used an encampment of five rows at Bila Tserkva, and in 1637 P. Pavliuk marched in an encampment of six trains. In 1628 the Zaporozhian Kozaks marched across Crimea from Perekop to Bakhchesarai and back under the protection of an encampment. At the end of the 17th century advances in artillery rendered the Kozak encampment obsolete.

Trakhtemyriv Monastery.

An Orthodox monastery that was located near the town of Trakhtemyriv and the village of Zarubyntsi (hence, it is also known as the Zarubyntsi Monastery) On the right bank of the Dnipro River near Kaniv (now Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyj raion, Kyiv oblast). Little is know of its early history. In 1578 the Polish King Stephen [Istvan] Batory gave the monastery to the Registered Kozaks for use as a hospital; wounded and ill Kozaks were treated by the monks, and they often retired to live in the area. It was also used as a staging area for Kozak military campaigns, and the town served almost as a capital for the Zaporozhian Host.

Universaly (Hetman manifestos).

Official decrees issued by the government of the Hetman state in the 17th & 18th centuries. The practice was adopted from the Polish kings, who declared their will in circular letters addressed to their subjects (universales letterae). Manifestos were addressed in the hetman's name to the entire population and often contained important directives or ordinances. Special manifestos were directed at specific institutions, estates, military units, settlements, or groups. Some were called instructions, particularly those that dealt with the court system. At times hetmans issued manifestos granting lands and peasants to Kozak officers and church institutions or confirming land ownership, as well as manifestos granting special protection or exempting certain individuals from the authority of administrative and judicial bodies. Manifestos were always confirmed by the seal of the Zaporozhian Host.

Kozak Links

Last updated 8 March 1999, A.S. XXXIII
© Mamai Publishing, 15 November 1996, A.S. XXXI