Sich

The Sich (Ukrainian Січ for " mess ", " crate ") stands for different fixed administrative centers of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who were in today's Ukraine. The highest institution of the Sich was also the Sitschowa Rada, a kind of high- Council and Court.

Overview of the branches

The first Zaporozhian administration office was located at Khortytsia exactly, on a neighboring island called Mala Khortytsia. Over time, the office was moved several times:

• Sich Tomakiwka (about 1550s to 1593 - at Marhanez of Tatars destroyed)
• Sich Basawluk (1593-1638 - in Kapuliwka )
• Mykytyn (1638-1652)
• Sich Tschortomlyk (1652-1709 - lost in Kachowkaer reservoir)
• Kamianka (1709-1711 - in Respublikanez, Kherson region )
• Oleschky (1711-1734 Hetman at that time was food Hordijenko )
• Nowa Sich (1734-1775 - the Kachowkaer Reservoir, was destroyed by a decision of Catherine II. )

After the end of the free Cossacks 1775, the settlements were abandoned. Part of the Cossacks moved on to the Danube Delta and established there under Ottoman rule, the Danube Cossacks, while others were at the request of Russian authorities, mainly in the western foothills of the Caucasus ( Kuban, today Krasnodar region ) located in areas where a variety of Stanizen arose.

Sich as a naval base

Since the Cossacks were actively ( ca.16. 18th centuries) as a seafaring community, some of the branches were simultaneously naval base. In Mala Khortytsia a shipyard for warships was built in 1737.

Grigory Gagarin: Cossack attack Turkish ship (1847 )

Cossacks Boat Type Chaika ( " Seagull" ), in 1660, according to Guillaume Le Vasseur

Commemorative coin for Hetman Sahajdatschny

The Cossacks maintained a fleet of " several dozen " Chaika ( galley -like vessels) with approximately the following dimensions ship: Length: about 60 meters, width: 10 to 12 meters, depth of space about 12 feet. The flag history of today's Ukrainian Navy goes back to the historic Navy of the Cossacks.