Free Cossacks

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Free Cossacks

1st Congress of Free Cossacks (Chyhyryn, October 1917)

Active| 1917–1918
Country| Ukraine
Allegiance| Ukrainian People's Republic
Branch| Free Cossacks
Type| Corps, territorial army
Role| infantry, law enforcement
Size| ~3,000 (18 May 1917)
60,000 (at the 1st Congress of Free Cossacks)
Engagements|

* Ukrainian–Soviet War
* Katerynoslav Uprising
* Arsenal January Uprising
* Battle of Zhmerynka

Commanders
Notable
commanders| Semen Hryzlo, Pavlo Skoropadsky[1]

Military unit

Part of a series on

Cossacks

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

Cossack hosts

* Amur
* Astrakhan
* Azov
* Baikal
* Black Sea
* Buh
* Caucasus
* Danube
* Don
* Free
* Greben
* Irkutsk [ru]
* Kuban
* Orenburg
* Red
* Semirechye
* Siberian
* Terek
* Ural
* Ussuri
* Volga
* Zaporozhian

Other Cossack groups

* Albazinan
* Bashkir
* Buryat [ru]
* Danube
* Haidamaks
* Jewish
* Nekrasov
* Persian
* Tatar
* Turkish
* Malorossian

History

* Cossack raids
* Registered Cossacks
* Uprisings
* Kosiński
* Nalyvaiko
* Khmelnytsky
* Hadiach Treaty
* Hetmanate
* Colonisation of Siberia
* Bulavin Rebellion
* Pugachev's Rebellion
* Communism
* De-Cossackization
* Cossacks in the SS

Notable Cossacks

* Bohdan Khmelnytsky
* Petro Sahaidachny
* Ivan Sirko
* Semyon Paliy
* Dmytro Vyshnevetsky
* Marina Yurlova
* Ivan Mazepa
* Petro Doroshenko
* Yemelyan Pugachev
* Stenka Razin
* Andrei Shkuro
* Yermak Timofeyevich
* Ivan Vyhovsky
* Alexei Razumovsky
* Kirill Razumovsky
* Pavlo Skoropadsky

Cossack terms

* Ataman
* Hetman
* Kurin
* Sotnia
* Plastun
* Yesaul
* Stanitsa
* Shashka
* Szabla
* Cossack fashion [ru; uk]
* Zhupan
* Kontusz
* Sharovary
* Papakhi
* Oseledets
* Chokha
* Cossack cuisine

Cossack folklore

* Kharakternyk [uk; ru]
* Mamay
* Cossack cross
* Cossack songs

Notable people of Cossack descent

* Alexander Bezborodko
* Ilya Repin
* Ivan Gudovich
* Ivan Kotliarevsky
* Ivan Paskevich
* Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
* Nikolay Gamaleya
* Nikolay Samokish
* Nikolai Gogol
* Viktor Kochubey
* Vladimir Vernadsky
* Peter Kaptzevich
* Sidor Kovpak
* Symon Petliura

* v
* t
* e

Free Cossacks (Ukrainian: Вільне козацтво) were Ukrainian Cossacks that were organized as volunteer militia units in the spring of 1917 in the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Free Cossacks are seen as precursors of the modern Ukrainian national law enforcement organizations such as the National Guard of Ukraine or the Internal Troops of Ukraine.

The primary purpose of those militia formations was to provide security and civil order for the local population. The consolidation process of various smaller units started sometime in April near the town of Zvenyhorodka, Kiev Governorate during the local assembly of the Free Cossacks which created the Zvenyhorodka Kosh (battalion). The assembly elected Semen Hryzlo the Kosh Otaman, who became the otaman of Kalnyboloto kurin (company). Under this title, he was delegated to the 2nd All-Ukrainian Military Congress in Kiev in June 1917.

Hryzlo was also one of the organizers of the 1st All-Ukrainian Congress of the Free Cossacks that took place on October 3, 1917, in the former Cossack capital of Chyhyryn. The congress elected the Hetman of All Ukraine, who became General Pavlo Skoropadskyi. Hryzlo was elected as the General Yesaul.

The Free Cossacks units distinguished themselves during the Ukrainian–Soviet War (particularly from December 1917 to April 1918) and were disbanded around May and June 1918. In January-April 1918 the Ukrainian government tried to create the Free Registered Cossack Troops for county security, but after the April coup-d'etat led by Pavlo Skoropadsky all Free Cossacks formations were officially dissolved.

## See also

[edit]

* Red Cossacks
* Red Army
* Ukraine after the Russian Revolution
* Ukrainian–Soviet War
* Registered Cossacks

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Воспоминания : Конец 1917 - декабрь 1918 / Павел Скоропадский; [вступ. ст. В.Г. Черкасова-Георгиевского]. - М. : ПРОЗАиК, 2019. - 315, [5] с., [24] с. ил. ISBN 978-5-91631-282-9

## Further reading

[edit]

* Kozub, I. An age and a destiny: memoirs. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, TAKSON Publishing House. Kyiv-Toronto-Edmonton, 1996. ISBN 1895571170

## External links

[edit]

* Free Cossacks at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
* Free Cossacks (ВІЛЬНЕ КОЗАЦТВО). Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

Other|

* Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine

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