Zaporizhia (region)

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Zaporizhia (Ukrainian: Запоріжжя, Zaporizhia; Polish: Zaporoże or Dzikie Pola (Wild Fields or Savage Steppe), Russian: Запоро́жье, Zaporozhye) is a historical region which is situated about the Dnieper River, below the Dnieper rapids (porohy, poroża), (now Ukraine), hence the name, translated as "territory beyond the rapids". During the 16th to 18th centuries it was an semi-independent Cossack territory with the centre at Zaporizhian Sich.

It corresponds to modern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, major parts of Zaporizhia and Kirovohrad Oblasts, as well as parts of Kherson and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine.

[edit] History

Zaporizhia was the name of the territory of the Cossack state, the Zaporozhian Host, whose fortified capital was the Zaporizhian Sich. From the 15th century to the late 17th century it was fought over by Muscovy, the Polish Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire. For most of that time it was controlled by Poland, but it was never peaceful, and was widely regarded as turbulent and dangerous, the refuge of outlaws and bandits. In addition to many invasions by neighbouring countries, inhabitants of the Zaporozhe had to deal with an influx of new settlers from all directions and conflicts between the szlachta (Polish nobility) and independent Cossacks, who enjoyed a kind of autonomy in the region. Further, Cossacks often raided the nearby rich lands of the Ottoman Empire, in return provoking raids by Ottoman vassals, the Tatars, on the Polish soil.

After the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav, the state became a suzerainty of Muscovy, and was split in two. The Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine had its capital at Chyhyryn, and later at Baturyn and Hlukhiv.

The more independent Army of Lower Zaporozhia was centered at the Old Sich (Stara Sich). In 1709, Tsar Peter I ordered the destruction of the Old Sich, forcing the Zaporozhian Cossacks to flee to Oleshky, on the Black Sea in Ottoman territory. In 1734, the Russians allowed the Cossacks to re-establish their republic as the Free Lands of the Zaporozhian Host, based at the New Sich (Nova Sich), but brought in many foreign settlers, and destroyed the Sich for good in 1775, incorporating the territory into New Russia.