My Science School

After the time of Kievan Rus, the Ukrainian territories came to be ruled by three external powers. They were the Golden Horde, the grand duchy of Lithuania, and the kingdom of Poland.

The steppe and Crimea came under the direct rule of the Golden Horde of Tatars. They were successors of Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire, with their khan living at Sarai on the Volga River. The Golden Horde started to disintegrate by the mid-15th century. The Crimean khanate, one of its successor states accepted the supremacy of the Ottoman sultans. However, the Crimean Peninsula and large areas of the steppe continued to be ruled by the khans, until they were annexed to the Russian Empire in 1783.

A new power that rose in the 13th century spread its dominance to the North-western and central Ukraine. It was the grand duchy of Lithuania, which occupied Chernihiv and adjacent areas in the 1350’s, and Kyiv Pereyaslav and Podolia (Podillya) in the 1360’s.

There was competition between Lithuania and the kingdom of Poland over the former Galician-Volhynian principality, which ended in the 1380’s with a partition. Lithuania then took over Volhynia and Poland gained possession of Galicia. Thus, most of the Ukrainian lands were once under the control of Lithuania.

Then, in 1569, Poland and Lithuania formed a constitutional union as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For a hundred years after that, the Ukrainian lands were exposed to the direct impact of Poland, politically and culturally.

Picture Credit : Google

The story of the Cossacks goes back to the 15th century. Some adventurous men would seasonally enter the vast steppes of Ukraine to hunt, fish, and gather honey. The term Cossack was first used to describe these martial groups. To their numbers were added peasants running away from their landlords to escape serfdom, and even adventurers from other social groups including the nobility. Together, these groups gradually evolved into a new martial society that banded together for mutual protection. By the mid-16th century, the Cossacks had formed a unique military organization with a democratic structure. The supreme authority lay with a general assembly of elected officers, with a ‘hetman’ as the commander-in-chief.

The Cossacks played a crucial role in Ukraine’s eventful history. They defended the frontier population from the Tatar invaders, made their own incursions into Crimean territory, and even into the coastal cities of Turkey. The Polish government was happy to seek the support of Cossacks in their wars with the Tatars, Turks and Muscovites. But they were not easy allies to keep in peacetime, being very volatile. The Cossacks were angry with any attempt to control or monitor them, and viewed themselves as an independent group with its own rights.

Picture Credit : Google