The Story Of The Six Sichs Of The Big Meadow

IRINA MIROCHNIK

Hello!

To tell the story of the six Sichs of the Big Meadow, you will need to write six thick books – or even more.

Therefore, our today’s essay is rather an attempt to convey the atmosphere of a place that has ceased to be what it used to be. That atmosphere, the echo of which can be seen in many current events.

This is a story about the places from which the Cossacks went to the Black Sea to “pinch the Turks.” Where giant beluga were caught, which were difficult to bring to six. From where the old Cossacks went to the Transfiguration Monastery near Kiev to live out the centuries – now this place is better known thanks to the Honka of the fugitive president.

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Tomakovskaya, Bazavlutskaya, Nikitinskaya, Chortomlinskaya, Kamenskaya, Podpolnetskaya.

So the Cossacks called their battles, where their rebel, warlike spirit raged.
There were many other names – for villages and farms, rivers and beams, islands and floodplains.
A century after the battles were destroyed and abandoned, these names baked the eyes of the Soviet rulers.

And in the desire to drown these places in the reservoir was not only economic and military calculation, but also the propensity of Soviet bosses to the occult.
But it was not possible to bury the memory of the Great Meadow.

Longing for the lost Cossack will, the dream of its return during the centuries of occupation gave Ukrainians the energy and motivation to fight.
Everyone came out of Bolshoy Lug: from Shevchenko to UPA fighters.
How to read the echoes of this memory in today:

t.me/textyorgua/1650

The Story Of The Six Sichs Of The Big Meadow

Six sections of the Big Meadown
In the territory of Kakhovka reservoirs, a dream was born that raised the fight generation of Ukrainians Dmitry Polyukhovich • June 20, 2023
As the Cossacks themselves said: “Lug is the father, Sich is the mother.” Even the traditional Cossack congratulations-password sounded “Knut-whip! Cossack from Lug! Today this place, if it were preserved in its original form, would be called a unique ecosystem.

And from it was born the current Ukraine. Lakes, islands, floodplains, the swift Dnieper,and around the steppe. This is a place that the authorities of Warsaw, Istanbul or Moscow did not reach and the horsemen of the Crimean Khan could not ride. Therefore, the Sich Cossacks flourished here with their Maidan democracy, military organization, craving for justice and love of freedom.

A Cossack from LuguTug according to the lost will of the Cossacks, the dream of her return during the centuries of occupation gave Ukrainians the energy and motivation to fight.

Everyone came out of Bolshoy Lug: from Shevchenko to UPA fighters. And even during perestroika, the Ukrainian Cossacks continued to inspire the Rukhites to gain Independence. Any movement for the freedom of the people must be based on the glorious old days without enslavers. In Ukraine, this is the Sich Cossacks, which would not exist without the Great Meadow.

And without the Cossacks and the Hetmanate, perhaps not would be today’s Ukraine.
Remember the lines from the poem “The Monk” by Taras Shevchenko, how “the Cossack, not finished off by misfortune” Semyon Paly went to the monastery:
Up to Mezhigorsky Spas
He danced gray-haired.
And then the society
And all holy Kyiv.
Dancing to the gate
He shouted: “Pugu! whip!
Congratulations, holy monks,
Comrade from Lug!”

It is worth recalling that once Mezhyhirya was famous not at all for Khonka, but for the Mezhyhirya Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (White Spas). The monastery, which arose in the XII century., From the second half of the XVII century. became a hospital for the old Cossacks, where they lived out their lives. The Sich annually paid considerable funds for their maintenance.

In the 1930s, the monastery was destroyed, and state dachas were built in its place for the top leadership of the Communist Party.
Among the Great Meadow mentioned by Shevchenko and in its environs, six Sichs arose and later disappeared under the waves of the Kakhovka Reservoir (we submit them in chronological order with the dates of their functioning):
Tomakovskaya Sich (1540(?)–1593);
Bazavlutskaya Sich (1593–1630);
Nikitinskaya Sich (1639–1652);
Chertomlin Sich (1652-1709);
Kamenskaya Sich. Partially flooded (1709–1711);
New, she is the last, Podpolnetskaya Sich (1734-1775).

One could write a thick book about each of the Sichs. We will go through an overview and dwell in more detail on the most iconic.
First of all, it is worth highlighting the Nikitinsky Sich, which can be considered as the embryo of the Cossack state of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, from which the Ukraine that we know arose.

Here an uprising began, which soon grew into the War of Independence.
In the name of the Sich, a certain Cossack Nikita Tsygan is immortalized, who built a farm near the crossing over the Dnieper, known as Nikitino or Nikit Rog.
In the “Chronicle of Grabyanka”, one of the most outstanding Cossack chronicles, the beginning of the uprising is described as follows: “Khmelnitsky realized that the Poles planned to destroy him and, without waiting for worse, first went to the island of Buchki, and then fled to Nikitin Rog, found there about three hundred Cossacks, told them about himself, about everything that the Poles from Cossacks decided to do about the outrage that they commit not only over the Cossacks, but also over the temples of the Lord. The people in Ukraine heard all this, and like spring waters began to flow into Khmelnitsky on the Dnieper floodplains.

From the beginning, the Nikitinsky Sich was not set up very well – it stood in a high open place, so the Tatar spies could see from afar everything that the Cossacks were doing there. Therefore, in 1652 it was moved to the more convenient island of Chortomlyk.

An unprecedented flood in 1845 changed the course of the Dnieper. The new channel washed away the main part of the remains of the Nikitinskaya Sich (church and cemetery). The great flood of 1931 virtually destroyed what was left. What survived was buried by the Kakhovka Sea.

The Chertomlyn Sich is interesting because it is the first Sich that the Russians destroyed. Recall – after the Cossack council (March 1709), several thousand Cossacks, led by Kosh ataman Kost Gordienko, decided to support Mazepa’s speech against Russian tsar. In response, Peter I sent a punitive expedition against the rebellious Sich led by Colonel Peter Yakovlev.

The Muscovites were accompanied in the campaign by the companionable (formed from mercenaries) regiment of the Ukrainian Hnat Galagan.
The “Company Regiment” is a mercenary cavalry, and they were assigned very specific tasks.

The formation appeared at the Russian suggestion in accordance with the 22nd paragraph of the new version of the Ukrainian-Moscow agreement, signed in Hlukhiv during the election of Demyan Mnogohrishny as hetman.

“Companies” performed police and punitive functions. No wonder their behavior was appropriate. Colonel Galagan and many of the “companies” knew the territory of the Bolshoy Lug well, so the punishers got no problems On the way they are cruel exterminated Cossack towns, villages and farms.

At that time, only old veterans remained in the Sich, who had long ago won back theirs. They were with Mazepa). The siege of the Sich lasted more than 10 days and ended on May 25, 1709, when the surviving Cossacks retreated in boats down the Dnieper.

Galagan and the Muscovites swore that they would not execute those who would surrender themselves. Believing their oaths, the seriously wounded, who could not be transported, the Cossacks left. But neither Galagan nor his Moscow masters kept their word. 156 Cossacks who fell into their hands, they brutally muzzled. Some of them were hung up and planted on piles mounted on rafts and sent down the Dnieper “to intimidate”.

Koshevoy Stepanenko in a letter to Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky then wrote: “…according to Galaganova and the Moscow oath to society, they stripped our heads, cut our necks on blocks, hung and other tyrannical deaths, which were not found in paganism, for ancient tormentors: the dead from coffins many, not only those from society, but also dead monks were dug up, their heads were cut off, their skin was ripped off and hung up. “

The fortifications and all buildings were burned down. Chertomlinskaya Sich ceased to exist.
Without a doubt, during the archaeological research on the territory of the Chortomly Sich, evidence of Russian crimes will pass, as happened during the excavations in Baturin.

On the circumstances of the destruction on the orders of Empress Ekaterina Podpolietskaya (New) Sich, we will give a thesis.
The New Sich appeared in 1734 on a large peninsula, which was washed by the Podpolnaya River, a tributary of the Dnieper.

Recall that after the defeat of the Chertomlyk Sich by the Russians, the Cossacks moved to the territory of the Crimean Khanate on land provided by Khan Devlet-Girey II at the request of Ataman Kostya Gordienko. There they founded the Oleshkovskaya Sich, which existed from 1711 to 1728. Only after the signing of the Lubensky Treaty in 1734 on the recognition by the Cossacks of the Russian protectorate, the Cossacks were able to return to Bolshoy Lug.

After the end of the Russian-Turkish war (1768-1774), in which the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks took an active part, but the Russians took control of the Crimea, the Sich lost its border status, and its existence lost all meaning in the eyes of St. Petersburg.
But that wasn’t the point.

Catherine II was already preparing the final destruction of the remnants Ukrainian autonomy, and the unpredictable Cossacks posed a significant threat to this plan.
In early June 1775, a huge Russian army approached the Sich. consisted of 10 infantry, 13 Russian Cossack (Donchaks and others), 8 regular cavalry regiments, 20 hussar and 17 pike squadrons. A lot of strength. At the head of this army was Lieutenant General Petr Tekeliy (a Serb by origin).

An interesting fact: these troops visited the Sich, heading from the Danube to the Volga, where they had to suppress the remnants of the uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev.

Although the Cossacks were significantly inferior in number to the intruders, the Cossacks were ready to defend their liberties to the death. However, a significant part of the foreman, who had long been bribed by the Russians, opposed it.

But final in acceptance the decision not to resist was the intervention of the priest of the Sich Church of the Most Holy Intercession Vladimir Sokalsky, who undertook to persuade the Cossacks not to go “brother to brother” and not shed their native Orthodox blood (a vivid illustration of the role of the traitorous Russian Church in Ukraine).

As a result, the ataman Pyotr Kalnyshevsky surrendered the Sich without a fight. On June 4, 1775, the New Sich died, as did the Zaporizhian Army. Kalnyshevsky was sent into exile for life in a stone cell on Solovki.

Having talked about the last Sich, it is worth at least casually recalling the very first Sich of the Bolshoi Meadow – Tomakovsk, which was on the island of Tomakovtsy on the Dnieper near the modern village of Krasnogrigorievka and the city of Marganets and probably existed from Having talked about the last section, it is worth at least casually recalling the very first Sich of the Great Meadow – Tomakovsk, which was on the island of Tomakovtsy on the Dnieper near the modern village of Krasnogrigorievka and the city of Marganets and probably existed from 1540 to 1593.

The island where this Sich stood was partially flooded by the Kakhovka reservoir.

After the destruction of the Tomakiv Sich by the Tatars, the Cossacks moved to the island of Bazavluk, where the Bazavluk Sich arose. The most famous pages of the history of the Zaporozhye Cossacks are connected with this Sich. It was from here that the famous sea campaigns of the Cossacks in the Crimea and the Black Sea possessions of the Ottoman Empire, including under the leadership of Peter Sahaidachny and Mikhail Doroshenko.

It was the Bazavlutskaya Sich that became the core of a number of uprisings. In particular, the uprising led by Severina Nalivaiko (1594–1596), Mark Zhmail (1625), Taras Tryasila (1630), Ivan Sulima (1635) and Pavel Pavlyuk, Karp Skidan, Dmitry Guni, Yakov Ostryanin (1637–1638).

After the defeat of a number of Cossack-peasant uprisings of 1637-1638, the Bazavlutskaya Sich was destroyed by the Poles. After the Sich was moved to already mentioned Nikitin Rog.

Sich among the Bolshoy Lug arose for a reason. Meadows, floodplain forests, many straits, streams, lakes, etc. were a ready-made natural fortress and an ideal shelter for wadded brave men, from which the Cossacks subsequently formed.

Steppe Tatars always bypassed the Great Meadow, almost impassable for their cavalry.
Even when they used boats to get to the Cossacks, it was extremely difficult to do so in the maze of straits. The Cossacks, knowing the area like their own five fingers, could always move away and surprise the enemy where he did not expect it.

Then a saying arose: “Where there is water and a ravine, there is a Cossack.”
Unique Ecosystem
In addition, and this was a very important factor, Lug was also the breadwinner.

The Dnieper and the straits were filled with fish. Let me not just. Adrian Kashchenko (1858-1921) in his work “The Great Meadow of Zaporozhye” in particular wrote: “There were giant belugas in the waters of the Great Meadow, 18 cubits (1 cubit is 38-46 cm) long, barely six Cossacks managed to lift one on their shoulders; smooth, fat-headed catfish, stellate sturgeon and sterlet were hiding under the steeps, in the chortoria … It was easy to catch fish to your heart’s content not only with a net and other accessories, but even with bare hands.” In addition to fish, there was a lot of game and bees (later the Cossacks even exported honey and wax to Europe).

The Cossacks, we note, were also treated quite carefully and did not allow predatory extermination.
When the Zaporizhzhya Army was formed from scattered gangs of brave men, the Sech was mostly set up on the edge of the Big Meadow. This was done because the Cossacks needed regular access to the steppe with horses, but also had access to water.

The latter made it possible to use the Dnieper as a transport artery.
Including in order to go to the Black Sea “to pinch the Turks.”
Together with the former Sichs, old cemeteries and other material sights of the glorious past, the waters of the Kakhovka reservoir also absorbed the “intangible” memory of the Cossack times in the form of place names – the names of tracts, streams, hills, forests, etc.

The Cossacks, in order to know which part of the Great Meadow they were talking about and which hut it belonged to, gave its sections their own bright names: Palievshchina (in honor of Paliy mentioned at the very beginning) Serkovka (Ivan Sulfur), Vasyurino, Stepok, Nalivach, etc.
When all this was flooded with water, the names became irrelevant.

Soviet occultism
Despite declarative atheism and demonstrative materialism, in the Soviet Union they were well versed in the occult, mysticism and esotericism and actively practiced them.
Suffice it to recall only the ziggurat (mausoleum) with the mummy of the Leader in the very heart of the USSR.
By the way, according to the occult tradition, the images of the mummified person placed in all cities and villages play the role of a kind of relays of the mystical energy that the ziggurat with the dead generates.

In the USSR, for schoolchildren of the national republics, an excursion to Moscow was almost mandatory. Trips were organized free of charge or for a nominal sum. In addition to museums and GUM (the main department store in Moscow, where they sold all scarce goods), the program also included a pilgrimage to the mausoleum with a mummy – the occult initiation of adolescents by “Soviet people”.

In the light of the undisguised love of the USSR for the occult, the creation of the Kakhovka hydroelectric complex can also be viewed as an act of “dark magic” aimed at destroying

It all started in September 1950 in accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the construction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper”.

In addition to the declared ones – providing water to the South of Ukraine and Crimea and generating electricity, this also had an unadvertised side.
The Dnieper cascade was also created for military purposes. The leadership of the USSR never abandoned the dream of a tank march into the English Channel.
However, they did not forget about the sad experience of the Second World War, when instead of what Stalin planned Volga.

Accordingly, they thought over the option that “Paris is ours!” it may not burn out, but NATO tanks will come to Moscow for Alaverdi. In this case, they planned to simultaneously blow up the dams of the cascade, which was supposed to form a huge impassable strip.
In fact, the Russians used this old development in this war.

If the economic significance of the Kakhovka hydroelectric complex was loudly advertised, then the military one was hidden under the heading “top secret”, and the occult one, probably, was hardly recorded in writing.

However, even without the occult component, that is, only from the point of view of propaganda, the destruction of the Great Meadow was a huge blow to Ukraine and the bearers of Ukrainian identity.

It’s like taking the Western Wall away from the Israelis.
Ukrainians were allowed to sing “Doroshenko” and dance the hopak in brightly colored satin bloomers and clumsy parodies of scrolls. Anyone who has seen the costumes of the district center amateur performances of the Soviet era will understand what is at stake.

But to touch the living past – to walk along the ramparts of the Sich, to light a candle at the ancient stone crosses in the Sich cemeteries, to walk along the paths that the Cossacks used – it was no longer possible. Scuba diving only.

To understand the full scale of the loss, one more aspect should be understood.
Not only the territories of the Sich and Cossack cemeteries went under water. The rich Cossack toponymy has also disappeared – the names of villages whose roots go back to the winter quarters of the Cossacks, the microtoponymy of tracts, streams, rivers, etc.

Disappeared God knows where the locals settled, who were the bearers of a whole layer of folklore, traditions and legends. The land and people who had a living connection with Zaporozhye were lost, and the memory was cleaned up.

In total, about 90 villages were under water, where at least 37 thousand people lived.
A similar situation happened with the Polishuk Ukrainians, who were smeared with a thin layer all over Ukraine by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Polishchuks, as a bright ethnographic group, have now almost disappeared.

What’s next?
Whether it is possible to revive the Great Meadow is difficult to say for sure.

In Ukraine, there are no specialists who would be engaged in the restoration of natural riverbeds and their inherent ecosystem. In Ukraine, there are only specialists in the creation and operation of dams. Although there is a trend in the world to restore natural channels. And even without human intervention, nature can recover, but it will take longer.

The Kakhovka reservoir fed an extensive network of canals for irrigation, watered the cities and gave water to industry.
But a large reservoir means large losses of water from evaporation.

The ecosystem of lakes, swamps, floodplain meadows also conserves water and, thanks to trees, reduces the temperature around.
Complicated calculations are needed to understand whether, in the event of the restoration of Lug, there will be enough water for at least the minimum needs.
Also, the Dnieper is a transport artery, and it is not known whether cargo ships will be able to pass along the natural channel, which is now being restored.

All these issues should be studied and calculated in detail, and then a decision should be made on the feasibility of restoring the dam or, perhaps, on the construction of not such gigantic hydraulic structures as the destroyed dam, which will allow both the ecosystem to recover and accumulate water, and will have a smaller evaporation area.

Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)

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