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137-404: Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle (Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільська фортеця ; Polish: twierdza w Kamieńcu Podolskim ; Lithuanian: Podolės Kameneco tvirtovė ) is a former Ruthenian - Lithuanian castle and a later three-part Polish fortress located in the historic city of Kamianets-Podilskyi , Ukraine, in the historic region of Podilia in the western part of the country. Its name is attributed to

274-642: A Ukrainian national identity gradually dominating over much of present-day Ukraine in the 19th and 20th centuries, the endonym Rusyn is now mostly used among a minority of peoples on the territory of the Carpathian Mountains , including Carpathian Ruthenia . The word Ruthenia originated as a Latin designation of the region its people called Rus' . During the Middle Ages, writers in English and other Western European languages applied

411-464: A 40,000 strong Crimean Tatar horde. In the beginning of August 1672, a 300,000 Ottoman force led by Sultan Mehmed IV and a 40,000 combined force of Tatars and Cossacks led by Hetman Petro Doroshenko laid siege to the castle. After conducting negotiations with their attackers, the city's leaders surrendered control of the fortress to the Ottomans on August 18. The castle plays an important role in

548-589: A Cossack near Kiliya . In the 16th century, these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organizations, as well as other smaller, still-detached groups: There are also references to the less well-known Tatar Cossacks, including the Nağaybäklär and Meshchera -speaking Volga Finns , of whom Sary Azman was the first Don ataman . These groups were assimilated by the Don Cossacks, but had their own irregular Bashkir and Meshchera Host up to

685-711: A Romanian origin with large Slavic influences) began to settle in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the Don and the Dnieper after the demise of the Khazars . Their arrival was probably not before the 13th century, when the Mongols broke the power of the Cumans , who had assimilated the previous population on that territory. It is known that new settlers inherited a lifestyle that long pre-dated their presence, including that of

822-505: A combined Muscovite-Swedish army and facilitate the occupation of Moscow from 1610 to 1611, riding into Moscow with Stanisław Żółkiewski . The final attempt by King Sigismund and Wladyslav to seize the throne of Muscovy was launched on April 6, 1617. Although Wladyslav was the nominal leader, it was Jan Karol Chodkiewicz who commanded the Commonwealth forces. By October, the towns of Dorogobuzh and Vyazma had surrendered. But

959-607: A commemorative coin of the "Ancient fortresses on the river Dniester " series issued by the Transnistrian Republican Bank of Transnistria , a breakaway, internationally unrecognised republic within Moldova . Similarly, the National Bank of Ukraine has released 5 and 10 hryvnias commemorative coins of the old castle in 2017. Notes Footnotes Bibliography Ruthenia Ruthenia

1096-766: A country extending from the Baltic Sea to the Caspian Sea and from the Don River to the northern ocean. It is a source of beeswax , its forests harbor many animals with valuable fur , and the capital city Moscow ( Moscovia ), named after the Moskva River ( Moscum amnem ), is 14 miles in circumference. Danish diplomat Jacob Ulfeldt , who traveled to Muscovy in 1578 to meet with Tsar Ivan IV , titled his posthumously (1608) published memoir Hodoeporicon Ruthenicum ("Voyage to Ruthenia"). In Kievan Rus',

1233-726: A defeat, when the counterattack on Moscow by Chodkiewicz failed between Vyasma and Mozhaysk , prompted the Polish-Lithuanian army to retreat. In 1618, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny continued his campaign against the Tsardom of Russia on behalf of the Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous Russian towns were sacked, including Livny and Yelets . In September 1618, with Chodkiewicz, Konashevych-Sahaidachny laid siege to Moscow, but peace

1370-505: A kitchen and a bakery. Adjacent to the White Tower at the southern walls between White and Day Towers stood the starosta's headquarters. Located against the western walls were the chelyadna, or serfs' quarters, which housed up to 70 serfs who served the castle. Located outside of the northern walls were the castle stables , which could house up to 30 horses. In the 16th century the castle had a garrison of around 300 soldiers, who lived in

1507-676: A lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with those of the Knights Hospitaller . The Cossack structure arose, in part, in response to the struggle against Tatar raids. Socio-economic developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were another important factor in the growth of the Ukrainian Cossacks. During the 16th century, serfdom was imposed because of the favorable conditions for grain sales in Western Europe. This subsequently decreased

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1644-498: A major role in the defense against the oncoming Cossack , Ottoman , and Tatar invasions; from the 15th through 17th centuries, the castle was attacked by Tatar hordes a total of 51 times. The Tatar invasions of 1448, 1451, 1509, and 1528, as well as the Ottoman siege of 1533, caused damage to both the castle and the city but all of these invasions were successfully repelled. Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle played an important role during

1781-513: A nationalist movement. After 1918, the name Ruthenia became narrowed to the area south of the Carpathian Mountains in the Kingdom of Hungary , also called Carpathian Ruthenia ( Ukrainian : карпатська Русь , romanized :  karpatska Rus , including the cities of Mukachevo , Uzhhorod , and Prešov ) and populated by Carpatho-Ruthenians , a group of East Slavic highlanders. While Galician Ruthenians considered themselves Ukrainians,

1918-623: A natural defense system for Kamianets-Podilskyi's historic Old Town neighborhood. Its location on a strategic transport crossroad in Podilia made the castle a prime target for foreign invaders, who rebuilt the castle to suit their own needs, adding to its multicultural architectural diversity. Specifically, the complex consists of the Old Town fortified by King Casimir IV , the Old Castle rebuilt by Kings Sigismund I and Stephen Báthory , and

2055-496: A novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, "Pan Wołodyjowski," as during the siege in that fictional novel, in a sign of protest, the fortress's Commandant Michał Wołodyjowski (fictional character) and Major Ketling (fictional character) blew up the castle's remaining gunpowder, killing themselves along with 800 defenders. For 27 years after the attack, the fortress served as the base of Ottoman rule in Podolia . The 1699 Karlov Peace Treaty saw

2192-460: A part of Zakarpattia Oblast in present-day Ukraine), became subordinated to the Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th century. The Kings of Hungary continued using the title "King of Galicia and Lodomeria" until 1918. By the 15th century, the Moscow principality had established its sovereignty over a large portion of former Kievan territory and began to fight Lithuania over Ruthenian lands. In 1547,

2329-635: A prisoner of the Solovetsky Islands . Some Cossacks moved to the Danube Delta region, where they established a new sich under Ottoman rule. To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowed them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later to reorganize into other hosts, of which

2466-664: A reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals , although they also sometimes plundered other neighbors. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the period of the Commonwealth (1569–1795). Prior to the formation of the Zaporozhian Sich , Cossacks had usually been organized by Ruthenian boyars , or princes of

2603-412: A territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsas . They inhabited sparsely populated areas in the Dnieper , Don , Terek , and Ural river basins, and played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and parts of Russia. The Cossack way of life persisted via both direct descendants and acquired ideals in other nations into the twentieth century, though

2740-660: A total of 67 political organizations were based in the castle. Among them was the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party 's newspaper "Iskra" ( Spark ). A decree issued by the Sovnarkom of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1928 declared Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle complex a historical-cultural preserve. During the late 1930s, plans were made to turn the castle into a museum, and reconstruction work on

2877-844: Is an exonym , originally used in Medieval Latin , as one of several terms for Kievan Rus' . Originally, the term Rus' land referred to a triangular area, which mainly corresponds to the tribe of Polans in Dnieper Ukraine . Ruthenia was used to refer to the East Slavic and Eastern Orthodox people of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland , and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Austria-Hungary , mainly to Ukrainians and sometimes Belarusians , corresponding to

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3014-570: The 2000 World Monuments Watch . Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle was the most recognized attraction in the city in 2005. The castle also sees a large number of tourists from across Ukraine and abroad, attracting thousands of tourists annually. Its legacy has left behind several local legends. According to one legend, when Ottoman Sultan Osman II came to Kamianets in 1621 to capture the city, he was allegedly impressed by its strength and fortifications and asked "Who built this great city?" . Someone then replied to him, "God himself." When Osman could not capture

3151-697: The Black Sea Cossack Host together with Loyal Zaporozhians. Most of the remaining Cossacks who had stayed in the Danube Delta returned to Russia in 1828. They settled in the area north of the Azov Sea , becoming known as the Azov Cossacks . The majority of Zaporizhian Cossacks who had remained loyal to Russia despite the destruction of Sich became known as Black Sea Cossacks . Both Azov and Black Sea Cossacks were resettled to colonize

3288-686: The Black Sea Host was most important. Because of land scarcity resulting from the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among landlords, they eventually moved on to the Kuban region . The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Groups were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period, and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in

3425-663: The Cossack szlachta . The uprising was one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth, known as The Deluge , which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later. Influential relatives of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian szlachta in Moscow helped to create the Russian–Polish alliance against Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, portrayed as rebels against order and against

3562-772: The Crimean Khanate . In 1261, Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant, as is the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period. As early as the 15th century, a few individuals ventured into the Wild Fields , the southern frontier regions of Ukraine separating Poland-Lithuania from

3699-760: The Danubian Sich . While Ukrainian folklore remembers the Danubian Sich, other new siches of Loyal Zaporozhians on the Bug and Dniester rivers did not achieve such fame. Other Cossacks settled on the Tisa river in the Austrian Empire , also forming a new Sich. During the Cossack sojourn under Turkish rule, a new host was founded that numbered around 12,000 people by the end of 1778. Cossack settlement on

3836-668: The Dnieper Rapids (Ukrainian: za porohamy ), also known as the Wild Fields . The group became well known, and its numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics , participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Russia , and the Ottoman Empire . The Zaporozhians gained

3973-861: The Don Republic and the Kuban People's Republic , and the revived Hetmanate emerged in Ukraine. Cossack troops formed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army , and Cossack republics became centers for the anti-Bolshevik White movement . With the victory of the Red Army , Cossack lands were subjected to decossackization and the Holodomor famine. As a result, during the Second World War, their loyalties were divided and both sides had Cossacks fighting in their ranks. Following

4110-607: The Khmelnytsky Uprising between 1648 and 1654, when the Zaporozhian Cossacks led by Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky , allied themselves with the Crimean Tatars and the local Ukrainian peasantry against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's army and militia. During the uprising, the castle was unsuccessfully besieged by local Cossacks and insurgents led by Commander Maksym Kryvonis . In 1651,

4247-598: The Khmelnytsky Uprising . Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654) brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule. The Sich, with its lands, became an autonomous region under the Russian protectorate. The Don Cossack Army, an autonomous military state formation of the Don Cossacks under the citizenship of the Moscow State in the Don region in 1671–1786, began a systematic conquest and colonization of lands to secure

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4384-607: The Kuban steppe , a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the Caucasus . In 1860, more Cossacks were resettled to the North Caucasus , and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host . The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe, and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula , then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to

4521-486: The Mongol Invasion of Kievan Rus' and a massive devastation of the core territory, the name Rus' was succeeded by Galician-Volhynian principality , which declared itself as Kingdom of Rus' . European manuscripts dating from the 11th century used the name Ruthenia to describe Rus' , the wider area occupied by the early Rus' (commonly referred to as Kievan Rus ' ). This term was also used to refer to

4658-542: The National Environmental Park "Podilski Tovtry" . The complex is a candidate UNESCO World Heritage Site , nominated in 1989 by the Ukrainian representatives, and also one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine . Today, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle is the most recognized landmark of the city, serving as an important regional and national tourist attraction . Traditionally, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle

4795-586: The Polish–Ottoman War of 1633–1634. Cossack numbers increased when the warriors were joined by peasants escaping serfdom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the formerly strong Cossack loyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambitions for recognition as equal to

4932-761: The Roman Catholic -dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the Union of Brest . The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish. After the Ottoman-Polish and Polish-Muscovite warfare ceased, the official Cossack register was again reduced. The registered Cossacks ( reiestrovi kozaky ) were isolated from those who were excluded from

5069-433: The Ruthenian Voivodeship was established in the territory of Galicia-Volhynia and existed until the 18th century. These southern territories include: The Russian Tsardom was officially called Velikoye Knyazhestvo Moskovskoye (Великое Княжество Московское), the Grand Duchy of Moscow , until 1547, although Ivan III (1440–1505, r.  1462–1505 ) had earlier borne the title "Great Tsar of All Russia". During

5206-409: The Slavic word for stone. The two main parts of the castle, the Old Castle (Ukrainian: Старий замок ) and the New Castle (Ukrainian: Новий замок ), were built during different periods. The Old Castle defended the approach from Kamianets-Podilskyi's Old Town, and was constructed to protect against direct assaults from enemy soldiers. The New Castle was formed during the numerous later modernizations of

5343-401: The USSR , as the Soviet government considered them to be Ukrainian. A Rusyn minority remained, after World War II, in eastern Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia ). According to critics, the Ruthenians rapidly became Slovakized . In 1995 the Ruthenian written language became standardized. Following Ukrainian independence and dissolution of the Soviet Union (1990–91), the official position of

5480-415: The United States . Max Vasmer 's etymological dictionary traces the name to the Turkic word kazak , kozak , in which cosac meant 'free man' but also 'conqueror'. The ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root. In written sources, the name is first attested in the Codex Cumanicus from the 13th century. In English , Cossack is first attested in 1590. The origins of

5617-407: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took an active part in post-Soviet conflicts . In the 2002 Russian Census , 140,028 people reported their ethnicity as Cossack. There are Cossack organizations in Russia, Kazakhstan , Ukraine , Belarus , and the United States . The Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe below

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5754-423: The root word 'kamin' , from the Slavic word for 'stone'. Historical accounts date Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle to the early 14th century, although recent archaeological evidence has proved human existence in the area back to the 12th or 13th century. Initially built to protect the bridge connecting the city with the mainland, the castle sits on top of a peninsula carved out by the winding Smotrych River , forming

5891-406: The suzerainty of the Russian Tsar from 1667 but was ruled by local hetmans for a century. The principal political problem of the hetmans who followed the Pereyeslav Agreement was defending the autonomy of the Hetmanate from Russian/Muscovite centralism. The hetmans Ivan Vyhovsky , Petro Doroshenko and Ivan Mazepa attempted to resolve this by separating Ukraine from Russia. Relations between

6028-431: The szlachta . Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian szlachta of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the szlachta . The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church also put them at odds with officials of

6165-403: The tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites . In 2004, the "Kamianets" reserve was upgraded to that of a national preservation district. On August 21, 2007, the complex was declared one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine when it came in 3rd place in a nationwide competition. A severe storm on August 1, 2011, partially destroyed the New Western Tower; the city mayor's office didn't deny that

6302-402: The 13th century, western Ruthenian principalities became incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , after which the state became called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia. The Polish Kingdom also took the title King of Ruthenia when it annexed Galicia. These titles were merged when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed. A small part of Rus' ( Transcarpathia , now mainly

6439-430: The 1630s, these Cossack groups remained ethnically and religiously open to virtually anybody, although the Slavic element predominated . There were several major Cossack hosts in the 16th century: near the Dnieper, Don, Volga and Ural Rivers ; the Greben Cossacks in Caucasia ; and the Zaporozhian Cossacks , mainly west of the Dnieper. It is unclear when people other than the Brodnici and Berladnici (which had

6576-488: The 16th century, with the area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Commonwealth as their subjects. Foreign and internal pressure on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the government making concessions to the Zaporozhian Cossacks. King Stephen Báthory granted them certain rights and freedoms in 1578, and they gradually began to create their foreign policy. They did so independently of

6713-432: The 1880s through the first decade of the 20th century, the popularity of the ethnonym Ukrainian spread, and the term Ukraine became a substitute for Malaya Rus' among the Ukrainian population of the empire. In the course of time, the term Rus became restricted to western parts of present-day Ukraine ( Galicia /Halych, Carpathian Ruthenia ), an area where Ukrainian nationalism competed with Galician Russophilia . By

6850-550: The 1990s, numerous regional authorities consented to delegate certain local administrative and policing responsibilities to these reconstituted Cossack hosts. Between 3.5 and 5 million people associate themselves with the Cossack cultural identity across the world even though the majority, especially in the Russian Federation, have little to no connection to the original Cossack people because cultural ideals and legacy changed greatly with time. Cossack organizations operate in Russia , Ukraine , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Canada , and

6987-428: The Carpatho-Ruthenians were the last East Slavic people who kept the historical name ( Ruthen is a Latin form of the Slavic rusyn ). Today, the term Rusyn is used to describe the ethnicity and language of Ruthenians , who are not compelled to adopt the Ukrainian national identity . Carpathian Ruthenia ( Hungarian : Kárpátalja , Ukrainian : Закарпаття , romanized :  Zakarpattia ) became part of

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7124-409: The Cossack starshyna (nobility), their property, and their autonomy under his rule; and freed the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence and the land claims of the Ruthenian szlachta . Only some of the Ruthenian szlachta of the Chernigov region, who had their origins in the Moscow state, saved their lands from division among Cossacks and became part of the Cossack szlachta . After this,

7261-413: The Cossack starshyna , including hetman Ivan Vyhovsky . The treaty failed, however, because the starshyna were divided on the issue, and it had even less support among rank-and-file Cossacks. As a result of the mid–17th century Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Zaporozhian Cossacks briefly established an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764). It was placed under

7398-417: The Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Russian Tsardom: the Cossack Hetmanate , and the more independent Zaporizhia . These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by Catherine II in the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia , and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia . With the destruction of

7535-428: The Cossacks are disputed. Originally, the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups ( qazaq or "free men") who inhabited the Pontic–Caspian steppe , north of the Black Sea near the Dnieper River . By the end of the 15th century, the term was also applied to peasants who had fled to the devastated regions along the Dnieper and Don Rivers , where they established their self-governing communities. Until at least

7672-505: The Crimean Khanate. These were short-term expeditions, to acquire the resources of what was a naturally rich and fertile region teeming with cattle, wild animals, and fish. This lifestyle, based on subsistence agriculture , hunting, and either returning home in the winter or settling permanently, came to be known as the Cossack way of life. Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe caused considerable devastation and depopulation in this area. The Tatar raids also played an important role in

7809-422: The Empire in order to abolish slavery and harsh bureaucracy, and to maintain independence. The Empire responded with executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–1708, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708, and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host after Pugachev's Rebellion in 1775. After

7946-442: The French and Spanish press as "troublemaking".) On 15 March 1939, the Ukrainophile president of Carpatho-Ruthenia, Avhustyn Voloshyn , declared its independence as Carpatho-Ukraine . On the same day, regular troops of the Royal Hungarian Army occupied and annexed the region. In 1944 the Soviet Army occupied the territory , and in 1945 it was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR . Rusyns were not an officially recognized ethnic group in

8083-448: The Hetmanate and their new sovereign began to deteriorate after the autumn of 1656, when the Muscovites, going against the wishes of their Cossack partners, signed an armistice with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Vilnius . The Cossacks considered the Vilnius agreement a breach of the contract they had entered into at Pereiaslav. For the Muscovite tsar, the Pereiaslav Agreement signified the unconditional submission of his new subjects;

8220-426: The Kuban region are bilingual, speaking both Russian and Balachka , the local Kuban dialect of central Ukrainian . Their folklore is largely Ukrainian. The predominant view of ethnologists and historians is that its origins lie in the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks. The waning loyalty of the Cossacks, and the szlachta 's arrogance towards them, resulted in several Cossack uprisings against

8357-412: The Moscow principality adopted the title of The Great Principat of Moscow and Tsardom of the Whole Rus and claimed sovereignty over "all the Rus'" — acts not recognized by its neighbour Poland. The Muscovy population was Eastern Orthodox and preferred to use the Greek transliteration Rossiya (Ῥωσία) rather than the Latin "Ruthenia". In the 14th century, the southern territories of Rus', including

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8494-455: The New Castle founded by Kings Sigismund III and Władysław IV . However, in spite of the many architectural and engineering changes to the original structure, the castle still forms a coherent architectural design, being one of the few medieval constructions in modern-day Ukraine that is relatively well preserved. Along with the Old Town neighborhood, the castle is listed as part of the National Historical-Architectural Reserve "Kamianets" and

8631-400: The New Western and Eastern Towers, the castle's eastern wall and an underground gallery, as well as the Full Gates and housing for the town's starosta community. During the mid-14th to mid-15th centuries, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle was located on one of the main frontiers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . From 1434 until its annexation by the Russian Empire in 1793, the castle played

8768-462: The Northern Bastion along their whole length. The bastion was built in 1790, just before the second partition of Poland . There is also the New Castle that was designed as a hornwork and located west from the main castle complex. At the eastern side of the castle's courtyard were the remnants of the St. Stanislaus Church, next to which was located a tomb of M. Potocki. Next to the Kovpak Tower stood an Eastern Orthodox church where Prince Koriatovych

8905-445: The Ottomans, to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalation of Commonwealth–Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars (1593–1617) to the Battle of Cecora (1620) , and campaigns in

9042-435: The Polish government. Cossack rebellions eventually culminated in the Khmelnytsky Uprising , led by the hetman of the Zaporizhian Sich, Bohdan Khmelnytsky . The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own "Lower" Zaporozhian Host , and its own land. In 1775, the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host was destroyed. Later, its high-ranking Cossack leaders were exiled to Siberia, its last chief, Petro Kalnyshevsky , becoming

9179-407: The Polish throne, Stanisław August Poniatowski . Even though it had lost its defensive role, it was one of the strongest fortresses in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland up until the Second Partition of Poland of April 21, 1793. when both Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle and the city were transferred to the sovereignty of the Russian Empire . On the same day, the castle's commandant gave up the key to

9316-421: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to create a third constituent, comparable in status to that of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Union of Hadiach provoked a war between the Cossacks and the Muscovites/Russians that began in the fall of 1658. In June 1659, the two armies met near the town of Konotop . One army comprised Cossacks, Tatars, and Poles, and the other was led by a top Muscovite military commander of

9453-537: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Lower Dnieper (Nyzovyi in Ukrainian) Cossack Host under the joint protectorate of Russia and the Commonwealth. By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate ( sosloviye ), "a military class". The Malorussian Cossacks (the former Registered Cossacks also known as "Town Zaporozhian Host") were excluded from this transformation, but were promoted to membership of various civil estates or classes (often Russian nobility), including

9590-402: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to accede to the demand to expand the Cossack Registry prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky Uprising , that began in 1648. Some Cossacks, including the Polish szlachta in Ukraine, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, divided the lands of the Ruthenian szlachta , and became

9727-582: The Pugachev rebellion, the Empire renamed the Yaik Host, its capital, the Yaik Cossacks, and the Cossack town of Zimoveyskaya in the Don region to try to encourage the Cossacks to forget the men and their uprisings. It also formally dissolved the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Cossack Host, and destroyed their fortress on the Dnieper (the Sich itself). This may in part have been due to the participation of some Zaporozhian and other Ukrainian exiles in Pugachev's rebellion. During his campaign, Pugachev issued manifestos calling for restoration of all borders and freedoms of both

9864-604: The Russian border was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the sultan . Yet internal conflict, and the political manoeuvring of the Russian Empire led to splits among the Cossacks. Some of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia, where the Russian army used them to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greeks, Albanians and Crimean Tatars. After the Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792 , most of these Cossacks were absorbed into

10001-808: The Russian navy had no Cossack ships and units. Cossack service was considered rigorous. Cossack forces played an important role in Russia's wars of the 18th–20th centuries, including the Great Northern War , the Seven Years' War , the Crimean War , the Napoleonic Wars , the Caucasus War , many Russo-Persian Wars , many Russo-Turkish Wars , and the First World War . In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

10138-559: The Ruthenian szlachta refrained from plans to have a Moscow Tsar as king of the Commonwealth, its own Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki later becoming king. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish–Cossack alliance and create a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach . The treaty was approved by the Polish king and the Sejm , and by some of

10275-550: The Slavs of the island of Rügen or to other Baltic Slavs, whom 12th-century chroniclers portrayed as fierce pirate pagans—even though Kievan Rus' had converted to Christianity by the 10th century: Eupraxia , the daughter of Rutenorum rex Vsevolod I of Kiev , had married the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in 1089. After the devastating Mongolian occupation of the main part of Ruthenia which began in

10412-616: The Soviet Union disbanded the Cossack units within the Soviet Army, leading to the suppression of many Cossack traditions during the rule of Joseph Stalin and his successors. However, during the Perestroika era in the late 1980s, descendants of Cossacks began to revive their national traditions. In 1988, the Soviet Union enacted a law permitting the re-establishment of former Cossack hosts and the formation of new ones. Throughout

10549-462: The Tatars and Turks. Tsar Boris Godunov had incurred the hatred of Ukrainian Cossacks by ordering the Don Cossacks to drive away from the Don all the Ukrainian Cossacks fleeing the failed uprisings of the 1590s. This contributed to the Ukrainian Cossacks' willingness to fight against him. In 1604, 2,000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and their proposal for

10686-578: The Tsar ( Dmitri I ), against the Muscovite army. By September 1604, Dmitri I had gathered a force of 2,500 men, of whom 1,400 were Cossacks. Two thirds of these "cossacks", however, were in fact Ukrainian civilians, only 500 being professional Ukrainian Cossacks. On July 4, 1610, 4,000 Ukrainian Cossacks fought in the Battle of Klushino , on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They helped to defeat

10823-659: The Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service. Cossacks also served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders, as had been the case in the Caucasus War. During the Russian Civil War , Don and Kuban Cossacks were the first people to declare open war against the Bolsheviks . In 1918, Russian Cossacks declared their complete independence, creating two independent states,

10960-586: The Turkic Cumans and the Circassian Kassaks. In contrast, Slavic settlements in southern Ukraine started to appear relatively early during Cuman rule, with the earliest, such as Oleshky , dating back to the 11th century. Early "Proto-Cossack" groups are generally reported to have come into existence within what is now Ukraine in the 13th century as the influence of Cumans grew weaker, although some have ascribed their origins to as early as

11097-409: The Ukrainian hetman considered it a conditional contract from which one party could withdraw if the other was not upholding its end of the bargain. The Ukrainian hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who succeeded Khmelnytsky in 1657, believed the Tsar was not living up to his responsibility. Accordingly, he concluded a treaty with representatives of the Polish king, who agreed to re-admit Cossack Ukraine by reforming

11234-740: The Ukrainian nation; and Ruthenophiles, who claimed that Carpatho-Ruthenians were a separate nation and who wanted to develop a native Rusyn language and culture. In 1938, under the Nazi regime in Germany, there were calls in the German press for the independence of a greater Ukraine, which would include Ruthenia, parts of Hungary, the Polish Southeast including Lviv, the Crimea, and Ukraine, including Kyiv and Kharkiv. (These calls were described in

11371-547: The Zaporizhian Sich, a number of Ukrainian-speaking Eastern Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks fled to the territory under control of the Ottoman Empire . Together with Cossacks of Greater Russian origin , as well as the vast majority of Old Believers and other people from "Greater Russia" ( Muscovy ), they settled in the area of the Danube river, and founded a new Sich. Many Ukrainian peasants and adventurers later joined

11508-826: The borders on the Volga , the whole of Siberia (see Yermak Timofeyevich ), and the Yaik (Ural) and Terek Rivers . Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring Cossack loyalty, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democracy, self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as Stenka Razin , Kondraty Bulavin , Ivan Mazepa and Yemelyan Pugachev led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in

11645-484: The buildings was started in 1937. Among the museum attractions added was a scene depicting Karmaliuk in the castle's prison cell in the Pope's Tower, where he was kept during his imprisonment in the castle. Visitor numbers for the castle during the 1930s reached 300,000 a year. In 1947, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle was placed on the all-Union list of historic preserves. A memorial plaque and a bas-relief resembling Karmaliuk

11782-611: The castle and swore allegiance to the empire in the city's cathedral. One hundred and one artillery cannons later saluted the commandant's decision inside the castle. During the French invasion of Russia of 1812, the Russian Imperial Army was stationed in the castle. In 1815, Konstantin Batyushkov , who later became a well-known poet and writer, was stationed as an officer in the castle. In 1846, poet Vladimir Raevsky

11919-419: The castle was then subject to another Cossack siege led by Hetman Ivan Bohun , before an unexpected counterattack by Polish insurgents under commanders Aleksandrenka and Chuika re-established the Polish presence in the area and relieved the siege. A 60,000 force army led by Khmelnytsky himself reasserted Cossack control over the castle in 1652. Just one year later, the castle was attacked yet again, this time by

12056-630: The castle, he then replied "Then let God himself take the city." Another local legend has it that Turkish gold is buried in the Smotrych River and that a 20 km (12 mi) tunnel leads to the Khotyn Fortress from Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle. The events of the 1672 Ottoman siege were depicted in the 1888 historical novel Fire in the Steppe , written by Polish Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz . The castle has appeared on

12193-407: The castle. Archaeological excavations during the 1960s, however, provided contrasting evidence suggesting that the castle might date back even earlier to the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th centuries. It is also clear from historical and archaeological evidence that an earthen fortress existed in the area during the time of the East Slavic state of Kievan Rus', but not on the same site as

12330-422: The castle; its purpose was to provide protection from enemy field armies and was designed to support newer military inventions such as long range artillery cannons. An important and large fortification complex, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle had as many as 12 towers, some of which were added during later modernizations to the castle. Some of the towers were located on the peninsula on which the main castle sits; some of

12467-594: The city in 1687, the castle bridge was rebuilt and fortified by the Turks, acquiring the name "Turkish bridge" (Ukrainian: Турецький міст ), which many locals still call it today. The bridge's stone façade was in poor repair from 1841 until the end of the 19th century. A subsequent lack of preservation work, together with earthquake damage in 1986, contributed to its poor condition. In 2000, the World Monuments Fund included Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle bridge in

12604-484: The conditions of the Union of Hadiach. In 1660, however, the hetman asked the Polish king for protection, leading to the period of Ukrainian history known as The Ruin . Historian Gary Dean Peterson writes: "With all this unrest, Ivan Mazepa of the Ukrainian Cossacks was looking for an opportunity to secure independence from Russia and Poland". In response to Mazepa's alliance with Charles XII of Sweden , Peter I ordered

12741-459: The current castle. The castle was outdated but remained vital to the defense of Kamianets and nearby trade routes; as a result, the voivode of Kraków , Spytek of Melsztyn , began modernizing the complex at the turn of the 15th century. During the reconstruction, the old towers were renovated and ten new towers were added. A century and a half later, the castle was updated again, this time by military engineer and architect Hiob Bretfus , who built

12878-527: The development of the Cossacks. In the 15th century, Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, which often formed local armies and were entirely independent from neighboring states such as Poland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Crimean Khanate. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky , the first mention of Cossacks dates back to the 14th century, although

13015-701: The early 20th century, the term Ukraine had mostly replaced Malorussia in those lands, and by the mid-1920s in the Ukrainian diaspora in North America as well. Rusyn (the Ruthenian) has been an official self-identification of the Rus' population in Poland (and also in Czechoslovakia ). Until 1939, for many Ruthenians and Poles, the word Ukrainiec (Ukrainian) meant a person involved in or friendly to

13152-784: The early modern period, the term Ruthenia started to be mostly associated with the Ruthenian lands of the Polish Crown and the Cossack Hetmanate . Bohdan Khmelnytsky declared himself the ruler of the Ruthenian state to the Polish representative Adam Kysil in February 1649. The Grand Principality of Ruthenia was the project name of the Cossack Hetmanate integrated into the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth . The use of

13289-652: The element ruthenium from platinum ore found in the Ural Mountains . Claus named the element after Ruthenia to honor Russia . Cossacks The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops: Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons, while Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers. The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts . Each host had

13426-516: The end of the 19th century. The Kalmyk and Buryat Cossacks also deserve mention . The Zaporizhian Sich became a vassal polity of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate . The Hetmanate was initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky against Polish and Catholic domination, known as

13563-408: The end, it narrows to 6.5 m (21 ft). The bridge's height is 27 m (89 ft) at the entrance, dropping to 17 m (56 ft) on the far side. At the beginning of the 15th century, a large round gate tower was constructed at the castle end of the bridge; the bridge's height, including the tower, was equivalent to that of eight modern stories . During the unsuccessful Polish siege of

13700-552: The era, Prince Aleksey Trubetskoy . After terrible losses, Trubetskoy was forced to withdraw to the town of Putyvl on the other side of the border. The battle is regarded as one of the Zaporizhian Cossacks' most impressive victories. In 1659, Yurii Khmelnytsky was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian Host/Hetmanate, with the endorsement of Moscow and supported by common Cossacks unhappy with

13837-521: The government and some Ukrainian politicians has been that the Rusyns are an integral part of the Ukrainian nation. Some of the population of Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine have identified as Rusyn (or Boyko, Hutsul, Lemko etc.) first and foremost; a subset of this second group has, nevertheless, considered Rusyns to be part of a broader Ukrainian national identity. In 1844, Karl Ernst Claus , Russian naturalist and chemist of Baltic German origin, isolated

13974-494: The government, and often against its interests, as for example with their role in Moldavian affairs, and with the signing of a treaty with Emperor Rudolf II in the 1590s. Registered Cossacks formed a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699. Around the end of the 16th century, increasing Cossack aggression strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories during

14111-586: The limestone that creates a canyon along the river valley. Further excavation work showed that the walls stretched to the west, as well from the Old Castle to the bastions of the new one. The support footings for the old castle bridge were also found in the ditch. From the south in the wall there is a 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide and 5 m (16 ft) tall opening, through which the Vocational School assumed water flowed. The preserved northwestern walls are now 13.7 m (45 ft) high measured from

14248-615: The locals in war, by raising the Cossack registry in times of hostility, and then radically decreasing it and forcing the Cossacks back into serfdom in times of peace. This institutionalized method of control bred discontent among the Cossacks. By the end of the 16th century, they began to revolt, in the uprisings of Kryshtof Kosynsky (1591–1593), Severyn Nalyvaiko (1594–1596), Hryhorii Loboda (1596), Marko Zhmailo (1625), Taras Fedorovych (1630), Ivan Sulyma (1635), Pavlo Pavliuk and Dmytro Hunia (1637), and Yakiv Ostrianyn and Karpo Skydan (1638). All were brutally suppressed and ended by

14385-412: The locals' land allotments and freedom of movement. In addition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government attempted to impose Catholicism, and to Polonize the local Ukrainian population. The basic form of resistance and opposition by the locals and burghers was flight and settlement in the sparsely populated steppe. The major powers tried to exploit Cossack military power for their own purposes. In

14522-615: The mid-8th century. Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origin, descending from East Slavs , Turks , Tatars , and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe. Some Turkologists , however, argue that Cossacks are descendants of the native Cumans of Ukraine , who had lived there long before the Mongol invasion. some other just state that first Cossacks were Turkic origin according to Serhii Plokhy first Cossacks were of Turkic rather than Slavic stock. Christoph Baumer state that predesecessor from

14659-609: The mouth of the Dnieper river. In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of Constantinople , forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the Don Cossacks , captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of Azov , which guarded the Don. The Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny , who launched successful campaigns against

14796-524: The name Rus' , or Rus'ka zemlia (land of Rus'), described the lands between Kiev , Chernihiv and Pereyaslav , corresponding to the tribe of Polanians , which started to identify themself as Rus' ( Ukrainian : Русь, Русини ) approximately in 9th century. In a broader sense, this name also referred to all territories under control of Kievan princes , and the initial area of Rus' land served as their metropole , yet this wider meaning declined when Kiev lost its power over majority of principalities. After

14933-439: The newly created civil estate of Cossacks. Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times, or to the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks had to obtain their cavalry horses , arms, and supplies for their military service at their own expense, the government providing only firearms and supplies. Lacking horses, the poor served in the Cossack infantry and artillery. In the navy alone, Cossacks served with other peoples as

15070-492: The newly founded Hungarian Kingdom in 1000. In May 1919, it was incorporated with nominal autonomy into the provisional Czechoslovak state as Subcarpathian Rus' . Since then, Ruthenian people have been divided into three orientations: Russophiles , who saw Ruthenians as part of the Russian nation; Ukrainophiles , who like their Galician counterparts across the Carpathian Mountains considered Ruthenians part of

15207-494: The nobility, especially various Lithuanian starostas . Merchants, peasants, and runaways from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovy , and Moldavia also joined the Cossacks. The first recorded sich prototype was formed by the starosta of Cherkasy and Kaniv , Dmytro Vyshnevetsky , who built a fortress on the island of Little Khortytsia on the banks of the Lower Dnieper in 1552. The Zaporozhian Host adopted

15344-612: The northern, southern, and eastern. The walls of the northern terrace (about 336 metres or 1,102 feet in length) defend the whole inner courtyard. The courtyard's northwestern walls form the Old Castle, ending between the Day and Rozhanka Towers. They are made up of two parallel walls, which include the Petty Western Tower, the remnants of the Black Tower, and a two-level casemate , or fortified gun emplacement. The older of

15481-612: The other towers were located on the steep slopes across the Smotrych River. There also were other towers such as the Petty Southern Tower, a Dacia-Roman Tower, while another Dacia-Roman Tower stood just outside the eastern walls and a half tower is located at the western end of the Castle bridge . Of these towers, however, only a few remain unscathed today. Specifically, the 12 towers were the: The walls of Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle are divided into three sections or terraces ;

15618-500: The outside of the castle and 5.7 m (19 ft) high from the courtyard. As a result of the numerous reconstructions, the walls' depth changed throughout the centuries, being 1.45 m (4.8 ft) deep in the Medieval period, 2.2 m (7.2 ft) during the 14th and 15th centuries, and an average of 4 m (13 ft) after the reconstruction of the 16th and 17th centuries. Conservation works have recently been conducted on

15755-619: The principalities of Galicia–Volhynia and Kiev , became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which in 1384 united with Catholic Poland in a union which became the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. Due to their usage of the Latin script rather than the Cyrillic script , they were usually denoted by the Latin name Ruthenia . Other spellings were also used in Latin, English , and other languages during this period. Contemporaneously,

15892-645: The private property of the Ruthenian Orthodox szlachta . Don Cossacks' raids on Crimea left Khmelnitsky without the aid of his usual Tatar allies. From the Russian perspective, the rebellion ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav , in which, in order to overcome the Russian–Polish alliance against them, the Khmelnitsky Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the Russian Tsar . In return, the Tsar guaranteed them his protection; recognized

16029-566: The reference was to people who were either Turkic or of undefined origin. Hrushevsky states that the Cossacks may have descended from the long-forgotten Antes , or from groups from the Berlad territory of the Brodnici in present-day Romania , then a part of the Grand Duchy of Halych. There, the Cossacks may have served as self-defence formations, organized to defend against raids conducted by neighbors. The first international mention of Cossacks

16166-525: The register, and from the Zaporizhian Host. This, together with intensified socioeconomic and national-religious oppression of the other classes in Ukrainian society, led to many Cossack uprisings in the 1630s. The nobility, which had obtained legal ownership of vast expanses of land on the Dnipro from the Polish kings, attempted to impose feudal dependency on the local population. Landowners utilized

16303-425: The return of Polish control over the area after the Ottoman Empire ceded its control in the area. From the beginning of the 18th century, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle had lost its defensive role, and was used more as a military prison than a military fortification. Numerous people were executed or held captive in the prison, including Cossack starshynas (officers), haidamakas , and even the three-year-old pretender to

16440-582: The sacking of the then capital of the Hetmanate, Baturyn . The city was burnt and looted, and 11,000 to 14,000 of its inhabitants were killed. The destruction of the Hetmanate's capital was a signal to Mazepa and the Hetmanate's inhabitants of severe punishment for disloyalty to the Tsar's authority. The Zaporizhian Sich at Chortomlyk , which had existed since 1652, was also destroyed by Peter I's forces in 1709, in retribution for decision of its otaman Kost Hordiyenko , to ally with Mazepa. Under Russian rule,

16577-420: The second part of the 16th century. The Polish government could not control them, but was held responsible as the men were nominally its subjects. In retaliation, Tatars living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. Cossack pirates responded by raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from

16714-617: The sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society as much as any other part of Russia; many Cossacks migrated to other parts of Europe following the establishment of the Soviet Union , while others remained and assimilated into the Communist state. Cohesive Cossack-based units were organized and many fought for both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II . After World War II,

16851-454: The term Rus/Russia in the lands of Rus' survived longer as a name used by Ukrainians for Ukraine. When the Austrian monarchy made the vassal state of Galicia–Lodomeria into a province in 1772, Habsburg officials realized that the local East Slavic people were distinct from both Poles and Russians and still called themselves Rus. This was true until the empire fell in 1918. In

16988-407: The term to lands inhabited by Eastern Slavs . Rusia or Ruthenia appears in the 1520 Latin treatise Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium, per Ioannem Boëmum, Aubanum, Teutonicum ex multis clarissimis rerum scriptoribus collecti by Johann Boemus . In the chapter De Rusia sive Ruthenia, et recentibus Rusianorum moribus ("About Rus', or Ruthenia, and modern customs of the Rus'"), Boemus tells of

17125-410: The territories of modern Belarus , Ukraine , Eastern Poland and some of western Russia . Historically, in a broader sense, the term was used to refer to all the territories under Kievan dominion (mostly East Slavs). The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1772–1918), corresponding to parts of Western Ukraine , was referred to as Ruthenia and its people as Ruthenians . As a result of

17262-403: The thirteenth century on were mainly of Turkic stock, but from the sixteenth century the Cossack were increasingly joined by Slavs such as Russians and Poles, Balto-slavic Lithuanians and people from today's Ukraine, thus becoming a Slav-Tatar ethnic hybrid. As the grand duchies of Moscow and Lithuania grew in power, new political entities appeared in the region. These included Moldavia and

17399-478: The tower's structural integrity was weakened during its last reconstruction in 2007, paving the way for its collapse just four years later. Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle rests on a limestone formation surrounded by the Smotrych River canyon. Consequently, its foundations were built using limestone, as well as local and imported brick and stone. Indeed, the castle's name is attributed to the root kamin' , from

17536-460: The town. The Kamianets-Podilskyi Industrial Vocational School has investigated the castle walls. They discovered an area of quick sand at the roadside next to the "Podzamche", or sub-castle, neighborhood of the city, which in the previous year had partially undermined the castle's supporting walls. The effects of the quick sand had uncovered the fortress's foundation walls, a little over 5 m (16 ft) deep. The foundation walls were built on

17673-686: The two walls dates back to the beginning of the 12th century and is built with crenelations . Another casemate was located at the eastern walls. An entrance to the castle in the eastern walls is known as the New Castle Gate, and there were two more gates, one, in the northern walls, called the Old Castle Gate, and another, the Field Gate, connecting the Water Tower with the rest of the castle. The northern walls are reinforced with

17810-441: The walls to preserve the old Rus' fragments. As a result of the castle's unique location on a peninsula, the castle bridge (Ukrainian: Замковий міст ) serves as the only transport link to the city's Old Town neighborhood. It is considered to represent a considerable feat of medieval engineering. The bridge has a length of 88 m (289 ft). At the entrance to the bridge, its width is around 8.5 m (28 ft), while at

17947-488: Was buried. In the courtyard along the southern walls between Kovpak and Tenchynska Towers were a granary and cart shed . Across from these, near the northern walls and Lanckorońska Tower, was the residence of the starosta . Next to the Tenchynska Tower stood the "Rurmush" which served as a water storage tank for the castle. At the southern walls closer to the White Tower (between Tenchynska and White Towers) were

18084-635: Was erected near the Karmaliuk exposition on April 18, 1958. Restorational and archaeological works have been conducted at the castle since 1962 under the supervision of architects Y. Plamenytska and A. Tyupych. On May 18, 1977, the National Historic-Architectural Reserve "Kamianets" was established. On September 13, 1989, the Ukrainian SSR Government placed Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle and Old Town on

18221-430: Was in 1492, when Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray complained to Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon that his Cossack subjects from Kiev and Cherkasy had pillaged a Crimean Tatar ship: the duke ordered his "Ukrainian" (meaning borderland) officials to investigate, execute the guilty, and give their belongings to the khan. Sometime in the 16th century, there appeared the old Ukrainian Ballad of Cossack Holota , about

18358-425: Was secured. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely. During this time, the Habsburg monarchy sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders against

18495-408: Was stationed in the castle, during which time he established a pro-Decembrist organization of progressively-minded army officers. From 1816 until 1914, the fortress was converted from a military prison into a jail for debtors , criminals and political prisoners. In 1831, Russian lexicologist Vladimir Dal worked in the castle, at the time writing a dictionary of the Russian language . The castle

18632-402: Was the center of the anti-feudalism movement in the Podolia during the 19th century led by the Patriotic War of 1812 cavalry veteran Ustym Karmaliuk (1787–1835), who is now regarded by Ukrainians as a national folk hero . After a series of political changes following the 1905 revolution , political parties and organizations were allowed by the law throughout the Russian Empire . In 1906,

18769-415: Was thought to have been founded during the second half of the 14th century, as the first accurate historical accounts of the castle date back to the mid-14th century, when most of the territories of western Rus' were under control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . A written document by Prince Yuriy Koriatovych in 1374, for example, mentions that the Magdeburg rights would be presented to Kamianets inside

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