Zaporozhian Defiance; Uprising on the Don

As great empires fought over Ukraine, with much of the right bank in ruins, many Cossacks sought refuge with the Za- porozhian Brotherhood in the great steppe Down Under. The Sich had become a favorite destination for thousands of rank- and-file Cossacks, the “chern” who possessed nothing but their weapons and the skill and willingness to use them.

With the hetmans’ struggle for dominance in Ukraine came a widening gulf between the Sich and the north, between the Zaporozhian Brotherhood and the settled Cossacks and minor nobility of Ukraine.¹¹ The flow of cereals and military equipment, lead and gunpowder was now greatly reduced, and to keep themselves supplied Sirko and his Zaporozhians began to step up campaigns against Crimean and Ottoman installa­tions, destroying towns, villages, and fortified citadels, which made Sirko a living legend. The other occasional supplier of war materiel was the Tsar’s government, and during the Ukrain­ian hetmans’ power struggles and foreign alliances the Za- porozhians often sided with the left bank hetman and the Tsar.

Zaporozhia sided with Muscovy mainly if it was felt an al­liance with the Tsar was in the best interest of Cossack freedom, but when this was threatened the Sich did not hesitate to rise against Moscow.

One of the Zaporozhians’ greatest battles was the one they had to fight on their own turf and without allied support. Sultan Mohammed IV had led a successful campaign in Podil against KingJan Sobieski, during which he was attacked on his flanks and badly mauled by Sirko’s Zaporozhians. The Sultan now de­cided that the only long-term solution for a successful advance in Eastern Europe was the destruction of the Chortomlyk Sich and the occupation of the entire Zaporozhian territory. An Ot­toman fleet carrying 15,000 elite Janissaries arrived in the Crimea and Khan Selim Gireywas instructed to launch a sur­prise attack on the Sich the night following Christmas Day, when Cossacks would be sleeping off the day’s celebration while others would have departed for Ukraine to join their families.¹² Alarge Ottoman and Tatar army left on the campaign, heading north along the banks of the frozen Dnipro several miles from shore to avoid detection by Cossack scouts and sentries, which were permanentlyposted along the river.

The Khan’s intelligence information, however, was not ac­curate. Unknown to the Khan, many single Cossack hunters and fishermen of the Down Under region had gathered in the Sich for the Christmas celebrations, and rather than half empty the Sich was full of Cossacks, probably some 3,000-5,000 men. As the Janissaries were quietly surrounding the ^αkuren^, barracks a Cossackbythe name of Shevchikstumbled out of his ^αkuren^, to relieve himself, and couldn’t believe what he saw—if he was not sober when he awoke, the sight of thousands OfJanissaries armed to the teeth pouring into the Sich certainly woke him up. Some of the men were still playing cards, and alerted to the presence of the enemy they calmly picked up their loaded mus­kets and, opening the windows, began to pour heavy fire into the massed Janissary ranks. Alerted by the gunfire the other ^αkuren^, walls opened fire, and trapped between the Sich stock­ade and the "kurens,” the Janissaries began to take heavy losses. Drawing sabers the Cossacks poured out of the cabins and in the bloody hand-to-hand combat the elite Janissaries were an­nihilated with very few escaping to break the news. On learning of the disaster the Khan withdrew with his men towards the Crimea, never again to attempt an invasion of the Sich. The dead Cossacks were buried with honors but with the soil frozen solid the thousands of Muslim dead were thrown into the Dnipro through holes chopped in the ice, to be swept by the current towards Tatar territory and the Black Sea.

Following the victory the Zaporozhians decided to retaliate with a campaign into the Crimea. InJuly of 1675 Sirko sent word throughout the great river system announcing a great campaign against the Muslims. News of the great victory at the Chortomlyk Sich had spread quickly and many Cossacks re­sponded. The plan was to take an unusual route through the Sivash shallows on the eastern side of the isthmus, where an enemy would be least expected. Gathering a force of 10,000 Cossacks Sirko headed to the Sivash gulf towards the Perekop stronghold that guarded the main narrow entrance to the Penin­sula. Dividing his force into detachments several thousand strong each, and leaving 4,000 men to guard the exit to the steppe, the Cossacks fanned out and began to devastate all in their path, sacking the unsuspecting major cities of Kozlov, Karasiv, and the suburbs of the Khans capital Bakhchisarai. On the 5th day the Cossack detachments began to head back to their rendezvous point only to discover the Khan’s men lying in wait, but still unaware of the 4,000 man rear guard which Sirko had left to keep the retreat open. Two Tatar attacks on the main force were beaten back with heavy losses by Cossack musket fire, followed by an attack on the Tatar rear by the rear guard detachment. Caught between two fires the Tatar army was destroyed, with thousands taken prisoner and Khan Selim Gireyhimselfbarely escaping captivity. Thousands of Christian slaves were freed and given a choice to leave with the Cossacks or remain in the Crimea. Onlyhalf of the slaves chose to leave with the Cossacks while the rest decided to stay, not surprising since the life of a Crimean slave could be easier than toiling in the fields as a serf, or for a Muscovite woman married to an abu­sive husband. As they were returning towards the Crimea a mas­sacre occurred of the defenseless civilians. The deeply religious Sirko ordered his mounted Cossacks to charge the helpless throng and cut them down, men, women, and children, “to sleep UntilJudgment Day” so that they could not be of help to the enemy.

Sirko s devastating raid on the Crimea, which matched in cruelty those perpetrated by the Tatars, drew an angry response from the Ottoman Sultan in the form of a warning letter that the next campaign mounted on the Sich would involve an over­whelming Muslim army. The letter has become famous for the response which it elicited and which inspired Ilya Repin to paint his well-known huge canvas of the Zaporozhian Cossacks col­lectively composing the answer to the Sultan, where Sirko ap­pears prominently in the center of the composition, smoking his pipe and glaring off into the distance—across the Black Sea to Constantinople.

Following Ukrainian folk tradition, the letter of the Sultan and the reply went as follows:

The Sultan Mahmoud IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks.

I, Sultan, son ofMohammed, brother of the sun and the moon, grandson and servant of the Lord, ruler of kingdoms— Macedonia, BabylonJerusalem, Greater and Lesser Egypt, Tsar of Tsars, ruler of rulers, exceptional knight defeated by no one, the constant defender of the tomb of Jesus Christ, the caretaker of God himself, the hope and the comfort of Muslims, the upset- ter and great defender of Christians—I order you, the Za- porozhian Cossacks, to surrender to me peacefully, without op­position so that I will not have to worry about your attacks.

—The Sultan of Turkey, Mahmoud ΓV.

The letter, as written, does not sound totally authentic but reads as if it could have been paraphrased from an original but lost communication from the Porte. The Zaporozhians* reply sounds more true to their spirit.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Sultan of Turkey.

Thee, Turkish Satan, damned brother of the devil and the sec­retary ofLucifer himself! How, in the devil can you be a knight? Your armies devour what the devil throws out (vomits, defe­cates).

We know not the date because we have no calendar, the moon is in the sky, the year is written somewhere, and today is the same day with us as it is with you. Kiss our arses for all that.

—KoshovyAtaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian kosh (collective).¹³

While Ukraine was in the throes of revolution discontent was also brewing in Muscovy. Tsar Alexei s treasury was empty when he ascended the throne, and to secure the nobles’ support a series of measures were taken which introduced government cutbacks, dismissed government officials, quadrupled taxes on salt and tobacco (after making their sale a government monop­oly), and completed the peasants’ bondage to the landed estates. InJune 1648, violence erupted in Moscowwhen the Tsar’s “streltsi” were ordered to open fire on a procession that had come to the Kremlin to present a petition to the Tsar. The Kremlin was stormed, the Tsar’s close associates were handed over and lynched, and a great fire consumed much of the city. The Tsar called the “Zemsky Sobor,” which met in September to revise laws, and produced the document known as the “Sobornoe Ulozhenie.” It established the Tsar’s control over Church governance and all monastery land; trade with foreign­ers was restricted to the northern port of Archangel; the death penalty was introduced for armed rebellion, intent to kill the Tsar, and blasphemy; and all fixed time periods within which to claim escaped serfs were abolished, which turned escaped serfs into perpetual refugees. The document did nothing to re­dress socio-economic ills, and shortly afterwards uprisings broke out in Novgorod and Pskov, triggered by the export of wheat to Sweden during a food shortage. During 1654-55 new waves of protest struck western Muscovy, as a plague swept through many regions causing a massive flight from the villages and a breakdown of law and order. In 1662 the “copper riots” erupted in Moscow and elsewhere, when the government de­based the currencyby replacing silver coinage by newly minted copper coins of the same nominal value although they were onlyworth 5 percent of the silver currency. The change was ac­companied by a tax increase as troops were called out to quell the riots in which more than 20,000 individuals were either killed or exiled to Siberia.

TsarAlexis would soon face the greatest revolt of his reign. With the tightening of serfdom in Muscovy many serfs began to flee to free areas such as the lands of the Don and Terek Cos­sacks. The newcomers were not always welcomed by the local Cossacks, and were often hard pressed to survive in the new environment. The Tsar’s army, which had entered left-bank Ukraine to help Hetman Briukhovetsky repel Jan Casimirs troops, had a detachment of Don Cossacks in its service, led by Ataman Ivan Razin. When the fighting was over some two years later, the ataman and his men decided to head home to the Don. He saw no necessity to ask the Muscovite commander permission—they were, after all, free Cossacks—but the Tsar’s commander thought otherwise. Pursued by a Muscovite cavalry squadron, Ataman Ivan Razin was arrested and hanged for de­sertion. When the Cossacks brought back word of the atamans ignoble death, his two younger brothers Stenka (Stepan) and Frolka (Frol) swore vengeance. Insubordination to tyrannical state authority was never far beneath the surface on the Don, where Bulavins great uprising during the Times of Trouble was still fresh in many Cossacks’ memories.

To Stenka Razin the refugees represented a source of man­power that would follow a leader who could show them a source of livelihood, but first the serfs had to be turned into Cossacks. The Volga was the main waterway for trade and commerce be­tween Muscovy and the Muslim world of the Caspian Sea, and in 1668, taking several hundred refugees and Cossacks, Stenka Razin sailed up the Don to its closest distance from the Volga, and by a short portage entered the great river waterway. Avoid­ing the Muscovite fortress of Tsaritsyn and sailing down the Volga, Stenka Razin sighted a large flotilla carrying prisoners and rich merchandise which turned out to belong to the Tsar, the Patriarch, and a wealthy Moscow merchant. The prisoners were released, the merchandise seized, and the officers hanged. The soldiers were given a choice—to join Stenka Razin or go their own way: “You are free to go, or come with us and become free Cossacks and strike at the boyars and the lords. With poor and ordinary men I’ll share everything like a brother.”¹⁴ To sup­plement his manpower, Stenka Razin sailed up the Yaik River to seek support from the local Cossacks. He also sent messengers to other Cossacklands seeking volunteers, and was joined by men from the Terek River, Otaman Boba with 400 Zaporozhian Cossacks, and 1,000 Don Cossacks led by atamans Krivoi and Us. Even solders from the Tsar’s garrisons deserted to join Stenka Razin’s growing band of men.

By now with some 3,000 men, Stenka Razin could put his plan to work. Prizes along the Volga were becoming scarce and the Tsar’s men were searching for him, but rich pickings could be found to the south in the Muslim lands. The shores of the Black Sea were blocked by the newly rebuilt Ottoman fortress of Azov and the thick chains slung across the Don to prevent unauthorized ships from getting through. Persian ports along the Caspian Sea, however, had never experienced Cossackraids and could be easily reached from the delta of the Volga River. Sailing out into the inland sea, the Cossacks’ first target was the trading city ofDerbent on the eastern shore of the Caspian, in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. The town was caught by surprise with unloaded and unmanned cannons on the walls as the Cossacks swept inside and through the narrow streets into the markets. All who offered resistance were killed, and those who could escape sought refuge in the nearby hills. Der­bent yielded a great booty of jewels, precious metals, weapons, and much needed supplies. Other towns along the west Caspian coast, such as Astara and Baku, also fell to Stenka Razin’s men, with more treasure.

Realizing that they could never return home—their fame had spread far and wide—Razin’s men decided to settle in the land of the Persian Shah. Sailingpeacefullyinto the Persian cap­ital oflsfahan they declared that they would be ready to serve the Shah in return for some land where they could settle. The careful Shah showed friendship and in the meantime sent emis­saries to the Volga delta to inquire about the motley crew that had arrived on his doorstep. When word came back that the Cossacks were outlaws and cutthroats, the Shah ordered that their camp near Rasht with the unwelcome guests be destroyed. Attacked by a large force, the Cossacks were caught by surprise and barely managed to cut their way to the boats, at a cost of several hundred men, while the rest got away under heavy fire. Sailing east they approached the fortified port of Ferahabad of­fering to trade their valuable booty for food and supplies at ridiculously low prices, much to the merchants’ delight. On a pre-arranged signal they drew their arms and began to sack Fer- ahabad. Soon all their traded precious objects were back in their hands, and they departed with untold treasures leaving the port in ruins. When a pursuing Persian force found the Cossacks at their camp near Gorgan, they were once again forced to take to the sea.

A great and final naval battle was soon to take place. Stenka Razin had decided to sail towards Baku, where there were islands just to the south that would give his ships refuge and provide his men much needed rest. Having suffered casualties, he was also hoping to receive fresh reinforcements; but in June 1669, his location was discovered by the Persian Shah’s fleet carrying 4,000 troops, which was sent to find and destroy him. The Persian admiral had ordered his ships chained together, realizing that his large galleys could be attacked and boarded Individuallybythe small and swift Cossackboats. The two fleets closed in with cannon fire and hand-to-hand fighting when a Cossack cannonball struck the Admiral flagship’s magazine ig­niting the gunpowder. A great explosion blew the bottom out of the galley and it began to sink, taking down several other men-of-war that were chained to it. Most of the remaining Per­sian ships were captured, but casting off the chains the Persian admiral escaped with only three of the galleys. A great victory had been won and much war booty captured, but of the 1200 Cossacks onlyhalf survived the battle.

With reduced numbers the Cossacks decided to establish a base on one of the islands near Astrakhan, by the Volga delta, from where they could prey on the rich shipping as it passed by. Before long word was out and a Muscovite fleet commanded by Admiral Prozorovsky was sent to put a stop to the piratical raids. This was a time when Tsarist power had become unstable with growing opposition in Hetman Brukhovetsky s left bank Ukraine and Muscovite serfs escaping in record numbers. Be­sides, Stenka Razin had become a hero in the region, and the admiral didn’t dare to arrest a single Cossack. Razinwas already being considered as a Cossackwizard who could not be touched by bullet or steel. The Muscovite fleet proceeded to anchor at Astrakhan and Prozorovsky requested that Stenka Razin give himself up with a complete pardon. As the Cossack fleet sailed into Astrakhans harbor the Tsar s 22 gun “Orel” fired a salute, which was joined by the shore batteries and answered by the Cossack ships. The day was marked by celebrations as Stenka Razin and his men were welcomed by Astrakhans inhabitants, particularlythe merchants who knew Cossacks would sell their booty at a fraction of its value.

Afterpartying and carousing for a fortnight the Cossacks dispersed to their homes and Stenka Razin headed to the Don with 500 of his men. Realizing that they would not be welcomed by the pro-Tsar Cossackleadership, they halted on an island two days’ journey from Cherkask to build a wooden “sich.” There was widespread discontent with the oppressive and corrupt Tsarist authorities, and by the spring of 1670 Stenka Razin had raised a force of 4,000 men. The established Don Cossack leadership was also losing its authority, and when an envoy from Moscow arrived at Cherkaskto address the Cossack “krug” (assembly) he was beaten and drowned in the Don River. Stenka Razin was elected “Ataman” of the Don Army and de­clared war on the governors, the nobility, and other “enemies of the state” all the while proclaiming his loyalty to the Tsar. In reality Stenka Razin was planning a peasant-Cossack revolution such as had occurred in Ukraine. Another influence from Ukraine were the reforms of the Orthodox Church in Muscovy, which had become isolated from mainstream practice since the fall of Constantinople. To bring the Muscovite Church in line, Patriarch Nikon of Moscow introduced reforms that were seen as radical changes in the liturgy and church service, and the tra­ditional prayer books were scrapped. Even the manner in which people crossed themselves with two fingers was condemned. Many of those who refused to accept the enforced changes— the Old Believers—became persecuted with many of their monasteries known to hide escaped serfs and other refugees.

Confident of popular support, Stenka Razin began prepar­ing for the uprising. Many of the Tsar’s soldiers had not been paid, and when the money arrived they received wages in the new copper coinage instead of the usual silver currency. Feeling cheated, many joined Razin’s growing army. Contacts were es­tablished with the hetman of left-bank Ukraine, Brukhovetsky, until he was killed by his Cossacks, and pledges of support ar­rived from the non-Slavic tribes of the region—Mordvins, Kalmicks, Chuvash, Bashkirs, and the Tatars of Kazan and As­trakhan.

In the spring of 1670, Stenka Razin’s Cossack-peasant force moved up the Don River toward the Volga and surrounded Tsaritsin which was blocking the northern advance. Razin’s fame and fairness had spread throughout southern Muscovy and on 13 April the garrison and citizens of the city opened the gates to the rebels. All were spared except Turgenev the gover­nor, who was drowned in the Volga. Tsaritsin provided Razin’s little army with much needed weapons and ammunition as well as new recruits, and when a force of 800 troops was sent from Kazan it was ambushed several miles from the city and defeated, with the survivors also joining the rebels. Marching towards Kamishin the new recruits, still wearing their uniforms, were admitted inside the walls and as night fell the gates were opened and Stenka Razin’s men poured in and soon were masters of the stronghold. Next, ChornyYarwas captured using a similar ruse. By now the authorities were alarmed and Prince Lvovwas sent at the head of 4,000 men to destroy the rebels, but to no avail since the troops turned on their own officers and went over to Stenka Razin, with the prince barely escaping with his own men.

By late June the rebels were within sight of the great stronghold ofAstrakhan, defended by 12,000 men and 500 cannons, greatly outnumbering Stenka Razin’s artillery and men. The rebels, however, had support inside the stronghold, which was surrounded and cut off from any relief. In the middle of the night Razin’s hand-picked men scaled the south walls with the defenders being lured to the north side of the fortress by diversionary action. The south gate was opened with the help of supporters and Stenka Razin’s men poured in. Most of Governor Prozorovsky s men joined Razin, but the governor’s bodyguard fought to the last man, and found hiding in the Cathedral, the governor met his death by being hurled from the bell tower. Thirty-four of his functionaries were executed, at times with torture, but officials who were known to be honest and officers who treated their men well were released. All jails were opened, criminal and taxation records burned, and pos­sessions of the rich, the Church, and of the government were expropriated and shared amongst the poor, with soldiers re­ceiving two months of back pay which the corrupt governor had kept for himself. Stenka Razin refused much of the wealth, declaring that he was not seeking power. As recorded by John Struys, the Dutch sail-master of the battleship Orel who wit­nessed the capture ofAstrakhan: “[Stenka Razins] purpose was not to rule as Lord and Sovereign but to live with them as a brother, to avenge that tyranny and oppressions which they had for so many years, and their progenitors for so many ages past, suffered against all "Reason and the Laws of nature.’”¹⁵

They would still serve a tsar but Alexei was to be deposed. Bolotnikovs uprising during the Times of Trouble was still fresh in people’s minds and Stenka Razin decided to introduce “the real Tsar,” as well as Patriarch Nikon. A 12-year-old boy was found who claimed to be Tsarevich Simeon, one of Tsar Alexei’s sons who had died in June 1669, and Patriarch Nikon had been in a Moscow jail for the past four years, but Razin’s ruse gained wide acceptance amongst the peasantry and Cos­sacks. InJuly 1670, leaving men behind to guard Astrakhan, Stenka Razin began to sail up the Volga River on his planned advance on Moscow, with 8,000 infantry on 200 boats and sev­eral thousand cavalry keeping pace along the river bank. His brother Frolka and Ataman Gavrilovwere sent to the Cossack Don settlements for recruits, and Colonel Dzhikovsky arrived with a force of left bank Ukrainian Cossacks. Everywhere the rebels went they were welcomed with open arms. The uprising had become a revolution in the name of Orthodox Christianity, all the saints, the Mother of God, and Tsar Simeon: “to put to death all the Boyars, Nobles, Senators, and other great ones... as enemies and traitors of their country.”¹⁶ As the uprising grew Saratov fell without a fight, the Province of Voronezh was in­vaded, and by the end of summer the whole region between Ukraine, Belarus, and the Volga was in the rebels’ hands. The Cossacks ofUkraine and Zaporozhia, however, remained loyal to Tsar Alexei and refused to join the revolutionary uprising. Had they done so, there is little doubt that tsarism would have been toppled.

By September the peasant-Cossack army had reached Sim­birsk, a strategic fortified town some 400 miles east of Moscow. The town gates were again flung open by the burghers; but this time the military garrison under the command of Governor Miloslavsky refused to surrender and sought refuge in the citadel. Bombarded by the town’s artillery the defenders hung on, beating back four major assaults. The month-long siege gave the government time to raise a fresh force commanded by for­eign officers and equipped with a large battery of field artillery. The freshly assembled army under Prince Bariatinsky sailed from Kazan down the Volga River, and disembarking on the flat landscape outside of Simbirsk formed ranks to await the peasant-Cossack attack. As the two forces faced each other and seeing the Muscovite regiments outnumbered, Stenka Razin ordered his men to charge. As they approached in a disorga­nized, screaming mob they were met with concealed artillery followed by heavy volleys of musket fire which mowed down hundreds of peasants, few armed with firepower. Stenka Razin’s men managed to break the front ranks of the troops as hand- to-hand fighting broke out all along the line. Taking advantage of Bariatinsky’s lack of strong cavalry units, the Cossacks who were on the wings attempted to outflank and surround the enemy. In the thick of the fighting Stenka Razin suffered a saber slash, a bullet struck his leg, and the ataman fell from his horse—the unthinkable happened, the ataman was not immune to bullet and sword! Seeing him fall from his mount the undis­ciplined peasants began to break and then run as Stenka Razin was falling into enemy hands. A troop of Cossacks broke through in a wedge formation and, picking up Stenka Razin, galloped off with the retreating Cossacks and the panicked peas­ants.

Arriving in Simbirsk and ignoring his wounds, Stenka Razin rallied the men who were left to attempt to defend the camp, which was just outside the Kazan gate. Realizing resist­ance would be futile against the Muscovite artillery and the men still defending the citadel, the Cossacks set fire to their camp and disappeared into the night towards the Volga where their boats were hidden and still intact. Another rebel force had also been defeated at Arzamas and the cause seemed lost, but it was another year until the government gained the upper hand. Prince Dolgoruki, who had joined Bariatinskywith a large army, was appointed in charge of the “pacification,” which was launched with an unequaled brutality and cruelty, to not only avenge his brother’s death and those of the hundreds of landowning no­bility and officials but especially to subdue the population. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children were mutilated and executed without trial, with leaders selected for special treat­ment such as the female Ataman Alena who led a band of several thousand insurgents. Astrakhan, which was surrounded by land and sea, still held out until it was promised amnesty, and safe passage guaranteed for the defenders if they laid down their arms. The sworn pledge was not honored and all rebels (against whom sanctions had been placed by the Orthodox Church) were slaughtered in a cowardly manner.

Stenka Razin had survived his wounds, and arriving on the upper Don Riverwith a small detachment of loyal men soon found that he had lost his support even though his godfather Yakovlev had been elected head ataman of the Don Army. He and his brother Frolka also learned that they were excommu­nicated by the Church for which they had only disdain. Unlike Ukraine, the Don Cossacks were entirely dependent on Moscow for supplies including lead and gunpowder; and besides they were too few without peasant or other Cossack support to oppose Dolgorukis army. In April 1671 Ataman Yakovlev received a direct order from TsarAlexei to apprehend Stenka Razin and his brother Frolka, and in June, dressed in rags, they were brought to Moscow, with Stenka Razin sitting in a peasant cart while Frolka walked behind tethered by the neck like a dog. Thousands of Moscow s poor, which had lined the roadside by the thousands, cheered as the cart went by to let the Cossackbrothers know they were still considered as the people s leaders. Stenka and Frolka Razin were offered a quick death if they swore allegiance to TsarAlexei, which they refused. They were subjected to torture, until on the third day Frolka broke down and accepted the quick death. Stenka Razin con­tinued to refuse to swear, and on 6 June 1671 he was taken before the Kremlin to the Beautiful (“Red”) Square, where he was quartered while still alive and his body parts hung in the four corners of the city.¹⁷ An anathema was placed on him by the Church, records of his existence (including his birth) were destroyed, and the name “Razin” was banned. Nameless he would nevertheless enter into Don Cossack and popular ballads and legend. He would not be the last.