The Cossack Hetmanate: The History and Legacy of the Cossacks and Their Autonomous Republic in the Ukraine

De: Charles River Editors

Narrado por: David Pickering

Duración: 52 m

Resumen del Editor

“Had I just 10,000 Cossacks, I would have conquered the whole world.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)

The history of Ukraine is a fascinating story of how cultures, political systems, religions, and power have met, intersected, morphed, and expanded. The region was relatively sparsely populated for much of ancient history, a wilderness of rivers, forests, and steppes, but that does not detract from the rich historical development of the region. A huge area, Ukraine is wedged between the continents of Asia and Europe, and its position as a crossroads ensured there was fierce competition for influence there. Historians have called the formation of Ukraine the “establishment of a unity among three zones...the ports of Crimea and the coast, the rich steppe heartland, and the forests”, based around the themes of “geography, ecology and culture”.

Today’s Ukraine is a huge country, incorporating an area over 600,000 square kilometers and home to 42 million people. It stretches from the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea in the south to Belarus in the north, Russia to the east, and Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west. The Dnieper River is the region’s key waterway, running into the Black Sea, while the Danube Delta also forms its border with modern-day Romania to the southwest. A steppe exists in the middle of the country while the Carpathian Mountains feature in the west. This geographical formation has influenced some of the country’s key historical developments, as well as the location of its major settlements. Kiev (known today as Kyiv) is, of course, the longstanding capital of the country, located on the Dnieper River in the central northern part of modern Ukraine. Lviv is another large city, located in the northwest near the border with Poland. Odessa is a seaside city on the Black Sea in Ukraine’s southwest, while Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk are major cities in the country’s east, close to the Russian border.

After various cultures helped develop the region, the legendary Cossacks arrived during the early modern period and dominated the region for several centuries, forming an independent republic that helped forge Ukrainian identity to this day. The modern myth of the Cossack presents striking images of a stern warrior mounted on horseback, with a long woolen coat, papakha (distinctive tall fur cap ) and fur-lined cloak, with bandoliers holding large-caliber bullets crisscrossing his chest. The warrior is armed with a mixture of rifle, lance, daggers and pistols, but he always has his signature weapons: The shashka (a single-edged, guard-less, slightly curved saber originally designed by the Circassian foes) and the nagyka (short, thick whip of braided leather with a heavy weight worked into the end originally designed for fighting off wolves but more commonly used in later years against enemies of the state in the streets of Moscow or Odessa). As enemies conjured up the Cossack as semi-tamed steppe barbarian, a dog of the state, and the fist of the Czar, it’s no surprise they were terrified.

Even as the origins of these ferocious fighters remain murky and obscure, the Cossacks have continued their growing international appearance with the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2014. The conflict over the Crimea and the southeastern Donbass region has had thoroughly Cossack overtones; on the one hand, the Ukrainian Nationalists view themselves as the descendants of the freedom minded Cossack Republics and on the other hand, Russia has leaned heavily upon Cossack "volunteers" to staff its informal militias in the Donbass and to seize and police Crimea ."

©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors

Informative but lacking

I didn’t expect a lot of detail from a quick listen, but it actually had a good amount. The ending seemed abrupt and lacking.

Very broad, not fully accurate

If you want a general overview of Cossack history with a lot of generalizations and some inaccuracies, then this book fulfills the narrative. If you are still interested in the topic then I would suggest you go to some other sources that focus more on the various hetmatets and go into more of the details and differences between them. This book hints at some of these and then seems to combine the groups together posing an inaccurate portrayal. Also, the author makes it seem that the Ukrainian Cossacks became subjects of Muscovy, especially after 1654. This is not correct if the actual text of the treaty is read, BTW: Russia is also an incorrect term to use for a part of this narrative as it wasn't until Peter the Great that the name changed.

Good book, but not the full version

Unfortunately this audio only narrates part of the text written by Charles Rivers Editors. I know this because I was reading along with the text available on Kindle Unlimited.

Not Objective and Factually Incorrect

This piece is written with a clear Russian bias and a complete misunderstanding of Ukrainian history and culture and the roles Cossacks played within it. The fact that the author would even rely upon the words of a “Leader” of the the “ breakaway Ukrainian republic of Luhansk” clearly shows the author’s ignorance or blatant dishonesty towards the situation in Ukraine. This is a prime example of of an arrogant outsider view of Ukrainian history and culture. Perhaps the author author should stick to subjects he in which he has an actual authoritative knowledge. A complete waste of a book credit. I have no complaints towards the narrator.