Zaporizhzhia (region)

Zaporizhia (Ukrainian: Запоріжжя, Zaporizhzhia; Polish: Zaporoże or Dzikie Pola (Wild Fields), Russian: Запоро́жье, Zaporozhye) is a historical region of Ukraine. It is situated about the Dnieper River, below the Dnieper rapids, hence the name, translated as "territory beyond the rapids". During the 16th to 18th centuries it was an independent Cossack territory with the centre at Zaporizhian Sich.

It corresponds to modern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, major parts of Zaporizhia and Kirovohrad Oblasts, as well as parts of Kherson and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine.

History

Zaporizhzhia was the name of the territory of the Cossack state, the Zaporozhian Host, whose fortified capital was the Zaporizhian Sich. From 15th century to late 17th century it has been fought over by Muscovy, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman Empire.

After the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav, the state became a suzerainty of Muscovy, and was split in two. The Cossack Hetmanate of Left-bank Ukraine had its capital at Chyhyryn, and later at Baturyn and Hlukhiv.

The more independent Army of Lower Zaporozhia was centered at the Old Sich (Stara Sich). In 1709, Tsar Peter I ordered the destruction of the Old Sich, forcing the Zaporozhian Cossacks to flee to Oleshky, on the Black Sea in Ottoman territory. In 1734, the Russians allowed the Cossacks to re-establish their republic as the Free Lands of the Zaporozhian Host, based at the New Sich (Nova Sich), but brought in many foreign settlers, and destroyed the Sich for good in 1775, incorporating the territory into New Russia.

See also

• Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth#Voivodships_of_Lesser_Poland