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Part of a series on
Cossacks
Cossack hosts
Azov · Black Sea · Buh · Caucasus · Danube · Don · Volga · Ural · Terek · Kuban · Orenburg · Astrakhan · Siberian · Baikal · Amur · Semirechye · Ussuri · Zaporozhia
Other groups
Danube (Sich) · Tatar Cossacks · Nekrasov · Turkey · Jewish Cossacks
History
Registered Cossacks · Kosiński Uprising · Nalyvaiko Uprising · Khmelnytsky Uprising · Hadiach Treaty · Hetmanate · Colonisation of Siberia · Bulavin Rebellion · Pugachev's Rebellion · 1st Cavalry Army · Decossackization · Betrayal · XV Cossack Cavalry Corps · 1st Cossack Division
Famous Cossacks
Kondraty Bulavin · Petro Doroshenko · Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Petro Sahaidachny · Ivan Mazepa · Yemelyan Pugachev · Stenka Razin · Ivan Sirko · Andrei Shkuro · Ivan Vyhovsky · Yermak Timofeyevich
Cossack terms
Ataman · Chupryna · Hetman · Kontusz · Papakhi · Plastun · Szabla · Shashka · Stanitsa · Yesaul
v t e

A Cossack host, or Cossack viysko (Ukrainian: Козаче військо; kozache viysko), sometimes incorrectly translated as Cossack Army, was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Imperial Russia. The word host is an archaic word for army, and also can mean "a great number; multitude".^[1]

Imperial Russia[link]

The Cossack host consisted of a certain territory with Cossack settlements that had to provide military regiments for service in the Imperial Russian Army and for border patrol. Usually the hosts were named after the regions of their dislocation. The stanitsa, or village, formed the primary unit of this organization.

Cossack voiskos on Russian soil were disbanded in 1920, at the end of the Russian Civil War. Those Cossacks who settled abroad continued to preserve the traditions of their hosts (i.e. the Triunited Don-Kuban-Terek Cossack Union).

In the Russian Empire, the Cossacks constituted eleven separate hosts, settled along the frontiers: the Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Siberian, Semiryeche, Transbaikal, Amur, and Ussuri.

There was also a small number of the Cossacks in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, who would form the Yenisey Cossack Host and Irkutsk Cossack Regiment of the Ministry of the Interior in 1917.

Other hosts[link]

Other Cossack hosts included the:

• Zaporozhian Host — the Zaporozhian Cossacks who lived in Zaporizhia, in Central Ukraine during the 16th — 18th centuries.
• Danube Cossack Host — an Imperial Russian Cossack Host formed from descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.

See also[link]

• Sloboda Ukraine
• Zaporozhian Host

References[link]

1. ^ Collins English Dictionary, 8th Edition, HarperCollins Publishers 2006.

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This Ukrainian history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Іван Дмитрович Сірко Ivan Dmytrovych Sirko
Otaman Ivan Sirko, an imaginary representation by Ilya Repin
Born	1605 (1610) Myrafa, Bracław Voivodeship
Died	August 11,[1] 1680 Hrushivka, Zaporizhian Host
Allegiance	Zaporozhian Host Left-bank Ukraine
Years of service	1648-1680
Rank	Kosh Otaman
Battles/wars	Khmelnytsky Uprising Russo-Polish War (1654-1667) The Ruin

Ivan Sirko (Ukrainian: Іван Дмитрович Сірко, c. 1610–1680) was a Cossack military leader, Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host and putative co-author of the famous semi-legendary Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks that inspired a major painting by the 19th-century artist Ilya Repin.

Biography[link]

Origin[link]

Ivan Sirko was previously believed to have been born in the stanitsa Merefa near the city of Kharkiv according to his first biography written by Dmytro Yavornytsky in 1890. Historian Yuriy Mytsyik states that this could not be the case. In his book Otaman Ivan Sirko^[2] he writes that Merefa was established only in 1658 which way after the birth of the otaman. The author also points out to the fact that Sirko later in his life did actually live in Merefa with his family in his own estate and according to some earlier local chronicles there even existed a small settlement Sirkivka. However, Mytsyik also points out that in 1658-1660 Sirko was a polkovnyk of the Kalnyk Polk (a military and administrative division of Cossack Hetmanate) in Podilia, a position that usually was awarded to the representative of a local population. The author also gives a reference to the letter of Ivan Samiylovych to kniaz G.Romodanovsky (the tsar's voyevoda) in which the hetman refers to Sirko as the one born in Polish lands instead of Sloboda Ukraine as part of Moscovy. Mytsyik also recalls that another historian Volodymyr Borysenko allowed for the possibility that Sirko was born in Murafa near the city of Sharhorod. The author explains the fact that it is possible during that time when people were fleeing the war (known as Ruin) to reestablish a similar town in Sloboda Ukraine.

Part of a series on
Cossacks
Cossack hosts
Azov · Black Sea · Buh · Caucasus · Danube · Don · Volga · Ural · Terek · Kuban · Orenburg · Astrakhan · Siberian · Baikal · Amur · Semirechye · Ussuri · Zaporozhia
Other groups
Danube (Sich) · Tatar Cossacks · Nekrasov · Turkey · Jewish Cossacks
History
Registered Cossacks · Kosiński Uprising · Nalyvaiko Uprising · Khmelnytsky Uprising · Hadiach Treaty · Hetmanate · Colonisation of Siberia · Bulavin Rebellion · Pugachev's Rebellion · 1st Cavalry Army · Decossackization · Betrayal · XV Cossack Cavalry Corps · 1st Cossack Division
Famous Cossacks
Kondraty Bulavin · Petro Doroshenko · Bohdan Khmelnytsky · Petro Sahaidachny · Ivan Mazepa · Yemelyan Pugachev · Stenka Razin · Ivan Sirko · Andrei Shkuro · Ivan Vyhovsky · Yermak Timofeyevich
Cossack terms
Ataman · Chupryna · Hetman · Kontusz · Papakhi · Plastun · Szabla · Shashka · Stanitsa · Yesaul
v t e

Further, Mytsyik in his book states that Sirko probably was not really of true cossack heritage, but rather of the Ukrainian (Ruthenian) Orthodox szlachta justifying the fact with the local Podilian nobleman Wojciech Sirko that was married to some Olena Kozynska sometime in 1592. Also in official letters the Polish administration referred to him as urodzonim, implying that he is the Polish subject. The author also states that Sirko was about 174–176 cm and had a birth mark on the lower lip, right side, which Ilya Repin failed to depict in his artwork making a prototype of the otaman from General Dragomirov. Mytsyik also recalls the letter of the Field Hetman of the Crown John III Sobieski (later, the king of Poland) where he referred to Sirko as a very quite, noble, polite, and has a great trust among Cossacks.

Career[link]

As a young man he served in Cossack regiments in France and participated in the siege of Dunkirk. He changed his political orientation several times. In 1654 he came to Zaporozhian Sich became polkovnyk (colonel) and in 1659 together with Russian prince Aleksei Trubetskoi fought against Crimean Khanate. Although Sirko opposed the alliance with Moscow during the Pereyaslav Rada after he became Koshovyi Otaman of the Zaporozhian Host in 1663 he won several battles against Poles, Tatars and hetman Petro Doroshenko in alliance with Muscovy. In 1664, he was one of the inspirators of an uprising in Right-bank Ukraine against Poland which is known from his letter to the Czar.^[3]

He was the first Cossack ataman to accept Kalmyks^[4] into his army. Despite his pro-Moscow orientation he distrusted and hated pro-Russian hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky, but at the same time married his son Roman to Briukhovetsky's daughter^[5]. In 1668 this rivalry even forced Ivan Sirko to switch sides again and briefly join Petro Doroshenko in his fight against “Muscovite boyars and Voivodes” , but in 1670 once again Sirko pledged loyalty to Russian tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Afterwards he captured Turkish stronghold Ochakiv and besieged Ismail which he failed to capture.

Following the death of Demyan Mnohohrishny in 1672 Sirko entered the struggle for the hetman title, but instead was sent by the Russian tsar to Tobolsk, Siberia. In 1673 he returned to Ukraine and once again fought against Tatars and Turk captured fortresses Arslan and Ochakiv. In 1675 Zaporozhian Cossacks defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in a major battle, however, the Sultan of Turkey Mehmed IV still demanded that the Cossacks submit to Turkish rule. The Cossacks led by Ivan Sirko replied in an uncharacteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities. After his death Ivan Sirko — one of the most popular atamans in Ukrainian history — was remembered as a legendary Cossack and became a hero of many myths, folk songs and poems.

Beheaded Otaman[link]

Sirko died at his estate Hrushivka (today - Soloniansky Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast) on August 11 (1 according to the old style Julian calendar), 1680. Next day he was buried near the Chortomlynska Sich. In 1709 the Russian Army totally destroyed the Sich and the grave of the otoman was not fixed until 1734. The Cossacks replaced the broken cross with a memorial rock that has survived to the present. The Cossacks erroneously marked that he died on May 4. In 1967 the Kakhovka Reservoir was threatening the otaman's burial site forcing him to be reburied near the village of Kapulivka, Nikopol Raion, but without his skull. The skull of Sirko was sent to the Leningrad laboratory for the plastic-archaeological reconstruction of the Ethnographic Institute of the Soviet Academy of Science. It was not until 1987 when writer Yuriy Mushketyk remembered about the beheaded Otaman and wrote a letter to the Association for Preservation of History and Culture of Ukraine. The journal Pamyatky Ukrainy (Attractions of Ukraine) responded to the call of the writer and after over 20 years with the help of anthropologist Serhiy Seheda the remains of Ivan Sirko were returned to his native land.

Legacy[link]

The otaman is widely remembered in numerous literary works of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, Andrian Kaschenko, Volodymyr Malyk, Mykola Zerov, Borys Modzalevsky, and many others.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ivan Sirko

1. ^ according to chronicler Samiylo Velychko
2. ^ Otaman Ivan Sirko by Yuriy Mytsyik
3. ^ «Исполняя с Войском Запорожским службу вашему царскому пресветлому величеству, я, Иван Серко, месяца января 8 числа, пошел на две реки, Буг и Днестр, где Божиею милостью и предстательством Пресвятой Богородицы и вашего великого государя счастьем, напав на турецкие селения выше Тягина города, побил много бусурман и великую добычу взял. Оборотясь же из-под турецкого города Тягина, пошел под черкасские города. Услыша же о моём, Ивана Серка, приходе, горожане сами начали сечь и рубить жидов и поляков, а все полки и посполитые, претерпевшие столько бед, неволю и мучения, начали сдаваться. Чрез нас, Ивана Серка, обращена вновь к вашему царскому величеству вся Малая Россия, города над Бугом и за Бугом, а именно: Брацлавский и Калницкий полки, Могилев, Рашков, Уманский повет, до самого Днепра и Днестра; безвинные люди обещались своими душами держаться под крепкою рукою вашего царского пресветлого величества до тех пор, пока души их будут в телах» // Яворницкий Д.I. Історія запорозьких козаків. Т. II, 1990, с. 262-263.
4. ^ http://incognita.day.kiev.ua/ivan-sirko-dijsnist-i-legendi.html
5. ^ http://incognita.day.kiev.ua/ivan-sirko-dijsnist-i-legendi.html

• Ivan Sirko
• biography of Serko Ivan Dmitrievich (Sirko) - in Russian.

Bibliography[link]

• Mytsyik, Yuriy. Otaman Ivan Sirko. Zaporizka Spadschyna (Zaporizhian Heritage), Ed.11. Zaporizhia: RA "Tandem-U", 1999.
• Evarnitsky, D. Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko, glavnyi koshevoi ataman zaporozhskikh nizovykh kazakov (Ivan Sirko, The Chief Kosh Otaman of Zaporizhian Cossacks). Saint-Petersburg, 1894.

Greta Van Susteren
Born	(1954-06-11) June 11, 1954 (age 58) Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S.
Education	University of Wisconsin-Madison Georgetown University Law Center
Occupation	Host of On the Record (Fox News Channel)
Years active	1991–present
Religion	Scientology
Spouse	John P. Coale
Website
Bio on FoxNews.com

Greta Van Susteren (born June 11, 1954) is an American commentator and television personality on the Fox News Channel, where she hosts On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren. A former criminal defense and civil trial lawyer, she appeared as a legal analyst on CNN co-hosting Burden of Proof with Roger Cossack from 1994 to 2002, playing defense attorney to Cossack's prosecutor.

Early life[link]

Van Susteren was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is of Dutch, French, Irish, Icelandic and German ancestry on her paternal side.^[1] Van Susteren's father, Urban Van Susteren, an elected judge, was a longtime friend of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, and a campaign strategist for him, although Urban later broke with him.^[2]

Van Susteren's sister, Lise, is a forensic psychiatrist in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2006, Lise was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.^[3] Her brother, Dirk Van Susteren, was a journalist and long-time editor of the Vermont Sunday magazine, jointly published, until folding in 2008, by the Rutland Herald and the Barre-Montpelier-Times Argus.^[4]

Career[link]

Van Susteren graduated from Xavier High School in Appleton in 1972 and the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1976, where she studied geography and economics. She later earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979 and prior to the start of her television work returned to Georgetown Law as an adjunct faculty member in addition to her full-time legal career.

During coverage of the O. J. Simpson murder trial, she appeared regularly on CNN as a legal analyst.^[5] This led to her stint as co-host of CNN's Burden of Proof and The Point.

In 2002, Van Susteren switched to the Fox News Channel after a highly publicized contract bidding war. According to People Magazine, Van Susteren has utilized cosmetic surgery to enhance her screen presentation.^[6] Since then, she has hosted the current affairs show On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren.

Personal life[link]

Van Susteren married tort lawyer John P. Coale in 1988.^[7] Coale, a self-described "ambulance chaser", became known as "Bhopal Coale" for his solicitation of clients among victims of the Bhopal disaster.^[8] He has served as an adviser for Sarah Palin.^[9]

Van Susteren and her husband are members of the Church of Scientology.^[7][10]

Since 2006, she has been part owner of a restaurant, the Old Mill Inn, in Mattituck, New York, on the North Fork of Long Island.^[11]

In recognition of her Dutch heritage she was asked to assume the role of Honorary Chairperson of the Little Chute Windmill Committee. The windmill, an authentic reproduction of a Dutch one, will be built in Little Chute, Wisconsin, where Van Susteren's family lived for some time.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Greta Van Susteren

• FOX News Bio of Greta Van Susteren
• On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren, from FOXnews.com
• Blog
• Greta Van Susteren at the Internet Movie Database