FOCUS ON PHILATELY: The spirit of Kozakdom (10/03/99)

FOCUS ON PHILATELY

by Ingert Kuzych

The spirit of Kozakdom

It is one of the most famous and recognizable paintings of the 19th century, yet many people do not know the name of this colorful work of art that depicts some two dozen men joking and roaring with laughter. Even fewer are familiar with the subject that is being depicted. The work is titled "Zaporozhian Kozaks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan," and it was painted by Ilya Repin over a 12-year period (1880-1891); it currently hangs at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (Figure 1).

So, just who were these Zaporozhian Kozaks? Why were they in contact with the Turkish Sultan? And what in the world were they writing?

To answer these questions we must go back in time over 500 years to what was then a sparsely inhabited area of southeastern Europe and which today is named Ukraine. In the late 15th century this vast steppe region was where runaway serfs or slaves, as well as anyone who refused to acknowledge authority, would head to live a free life. These hearty adventurers came to call themselves Kozaks (from the Turkish "kazak," meaning free man) and it is from that term that the name "Cossack," widely used in English, is derived.

It took bold men to venture into the steppe, since this region was frequently the site of Tatar raids in search of booty and Christian captives for the slave markets. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Kozaks banded together for protection. Their greatest encampment was the almost inaccessible (and therefore easily defended) fortress of Zaporizhia (the famous Zaporozhian Sich) located on an island in the Dnipro River. The name highlights the natural riverine defenses of the site, which was located "za porohamy" (beyond the rapids).

Another category of Kozaks were those formed for the defense of towns on the steppe. The leaders of the town Kozaks and those of the Zaporozhian Kozaks frequently worked together when venturing deep into the steppes to pursue Tatars and rescue captives, or to attack the Tatars or their overlords, the Turks, in Black Sea coastal towns.

Over time, the strength and experience of these military detachments grew; their prestige and fame increased not only within their own Ukrainian society, but also throughout Europe, which during the 16th and 17th centuries was engaged in an ongoing struggle with the Ottoman Turkish onslaught.

Kozaks became known as the Turk's most feared adversary and deputations from around Europe traveled to the Zaporozhian Sich to set up alliances. As long as the offers were from Christian rulers, the Kozaks would consider the proposals. However, it was not always an easy task to convince these free spirits to come to the aid of Christendom in faraway lands. The Kozaks' elected leader, called a hetman, or his chief executive officer, a Kish otaman, would normally decide if the entire Sich would mobilize. Frequently, though, only smaller mercenary detachments, numbering in the hundreds or a few thousand, would venture abroad. The remainder would stay behind to guard Kozak territories.

In 1679, the Ottoman Sultan Mohamet IV conceitedly sent a letter to the Kozaks demanding that they desist in their retributory attacks on Turkish settlements and surrender to him. In the letter the sultan called himself "a brother of the sun and the moon, a grandson and vice-regent of God, a master of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Greater and Lesser Egypt, king of kings, lord of lords, an exceptional and invincible knight" and so forth.

Kish Otaman Ivan Sirko was very familiar with the Turks and their Crimean Tatar allies. In one campaign into the Crimean peninsula, he and the Zaporozhians had managed to free some 6,000 captives. Sirko had a letter drafted to answer the sultan's haughty message, and it is the writing of this response that Ilya Repin depicts in his painting.

The artist imagined a group of Kozak with Sirko in their midst randomly gathered around a plain wooden table shouting and laughing as they dictate an appropriate reply. And what a response it turned out to be:

"You, Turkish shaitan [satan], cursed devil's brother, companion and secretary of Lucifer himself; like hell you are a knight! Satan voids and your army devours. Never will you be able to subjugate the sons of Christ! We have no dread of your army and intend to fight you by land and sea. A Babylonian cook you are, a Macedonian wheelwright, a Jerusalem brewer, a goat-thrasher of Alexandria, a swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, an Armenian pig, a Tatar goat. You, butcher of Kamianets and villain of Podillia [alluding to the forays by the Turks and Tatars into the Podillia region of Ukraine for captives], grandson of the devil and bafoon of the whole world and nether world ... This is how the Kozaks have answered you, the basest born of runts! Unfit are you to lord it over true Christians! The date is unknown for the lack of a calendar, the moon [month] is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day here is the same as there and you can kiss us you know where. [signed] Kozak Kish Otaman Ivan Sirko and all the Zaporozhian Army."

Since Ukraine lost its independence after World War I and was absorbed into the USSR (1923-1991), Soviet authorities had no qualms about depicting a page from Ukrainian history on their postal issues. The painting of the Kozak response was reproduced on stamps of the Soviet Union on three different occasions. The first was for the birth centennial of Ilya Repin in 1944. A set of five stamps was prepared, three of which show the letter-writing scene: in green (50 kopeks), blue (60 kopeks), and violet (2 rubles), see Figure 2. In 1956, a full-color representation appeared on a 1 ruble stamp (Figure 1). Thirteen years later, a detail of the rendering (a close up of the scribe and the figures nearest to him) was used on the high value (16 kopeks) of a five-stamp set honoring Repin on his 125th birthday (Figure 3).

Now that Ukraine is once more independent and issuing its own stamps, it may not be long before this renowned painting, which so graphically captures the Kozak spirit and heritage, once more graces a postal issue.

Another version of the same event

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