As their flocks and herds multiphed upon the generous pasturage there grew up in the former "Tartar desert" a characteristic light-hearted civilization peculiar to the steppes. In the Little Russians of the present day we may still trace the manners and customs of this Free Cossack ancestry. Moreover as their ability to resist the encroaching: tjTanny of the Russian hoyars increased, the Free! Cossacks sought an early opportunity to renew rey lations with their European kinsmen. A common < danger and their mutual hatred of the Turks and I Tartars were forces tending to unite them with theirl Christian kindred the Russians and Poles. But in Poland the feudal land holders could find no place in their aristocratic state for freemen not of the noble classes, while in Russia the condition of the moujiki warned the Cossacks against the dangers of a too binding alliance with the Tsar.
In order to secure the military aid of the Cossacks, the Polish kings were forced to allow them
* A similar custom is noted by the Englishman Clarke in his Travels in the Ukraine in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
to establish lists or "Registers" of "Free Soldiers" to whom claim of serfage was relinquished by the feudal lords. These latter, however, always claimed possession of the lands occupied by the Cossacks and their right to liberty as a caste was never recognized. This, as we shall later see, was the cause of j the great uprising ending in the separation of the J Cossack Ukraine from the Polish crown.
In spite of these differences, however, the eastern
I Cossack steppes began, soon after the downfall of
\ the Tartars, to be considered the defensive frontiers iof both Poland and the Muscovite empire. The
Cossack warriors of the Polish Ukraine, though n clinging tenaciously to their liberties and denying
>*> any right on the part of an alien government to
I claim their services, often entered the feudal milijtary companies of the Polish nobles as volunteers or paid men-at-arms, while farther to the eastward,
their kindred entered the service of the Tsar.
The last stronghold of the Tartars in Russia — Kazan — was captured by Ivan the Terrible after a long siege ending October 2, 1551. We find in the list of troops taking part in these operations the presence noted of a large contingent of Cossacks: "Cossacks of the town and Cossacks of the country." These together with the newly-formed Russian streltzi or regular troops took a prominent part in the assault. From 1553 to 1555 Ivan coml. pleted his conquests along the whole course of the ^» [ Volga, finally capturing Astrakhan near the shores
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ji C
F THE "FREE PEOPLE" 17
of the Caspian. Their admiration for the Tsar's 1 exploits against the common enemy, and perhaps a ' wholesome realization of the fact that his armies f^^^ now controlled an easy base of approach to the strongholds of their "republic," led the Cossacks- 0 r inhabiting the shores of the Don to place themselves mider his protection. The Cossacks of the Dnieper remained, however, in the pay of Poland/ Thus occurred the first great separation in the / loose confederation of the "Free Companions of \/ the Steppes."* '
After the more or less voluntary submission of the "Free Cossacks of the Don" the Russian Tsars soon began to make use of their matchless skill in frontier warfare. An arrangement mutually favorable was now perfected and the j Cossacks became the basis of a system of de-) fensive mihtia poHcing the steppes against the / Crimean Tartars. Although the Muscovite ' peasants were brave and (above all) docile foot soldiers, their usefulness as cavalry was limited. Previous to the time when Cossacks were enrolled for this purpose, it had been found necessary — in order to defend the open frontiers of Musco\y — to mobilize every year a force of about 65,000 men. Owing to the fact that the rendezvous chosen laj'' on the banks of the river Oka, this was called the annual "banks service." In the early days this duty had been performed by the feudal le\'ies of the
* Rambaud, op. cit., page 223.
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