In order to give immediate proof of their zeal for the Russian alliance, thus irretrievably renewed, a raid was forthwith imdertaken upon the ill-starred provinces of the Polish frontier. The indiscriminate massacre which ensued warned the Russians of the dangers of allowing too much liberty to the Zaporogians. The government took measures to restrict in many ways the famous "liberties" of the sitch. Thus the "Free Companions" were forced for the first time to accept the control of a Russian officer stationed in their midst, while a council made up of three Russians and three Cossacks was placed in command of the territories assigned to them in the Ukraine.
It will readily appear from the preceding paragraphs that the old characteristics of the sitch — a border garrison drawn from the Cossack frontier settlements of the Ukraine as a protection against the raids of Tartars — had by this time wholly disappeared. The Zaporogians had become in the course of time little more than an organized band of border ruffians, anxious only to sell their services to the best advantage. Their conduct during the years of their association with the Porte had moreover estranged them from their old neighbours. It is even doubtful whether the true "Cossacks" in their ranks represented any element but the offscourings and incorrigibles of the Ukrainian Cossack villages and farmsteads.
The last occasion on which the Zaporogians were regularly employed as auxiliaries by the Russian government was in the war which broke out between Russia and the Porte. The open violation of the Treaty of Pruthby Peter's successors, the Empresses Elizabeth and Ann, left no other course open to the Sultan but war. In the famous campaigns which ensued, planned by General Miinnich, the Turkish provinces of the Black Sea and the territories of the Khan of the Crimea were overrun and devastated. Nearly eight thousand Zaporogians shared the difficulties and the privations of the expedition, and their knowledge of the peculiar tactics of desert warfare made them of great service.
At the siege of Ochakov, an operation carried on by land and sea, the Zaporogians constructed a fleet of their famous long boats and in these fragile craft boldly attacked the Turkish fleet. As at the siege of Azov, the disconcerting movements of this light flotilla succeeded in inflicting hea\y damage upon the galleons of the enemy. The characteristic reward received for these actions is set down by Lesur in the following terms:
"Letters patent of 'satisfaction'; a great standard embroidered with the arms of Russia; a horsetail Cossack standard enriched with gold; an enamelled bundchuk or a mace for the hoshevoy, and several millions of roubles as a gratification for the 'Free Companions.' At the same time Ann is reported to have caused herself to be inscribed as a member of the sitch — a strange distinction, indeed, for this womanless community."
However, by thus aiding in the destruction of their traditional foes, the Tartars of the Crimea, the Zaporogians had at the same time removed the principal reason for which their unruly garrison had so long been tolerated. The passing of frontier conditions along the borders of the Ukraine inevitably led to the disappearance of the Zaporogian sitch, the classic stronghold of Cossack liberties and traditions.
In 1768, in a last burst of "Zaporogian fury," the garrison of the sitch had fallen upon the hapless frontiers of the Polish Ukraine. "All who were not of the Greek religion, including old men.
women, children, nobles, servants, monks, labourers, artisans, Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, were massacred without distinction. The entire province presented the appearance of a city taken by assault." (Lesur.)
The lust for plunder, masquerading under the excuse that their co-religionists were persecuted by the Poles, was the cause of this outrage. Such barbarity sent a thrill of horror through all the civilized courts of Europe. So great was the indignation that the Empress Catherine hastened formally to disclaim all responsibility for the behaviour of her Zaporogian subjects. Russian regular troops were sent to surround the isolated bands returning to the sitchj and besides depriving them of their loot, forced the majority of the best troops to enroll in the sternly disciplined Cossack slovodni regiments of the Ukraine. Only the outbreak of another Turkish war saved the sitch from further reprisals. A sudden attack by Turks and Tartars on the new frontier provinces, coinciding with the strange revolt of the wild Cossacks of the Asiatic frontier under Pougatchev — "the false Peter the Third" — deferred this righteous execution.