Kodak fortress ( uk, Кодак; pl, Kudak) was a fort built in 1635 by the order of the Polish king

Władysław IV Vasa Władysław IV Vasa; lt, Vladislovas Vaza; sv, Vladislav IV av Polen; rus, Владислав IV Ваза, r=Vladislav IV Vaza; la, Ladislaus IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV of Poland (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of ...

and the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

near what would become the town of Stari Kodaky (now near the city of

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

). In 1711, according to the Treaty of the Pruth the fortress was destroyed by the

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

History

It was constructed by

Stanisław Koniecpolski Stanisław Koniecpolski (1591 – 11 March 1646) was a Polish military commander, regarded as one of the most talented and capable in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was also a magnate, a royal official (''starosta''), ...

to control

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

s of the

Zaporizhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich ( ua, Запорозька Січ, ; also uk, Вольностi Вiйська Запорозького Низового, ; Free lands of the Zaporozhian Host the Lower) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of C ...

, to prevent

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

peasants A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

from joining forces with the Cossacks and to guard the southeastern corner of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

. The Poles tried to establish order in that area, and commissioned

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

military cartographer and engineer William le Vasseur de Beauplan to construct the fort. The building cost around 100,000 Polish zlotys. The annual maintenance of eight thousand

registered Cossacks Registered Cossacks (, , pl, Kozacy rejestrowi) comprised special Cossack units of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army in the 16th and 17th centuries. Registered Cossacks became a military formation of the Commonwealth army beginnin ...

also cost about 100,000 Polish zlotys. The

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

garrison was commanded by the French officer

Jean de Marion Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jea ...

. Shortly after construction was completed in July 1635, in the

Sulima Uprising The Sulyma uprising ( pl, Powstanie Sulimy, uk, Повстання Сулими, ''Povstannia Sulymy'') was a Cossack rebellion headed by Ivan Sulyma (Iwan Sulima) against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1635. The rebels succeeded in tak ...

, the Cossack forces of

Ivan Sulima Ivan Sulyma ( pl, Iwan Sulima, uk, Іван Михайлович Сулима – ''Ivan Mykhailovych Sulyma'') was a Senior of Registered Cossacks in 1628–29 and a Kosh Otaman in 1630–35. Life and death Son of Mykhailo Sulyma, Ivan came fr ...

captured the fortress in a surprise attack on the night of 11/12 August 1635. The Cossacks killed the entire German mercenary garrison (numbering 200 men, 15 Germans on duty outside the fortress survived) and demolished the fortress. Legend has it that Jean Marion was covered with gunpowder, put on a pole and set on fire, and that the subsequent explosion threw him into the Dnieper. The

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in ...

hired the German engineer

Friedrich Getkant Fryderyk Getkant or Frederick Getkant (german: Friedrich Getkant, link=no, la, Fridericus Getkant, link=no, lt, Frydrichas (Bridžius) Gedkantas, link=no) (1600–1666) was a Prussian military engineer of Lithuanian descent, artillery lieutenant ...

and rebuilt Kodak, three times larger, in 1639. The fortress contained a Catholic church with a monastery and an Orthodox church. Its garrison increased to 600, with artillery support. About two miles outside of the fortress was erected a huge guard tower.

Jan Zoltowski Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

became governor of the fortress, while

Adam Koniecpolski Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of ...

of Stanisław) became

commandant Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...

. During the

Khmelnytsky Uprising The Khmelnytsky Uprising,; in Ukraine known as Khmelʹnychchyna or uk, повстання Богдана Хмельницького; lt, Chmelnickio sukilimas; Belarusian: Паўстанне Багдана Хмяльніцкага; russian: � ...

of 1648, Krzysztof Lada-Grodzicki commanded the fortress. It surrendered to the Cossacks on 1 October 1648, after a 7-month siege, upon hearing the news of Polish defeat at the

Battle of Pyliavtsi Battle of Pyliavtsi ( uk, Пилявцi; pl, Piławce); 23 September 1648) was the third significant battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day village of Pyliava, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Poland ...

on 24 September 1648. Rank and file defenders were massacred or drowned in the river after they had left Kodak upon capitulation. The Cossacks sold the Kodak commander and some other officers to the Tatars as slaves.Maryan Dubiecki, '' Kudak: twierdza kresowa i jej okolice'', Warszawa, Gebethner i Wolff, 1900, pp. 151-152. After the

Treaty of Pereyaslav The Pereiaslav AgreementPereyaslav Agreement

in 1654, Kodak fortress was manned by the Cossacks.

Peter I of Russia Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from ...

razed it in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of the Pruth with the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

in 1711. The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

government attempted to destroy the remnants of fortress in order to eradicate traces of Polish influence on Ukraine by establishing a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

on the site in the early

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry an ...

. The quarry closed in 1994, but by then two thirds of fortress was completely destroyed. One wall remained from the fortifications. the site consists only of ruins, but has become a popular tourist attraction.

Gallery

File:Kodak Fortifications.jpg, Old fortifications at the site of Kodak Fortress File:Kodak Memorial.jpg, A memorial on the site of Kodak Fortress in honor of the capture of Kodak Fortress by

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossack Army, Zaporozhian Host, (, or uk, Військо Запорізьке, translit=Viisko Zaporizke, translit-std=ungegn, label=none) or simply Zaporozhians ( uk, Запорожці, translit=Zaporoz ...

under the leadership of

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytskyi ( Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern ua, Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький; 6 August 1657) was a Ukrainian military commander and ...

. The memorial was erected on the remains of fortifications on the initiative of historian Dmytro Yavornytsky in 1910. The monument states that the Polish garrison capitulated on 24 April 1648, when in reality it did so on 1 October 1648. File:Old Cemetery.jpg, Old cemetery in the village of Stari Kodaky, near the site of Kodak Fortress. The River Dnieper is in the background.

References

Bibliography

* Czołowski A., ''Kudak''. Przyczynki do założenia i upadku twierdzy. (Notes to the establishment and destruction of the fortress) "Kwartalnik Historyczny" (Historical Quarterly) R. 40:1926, pp 161–184

External links

* http://www.fortified-places.com/kudak/
Historical overview
{{Castles in Ukraine Buildings and structures completed in 1635 Castles in Ukraine Forts in Ukraine Buildings and structures demolished in 1711 Tourist attractions in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 1635 establishments in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Historic sites in Ukraine Demolished buildings and structures in Ukraine