Free Cossacks () were
Ukrainian Cossacks that were organized as volunteer militia units in the spring of 1917 in the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, as a result of the February Revolution, ...
. The Free Cossacks are seen as precursors of the modern Ukrainian national law enforcement organizations such as the
National Guard of Ukraine
The National Guard of Ukraine (NGU; , ; /NHU ) is the Ukrainian national gendarmerie and internal military force. It is part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for public security. Originally created as an agency under the dire ...
or the
Internal Troops of Ukraine.
The primary purpose of those militia formations was to provide security and civil order for the local population. The consolidation process of various smaller units started sometime in April near the town of
Zvenyhorodka,
Kiev Governorate
Kiev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire (1796–1917), Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–18; 1918–1921), Ukrainian State (1918), and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–19 ...
during the local assembly of the Free Cossacks which created the Zvenyhorodka Kosh (battalion). The assembly elected
Semen Hryzlo the
Kosh Otaman, who became the otaman of
Kalnyboloto kurin (company). Under this title, he was delegated to the
2nd All-Ukrainian Military Congress in Kiev in June 1917.
Hryzlo was also one of the organizers of the 1st All-Ukrainian Congress of the Free Cossacks that took place on October 3, 1917, in the former Cossack capital of
Chyhyryn. The congress elected the Hetman of All Ukraine, who became General
Pavlo Skoropadskyi
Pavlo Petrovych Skoropadskyi (; – 26 April 1945) was a Ukrainian aristocrat, military and state leader, who served as the Hetman of all Ukraine, hetman of the Ukrainian State throughout 1918 following a 1918 Ukrainian coup d'état, coup d'éta ...
. Hryzlo was elected as the General
Yesaul.
The Free Cossacks units distinguished themselves during the
Ukrainian–Soviet War (particularly from December 1917 to April 1918) and were disbanded around May and June 1918. In January-April 1918 the Ukrainian government tried to create the Free Registered Cossack Troops for county security, but after the April coup-d'etat led by
Pavlo Skoropadsky all Free Cossacks formations were officially dissolved.
See also
*
Red Cossacks
*
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
*
Ukraine after the Russian Revolution
*
Ukrainian–Soviet War
*
Registered Cossacks
Registered Cossacks (, ) 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 beginning in 1572 soon after the ...
References
Further reading
*Kozub, I.
An age and a destiny: memoirs'. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, TAKSON Publishing House. Kyiv-Toronto-Edmonton, 1996.
External links
at the
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
The ''Encyclopedia of Ukraine'' (), published from 1984 to 2001, is a fundamental work of Ukrainian Studies.
Development
The work was created under the auspices of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Europe (Sarcelles, near Paris). As the ...
Free Cossacks (ВІЛЬНЕ КОЗАЦТВО) Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine.
History of the Cossacks in Ukraine
Military history of Ukraine
Military units and formations of Ukraine
Military units and formations established in 1917
Counterinsurgency
Gendarmerie
Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian–Soviet War
Disbanded units and formations of Ukraine
{{Ukraine-hist-stub