The Kiev Cossack insurrection was a mass peasant movement in the

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 ...

and

Chernihiv Governorate Chernigov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Chernigov. Its borders encompassed the m ...

in 1855 directed against the national and social policies of the Russian government in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Preconditions

The Kiev (Kyiv)

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

arose purely on social grounds, characterized by the desire to restore the Cossacks as a social state and military formation. The reason for the peasant uprisings was the proclamation of the tsar's manifesto during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, which called for the formation of a people's militia ready to go to war. Among the peasants in the Kiev region, rumors began to spread that by enlisting in the militia ("Cossacks"), they would be freed from serfdom and receive landowners' estates and property. Peasants compiled lists of "free Cossacks", refused to work as serfs or follow the orders of the local administration, and created their own elected self-government bodies ("rural communities").

Uprising

The mass peasant movement began in February 1855 in Vasylkiv County and soon covered 8 of 12 counties of

(over 500 villages), as well as Konotop County of

(including the villages of Velykyi and Malyi Sambir, Karabutove). The leaders of the Kiev Cossacks included V. Bzenko, I. and M. Bernadsky, M. Haydenko, and P. Shvaika. To suppress the "Cossacks", the Russian government sent regular troops. Bloody clashes between the peasants and the army took place in a number of villages, the largest of which were in the towns of Korsun and Tagancha (Kaniv County; now a village in the Kaniv District of

Cherkasy region Cherkasy Oblast (, ), also referred to as Cherkashchyna (, ) is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central Ukraine located along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The Capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the cit ...

) and the villages of Berezna ( Skvyra County), Bykova Hrebla ( Vasylkiv County), and Yablunivka.

References

1855 in the Russian Empire Rebellions in Ukraine Chernigov Governorate Kiev Governorate History of the Cossacks in Ukraine Cossack uprisings Russia–Ukraine military relations Vasilkovsky Uyezd Konotopsky Uezd {{Ukraine-hist-stub