During their heyday, Ukrainian Cossacks formed a distinct social layer which was so influential that it still echoes through the ages. Before the Zaporizhzhian Cossack Host was forbidden by Russian Empress Catherine II's notorious order (1775), serving within the Cossack ranks was a mark of great prestige, and Ukrainians still celebrate their legacy today. Among the many reasons Ukrainians take pride in the Cossacks are their descendants. Let's explore some of the most famous ones.
Illya Repin is one of the world's best-known painters. His masterpiece Reply of the Zaporizhian Cossacks became one of his most recognizable paintings, and he was himself in fact of Cossack blood.
On his father's side, Illya Repin descends from a long lineage with his surname. The name Repin was first documented in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv Oblast, in the second half of the 18th century. His grandfather, Vasyliy Repin, was a non-service Cossack, which meant that his duties were not of military character but rather provisionary. Some sources state he was a merchant.
On his mother's side, he is connected to an even older family, the Bocharovs, who resided in Chuhuiv before the Repin family arrived. Stepan Bocharov served in the Chuhuiv Cossack Regiment as a common soldier.
Both surnames are linked to Ukrainian Cossack aliases Ripa and Bochar, as Cossacks gave them to each other to highlight something the person once became known for or associated with.
Danylo Mordovets is one of Ukraine's most prolific and underrated authors. Although he was born in the lands of the Don Cossacks, which are Russian rather than Ukrainian, his ancestors were from a very old Ukrainian Cossack family
, and many Ukrainians were known to inhabit those lands. Thus, Danylo spoke and wrote Ukrainian fluently.
Whether due to his roots or simply his interest, he is known for creating several historical novels about Ukrainian hetmans, such as Sahaydachnyi and Hetman Mazepa.
"Danilovka [where Danylo Mordovets was born and spent his childhood] was a place with a predominantly Ukrainian population, and elements of Ukrainian culture, Cossack traditions and songs became native to the writer for the rest of his life," wrote biographers Panov Sergei and Ranchyn Andrei.
Speaking of Hetman Mazepa, Danylo's great-grandfather was so close to the legendary Ukrainian leader that he was entrusted with his army's secret documents. Unfortunately, according to Danylo's older brother Andrii, the archive later had to be burned so that it would not 'put the family in danger.'
Danylo's grandfather was a Cossack, serving as a sotnyk (an official responsible for leading a military-administrative territorial unit known as a hundred), a position that required him to be learned and well-read. He was indeed well-educated and had a passion for collecting ancient books.
Olena Pchilka is one of the most famous women of Ukraine's intellectual tradition. She was an author, scholar, public activist, one of the nation's first feminists, and mother of six, including Ukraine's most known female poet, Lesya Ukrainka. Olena was from the storied Drahomanov family, whose prominence dates to the very beginning of Cossack statehood.
The story of Drahomanovs is well researched as it played an important role in Ukrainian cultural life. The family's surname was originally Drahoman, a word which came from the Arabic term for a translator or an ambassador. This word was used in the Cossack army's official language.
According to the family's lore, the first Drahoman, who was of Greek origin, came to Ukraine in the 17th century. He served in the Cossack army under Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. However, the family archive's documents begin with Stefan Drahoman, who was the head of the city of Pereyaslav from 1756 to 1763. He was indeed a Greek, but he came to Ukraine a century later.
His son, Yakym, was a Cossack military treasurer, while Olena's mother was from the Tsyatska Cossack family.
Ukrainian scholar Halyna Stasyuk argues that the family's prestigious legacy was a powerful motivator for its descendants' achievements, referring to this phenomenon as the 'ancestors syndrome'.
Mykola Hohol is definitely Ukraine's most mysterious author and one of the greatest popularizers of Ukrainian folklore. It is no surprise that he felt his roots this deeply, as his grandfather, Opanas Hohol-Yanovskyi, was among the creators of Ukrainian Cossack history.
Since 1757, Opanas has served as a translator in the General Military Office of the Ukrainian Hetmanate. Occupying such a high position, he was educated and was fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and likely Polish.
According to available evidence, Mykola did not share his grandfather's skill with languages. However, it was Mykola that would truly write his family's name into history.
Opanas was known not only for his intelligence, but also as an accomplished warrior, who proved himself in battle during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774. In 1782, after the dissolution of the Cossack Hetmanate, he took the post of a regimental clerk and headed the office of the Myrhorod Regiment.
Myrhorod, a city in Poltava Oblast, was greatly influential in Mykola Hohol's life, and he lent its name to a compilation of some of his greatest works, which included Taras Bulba and Viy.
One of the pioneers of Ukrainian cinema and an influential figure in global filmmaking, Oleksandr Dovzhenko regularly paid tribute to the homeland in his works. Perhaps he felt an intuitive connection to his ancestral lands, where his family had lived since at least the late Hetmanate period.
Although the Ukrainian Cossack state was officially disbanded at the end of 18th century, Oleksandr's father, Petro Dovzhenko, was noted as a 'Sosnytsia Cossack' on Oleksandr's birth certificate around a century later. However, his great grandfather Karpo was the only Cossack in the family as identified by biographer Yurii Vynohradskyi.
Vynohradskyi, who documented the Dovzhenko family's lineage to the beginning of the 18th century, learned that Karpo Dovzhenko was the first to move from Poltava Governorate to the village of Sosnytsia. If he had not made that fateful choice, his descendant would never have created his famous film novela Zacharovana Desna (Enchanted Desna River), which was inspired by the beauty of the river which flowed around his childhood home and nature around.
A Ukrainian known for his academic battle painting and equine visual poetry---this description fits no one but Mykola Samokysh. The artist seemed to surrender to the Cossack blood pulsing in his veins, having been attracted to the attributes of the servicemen's past since childhood. This fascination frequently shaped the narratives of his canvases.
As a child, Mykola spent a great deal of time with his grandfather Dmytro Senyk in Nosivka, Chernihiv Oblast. The place, which scholar Oleksandr Polkanov describes as an old Cossack village, put its spell on Mykola:
"In Nosivka, relics of a distant military past still stood. The remnants of an ancient rampart and ditch, once defending the village from Crimean Tatar raids, were visible. Cannons from the time of Bohdan Khmelnytsky adorned the main square. In his grandfather's storeroom hung a large Cossack sabre, passed down from his great-grandfather---a source of endless fascination for young Mykola."
The Samokysh surname used to be associated with sour milk. In Cossack times, someone who liked or produced it could have earned such an alias.
Historian Oleksandr Morozov notes that Mykola's grandfather loved telling tales of the Cossack past, which had a clear impact on his grandson's later paintings. In his lifetime, Mykola created over 10,000 canvases
, as well as illustrating numerous books, and took part in art-projects, popularizing Ukrainian history and traditions.
