The Kamianka Sich or Kamianska Sich () was an administrative and military centre of the Zaporozhian Cossacks during its time under the protection of the Crimean Khanate in the first third of the 18th century. The name of the Sich, which is used in historical and local history literature, is explained by the fact that it was located at the mouth of the right tributary of the river Dnipro: the Kamianka, near the village of Respublikanets in Kherson Oblast.
Since 11 April 2019, the Kamianka Sich National Nature Park has been a National Nature Park of Ukraine.
Location of the Sich The Kamianka Sich was located at the confluence of the Dnipro and the small steppe river Kamianka on the right bank. The Sich occupied a cape convenient for defence, formed by the left, northern bank of the Kamianka River and the Kozatske Richyshche, a branch of the Dnipro.Военно-топографическая карта Российской Империи. Ряд XXIX, лист 12 (г. Херсонской и Таврической). − [Електронний ресурс]. – Режим доступу: https://etomesto.com/shubert-map/29-12/ Thus, the administrative centre of the Zaporozhian Host was located on the very border with the direct possessions of the Crimean Khanate. Alongside the Sich, there was the Kairy (Kamianka) ferry across the Dnipro. As is well known, river crossings have always been of great strategic importance. The Kairy ferry was convenient only from the right bank to the left – downstream of the river channels, but not vice versa. Therefore, convoys on their way to Crimea used the Kairy ferry, and on their way back the Kyzykermen ferry.Мышецкий С. История о козаках запорожских, как оные издревле зачалися, и откуда свое происхождение имеют, и в каком состоянии ныне находятся. – Одесса, в городской типографии, 1852. – 92 с. (с. 21)
After the construction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in the 1950s, the floodplains of the Dnipro were flooded by the Kakhovka Reservoir, and the lower reaches of the Kamianka River were transformed into the long, winding Respublikanets Estuary. Nowadays, the archaeological remains of the Kamianka Sich are located in the village of Respublikanets, Mylove rural hromada, Beryslav Raion, Kherson Oblast. Part of the territory of the monument is occupied by illegally built village houses and garden plots. The monument occupies part of the eastern slope of Cape Strilka, formed by the right bank of the Kakhovka Reservoir and the left bank of the Respublikanets Bay. The surface of the cape is covered with grass, bushes and small trees along the shores. The eastern side of the cape has been transformed into a cliff by coastal erosion, as a result of which more than half of the monument's area has already been destroyed.
The only visible trace of the Sich remaining on the surface of the earth is the grave cross of Kish otaman Kost Hordiienko. The inscription on the cross today (2015) is practically illegible, but its content is known from early publications: "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here lies the servant of God, Konstantin Hordievych, ataman of the glorious Zaporozhian Cossack Host and commander of the Plytnievsky kuren: he passed away on 4 May 1733." The damaged grave cross of Vasyl Yerofeyevich, the kish otaman, also comes from the Kamianka Sich. Today, it is kept in the Khortytsia National Reserve in Zaporizhzhia. The inscription on it reads: "In the name of the Holy, Life-Giving and Indivisible Trinity, Amen. Here lies the servant of God Vasyl Yerofeyevich, otaman of the glorious Zaporozhian Cossack Host and the Tytarivsky kuren. He passed away in the year 1731, in the month of May, on the 23rd day."Вертильяк Н. П. Надгробия кошевых Гордиенки и Ерофеева. – Записки Одесского общества истории и древностей. Том первый. – Одесса, в городской типографии, 1844. – С. 607
Planning of the Sich The Sich occupied a small corner between the right bank of the Cossack River and the left bank of the river Kamianka, and had the shape of an irregular triangle. In the middle of the Sich, from north to south, there was a square, on both sides of which researcher Dmytro Yavornytsky counted 40 depressions from ancient buildings at the end of the 19th century. One row of these "huts," according to Dmytro Yavornytsky, stretched along the Kozatske Richyshche with exits to the west, and three rows ran from the steppe to the Kamianka with exits to the east and west. Between the last three rows, as between the first, an area of the same size as the first stretched from north to south. Each of the kurens was about 14.9 m long and 8.5 m wide. No traces of the church were found. According to Dmytro Yavornytsky, the Sich was surrounded by a stone wall, of which only a few wild stones remained at the end of the 19th century. South of the Sich, on Cape Strilka, there was a suburban area. North of the Sich was a cemetery, the exact location and boundaries of which are unknown today.Яворницький Д. І. Історія запорозьких козаків. Том І. – Київ, «Наукова Думка», 1990. – 592 с. (с. 137)Козловський А. О., Ільїнський В. Є. Козацькі старожитності пониззя Дніпра // Археологія, № 4. – Київ, «Наукова Думка», 1991. – С. 42-58 (с. 50-51)
Dating
There are discrepancies in various sources regarding the dating of the Kamianka Sich. According to the so-called Memoir for Posterity (1734), after the destruction of the Chortomlyk Sich in 1709, the Cossacks founded a new Sich in Oleshky, lived there for nineteen years, returned to the island of Chortomlyk in 1728, where they stayed for two years, and in 1730 moved to the river Kamianka.Иванов П. Матерьялы по исторіи Запорожья в XVIII в. // Записки Одесскаго общества исторіи и древностей. Т. ХХ. – Одесса, Экономическая типографія и литографія, 1897. – С. 60-100 (с. 73-74)
Prince Semen Ivanovych Myshetsky, author of written in the 1740s, claimed that after the destruction of the Old Sich on Chortomlyk Island in 1709 by order of Peter I, the Cossacks founded a Sich on the river Kamianka. Soon, this Sich was also destroyed by the Muscovites. After that, the Zaporozhians moved to the Oleshky Sich in the Oleshky tract "on the Crimean side of the Dnipro." Later, the Sich on Kamianka was plundered by Cossacks from the Samara River, who were dissatisfied with their subordinate position to the Sich Cossacks. After that, the Sich was moved back to Kamianka, where it remained until the Zaporozhian Cossacks returned to Moscow's protection in 1734. (pp. 21–23). Alexander Rigelman, in his work Chronicle Narrative about Little Russia and its People and the Cossacks in General (1787), generally repeats the testimony of Myshetsky, reporting that the Sich was moved from Oleshky to Kamianka in 1733.Ригельман А. И. Летописное повествование о Малой России и ея народе и козаках вообще . — Moscow University Press, 1847. pp. 96, 139
Apollon Skalkowski, in his 1841 work «История Новой Сечи или последнего Коша Запорожского» [The History of the Nova Sich, or the last Zaporozhian Sich], reporting on the destruction of the Sich at the Kamianka in 1711 and its relocation to Oleshky, makes no mention of the "second period" of the existence of the "Kamianka" Sich. According to him, the Sich was moved from Oleshky directly to the Pidpilna River.Скальковский А. А. История Новой Сечи или последнего Коша Запорожского. Odesa City Publishing House, 1841. p. 437 (p. 180) In the first edition of his work History of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1892), Dmytro Yavornytsky does not dare to unequivocally accept the point of view of either Myshetsky or the anonymous author of the aforementioned Memoir for Posterity.Яворницький Д. І. Історія запорозьких козаків. Том перший. [History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks. Volume 1.]. Lviv, Svit, 1990. p. 320 (pp. 94, 96, 101).Яворницький Д. І. Історія запорізьких козаків. Том третій. [History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks. Volume 3.] Lviv, Svit, 1992. p. 456, (p. 300). In the second edition of his work (1900), the historian unequivocally accepts the author's point of view of Memoir for Posterity.Яворницький Д. І. Історія запорозьких козаків. Том 1. Kyiv, Naukova Dumka, 1990. p. 592 (pp. 113—114). The aforementioned Memoirs is an official document drawn up on 29 May 1734 (less than two months after the Sich was moved from Kamianka to Pidpilna) by direct witnesses to the events on the orders of the Sich otaman Ivan Malashevych and approved by the military kish seal. Therefore, there is no reason to doubt the testimony of the Memoirs regarding the chronology of the Sich during the period when the Zaporozhian Host were under Crimean protection. Despite this, the thesis about two periods of existence of the Kamianka Sich (1709–1711 and 1728–1734) is still repeated not only in numerous popular publications, but also in academic encyclopaedic editions.Археологія доби українського козацтва XVI-XVIII ст. — Київ, «Віпол», 1997. — 336 с. (с. 311)Горобець В. М. Кам'янська Січ // Енциклопедія історії України. Том 4. — Київ, «Наукова Думка», 2007. − С. 69-70. (с. 69)
Transition of the Zaporozhian Cossacks under Crimean protection
The existence of the Kamianka Sich coincided with a dramatic period in the history of Zaporozhia. In retaliation for siding with Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Swedish King Charles XII, on 14 May 1709, on the orders of the Muscovite Tsar Peter I, the Chortomlyk Sich was destroyed. The Cossacks who survived the destruction of the Sich and the subsequent defeat at the Battle of Poltava fled to the territory of the Crimean Khanate. Based on an analysis of archival documents, Zaporozhia researcher Volodymyr Ivanovych Milchev asserts that it was then that the Cossack settlement in Oleshky arose, which became the next Sich.
In May 1711, during the Russo-Turkish War (1710–1713), a combined detachment of Muscovite troops and hetman regiments under the command of A. Ushakov, which was stationed on the left bank of the Dnipro in the fortress of Kamiany Zaton, set out on a campaign to destroy the Oleshky Sich. However, constant attacks by the Crimean Tatars and Zaporozhian Cossacks prevented this plan from being carried out. In order to somehow redeem themselves in the eyes of the high command, part of the Muscovite army descended the Dnipro and burnt down a small Cossack settlement at the mouth of the Kamianka River, which was presented as the destruction of the "new" Sich itself. As a result of the Treaty of the Pruth signed on 23 July 1711 (O.S. 12 July 1711) between the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy, Zaporozhia came under the protection of the Crimean Khanate.Мільчев В. І. Запорозьке козацтво у підданстві Гіреїв // Наукові праці історичного факультету Запорізького національного університету, 2009, випуск XXVI. – С. 170—178 (с. 171—172)Мільчев В. І. Запорозьке козацтво у підданстві Гіреїв (1709/1711-1734 рр.) // Наукові праці історичного факультету Запорізького національного університету, 2009, вип. XXVI. During this period, the Cossacks were allowed to use the profits from, in particular, the Kamianka (Kairy) ferry crossing.Мышецкий С. История о козаках запорожских, как оные издревле зачалися, и откуда свое происхождение имеют, и в каком состоянии ныне находятся. — Одесса, в городской типографии, 1852. — 92 с. (с. 21) This fact indirectly indicates the existence of a settlement in this place even before the Sich was moved to Kamianka.
Sich on the river Kamianka