Back somewhere in the middle distance of European history—when the
Ukraine was under Polish rule, though ever harrassed by the devastating
raids of Turks and Tartars—there developed bands of guerilla fighters
in the wild border-land beyond the rapids of the Dnieper.
Sometimes fighting against the Tartars, sometimes in alliance with
them, they became known by the name ‘Kazak,’ a word of uncertain
origin.
Fierce banditti they were, many of them serfs who had run away from
their Polish masters. But they often developed great military power. At
times the Poles succeeded in securing numbers of them as fighters in
their army, but when the tyranny of the Polish landlords became
intolerable the so-called “Registered Cossacks” would sometimes join
with the “Free Cossacks” of the “border land”—which is the meaning of
the word “Ukraine,” and exact terrible vengeance on the Poles.
The story of these warlike deeds of the Cossacks has the same
significance to the Ukrainian people that the tales of Wallace and
Bruce have for Scotchmen.