Vasylyuk, I.

Zhytomyr State University Library

I. Vasylyuk Research supervisor: V. O. Vengerska, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University Language tutor: S. S. Kukharyonok  ON THE EDGE OF TWO WORLDS: COSSAK AND TATAR STEPPE (CULTURAL ASPECT)  Vast expanse of southern Ukraine and the part of the Crimean Peninsula is called the Wild Field in the historical literature. Even in the 13th century they were perceived in the minds of both the Ukrainian and Tatar peoples as a buffer zone. In fact, it was the territory of delineation of influence without clearly defined borders between the lands of Ukrainian principalities and Golden Horde. Two worlds with their own culture, history and objectives, Christian and Muslim, faced in these steppes. Due to frequent contacts of the Cossacks with the descendants of Turks, both sides discovered a large area of interference for each other. It is believed that the rule of the Tatars in the steppe is one of the reasons for the emergence of the Cossacks in Prydniprovia [1, 100]. The word "Cossack" in the late 15th century was quite common and was used both for the Tatars and Ukrainians. The Wild Field during the Cossack period was a kind of pendulum where certain critical mass in the neighborhood of two ethnic groups – Ukrainian and Tatars – shifted in favour of one or another side. In the center, on the borderland buffer zone between nomadic and tilling civilizations, ethnocontact zone, mastered by desperate adventurers from both sides who mutually mixed clothes and food, language and customs, military skills and the way to survive, existed on their own survival laws [3,181]. Turkic culture greatly influenced the ethnic Ukrainian culture, besides almost all the effects were transferred through the Cossacks. For example, we can present the following facts: as the Tatars, the Cossacks named the places of their location “koshi”, temporary houses – “kureni”, estuaries – sagas, Ukrainian sword was replaced by curve Tatar saber, ports – “sharovary”, long hair – “oseledets”. Turkic concepts like “osavul”, “bunchuk”, “bulava”, “drum”, “surma”, “camp”, “maidan” were used in the Cossacks’ military lexicon [3,181-182]. All types of the Cossacks economic activity were formed under the influence of local Turkic population: livestock raising, the methods of hunting and fishing, beekeeping, collecting plants and other industries. Among the borrowings relating to material culture there is a unique type of dwelling – “kurin”, “kish”. Ukrainians also borrowed from the steppe peoples a lot of elements of the suit, including typical oriental wide trousers, high hats, the way to wear shirt tucked into pants. The way to decorate the bottom of the women’s underwear clothing with embroidery was taken from the East. The widespread use of carpets in home interior also borrowed from the Tatars [2, 12-13]. As a result of these very significant Eastern borrowings, Ukraine was finally formed as a country on the border between the East and the West (as the eastern border of Europe), having its own ethnocultural identity.  LITERATURE 1. Голобуцький В. Запорозьке козацтво / Володимир Голобуцький. – К.: Вища школа, 1994. – 539 с. 2. Історія українського козацтва: Нариси:У 2 т. / Редкол.: В. А. Смолій та ін. – К.: Вид. дім “Києво-Могилянська академія”, 2007. – Т. 2. – 724 с. 3. Яковенко Н. Нарис історії середньовічної та ранньомодерної історії України / Наталя Яковенко. – К.: Критика, 2005. – 584 с.  

On the edge of two worlds: cossak and tatar steppe (cultural aspect)

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