WESTERN EUROPEAN IDEALS OF CHIVALRY IN THE SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL CULTURE OF THE UKRAINIAN COSSACKS AS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
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Дата
2025
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Modern engineering and innovative technologies
Анотація
The Ukrainian Cossacks not only became an important military and political
phenomenon, but also formed a unique culture and psychology that combined both local traditions
and European influences. One of the key external factors that influenced the formation of the culture
of the Cossacks was Western European chivalry. Contacts with chivalric traditions took place
through numerous interactions, including military alliances, cultural exchange, and the participation
of Cossacks in European wars.
As a result, the Cossacks adopted a number of features that shaped their self-perception,
ideology and lifestyle, which became the foundation for the development of a democratic political
regime in Ukraine. The authors of the article emphasize that the Cossacks borrowed a number of
military tactics and customs from Western European chivalry. Among them: the use of heavy cavalry,
characteristic of Polish hussars and French knightly detachments, heraldic symbols – coats of arms,
banners reminiscent of Western European traditions, the development of fencing and horse fighting,
which was combined with Eastern methods of war. The authors also note that, like European chivalry,
the Cossacks developed their own code of honor, which contained: loyalty to brotherhood, defense
of faith and readiness for self-sacrifice. Just as the European crusader knights defended Christianity,
so the Cossacks positioned themselves as defenders of the Orthodox faith from the Ottoman Empire
and the Crimean Khanate. They also equally patronized monasteries and churches and used biblical
motifs in rhetoric.
Опис
Thе Zaporozhian Sich had analogies with the spiritual knightly and monastic
orders of Western Europe of the XII-XIV centuries. The Sich combined with them the
religiosity and asceticism of the Cossack brotherhood, collective ownership of land, the
cult of the Virgin Mary, the veneration of Saints Michael and George the Victorious (St.
George). These Western European late knightly influences were probably not direct, but
rather indirect. The spiritual knightly and monastic orders were not only a model for the
Zaporozhian Cossacks to follow. Sich chivalry developed old knightly traditions and
created its own. Contacts with chivalric traditions occurred through numerous
interactions: military alliances, cultural exchange, and the participation of Cossacks in
European wars. As a result, the Cossacks adopted a number of traits that shaped their
self-perception, ideology, and lifestyle.
For decades, Russian propaganda has tried to present the Cossacks as the «Russian
world», ignoring their European features and democratic principles. However,
historical facts testify to the close connection of the Cossacks with the European
military and political tradition: the Cossacks served in the armies of European states
(the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, France, Austria), and used the military
traditions of Western chivalry.