Military Liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich (1775)
The military encirclement and destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich immediately after a joint war. Catherine II's manifesto of 3 August 1775 (PSZRI, coll. 1, vol. XX, no. 14,354) declared: "the Zaporozhian Sich has been utterly destroyed, with the extirpation for the future of the very name of the Zaporozhian Cossacks"[1][2]. The last kish otaman, Kalnyshevsky, "was arrested and sent to the prison of the Solovetsky monastery"[3], where he spent more than 25 years. Hrushevsky describes the mechanics of the treachery: the government "went about the affair slowly, in secret, to catch the Zaporozhians entirely unprepared," and general Tekeli "entered the Zaporozhian lands as a good friend" - then suddenly laid siege to the Sich. The Zaporozhians were even faulted for their own husbandry: they "were establishing their own tillage and thereby severing their dependence on the Russian state"[4].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0009 | Russian Empire | 3 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0008 | Government | 1 |
| S0010 | Regular Army | 1 |
| S0017 | Secret Police and Security Services | 1 |
Procedures Carried Out
The encirclement and forcible seizure of the Sich by imperial troops right after the Cossacks had helped the empire win the war. The manifesto records the operation matter-of-factly: "On June 4, Our Lieutenant-General Tekeli, with the troops entrusted to him by us, occupied the Zaporozhian Sich"[1].
The issuing of Catherine II's August manifesto, officially erasing the very memory of the Sich: it was destroyed "with the extirpation for the future of the very name of the Zaporozhian Cossacks," for the empire resolved "to destroy the Zaporozhian Sich and the name of the Cossacks derived from it"[1]. Hrushevsky: "The Sich was destroyed, and on 3 August a tsarist decree announced its abolition, 'with the annihilation of the very name of the Zaporozhian Cossacks'"[4].
The arrest and exile of the Sich's top leadership: "In July 1775, after the destruction of the New Sich, by order of Empress Catherine II, Kalnyshevsky was arrested and sent to the prison of the Solovetsky monastery"[3]. Kalnyshevsky spent more than 25 years in confinement; formally freed in 1801, he died in the monastery.