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The Danubian Sich (Danube Sich, Trans-Danube Sich, Zadunays'ka Sich) was a fortified settlement (sich) of Zaporozhian Cossacks who fled in the territory of the Ottoman Empire after their home Zaporizhian Sich was overwhelmed by the Russian army in 1775, see, see Zaporozhian Host: Russian rule.
History
After Empress Catherine II of Russia decided to eliminate the independent Cossackdom of the Zaporozhian Host, on June 5, 1775, Russian General Pyotr Tekeli surrounded the Sich with artillery and infantry. The lack of southern borders and enemies in the past years had a profound affect on the combat-ability of the Cossacks, who realised the Russian infantry was to destroy them only after the Sich was besieged. The surprise effect put a devastating blow to the morale of the Cossacks preventing them from any resistance.
Tekeli postponed the storming, and even allowed joint visits, whilst the head of the Host, Petro Kalnyshevsky was deciding on how to approach the Empress's ultimatum. Under the guidance of a starshyna Lyakh, behind Kalnyshevky's back a conspiracy was formed with a group of 50 Cossacks to go fishing in the river Ingul next to the Southern Buh in Ottoman provinces. The pretext was enough to allow the Russians to let the Cossacks out of the siege, who were joined by numerous others. The fleeing Cossacks did go to the Danube Delta where they formed the new Danube Sich, under the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. When Tekeli realised of the escape, there was little left for the remaining Cossacks. The Sich was razed to the ground.
In order to counteract the cossacks living in the Danube on Ottoman-controlled territory, in 1784 the Russian government settled the remaining Zaporozhians between the Southern Buh and Dniester rivers. These were allowed to retain their Cossack status and formed the Buh Host and, later, the Black Sea Host. After a portion of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia they were used by the Russian army to form new military bodies.
The fate of the Danube Cossacks is such that after the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792, the Russian authorities gave amnesty to those wishing to return and allowed with some elements of the Black Sea Cossack Host to form between Berdyansk and Mariupol the Azov Cossack Host.
In 1828 the Danubian Sich ceased to exist when it was pardoned by Emperor Nicholas I and resettled with the Azov Cossacks, who in 1832 left the Azov shores for the North Caucasus to form the Caucasus Line Cossack Host. The 30,000 descendants of those cossacks who refused to return to Russia in 1828 still live in the Danube delta region of Romania, where they pursue the traditional Cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing and are known as Rusnaks.
References
- "Dobrudja". Encyclopedia of Ukraine.
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