In the summer of 1775, at the behest of Empress Catherine II, the Zaporozhye Sich was abolished. Soon after, more than five thousand Zaporozhye Cossacks left for the territory of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish sultan, hoping to form a combat-ready army from these desperate grunts, took them into his citizenship. For settling, the Cossacks received land beyond the Danube, where they founded, although not immediately, their camp (kosh) - the Transdanubian Sich.
Here the customs and traditions of the Zaporozhye Sich were observed, even the former system of 38 kurens, with their old names, was preserved. At the same time, in a foreign land, the "knightly brotherhood" gradually changed its appearance.
Most of the Cossacks were engaged in agriculture, fishing and trade.
The population of this Cossack republic also grew at the expense of new fugitives from Little Russia, who did not want to serve the Russian tsar to the detriment of past liberties.
However, the reverse process was also gaining momentum.
In that historical era, Russia and Turkey often fought among themselves, and each war caused an outflow of hundreds of Trans-Danube Cossacks to the north. As the Ukrainian historian Hrushevsky wrote, "the conscience of the Cossacks tormented that they had to help the Basurmans to fight against Christians." These "pangs of conscience" became even more acute after the sultan threw the Cossacks against the Orthodox Greeks who rebelled in 1821 for their independence.
By the mid-1820s, the Transdanubian Sich was actually delimited into two groups. One advocated loyal service to the Sultan, insisting that the Cossacks had no future in their homeland, under the rule of the "Muscovites". Another, on the contrary, expressed confidence that the Russian tsar would forgive for old sins and allow the Sich to be founded in a new place.
In 1822, a man of a flourishing age appeared in Sich, short, but strong, with a daring character and a cheerful disposition, and even literate.
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His name was Osip Mikhailovich Gladky.
Having declared himself single, he was admitted to the Platnirovsky kuren, telling his new comrades the incredible story of his adventures, which allegedly led him to these lands. The reality, however, was much more prosaic.
Osip was born into a wealthy family in the Poltava region, inherited large land plots, but he did not manage the farm and was forced to sell the plots one after another. Remaining, as they say, on beans, he decided to go to work. By the way, by this time he was married and had four children. For two years he wandered around the south, taking on any job, and everywhere he felt superfluous. But in the Transdanubian Sich he immediately came to court!
Taking part in the campaign against the Greek rebels, Gladky showed miracles of courage, military ingenuity and business acumen. The Cossacks elected him a kuren ataman, and on the Pokrov of 1827 - a koshev one! The Sultan, in his firman, approved him as a two-bunchuzh pasha (general's rank).
However, Osip Gladky was already thinking about returning to his historical homeland, moreover, together with the Cossacks. Presumably, secret ties that he regularly maintained with the Russian mayor of Izmail, General S. Tuchkov, played an important role in shaping his position. However, for obvious reasons, he could not declare openly about his plans. He could only rely on a group of conspirators from the top of the Cossacks.
The Moment of Truth”came in the spring of 1828, when another war broke out between Russia and Turkey. The Russian army was stationed in the Danube principalities, with Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich himself was with it.
It was not difficult for the conspirators to go to the "Muscovites", but such a transition without the consent of the common Cossack Council would have been perceived as a shameful flight.
No, it was absolutely necessary to enlist the decision of the Cossack circle, and also to take away, despite the mortal risk, the attributes of power, the office, the treasury, church relics … But what if there are many Cossacks supporters of the alliance with the Turks? Yes, and the Sultan's spies-informers did not doze.
The ataman deftly used the situation.
Just on the eve, the Sultan ordered to gather the Zaporozhye army in Silistra.
Gladky selected two thousand Cossacks of pro-Turkish orientation and personally took this detachment to the designated point. And then, supposedly, he returned to Kosh for replenishment, where his supporters were now in the majority. The Rada's consent was obtained, but they still left in a great hurry, fearing persecution from the Turks.
On May 10, Osip Gladky met with Nicholas I, folding a mace, kleinods (military regalia) at his feet, as well as a saber and a hat - a gift from the Turkish sultan. The emperor said: "God will forgive you, the homeland has forgiven you, and I forgive." Without respite, the Cossacks joined the hostilities.
At that time, the Russian army tried to seize the Isakchi fortress, which was considered impregnable. A strong Turkish garrison shot through all the approaches, except for the impassable swamp. However, Gladky knew about the old dam that led through the swamp. Using this secret path, Russian soldiers, together with Ukrainian Cossacks, went to the rear of the Turks. The fortress was taken. For this feat of arms, Nicholas I promoted the ataman to the rank of colonel. Many distinguished Cossacks were also awarded.
The emperor was imbued with such confidence in the Cossacks that he crossed the Danube in their seagull boat, without any protection. Gladky was the helmsman, and the kuren atamans were the rowers. In total, about a thousand Cossacks crossed over to the Russian camp.
But the fate of those who remained in the Sich was tragic. Upon learning of what had happened, the Sultan sent punitive troops to the Sich. One of the witnesses of the massacre recalled: “They killed with great cruelty everyone who came to hand, there was no salvation for anyone, blood flowed like a river. Desperate cries, heart-rending screams and lamentations did not stop the fanatics. Those who gathered in Silistra also drank dashing.
Although all these Cossacks were ready to fight on the side of the Turks, they were nevertheless disarmed and taken into custody, and later used in hard labor.
And yet, a significant part of the Cossacks managed to get away with their feet - first of all, those who were working. Some took refuge in the floodplains, others disappeared among the non-Muslim population of large cities, and others went to distant lands by secret paths. The Sultan issued a decree banning the restoration of the Transdanubian Sich under pain of death.
Meanwhile, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich ordered to form a Separate Zaporozhian Army from the Trans-Danube Cossacks, in which Gladky became the chief chieftain. This combat unit took part in many battles of the war of 1828-29. Distinguished Cossacks received awards and encouragements.
And Colonel Osip Gladky became the Emperor's favorite.
Going on a trip to Odessa in 1829, Nicholas I took the gallant chieftain with him and introduced him to the empress. Smooth understood that it was necessary to forge the iron while it was hot. His dream was to preserve the Cossack army after the war, and with it his status as a military leader. Well, the emperor also treated this request favorably.
Ultimately, the orderly chieftain looked after the uninhabited at that time Berdyansk Wasteland, on the northern coast of the Azov Sea. Here in 1832 the Cossacks settled, forming the Azov Cossack army.
By that time, Gladky had already been awarded several orders and a diamond ring, and was also promoted to the nobility. Its coat of arms depicted a seagull boat between two banks. Back in 1829, after 9 years of separation, he tracked down his family and reunited with it. By order of the emperor, the youngest children of the ataman were admitted to privileged educational institutions at public expense.
In 1843 Osip Gladky was promoted to the rank of Major General.
He owned large plots of land, estates, had a good house in the city, a servant, several carriages. Among his subordinates, he was reputed not only as a strict boss, but also as a skillful organizer, who created a profitable economy out of nowhere, which allowed the Cossacks to switch to full self-sufficiency. The Azov army took part in all the wars that the empire waged on its southern borders. In 1851, Gladky retired, but his authority was so great that the Cossacks still turned to him for help and advice.
The situation began to change after the death of Nikolai Pavlovich. Alexander II, who was not too fond of Cossack liberties, ordered to transfer the Azov people to the Caucasus, to a dangerous section of the Russian border. The resettlement, which lasted until the end of July 1866, led to the abolition of the Azov Cossack army.
And at the beginning of the same July, Osip Gladky died of cholera in the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye). His wife Feodosia Andreevna survived him by one day.
In modern Ukraine, the attitude towards the memory of the Cossack chieftain and general of the Russian army Gladky is ambiguous. Some historians believe that he is to blame for the death of the Transdanubian Sich, and they condemn him for the fact that he handed over the kleinods to the Russian Tsar without the consent of the general Cossack Rada.
"God will forgive you, the homeland has forgiven you, and I forgive."
For others, the chieftain was left with no choice but to side with Russia in the war between the two empires. The fall of the Transdanubian Sich was only a matter of time.
In October 2010, in Zaporozhye, at the place of the alleged burial (order a wreath for the grave) O. M. Gladky, a 5-meter bronze monument was erected in his honor.
Valery Nechiporenko