Who is the ataman? Who is a Cossack ataman and how does he differ from an ordinary person? What does ataman mean?
Who is a Cossack ataman and how does he differ from an ordinary person? Ataman. “Don’t drift, Cossack, you will become an ataman.” Agree, this phrase is heard quite often, even by those who come into contact with the Cossacks, only when they see these gentlemen on TV. Although, it immediately becomes clear that being an ataman is a prize for courage, like being a deputy or being a director: drive your subordinates as hard as you can while you warm your sides in the Canary Islands... However, it’s not the same. Atamans in the past somehow did not strive for positions and did not go over the heads of other comrades, pushing them aside with their elbows. This post was especially life-threatening for some. When someone was called a dad, he automatically became, in the literal sense, the father of the people who placed their trust in him (both the executive and legislative branches rolled into one). And just try not to justify this trust! Sometimes they would chop with a saber. The ataman was re-elected very often, they say, once a year - such a manifestation of filial care, so that the authorities would not turn their heads and would not have to remove that same head from their shoulders. But those who showed themselves to be the best were often called “honorary chieftain” and he bore this title with dignity until the end of his days. And also... The proverb does not specify what kind of chieftain a non-drifter can become. They are different even in the same structure. For example, a military ataman is now a very cool gentleman who leads some kind of army: Kuban, Don... etc... in our case - Terek. But there are still a lot of others! For example, district or village: they are elected in Circles by a majority vote. Further more. Marching, punishment, koshev... and all the atamans! Only the functions are different for everyone, and also...they are not chosen, but assigned. Koshevoy is the status of the chief of skeet, he is responsible for the satiety of his comrades on the campaign... although, not only them. The duties of the Koshevoy Ataman included feeding the horses and others, providing everyone with temporary accommodation for the night and guarding the camp. The ordered ataman is the cooler one. This could easily be I.O., left by the ataman to rule during his absence. As for the marching officer, everything is more confusing: it seems that he is responsible for combat, military and other training immediately before, after and during combat operations. He makes sure that the gun fires and the saber cuts... Oh yes, there is one more post - the chieftain's comrade. Not “brother” or “buddy”, but comrade. Perhaps you have even come across such a phrase somewhere as “first comrade of the ataman” and did not understand anything. However, this is not a literary passage or a joke. This is a position! From now on, be savvy: we are talking about a deputy.
Among the steppe peoples, the leader of the Cossacks or (obsolete) generally the eldest in business (like the toastmaster among the Caucasian peoples).
According to one version, the word comes from the Turkic word “ata” - “father”/“grandfather” with the personal ending “man” (“men/men - I”) and literally means “I am your father.” Analogues of the title “ataman” are such appeals to elders and superiors as father-commander, father-tsar, father-ataman (compare with Turkish “aha” or “officer”, from “aha” - senior, foreman).
The first mentions of the name ataman in Russian date back to the times of the Russian principalities. So we find from Solovyov: “The princes sent crowds of their industrialists, gangs, to the White Sea and the Northern Ocean, to the Terek and Pechersk countries for fish, animals and birds: from the letter of Grand Duke Andrei Alexandrovich we learn that even then, in 1294, three grand princely gangs went to the sea with their ataman".
Etymology
The word "Ataman" has several versions of origin.
Story
History of the All-Great Don Army according to A.S. Pushkin [ ] begins during the struggle for power between Tamerlane and Tokhtamysh and the collapse of the Great Steppe Army-Horde and its Army-Horde Power (Golden Horde) in the lands near the Volga and Don. It was then, in the conditions of anarchy and lawlessness that reigned in these lands, that the self-organization of the local Christian population into Cossack detachments began, the core of which were former Russian-speaking Christian wars, deserters from the disintegrating Great Steppe Army-Horde. Over time, Turkic-speaking residents of this region also began to join the Cossack troops [ ] .
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Don Cossacks continued to call their leaders atamans. The main leader of the entire Don Army was called the military ataman. He was elected by the military circle - the people's assembly of the entire Cossack army. At these public gatherings in the open square, the Cossacks actually formed a circle, standing without hats as a sign of respect for the place and occasion. Elections took place annually and were decided by majority vote. Often during elections there was a struggle between parties, which, among this unbridled freedom, often ended in a bloody battle between the embittered parties.
Two more military captains were elected to help the military ataman, and a military clerk was elected to conduct the written part. The military ataman was only the executive body of the military circle; he had no independent power. The guardian of order and the executor of the decisions of the circle, he could not and did not dare to do anything on his own initiative, otherwise he was threatened with shameful deprivation of his position, and sometimes severe execution.
The military ataman usually reported on the matter in the circle and raised questions that required the decision of the entire army, for which he, together with his esauls, went to the middle of the circle, but this was not his exclusive right: any Cossack could go to the middle and propose questions to the people's court. The ataman's voice was equal to the voice of any other Cossack: it had weight only insofar as it was supported by the ataman's personal valor and the respect that the army had for him. Having relinquished his rank at the end of the election term, the ataman entered the general army and was no different from ordinary Cossacks. Following the model of this general military administration, private administrations in towns began to take shape at the end of the 16th century. Every Cossack community that lived in towns or winter huts, as well as those sent somewhere (for example, to Moscow for the royal salary), was called a village and had its own village ataman.
But the Cossacks called not only their commanders and officials atamans; every valiant Cossack, distinguished by his daring and courage, was honored with an ataman. Ataman is the flower of the Cossacks, the highest class of the army, but it was not a closed class: the right to be called an ataman was not given by birth, but was acquired by personal valor and glory. This meaning of the word “ataman” explains the formulas of the royal letters sent to the Don. So, for example, during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich and Feodor Ioannovich, in the letters (after the title) they wrote: “to the Don Don atamans and Cossacks” or even “to the Don Don atamans (their names follow) and to all atamans and Cossacks.” The same meaning of the word “ataman” is reflected in the sayings “from the rank and file they become atamans”, “be patient with the Cossack, you will become an ataman” in the traditional address to the Cossacks “Atamans - well done!”, in the preserved custom of honoring every Cossack with “ataman”.
Atamans class
But over time, things changed: a whole class of atamans arose on the Don, sharply separated from the people and ordinary Cossacks. However, along with this, the word “ataman”, both in the sense of a chief and official, and in the sense of simply a noble Cossack, begins to be replaced by the word “sergeant major.” The name of the foreman was first mentioned in 1649 in the report of the nobleman Andrei Lazarev to the Ambassadorial Prikaz, where this word was used instead of “ataman”. Further, in the testimony given in the Ambassadorial Order to the village atamans Kozma Dmitriev, who came from the Don to Moscow in 1655, it is said, among other things, that the commander of the Cossacks on the sea voyage was foreman Pavel Neskochikhin. After this, the title of foreman is very often found in acts, which meant the same as ataman. Since 1680, the name “ataman” is very rarely found in acts, except for letters alone, in which they usually wrote: “to the Don in the lower and upper yurts to the atamans and Cossacks, the military ataman (such and such) and the entire Don army”; in reports to the Ambassadorial Prikaz of various officials who were on the Don, atamans were always called foremen.
Under Peter I, the title of foreman became so general that the Don Army itself, in its reports to the sovereign, referred to noble people as foreman: “and we, having chosen in a circle,” the Cossacks reported to the sovereign in 1705, “foremen Maxim Frolov, Vasily the Great Pozneev, Efrem Petrov and others...” From modern acts it is not clear at what time the name of elders turned into a class rank and rank. It must be assumed that this followed in the middle of the 17th century, when the number of Cossacks increased significantly, permanent and extensive settlements arose, rich and poor appeared, luxury and ambition penetrated among the Cossacks.
Classism in the Cossacks
Atamans and foremen, as the leading class of the army, naturally had an advantage over other Cossacks, being distinguished by their wealth and intelligence, and therefore they gradually appropriated to themselves forever the advantages associated with a temporary position, and placed themselves in a position that sharply distinguished them from the entire army. The power and importance of the elders increased as Cossack liberties were limited; Soon after the accession of Peter I to the throne, they little by little concentrated the rights of the circle in their hands.
This was facilitated by various circumstances, but mainly by the continuous equipment of Cossack detachments into the Moscow army under the command of elders and the appointment of a military chieftain by the authority of the sovereign. Promotion to the rank of sergeant major depended on the army, which also deprived them of this dignity for crimes, but in 1754 it was forbidden for the Don Army to be promoted to sergeant major without presentation to the military board. Along with the emergence of a separate class of elders, the power of the military ataman expanded and strengthened. From the second half of the 17th century. he is already the direct commander of the Cossacks in days of peace and battle. Various kinds of affairs regarding internal administration and external relations, which had previously been handled only by the military circle, were transferred to him: he handled litigation, defended against offenders, divided the royal salary among the Cossacks, received Turkish, Tatar and Kalmyk ambassadors, conducted preliminary negotiations with them and only the final decision was passed on to the circle for judgment.
The position of military ataman remained elective until 1718, the elected and mandated (appointed) ataman of the All-Great Don Army (-) was Military Clerk P. E. Romazanov (? - 1718), and from then on it was filled by appointment from the government, that is Atamans were no longer elected. The first military ataman appointed by royal decree was Vasily Frolov; after his death in 1723, sergeant major Andrei Lapatin was appointed to his place; in 1735, Ivan Frolov was appointed; in 1738, Danilo Efremov. Since that time, the appointment of military personnel has depended on the highest authority. Military atamans, as a sign of their dignity from time immemorial, carried in their hands a “nasek” (cane), which, upon leaving their position, they handed over to the newly elected to this rank with a special ceremony. Peter the Great, wanting to give the military atamans more importance and power, granted the Don Army in 1704
1) the Russian name of a detachment or band of robbers independent of the state; 2) the highest commander of the Cossack army (military, command, marching, nomadic) or Cossack territorial-administrative unit. In the Zaporozhye Sich there were horse atamans subordinate to the hetman, to whom the kurens were subordinate (the Sich was divided into kurens - groups of houses).
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ATAMAN
the title of every elected leader, chief, leader in Cossack societies. The origin of this term and its structure is undoubtedly associated with Gothic-Germanic or Asalan speech, where “atta” meant “father”, and “mann” - “husband”, “knight”. The original meaning of the word “father-knight” or “father-of-husbands” was preserved in the memory of the Cossacks as “father-ataman”, “father-ataman”. Terms of similar meaning existed in the east, “atabek”, “atalyk”, but the Cossacks did not accept them in this form.
Historically, the term A. becomes known after its appearance in the Lithuanian chronicles in relation to the 14th century, i.e. by the time when the Alans and Goths, together with the Cossacks, formed the squad of the Crimean Khan; refers to the Crimea and the next in time of appearance on the pages of ancient acts, “Ataman Duvan”, after which the term A. from the middle of the 16th century. begins to be repeated frequently in sources, is constantly associated with the Cossacks and moves north with them. Until this time, the Genoese in their acts called the Cossack leaders in Polovtsian "orguzii", in the Golden Horde the Cossack leaders were called "baskaks", and in Moscow - "heads". In Cossack societies, the term A. was preserved even after their conquest by Russia, not only for local commanders, but even for rulers appointed by the Tsar.
On the Don there are known A-ns: Military, Main troops, Marching, Mandatory, (deputies), Winter villages, districts, villages, villages, farms, small detachments. In the Hetmanate, for the Belarusian and Ukrainian communities, there were foreman-voits, and there for the Cossacks in the towns - A-ny of the community and A-y of the Cossack petty-bourgeois communities. In the Zaporozhye Republic of Nizova, in addition to the usual marching and detachment ranks, the ranks of Koshevy, Kuren, School, Kramny (in charge of trade), and Lisitsky (in charge of hunting) were accepted.
During campaigns and in combat situations, customary law granted the atamans unlimited power: “wherever you look, ataman, we will throw our heads.” In peaceful life they were only executors of the will of the People's Assembly and guardians of order.
“Hetman” among the Poles, “vataman” among the Novgorodians is also associated with Germanic meanings, but different from A. “Hetman” was transformed in Poland from the German Hauptmann - “chief commander” there hetmans were the commanders-in-chief of the Polish, Lithuanian and Cossack military forces. “Whatman” was formed from Wachtmann - “guardian”, adopted from a merchant from the island of Gotland and little changed. This is how the heads of the city guard were called in the Novgorod lands. The Ukrainians, having adopted the term A. from the Cossacks, remade it into Otaman, which deprived the word of its basic meaning. But the Dnieper Cossacks, despite the fact that they passed by the 18th century. strong Ukrainian influences, preserved the word A. in its original form.
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Who is an ataman and what is the meaning of the word “ataman” you will learn from this article.
Who is the ataman?
Ataman is official elected official in the Zaporozhye Sich during the 16th - 18th centuries. The ataman headed the entire Sich organization or a separate Military-administrative unit - the hut. If it happened that the ataman was not elected for certain reasons, but was appointed, for example, during a military campaign, then he was called a mandated ataman. In the Hetmanate during the 17th - 18th centuries, there were also positions of city, village and hundred atamans.
What does the word "ataman" mean?
The concept of ataman means “father of people” from the Turkic language. Nomads previously called this the oldest representatives of their clan. There is also another version, according to which the word ataman comes from the German word “Harter Mann”, which means “strong man”. Since the 16th century, atamans began to be called the elected or appointed leader of the Cossack army.
Ataman is elected person heading the hut. He was in charge of the management and facilities of the kuren, and resolved absolutely all issues relating to the life and everyday life of the Cossacks.
Free times of the Cossacks
It's no secret that in our lives a lot depends on who leads people and how. Social sciences and human experience prove that there are no societies without power. What can we say about people when even in animal communities there are relations of dominance and subordination! But there it is formed at the level of instincts and, of course, is not reflected. People are designed in such a way that they constantly argue about power, and therefore political relations, scold and hate, or tolerate and obey.
Rarely does anyone love power; it rarely evokes positive emotions. Perhaps it’s all about the person, his passions and personal qualities. By the way, few people stand the test of power. But, nevertheless, power will always exist. And here, most likely, what is important is how and on what grounds this power is organized.
Our country knows, if not a unique, then an amazing way of relations between society and government. Moreover, a method that has survived centuries. In many other structures of life, it has become an anachronism, and researchers study it in historical retrospect, considering it as something initial, far from the higher “sacred” or “contractual” foundations of the existence of power.
This is a way for society to select, in its opinion, the best representative to lead people in various spheres of life. A historical example here can be the Cossacks, where the institution of elected ataman power has passed through the centuries and for a long time was synonymous with a fair structure of the relationship between society and government.
Signs of ataman power (nasek, shestoper, a mace was also used)
The image of a Cossack ataman for an ordinary person is always something very strong, bright and colorful. Behind this title in the human mind are several centuries of embodied people's dreams of a fair social order and no less fair governance. It so happened that in its most complete forms the idea of popular self-government was embodied in the Cossack community and in the post of elected Cossack ataman.
It is very interesting that the Cossacks themselves went through a complex path of evolution, despite the fact that the time of their formation was by no means prehistoric. Everything happened already within the chronological framework of the second millennium of the new era, that is, already in the era of the written history of peoples. As for the position of Cossack ataman, it is very noteworthy that it was elective, urgent (for a time) and very responsible. Responsible in every sense, despite the fact that the main meaning may be responsibility to society, to those who elected this chieftain, since if the duties were not performed properly, the chieftain was re-elected.
In general, where did the very concept of “ataman” come from? There are several versions here. What could be more authoritative than the official encyclopedia?... The word “ataman”, according to some researchers, goes back to the Polish hetman, which, in turn, came from the German Hauptman, which meant “chief” or “senior”. Others believe that “ataman” is an Old Russian word, but also borrowed from Turkic languages, where odaman meant “elder of the shepherds or Cossack camp.” By the way, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia also talks about Turkic language sources.
It is believed that in Rus' the word “ataman” was first found in Novgorod charters. In a sense, we are again faced with the eternal dilemma of very many things in Russian life, especially in the historical context. In this case, this is a borrowing of a word and the debate is where, from the East or West, it came to us. But in reality this is not that important...
There are other interesting, sometimes fabulous versions, but we will leave them to inquisitive minds and agree that we will determine the atamans in exactly the above manner.
This is what the ataman looked like
Initially, the Cossacks called their military leaders atamans. As mentioned above, the ataman position was elective. To do this, the Cossacks gathered in a circle and, by voting, determined their leader. It is characteristic that the chosen ataman was the master in the life and death of the Cossacks. He represented the highest authority, but, importantly, only during the campaign. After the return of the Cossack gang to their native land, the ataman resigned and became an ordinary Cossack, and a defendant, like other members of the Cossack community.
If the ataman ceased to be the highest authority, then what was the highest authority in the Cossack community? And here we must say some amazing things. The Cossacks as a social structure were structured quite interestingly. A special feature was the truly democratic structure of the Cossack community. The highest authority among the Cossacks was the military circle (rada, kolo). It was on the Circle that all political and other decisions that were significant for the Cossacks took place. The circle united all branches of power, namely legislative and judicial, only for the duration of military campaigns, transferring executive power into the hands of atamans. But there was one more feature here.
As mentioned above, during the campaign the ataman concentrated in his hands more than just administrative, i.e. executive power. His word was law, and his orders in the field of punishment for any offenses were not subject to discussion and could not be challenged, even the death penalty. All claims against the chieftain were postponed until later, i.e. upon returning from the campaign, after which he (the ataman) resigned his powers, became equal to everyone and was subject to the same jurisdiction as everyone else, and the Cossacks could again appeal to the Circle, which regained its powers, if they considered some of the ataman’s actions to be unfair or excessive.
The oldest in Russia is the Don Army. Officially established seniority, i.e. here it is appropriate to say “as if”, the beginning of the army dates back to 1570. Naturally, the history of the Cossacks has a much longer history. Without going into details of this issue (especially the fabulous part), we will say that the first serious mentions of the Cossacks appear at least in the 14th century, and were later associated with the structure of the south-eastern borders of the Ryazan principality.
List of Don atamans known from various sources from the 16th to the 20th centuries. employs more than 60 people. These are those whose names are included in the official history of the Don Army. And there were countless “informal” atamans who encouraged the Cossacks to “hunt for zipuns,” to various riots and uprisings against the authorities, to countless “thieves’” campaigns on Cossack rivers. During the Russian Troubles of the early 17th century. The Cossacks and the peasantry, who also wanted to become Cossacks, gave such a number of atamans that it is impossible to count. And it must be said that the principles of the organization of power, both among the “golutvenny” Cossacks and among the so-called “official” Cossacks, continued to remain unchanged.
Let's go through some personalities. In the Don Army, we note both unknown and internationally recognized atamans. Let's start with the 16th century, because... There are no Cossack atamans known by name before this. N.M. Karamzin, under 1549, we find information about a certain Saryazman, a Cossack ataman, who, by the way, was already with the army subjects of Ivan the Terrible, and so they “took possession of this river (Don) to the very mouth, demanded tribute from Azov, fought the Nogais, Astrakhan, Tavrida (Crimea); They did not spare the Turks either, they pledged to serve far away as a vigilant guard for Russia.”
Cossack from an early era with the head of a Nogai
And although little is known about the first Don ataman, he nevertheless ended up in the correspondence of the heads of state, the content of which largely shows the intensity of the relationship and the diplomatic conflicts that arose due to the actions of the Cossacks. In a letter of 1550 sent from the Nogai ruler Yusuf to Ivan the Terrible, it is said about Saryazaman: “Your servant, someone Saryazman says, on the Don they made cities in three and four places, and our ambassadors and people... are taken away, others are beaten to death...” Tsar Ivan replied that, “those robbers... live on the Don without our knowledge, they are running away from us. We sent more than once to catch them, but our people cannot catch them.” And then the king slyly suggested, they say, you are Yusuf, catch them yourself and come to Moscow, here we will execute this Saryazman with other thieves.
This point is very interesting. It is known that it is believed that the service of the Cossacks, in particular the Don Cossacks, to the Russian state begins precisely in the 16th century. under Ivan the Terrible. But this service was very unique. Until the 18th century the Don Cossacks were on equal terms with the Russian state. That is, there was no direct subordination of the Cossacks to tsarist power.
The Cossacks communicated with the Moscow kingdom on equal terms; their villages that visited Moscow essentially had diplomatic status. This happened because the central government, on the one hand, could not greatly influence the Cossacks, and on the other hand, was very interested in covering its southeastern borders from the Wild Field. That is why a very peculiar relationship has developed between Moscow and the Cossacks. The Cossacks, by oath, pledged to defend the borders of the Moscow state, for this the state paid a salary, bread, money and other material goods, for example, weapons supplies, which the Cossacks always had a shortage of, because Initially, they were not involved in farming.
The main occupation of the Cossacks was war. But the authorities did not meddle in the internal affairs of the Cossacks, which predetermined the further evolution of the Cossacks. It was initially very independent, unlike many other subjects of the king, they were personally free, had a sense of self-esteem in connection with this, and were also capable of self-organization.
True, the rarity of the use of the name of the first famous Don ataman by some researchers casts doubt on him himself. For example, E.P. Savelyev derives the name from the Iranian language, where “Saryazman” means “daring man.” There are other versions, but they already confirm the well-known point of view and only clarify it.
Just as the Cossacks are divided, in fact, into early Tatar and later synthesized from different peoples, so Saryazman may have been a Tatar or Russian, bearing a Tatar nickname. Both for the Moscow kingdom and for its friends and opponents, its Cossacks in general, and Saryazman in particular, were robbers, but for the Russian state they were “ours”, and therefore almost “good” robbers, and for others they were “alien”, “Moscow”, which means “bad”, “dashing” people. But, in fact, this is what always happens in big foreign policy. For us, the main thing is that in the 16th century. Finally the real name of the Cossack leader was heard. And his name was Saryazman.