Black Cossacks?

Factual Questions
1

This painting by Jozef Brandt seems to depict a black Cossack on the far left.

I’ve read that Cossack tribes often had members of diverse ethnicities - as well as Russians and Ukrainians they also had among their ranks Poles, Georgians, Greeks, Serbs, Turks, various Central Asian nationalities and even a few Jews. But how would one of their regiments have picked up a black man?

The guy in that picture looks distinctly African in origin, as opposed to a very dark-skinned Mongol, Arab or something like that which would seem to have been more likely to be found among Cossacks.

Does anyone know what the story is with this?

2

Just a WAG, but the Cossacks lived in Southern Russia and would have come into contact with the Northern edge of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire spread all the way down to the Horn of Africa, so it within the realms of possibility that the guy in the picture was at one time in the employ of Constantinople and changed sides at some point.

3

I don’t think that he looks African in origin, except the dark skin.

4

He does look like many pictures of “blackamoors” of that period, though. My WAG is the same as Tapioca’s, contact with the Ottoman empire.

5

Ilya Repin’s famous painting, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, seems to display some darker skinned individuals towards the left.
(I so would not want to piss these guys off!)

6

That’s one of my all time favorite paintings. The guys on the left look more like Mongols or other Central Asian warriors.

Some people don’t know what that painting is about.

In 1676, the Zaporozhian Cossacks battled the Ottoman Turks. Even though they had defeated the Turks, the Sultan for some reason insisted that they formally submit to Ottoman rule. I don’t know why on earth a leader who was getting defeated militarily would make such a request to the guys who had the upper hand, but that’s what he did. Maybe he had been smoking hashish when he wrote that. In any case, the Cossacks drafted a very official response to the Sultan’s request:

*Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

You, turkish devil and damned devil’s brother and friend, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can’t slay a hedgehog with his naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we’ve no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.

You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, Armenian pig, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig’s snout, mare’s arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won’t even be herding Christian pigs. Now we’ll conclude, for we don’t know the date and don’t own a calendar; the moon’s in the sky, the year in the book, the day’s the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
*
This has to be the all-time best written response to another nation in the history of diplomatic relations.

7

It’s one of mine, too-I love Repin. I loved his painting of Ivan the Terrible when he murdered his son. Or The Grand Duke Choosing His Bride, or Sadko.

Okay, back on topic.

8

Well, gosh. That explains the mirth and glee. (Fascinating stuff!)

9

It was the end phase of part of a greater war between Poland and the Ottomans ( that also involved disputes betwen Moscovy and Poland over ruler ship over the Cossacks ). The Cossacks in that period tended to divide into various factions that struggled for supremacy and an anti-Muscovite Hetman, Peter Doroshenko, hard pressed by his rivals, acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty in 1666. This wasn’t popular among his followers and he steadily lost ground thereafter. Nonetheless the offer was made and the Ottomans and their Crimean Tatar vassals campaigned in support of him.

In the series of wars that followed, the Ottomans generally won the advantage. The Poles under Sobieski did quite well, but lack of resources hamstrung his efforts. Despite battlefield victories the Poles were unable to prevent an overall loss. They forced a less disadvantageous peace in 1676, than had been signed a few years earlier. But it still entailed a net loss of territory to the Ottomans. Or in other words, the Ottomans lost many off the battles, but won the war.

Given that, the fact that in the revised treaty they no longer held the Polish section of the Zaporzhe and Doroshenko’s previous kow-towing, it was not surprising that the Sultan made the offer. Why not :)? And it is not surprising the Cossacks refused.

10

Family anecdote: My father is Ukrainian, and his winter coloring is a bit darker/redder than the average ‘White’ to my American sense of caucasian coloring. With his nose it reminds me of Native American.

Spend time summer fishing, and yes, he tans to a very very dark tone browner than many African Americans. I’ve always assumed mongol/asian genetic influences.

11

Well, Pushkin was the descendant of a black man who’d been a general in Peter the Great’s army. I wouldn’t say there was anything impossible about a black Cossack.

On a listserv I used to frequent, someone once made an offhand comment about the millions of African slaves in Czarist Russia. I didn’t think to ask for a cite, and have never been able to find anything more on the subject. If true, runaway slaves would make a fine source of black Cossacks.

12

Found this: Succeed.Net Broadband Internet and VOIP services - SUCCEED.NET

13

That’s quite interesting, thanks. It doesn’t seem to support the “millions” of my informant (or at least my memory), but it would indicate that there were more blacks in Russia than one would assume from a casual guess.