When someone asks you what Sumy oblast is famous for, the first thing that comes to mind is the Witch of Konotip, celebrated in the famous novel by Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko. For historians, however, there are far more important things, like the Battle of Konotip that took place in the vicinity of the villages of Shapovalivka and Sosnivka. On June 27-29, 1659, a 40,000-strong Ukrainian Cossack host defeated the Russian tsar’s cavalry of 150,000 men.
To commemorate the valor of the Ukrainian knights, every year the residents of Konotip stage festivities commemorating this famous battle. Eight years ago, a new tradition was launched: the Kozatsky radoslav, a national Ukrainian festival of Cossack merry-making that is now held every year in Shapovalivka. This year’s festivities coincided with the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul (July 12).
TODAY’S COSSACKS ARE MODERN ROBIN HOODS
The festivities began with a Mass celebrated near the memorial sign on the site of the Battle of Konotip. The liturgy is always attended by the residents of Konotip, Shapovalivka, and neighboring villages. All the residents of Konotip consider it their duty to pay homage to the heroic Cossacks. After this year’s service, a group of elderly residents talked with some young people, explaining the significance of the battle and invited them to explore the local Konotip Battle Museum.
“The Cossack troops were led by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. After securing support from Khan Mehmed IV Giray and the Polish duke Andrzej Wysocki’s, the hetman took on Russia’s cavalry, one of the strongest in the world. Historians are still divided on which factor helped Vyhovsky defeat the enemy: Tatar and Polish support or the Cossack spirit.
“However, no one denies the fact that the Battle of Konotip was the most spectacular military event of the 17th century,” this year’s guests were told by freelance artist Lina Halanzovska, who loves Ukrainian history and has studied it all her life. “The rout of the troops of the Russian empire, which was destroying the spirit and ideology of various nationalities, is a golden page in Ukrainian history. The Battle of Konotip was Hetman Vyhovsky’s first attempt to rid Ukraine of tsarist rule.”
To lend the festivities a Cossack atmosphere, the organizers fired a replica of 17th-century cannon reproduced by local craftsmen on the basis of historical data. However, the residents of Konotip were looking forward to the start of the modern-day Cossacks’ military baptism. Cossack officers of the Krolevets Company gathered at the headquarters of the Ukrainian Cossack Baturyn Regiment to admit several new Cossacks to their ranks.
“Forget not your native land, respect your parents and the community,” intoned the company commander, Otaman Oleksandr Kravchenko, while applying his lash to the back of a recruit who was kneeling on one knee (so he would better remember his oath of allegiance).
Then the newly admitted Cossacks kissed the cross held out by a priest and went through the ritual of baptism by the sword. The Cossack captain placed the sword on left and right shoulders of each recruit. This marked the end of the initiation ceremony.
Not everyone can become a Cossack. According to Otaman Kravchenko, you must first have a burning desire to join a Cossack company. A candidate must also pursue a knightly lifestyle by doing good deeds, like protecting the poor and helping people in need — in other words, acting like a latter-day Robin Hood. The Otaman explained that another admission requirement is at least two references from the future knight’s friends.
In order to strengthen camaraderie between a veteran Cossack and a newly admitted recruit, the Krolevets Company members shared a lunch with their guests. Kulish, a gruel that is believed to be the main sustenance of the Cossacks, was cooked and served by Cossack women called berehynias (protectresses of the hearth), who have been admitted to the Cossack company.
MERRY-MAKING IN KONOTIP
After the baptism of fire and the tasty kulish the guests were invited to the festival, which featured performances by several dozen folk groups from all over Sumy oblast and neighboring regions. The folk songs and dances were a fitting reminder of the valorous Cossack spirit.
Small Cossack combat units ( kurins ) had been set up on both sides of the stage. Each kurin represented a certain village in Sumy oblast. Girls were cooking lunch for their Cossacks in the kurin called Cossack Republic. In Sosnivka Courtyard women were showing off their rushnyky , Ukrainian embroidered runners. In the Nalyvaiko Kurin elderly women were singing ancient Cossack songs. Most of the guests drifted over to the Dukhanivka Kurin, where an old woman was working on a spinning jenny, spinning threads.
“It’s best to spin flax and hemp threads. But they don’t allow us to plant hemp on our private plots, so I use wool,” said Nadia Dyshkovets, a resident of the village of Dukhanivka. “I started spinning when I was 10 years old. I learned how to do this from my mother and my granny. It’s too bad that the spindle and distaff that were once used have long disappeared. The machine I use isn’t new; I bought it 50 years ago. In fact, spinning is a rare phenomenon in the countryside, although home-spun threads are excellent for household use: they are sturdy and hard to rip.”
Such threads would be indispensable in any Cossack household, so Nadia Dyshkovets gladly presented several balls of thread to the modern Cossacks.
Since I was in the land where the story of the Witch of Konotip had been conceived, I couldn’t help asking whether the locals believe in the witch’s existence.
“Our grandmothers told us that there were women in their village who would steal into other villagers’ barns and milk their cows,” said Valentyna Holovatenko, a resident of Shapovalivka.
To tell the truth, few people are interested in the witch, and the people of Konotip prefer to talk about a more important subject, the anniversary of the Battle of Konotip. That is a historically established fact, whereas the existence of the witch character in Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s fictional work has yet to be proved.
The Battle of Konotip (also known as the Battle of Sosnivka) was fought between a large Muscovite force and a Cossack host led by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. In 1659 a large tsarist army (over 150,000 officers and men) under Aleksei Trubetskoi’s command, invaded Ukraine. Trubetskoi tried to take Konotip by siege but failed. The siege lasted from April 21 until June 29. On June 29, almost all of the 30,000 troops under the command of Pozharsky, who had been sent by Trubetskoi to engage Vyhovsky, were smashed near the village of Sosnivka. Pozharsky, the princes Lvov, Liapunov, Buturlin, Skuratov, Kurakin, and others were taken prisoner. When he learned about Pozharsky’s shattering defeat, Trubetskoi ordered Romodanovsky to retreat from Konotip. Late that evening he began to withdraw his troops from Ukraine. Hryhorii Hulianytsky and his troops left Konotip and attacked Trubetskoi’s retreating army, seizing a large number of artillery pieces.
