 The vast, scarcely populated areas of what is now Ukraine (the name itself could be translated as "Borderlands") had been attracting all sorts of people, from adventurers to brigands, foreign merchants, landless gentry and runaway serfs.Over time a certain common identity started to form among them, giving birth to the Cossacks.The Republic tried to strengthen control over those lands by creating the so-called Cossack registry, a small yet well-trained and well-equipped unit formed of local folk, tasked above all with policing and peace-keeping duties in the Kiev Voivodeship, and most importantly in the so-called Wild Fields.