Cossack, Russian Kazak“Zaporozhian Cossacks” [Credit: Novosti
Press Agency](from Turkic kazak, “adventurer,” or “free man”),
member of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the
Black and Caspian seas. They had a tradition of independence and
finally received privileges from the Russian government in
return for military services. Originally (in the 15th century)
the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups, which formed
in the Dnieper region; the term was also applied (by the end of
the 15th century) to peasants who had fled from serfdom in
Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy to the Dnieper and Don regions,
where they established free, self-governing military
communities. In the 16th century there were six major Cossack
hosts: the Don, the Greben (in Caucasia), the Yaik (on the
middle Ural River), the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Zaporozhian
(mainly west of the Dnieper).  Polish kings in the early 16th
century began to organize the Zaporozhian Cossacks into military
colonies to protect Poland’s bord