History of Cherkasy Oblast
The History of Cherkasy Oblast (Ukrainian: Черкаська область, translit. Cherkas’ka oblast’; also referred to as Cherkashchyna - Ukrainian: Черкащина) of central Ukraine has a long history spanning all the way back to Pre-historic times. Archaeological discoveries, have shown that people have inhabited the valley of the Dnieper (Dnipro) River since the times immemorial. The oldest objects excavated on the territory of the region date back to the Stone Age – the Palaeolithic period.
Prehistory and early history
More than 40 thousand years ago, the primitive inhabitants of the region used flint and bones of gigantic animals (mammoths, fleecy rhinoceroses, and bisons) as tools for land-tilling and bunting. The remnants of that epoch were found at the archaeological site by the village Velyka Burimka of the Chornobaivskyi Raion. In the village of Mezhirich, Kanivskyi Raion, a mammoth bunters settlement was discovered, dating back to 2000–1500 B.C. Its contemporary – a bison bunters settlement – was found in the village of Hordashivka of the Talnivskyi Raion.
More than six thousand years ago, Cucuteni-Trypillian culture settlements were built in the western part of the region in the Talnivskyi, Umanskyi, and Mankivskyi Raions. As one of the most significant societies of ancient Europe, scholars state that the level of the socio-economic development of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture can be compared to that of the Ancient East, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The Cucuteni-Trypillian people practiced plowing and cattle-breeding, created highly developed ceramics (they are known for their elaborately-decorated pottery), textile weaving, and other crafts.
Cucuteni-Trypillian settlements were laid out in oval or circular patterns, with rows of often interconnecting single and two-storeyed dwellings. The largest of these settlements, some of which are located in this region, contained about 15 – 20 thousand inhabitants, making them some of the largest settlements in the world at that time. There is evidence that Cucuteni-Trypillian people believed in natural phenomena, were animistic, and worshiped the images of sun and moon, water and animals. There is also speculation that they practised the Goddess Cult, as is evidenced by the numerous ceramic female statuettes that seem to have been honoured as symbols of fertility and prosperity.
The Scythians who lived on the territory of the left-bank Ukraine left more than a hundred of protowns, settlements and funeral mounds, the largest of which were located in the valley of the Tiasmyn River – Pastyrske, Sharpivske, Buda-Makyivske, and Motronynske. The Scythians were involved in active trading with the Black Sea Greek colonies, from as early as the 7th century B.C. Scythian settlement ruins still remain near the Vasiutyntsi and Krytky villages of Chornobaivskyi Raion. The so-called Golden Scythians roamed throughout the forest steppe of the region with their countless herds of cattle and horses. In 1996 a world-famous discovery was made of a rich horde of golden grave goods and ornaments in a burial mound of a nameless Scythian chief near the village of Ryzhanivka in Zvenyhorodskyi Raion.
At the beginning of the 1st century A.D., the region appeared to be at the heart of the old-Slavonic tribes formation. The mighty Ant tribes, who lived on this territory in the 5-7th centuries A.D., are considered to be the forefathers of Ukrainian nation. The valuables found at the Porossia archaeological site prove the high-level development of their civilization. The constant threat of aggression from the South made them built walls and fortifications. Some of them (as Zmiyovyi) still stretch snakelike for hundred kilometres along the Dnieper, Ros' and Sula River's right and left banks, reaching 10 metres height at some places.
Kievan Rus'
At the times of Kievan Rus', the borderline region played the role of an important military fortpost. The region had not only favourable climate for agriculture but a convenient geographic position as well. From here, one could easily control the old waterway "from Vikings to Greeks" (Grechnyk) and its hard-land branch Zalozhnyi Shlyah (Zalozhnyk), that went along the left bank of the Dnieper River. A well-known Solonyi Shlyah stretched along the Dnieper's right bank.
During the 10-13th centuries A.D., the cities of Voin, Roden, Kaniv, Korsun (now Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi) Zheld, Pisochen, and Zarub combined the functions of military fortresses and trade, crafts and cultural centres. In year 1144, the Grand Prince of Kiev Vsevolod II laid the foundation of Uspenskyi Cathedral in Kaniv. Old-Rus' manuscripts also mention the Zarubskyi Monastery (1147) – an important centre of religious life in Ukraine. The treasure found by the village Sachnivka of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Raion showed the high level of goldsmith craft, developed in Kievan Rus'.
Mongol-Tartar invasion hampered economic and cultural development of the whole country, laying waste cities and villages of Cherkasy region. Some of them – Voin’, Roden’, Zheld’, Pisochen’ – never came to life.
But no invasion can stop the economic and cultural revival of this fertile land. People gradually returned to old ruins, bringing life and new hope with them. And in the year of 1305 the city of Cherkasy was first mentioned in Hustynskyi Manuscript together with Kiev, Kaniv, Zhytomyr, and Ovruch.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
At the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, having escaped the Mongol-Tartars, progressed its expansion on the former Kievan Rus' lands. When in 1362, Great Prince Olgerd destroyed the Mongol army in the battle at Synya Vodanow, the territory of Cherkasy region and the city itself admitted the Lithuanian authority.
From then Cherkasy, Kaniv, and Zvenyhorodka became district cities and important military points in the defense line on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's southern border. To set better defense against the newly created Crimean Khanate (1449), vassal Tartars and Caucasians were invited to serve and to live in Cherkasy and Kaniv neighbourhood.
The life on the border was especially dangerous because of the constant Tartar sorties, with their traditional route along the Hnylyi Tikych River (Chornyi Shlyach) and the other-through Uman. In 1483, Cherkasy first challenged the army of a mighty Tartar chan Menhli-Hirey, and in less than 15 years prince Kostyantyn of Ostroh got the glorious victory at Uman River. When in 1532, the enemy took the fortress of Cherkasy into siege, they couldn't break the resistance of its defenders. No matter how dangerous the region might be, its rich lands and deposits drew the attention of numerous migrants and runaways. The ever-present threat of Tartar o Turkey invasions as well the national and religious pressure of the Polish nobility (which took the place of the Lithuanian one in the 16th century) were the key factors, that triggered the formation of a special social layer – the Cossacks.
Yet in 1533, Cherkasy hetman Ostafiy Dashkovich proposed to build a fortress on one of the islands behind the Dnipro cascade to prevent the Tartar raids. His idea was put into life only in the mid of the 16th century by another Cherkasy and Kaniv headman prince Bayda Vyshnevetskyi, who built the fortification on the island Mala Chortytsya – the prototype of the legendary Zaporozhian Sich. The Lithuanian-Polish period was marked by the land concentration in the hands of nobility and the introduction of the frillwork system, that presupposed turning peasants into serfs. The wheat grown on Ukrainian fields and the potash produced out of Ukrainian wood were the main sources of the feudal prosperity. In cities industry specialization trigged the emergence of first trade unions called Tsekhy. At last in 1584 the Magdeburg Law was granted to Korsun’, in 1592 – to Chyhyryn, and in 1600 – to Kaniv.
The increase of feudal pressure caused a series of Cossack-peasantry rebels headed by K. Kosynsky (1591–1593), S. Nalyvayko (1594–1594), M. Zhmaylo (1625), T. Fedorovych (1630), I. Sulyma (1635), P. Pavlyuk (1637), D. Hunya (1637–1638), and Y. Ostryanyna (1638).
In 1648, at the very beginning of the Liberation War the people of Cherkasy were unanimous in their support of their prominent leader – Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. The administrative division into districts was substituted by the military division into regiments. Thus, there appeared Chyhyryn, Cherkasy, Kaniv, Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Uman, Kropyvyansk, and Lysianka regiments that performed duties of the administrative and military units. Cherkasy region became the centre of political life in Ukraine. Hetman's residence in Chyhyryn was the port of destination for Russian, Polish, Turkish, and Swedish ambassadors. It was the place where hetman signed more than 300 Bills (Universals), defining the strategic lines of Ukrainian Cossack State home foreign politics.
Bohdan Khmelnytskyi’s death in 1657 made impossible the very existence of the independent state and put an end to people’s aspirations. Andrusivskyi treaty of 1667 and "Eternal Peace" treaty signed by Russia and Poland in 1686 split Ukraine into parts along the Dnieper River. The left-bank part of Cherkashchyna was given to the Russian Empire, its right-bank part – to Poland. In the history of the right-bank Ukraine, this period is known as the Ruin.
The century to follow was characterized by social and national oppression of Ukrainian peasantry that resulted in numerous revolts and culminated in Koliivshchyna – the Haydamaka upraise under the leadership of M. Zaliznyak, I. Honta, Y. Shelest.
The right-bank Ukraine was reunited to the left-bank after the final collapse of Poland. Thus, there appeared five new districts of Poltava region as well as five new districts of Kiev region, namely Zvenyhorodka, Kaniv, Uman, Cherkasy and Chyhyryn districts. Their population was split into 5 social layers: nobility, philistine, cossacks, serfs and state peasants.