Kiev Kazatchina

Kiev Kazatchina 

(Kozachchina), a broad antifeudal peasant movement that arose in the Ukraine in the spring of 1855.

The promulgation of the tsarist manifesto calling the militia to arms in the Crimean War (1853–56) caused a rumor to spread among the peasants that registration as cossacks in the militia would be rewarded by emancipation from serfdom. The peasants, demanding that they all be allowed to register as cossacks, ceased performing barshchina (corvée) labor. The unrest engulfed nine out of 12 districts in Kiev Province. Although local leaders emerged in some villages and small towns, such as the peasants I. Bernadskii, N. Bernadskii, and Ia. Romonovskii, the movement as a whole remained spontaneous. Military forces of considerable strength were dispatched against the peasants. In the villages of Bykova Greblia, Berezna, Besedka, and Sitniki and in the small towns of Korsun’ and Tagancha the peasants offered stubborn resistance. About 60 persons were killed, and more than 100 were wounded.

REFERENCES

Krest’ianskoe dvizhenie ν Rossii ν 1850–1856 (collection of documents). Moscow, 1962.
Linkov, Ia. I. Ocherki istorii krest’ianskogo dvizheniia ν Rossii ν 1825–1861 gg. Moscow, 1952.
Shamrai, S. Kyivs’ka kazachchyna 1855 r. Kiev, 1928.
Gurzhii, I. O. Borot’ba selian i robitnykiv Ukrainy proty feodal’no-kriposnyts’kogo gnitu (z 80-kh rokiv XVIII st. do 1861 r). Kiev, 1958.