#cossacks

[ltwilliammowett]

Zaporozhian Cossacks in chaika boats attacking Turkish galleys in the Black Sea. Original held in British Library, London.

Original title: Sloane 3584 f.78v Turkish galleys in battle, c.1636

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Cossack embroidery from 18th century Ukraine. X

[illustratus]

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks — by Ilya Repin

[parasolyaa]

the 2010s culture of weirdly entertaining queerbaity shows is alive in ukraine of all places. if you ever yearn for merlin-esque vibes, let me introduce you to this show called “cossacks. the fairy tale that never was”, also known as “cossacks. an absolutely phoney story”, “cossacks. a totally fake tale” and “cossacks. an absolutely fake story” (they never decided on a title translation and just kept coming up with more). it’s a clearly underbudgeted ukrainian historical show that came out in 2020, and it has everything. rivals to “are they lovers? worse” male leads with homoerotic tension, who either try to kill one another or call each other petnames. a girl who lives in her medieval ukrainian version of the truman show and gets caught up in a shitty love triangle. a 4’10 wizard who can turn into a shark (he just doesn’t want to). tragic siblings. poisoning as a love language. the main ship is called wolfborshch. one of the scriptwriters seems to have vanished from the earth, i can’t find any info on him anywhere.

this show is frustratingly entertaining. it has a VERY badly dubbed trailer on youtube, and there are all the episodes in original too. the subbed version is on netflix (might need ukrainian vpn, not sure tho) and some other platforms i didn’t know existed before. i’m not saying you should watch it, it is a mediocre show, but i am saying it would be very funny if it suddenly gained a fandom. me, the gal who’s been making thirst traps of nazar and ivan on tiktok and like three other people would be incredibly pleased

[nunothekitten]

I finally did what I wanted to do for so long RENDOG DANCING HOPAK. I'VE COMBINED MY LOVE FOR UKRAINIAN CULTURE AND MY FAVOURITE DOG GUY AND SMASHED THEM IN ONE DRAWING i feel complete. i never felt better. this is the culmination of my existance. i can die peacefully now.

(watch this and tell me it's not the type of dance ren would do. it's his entire vibe pLEASE I'm sobbing /pos)

[uwmspeccoll]

Ruthenian (Ukrainian) Folk Tales

This beautifully-illustrated 1916 collection of folk tales from what we now know as western Ukraine, entitled Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, published in London by George G. Harrap & Co., was originally translated into English in 1894 by Robert Nisbet Bain (1854-1909), a British Museum historian and remarkable linguist who reportedly worked with more than twenty languages. Bain was not only a translator but also a prolific writer on folklore and cultures of Eastern Europe, and a contributor of numerous biographical entries to the Encyclopædia Britannica. In his introduction to these tales, he notes that the stories were translated from “Ruthenian”—an older exonym for a language that would later become modern Ukrainian—and drawn from major folklore collections by Panteleimon Kulish (1819-1897), Ivan Rudchenko (1845-1905), and Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841-1895). 

The tales themselves follow the wonderfully unpredictable logic of folk storytelling: a mysterious sack that produces food, a ram that gives gold, and (my personal favorite) a drum that summons henchmen to deliver justice to the wicked. This pattern of magical objects restoring balance appears across European folklore—the Grimm story The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack is a close relative. 

Other stories reflect traditional beliefs about everyday caution and unseen dangers. In tales like The Story of Little Tsar Novishny, the False Sister, and the Faithful Beasts and The Vampire and St. Michael, small acts of carelessness—such as drinking from a river or bathing without precaution—can bring unexpected trouble. Folklore, as always, reminds us that the natural world is powerful, unpredictable, and worthy of respect. 

This 1916 edition is especially striking for its illustrations by Noel Laura Nisbet (1887–1956), a British painter and illustrator sometimes called “the last Pre-Raphaelite.” Her decorative, dreamlike style captures the atmosphere of these stories perfectly. The characters are imagined in richly detailed, medieval-inspired European dress—quite different from traditional Ukrainian costume—yet the result is a beautiful and magical visual blend. This fusion of Western medieval fantasy and East European folklore creates a world that feels timeless and perfectly suited to the language of fairy tales: half historical, half imagined, and entirely enchanting. 

View more posts with Fairy Tales.

-- Kate, Special Collections Art History Graduate Fieldworker

[songs-of-the-east]

Bayda (1968) - Hryhoriy Synytsia

Bayda, the legendary figure in Ukrainian folklore, is based on the historical Dmytro Vyshnevetsky, a 16th-century Ruthenian noble and military leader who founded the first Cossack fortress on Khortytsia Island, laying the groundwork for the Zaporizhian Sich. Though a real figure, he was transformed in Ukrainian dumy (epic songs) into a heroic Cossack warrior who defied the Ottoman Sultan, refused to abandon his faith when offered to marry the Sultan's daughter, and was martyred in captivity. Hung on a hook and tortured, Baida remains defiant until death, symbolizing unbreakable spirit and the fight for freedom of the Cossacks. Through this legend, he became a lasting emblem of Cossack bravery and Ukrainian resistance to tyranny.

[pelaajanifta]

seems like i'm never getting over Дегтярьов...