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Great Khortytsia Island ( Khortitsa) is a large island on the Dnieper which played a vital role in the history of Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
. The island, situated within the modern industrial city of Zaporizhia
Zaporizhia

Zaporizhia is a city in south-central Ukraine, which rests on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the Capital city of the Zaporizhia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zaporizkyi Raion within the oblast....
 in the Kakhovka Reservoir
Kakhovka Reservoir

The Kakhovka Reservoir is a reservoir located on the Dnieper River. It covers a total surface area of 2,155 square kilometres in the territories of the Kherson Oblast, Zaporizhia Oblast, and the Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts of Ukraine....
 and extending from northwest to southeast for more than twelve kilometers, has an average width of 2,500 meters.






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Khortytsya From Space
Great Khortytsia Island ( Khortitsa) is a large island on the Dnieper which played a vital role in the history of Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
. The island, situated within the modern industrial city of Zaporizhia
Zaporizhia

Zaporizhia is a city in south-central Ukraine, which rests on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the Capital city of the Zaporizhia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zaporizkyi Raion within the oblast....
 in the Kakhovka Reservoir
Kakhovka Reservoir

The Kakhovka Reservoir is a reservoir located on the Dnieper River. It covers a total surface area of 2,155 square kilometres in the territories of the Kherson Oblast, Zaporizhia Oblast, and the Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts of Ukraine....
 and extending from northwest to southeast for more than twelve kilometers, has an average width of 2,500 meters. There are oak groves, spruce woods, meadows, and steppe
Steppe

In physical geography, a steppe , pronounced , is a grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with Poaceae or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude....
.

History


Zaporizhia
Zaporizhia

Zaporizhia is a city in south-central Ukraine, which rests on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the Capital city of the Zaporizhia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zaporizkyi Raion within the oblast....
 takes its name from the nine Dnieper cataracts, which were leveled in the 1930s, when the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station
Dnieper Hydroelectric Station

The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station is the largest hydroelectric power station in Ukraine and was the largest in Europe at the time of its construction....
 was constructed immediately upstream. Only granite cliffs, rising to the height of 50 meters, testify to the original rocky terrain of the site. Great Khortytsya has been continuously inhabited during the last five millennia or so. Other islands in the immediate vicinity also contain indications of intensive occupation during the Proto-Indo-European and Scythian periods. The island of Malaya Khortytsia is known for its Scythian remains and a derelict Cossack fortress. The islet of Serednyi Stih (to the northeast of Khortytsya), excavated during construction of the hydroelectric station in 1927, gave its name to the Sredny Stog culture
Sredny Stog culture

The Sredny Stog culture dates from the 5th millennium BC-3500 BC. It was situated just north of the Sea of Azov between the Dnieper and the Don River, Russia....
.

In the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 to 1000....
, Great Khortytsya was a key station on the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks

The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine....
. In his treatise De Administrando Imperio
De Administrando Imperio

De Administrando Imperio is the commonly used Latin title of a scholarly work written in Greek language, by the 10th-century Byzantine emperor Constantine VII....
, Emperor Constantine VII
Constantine VII

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" , was the son of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise and his fourth wife Zoe Karbonopsina....
 mentions a certain island of St. George immediately downstream from the rapids. He reports that, while passing through the cataracts, the Rus would be easy prey for the nomadic Pechenegs
Pechenegs

The Pechenegs or Patzinaks were a nomad Turkic peoples people of the Central Asian steppes speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Turkic languages....
. Indeed, the Rus' leader Svyatoslav I was attacked and killed during his attempt to cross the rapids in 972.

Starting from the 16th century, a Cossack
Cossack

The term Cossacks is applied to specific militaristic communities of various ethnicities living in the southern steppe regions of Ukraine and Russia....
 stronghold on Khortytsia formed the core of the network of forts, which comprised the Zaporizhian Sich
Zaporizhian Sich

Zaporizhian Sich original Ukrainian language name "Zaporizhska Sich'" was the center of the Zaporozhian Cossacks which was located on the Dnieper River in the Zaporizhia region of present-day Ukraine....
. The stronghold on Khortytsia was established by the Ukrainian magnate Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetsky
Dmytro Vyshnevetsky

Dmytro Ivanovych Vyshnevetsky was a Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks the Zaporozhian Host. Dmytro Vyshnevetsky was born into the powerful Ruthenian magnate Wisniowiecki family , and lived in the town of Vyshnivets of the Kremenets Powiat ....
. It was there that the Cossacks would elect their hetman
Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second highest military commander used in 15th to 18th century Poland, Ukraine and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, known from 1569 to 1795 as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
s. It was also there that they wrote the notorious reply to the Ottoman Sultan
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire is a famous painting by the Russian artist Ilya Repin. The 3.58 m by 2.03 m canvas was started in 1880 and not finished until 1891....
. By the 18th century, the Sich had been subjugated by the Russians, who built new fortifications for the wars they waged against the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
.

In 1789, Dutch Mennonites from Prussia were invited by the czar to form settlements on the vast steppes of the empire. One of these settlements was located on the island of Khortytsia. They farmed on the rich island soil until 1914 when their land was expropriated to become a national park. To this day private homes are discouraged and it is still a park.

Museum

Dneproges Khortitsa
Nowadays, Khortysia is designated a national museum. The rural landscape of the island features the Zaporizhian Cossack
Zaporozhian Host

The Zaporozhian Cossacks were Cossacks who lived in Zaporizhia , in Central Ukraine. The Zaporozhian Host grew rapidly in the 15th century by serfs fleeing the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth....
 Museum
Museum

A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and entertainment", as defined by the International Coun...
 and a Cossack horse show. The museum building is modern, nestling low in the landscape with dramatic views of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station
Dnieper Hydroelectric Station

The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station is the largest hydroelectric power station in Ukraine and was the largest in Europe at the time of its construction....
 to the north.

The museum contains exhibits dating from the Stone Age through the Scythian period (c.750 - 250 BC) down to the 20th century, including a model of the Pecheneg ambush which claimed the life of Svyatoslav in 972 and a panorama representing the Battle for Zaporizhia, fought during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 on October 14, 1943.

Bibliography

  • Jana Bürgers: "Mythos und Museum. Kosakenmythos und Nationsbildung in der postsowjetischen Ukraine am Beispiel des Kosakengeschichtsmuseums auf der Insel Chortycja." In: Bianka Pietrow-Ennker (Hg.): Kultur in der Geschichte Russlands. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006. ISBN 3-525-36293-5
  • Christian Ganzer: Sowjetisches Erbe und ukrainische Nation. Das Museum der Geschichte des Zaporoger Kosakentums auf der Insel Chortycja. Mit einem Vorwort von Frank Golczewski. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2005 (Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, vol. 19). ISBN 3-89821-504-0


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