Yesaul
Encyclopedia
- For the town in Armenia, see OvuniOvuniOvuni is a town in the Shirak Province of Armenia....
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Yesaul, or Osaul ( jɪsɐˈul), (from Turkic yasaul - chief), a post
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
and a rank
Military rank
Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines. Usually, uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms...
in the Ukrainian and Russian Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
units.
The first records of the rank imply that it was introduced by Stefan Batory
Stefan Batory
Stephen Báthory was a Hungarian noble Prince of Transylvania , then King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania . He was a member of the Somlyó branch of the noble Hungarian Báthory family...
, King of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in 1576.
Cossacks in Russia
There were different yesaul posts and ranks in Cossack HostCossack host
A Cossack host or Cossack viysko was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Imperial Russia...
s in Imperial Russia:
- Генеральный есаул (Generalny yesaul) - General Yesaul
- Походный есаул (Pokhodny yesaul) - CampaignMilitary campaignIn the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war...
Yesaul - Войсковой есаул (Voiskovoy yesaul) - ArmyCossack hostA Cossack host or Cossack viysko was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Imperial Russia...
Yesaul - Полковой есаул (Polkovoy yesaul) - RegimentRegimentA regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
al Yesaul - Артиллерийский есаул (Artilleriysky yesaul) - ArtilleryArtilleryOriginally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
Yesaul - Сотенный есаул (Sotenny yesaul) - Company Yesaul (commander of a sotniaSotniaSotnia was a traditional division of the Cossack regiments. For example from earliest records of the Zaporizhian Sich, and means 'a hundred'. It is equivalent to company ....
) - Станичный есаул (Stanichny yesaul) - Yesaul of a stanitsaStanitsaStanitsa is a village inside a Cossack host . Stanitsas were the primary unit of Cossack hosts.Historically, the stanitsa was a unit of economic and political organisation of the Cossack peoples primarily in the southern regions of the Russian Empire.Much of the land was held in common by the...
Cossack Hetmanate
In Ukraine of 17th and 18th centuries osaul was a military and administrative official performing the duties of aide-de-campAide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
. The head of state, hetman, would appoint up to two osauls known as a General Osaul. There also was a Regimental Osaul as well as Company Osaul, with each regular cossack regiment and company except artillery having two of each. Beside them there were osauls under special assignments one of them serving for General Obozny (quartermaster) who performed duties of a chief executive and was the second in importance after Hetman.
General Osaul
A senior officer of a Hetmanate cossack army who was a member of the general officer staff.Duties
- supervising army's condition
- leading large detachments (wartime)
- managing muster rolls
- directing the army engineers
- commanding mercenary troops
- sometimes serving as an acting hetman
Other duties consisted of being a hetman's envoy, supervised matters of internal security, conducted annual regimental musters and inspections. Among the notorious osauls were Petro Doroshenko
Petro Doroshenko
Petro Dorofeyevych Doroshenko was a Cossack political and military leader, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine and a Russian voyevoda.-Earlier life:...
, Demian Mnohohrishny
Demian Mnohohrishny
Demian Mnohohrishny was the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine from 1669 to 1672. See The Ruin His surname literally means "of many sins"....
, Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa , Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, from 1687–1708. He was famous as a patron of the arts, and also played an important role in the Battle of Poltava where after learning of Peter I's intent to relieve him as acting Hetman of Ukraine and replace him...
, and Ivan Skoropadsky
Ivan Skoropadsky
Ivan Skoropadsky was a Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and the successor to the famous Hetman Ivan Mazepa.- Biography:...
.
In 1798–1800 after the liquidation of Zaporizhian Host, the rank of osaul was equated with the ranks of rittmeister
Rittmeister
Rotamaster was the military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in charge of a squadron , the equivalent of O3 or Captain, in the German-speaking armies, Austro-Hungarian, Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and some other states.The exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spellings in different...
in cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and captain
Captain (OF-2)
The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...
in infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
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