Cossack military and political education - that's what is to be attacked

On the direct question - what is a Sich, there is a direct answer - it is a verb meaning action with the use of force: to cut with a blow, with a swing, to cut. Hence the derivative - a clearing, a road cut through with an ax - which in Old Russian sounded like "Sichovo".

The emergence of one of the names of Cossack settlements

Obviously, the word "cut" implies the surgical accuracy of the work performed - cut off, cut off. That is, to do everything as accurately and quickly as possible. Probably, this feature gave a new shade to this word - to mark in the modern understanding does not at all mean to make a notch. It means someone to note, note.

The derivative word from this verb is the noun "cut", denoting the Cossack camp. The Cossacks, who settled the islands of the Dnieper channels, formed after the rapids, were mostly runaway people. Their dwellings, smoking, were made as far as they could inaccessible. Protection was provided with palisades with pointed (pointed) ends on one side. Obviously, the idea to use the word "cut" for the name of the Cossack settlements was born then, although at that time other designations of the parking lots were used alongside it - the town dweller, the palanca and the kosh. The first word is translated from Turkish as a fort or redoubt, the second denotes a settlement of Cossacks, consisting of 38 kurens and headed by an ataman-koshevym. Palanca later somehow did not get accustomed, maybe because the name is still Turkish, that the Cossacks did not really like. Kosh meant a small settlement.

Administrative structure of the settlement

The fortified Cossack capital, the center, where all the atamans of the atamas gathered - that's what it's like to sich. Time passed, and fortified points turned into fortresses, into bases for repelling Tatar raids, into military-administrative units, built according to all the rules of fortification art. In the center there was a square for Cossack gatherings, then kureni (administrative unit of several families with its ataman), warehouses and arsenals, bakeries and food stalls, gun workshops and, of course, the church. All was filled with a fortress wall and a moat and a high earthen rampart. The first mention of what a sech, refer to the year 1530.

Location of Zaporizhzhya Sich

On the lands between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug, in the area of present-day Dnepropetrovsk, the first settlements of the Cossacks were built. The formation of the first large settlement is associated with the name of Dmitry Vishnevetsky, who built the fortified area to attack the Crimean Khanate . On the island of Malaya Khortitsa, the first wooden and land castle was erected, which together with the adjoining territory became known as Khortitskaya Sich, which became the center of the Cossack state. His capital was postponed several times, and several of its names are known, and the territories occupied by it were also changed. By the time the last Cossack land was formed, the Cossack troops were approaching the size of what was then England, located on the islands. This was already a powerful socio-political entity called Zaporizhzhya Sich, whose customs and customs fully corresponded to the military-administrative, republican structure of this Cossack state. The government was elected.

Romance of the Zaporozhye Sich

She herself, her customs and customs were described in detail by N. Gogol in the story "Taras Bulba". With the territorial arrangement, his sons Andrey and Ostap get acquainted with the first minutes of arrival. There were few laws and customs here, but they were tough. Probably, this is the only way this education could survive in the conditions of constant military confrontation. The most severe was the law applied to murderers. He was put in a dug grave and dropped the coffin with the body of the victim on it, then they were dug in both. With thieves, too, not very ceremonious. They were chained to a pole, they left a club nearby for anyone who wanted to strike. They were often hammered to death. The chained debtors were not fed, did not drink until the moment of redemption. It was believed that this is how the real Cossack character is forged. Military valor, the high concept of friendship and service to the Fatherland, the willingness to give up life for the faith left the glory of the Zaporozhye Cossacks in the ages. Military brotherhood and mutual assistance were valued above all. Their cheerful disposition is reflected in the painting by I. Repin "Zaporozhets". On the question - what is the charge, you can also answer that it was a school of courage for young Cossacks.