Inaguration in cossacks

Inaguration in cossacks during solemn actions on occasion of celebration of Day of Ukrainian cossacks, in Kiev, on Wednesday, October, 14, 2009. In the end of the 15th century, Zaporozhian Cossacks had established a Cossack host in the wild field of Ukraine around the Dnipro River. The Dnieper Cossacks of Ukraine formed the Zaporozhian Sich centered around the fortified Dnieper islands. Initially a vassal of Poland-Lithuania, the increasing social and religious pressure from the Commonwealth in the mid 17th century, forced them to proclaim an independent Cassack Hetmanate, which began a massive rebellion under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Photo by Aleksandr Sinitsa / UNIAN