Ataman

The word "Ataman" has several versions of origin.

1. It comes from the Turkish word "Ottoman, Osmanly." The Ottomans (also called the Ottomans ) are the main population of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923). The name comes from the name of the Ottoman I Gazi of the first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire . English version of "ottoman, ottomans". Admiring the valor and courage of the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire, the Ukrainian Cossacks called their elders “atamans”.
2. It happens, as well as other Russian. vatamman ^[1] from the word hetman ( Headman of the Anglo - Saxons and Scandinavians , German: Hauptmann , formerly Heubtmann ). Crimean Christians were appointed Gatman, appointed by the elders of the settlements and who called for resettlement in Ukraine ^[2]
3. Ataman - from “ata” (from the Turkic “father”) ^[3] .
4. Also noteworthy is the version of the origin of the word ataman from the German "Amtman" - the head of the service, the head of the office; or from the German "harter Mann" - a solid, strong man.

The history of the Great Don Army according to A. S. Pushkin begins during the struggle for power between Tamerlan and Tokhtamysh and the collapse of the Great Steppe Army-Horde and its Army-Horde Power (Golden Horde) in the lands near the Volga and Don. It was then, in the conditions of reigning anarchy and lawlessness on these lands, that the local Christian population began to organize themselves into Cossack units, the core of which were former Russian-speaking Christian wars, deserters from the decaying Great Steppe Horde Army. Over time, Turkic-speaking residents of this region also began to join Cossack units. .

From the Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Fedorovich of all Russia to the Don , to the lower and upper yurts , to chieftains and Cossacks and the entire Don army , etc.

- TSD , Yurt.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Don Cossacks continued to call their chiefs atamans. The chief leader of the entire Don Army was called the army chieftain. He was elected by the military circle - the national assembly of the entire Cossack army. At these public gatherings in the open square, the Cossacks really made up a circle, standing without hats as a sign of respect for the place and the occasion. Elections were held annually and decided by a majority of votes. Often there was a party struggle in the elections, which among this unbridled freemen often ended in a bloody clash of fierce parties.

To help the military ataman, a military clerk and two military esaul were also elected, and a military clerk to conduct writing. The military chieftain was only the executive body of the military circle; he had no independent power . The policeman and the executor of decisions of the circle, he couldn’t and didn’t dare do anything by his own initiative, otherwise he would be threatened with the shameful deprivation of office, and sometimes severe punishment.

The army chieftain usually reported in the circle of affairs and raised questions that required the solution of the entire army, for which he, together with his esauls, went to the middle of the circle, but this was not his exclusive right: every Cossack could speak in the middle and offer questions to the people's court. The voice of the chieftain was equal to the voice of any other Cossack: he had weight only insofar as he was reinforced by the personal prowess of the chieftain and the respect that the army had for him. Having quit his rank at the end of the election term, the chieftain entered the total number of troops and was no different from ordinary Cossacks. At the end of the 16th century, private control in towns began to take shape along the lines of this general military command. Every Cossack community that lived in towns or winter quarters, as well as sent somewhere (for example, to Moscow for a royal salary), was called a village and had its own village chieftain.

But the Cossacks called not only their chiefs and officials the chieftains; every valiant Cossack, who stood out for his courage and courage, was honored by the chieftain. Ataman is the color of the Cossacks, the upper class of the army, but this was not a closed class: the right to be called the ataman was not given by birth, but was acquired by personal valor and glory. This meaning of the word "ataman" explains the formula of royal letters sent to the Don. So, for example, during the reign of John Vasilyevich and Theodore Ioannovich in letters (after the title ) they wrote: “to Don Don atamans and Cossacks” or even “to Don Don atamans (their names follow) and all atamans and Cossacks”. The same meaning of the word “ataman” was reflected in the proverbs “go out of the ranks to the chieftains”, “endure the Cossack, you will become ataman” in the traditional address to the Cossacks “Atamans - well done!”, In the preserved custom of every Cossack to be honored with “ataman”.

But over time, things changed: a whole class of atamans arose on the Don, which was sharply separated from the people and ordinary Cossacks. However, along with this, the word "chieftain" both in the sense of chief and official, and in the sense of just a noble Cossack begins to be replaced by the word "foreman" . For the first time, the name of the foreman was mentioned in 1649 in the report of the nobleman Andrei Lazarev to the Ambassadorial Order , where the word is used instead of “ataman”. Further, in the testimony given in the Ambassadorial order to the village chieftains Kozma Dmitriev, who had arrived from Moscow with the Don in 1655, it was said, incidentally, that the chief of the Cossacks on the sea voyage was foreman Pavel Neskochihin. After this, the name of the foreman is very often found in acts, which meant the same as the chieftain. Since 1680, the name “ataman” is very rarely found in acts, except for letters, in which they usually wrote: “to the Don to the lower and upper yurts to atamans and Cossacks, a military ataman (such and such) and the entire Don army”; in the reports to the Ambassadorial order of various officials who were on the Don, atamans were always called foremen.

Under Peter I, the name of the foreman became so common that the Don Army itself, in its reports to the sovereign, called noble people elders: “and we, choosing in a circle, informed the sovereign of the Cossacks in 1705, - elders Maxim Frolov, Vasily Bolshoi Pozniev, Efrem Petrov and others ... ". From modern acts it is not visible at what time the name of the elders turned to the rank of estate and rank. It must be assumed that this followed in the middle of the 17th century, when the number of Cossacks increased significantly, permanent and extensive villages appeared, rich and poor appeared, luxury and ambition penetrated the Cossacks' environment.

Atamans and foremen, as the first class of the army, naturally had an advantage over other Cossacks, differing in wealth and intelligence, and therefore they gradually appropriated for themselves the advantages associated with a temporary position and put themselves in a position that sharply distinguished them from the whole army. The power and importance of the elders increased as the Cossack liberties were limited; soon after the accession to the throne of Peter I, they gradually concentrated in their hands the rights of the circle.

This was facilitated by various circumstances, but mainly by the continuous equipment of Cossack detachments as part of the Moscow army under the command of foremen and the appointment of an army ataman by the sovereign. The elevation to the rank of elders depended on the army, but it also deprived of this dignity for crimes, but in 1754 it was forbidden to produce the Donskoy Army into elders without presentation to the military college . Along with the emergence of a separate estate of elders, the power of the military chieftain expanded and strengthened. Since the second half of the XVII century. he is already the direct boss of the Cossacks in the days of peace and battle. Various kinds of affairs on internal governance and external relations, which until then had been conducted only by the military circle, went over to him: he dismantled litigations, defended against offenders, shared the royal salary between Cossacks, received ambassadors of Turkish, Tatar and Kalmyk, conducted preliminary negotiations with them and only the final decision passed to the judgment of the circle.

The post of army ataman remained elective until 1718, the elected and punished (appointed) ataman of the Great Don Army ( 1707 - 1718 ) was the army clerk P.E. Romazanov (? - 1718), and since then she was replaced by appointment from the government, that is, atamans were no longer elected. The first military chieftain appointed by the tsar’s decree was Vasily Frolov, after his death in 1723 his foreman Andrei Lapatin was appointed to his place, in 1735 Ivan Frolov was appointed, in 1738 - Danilo Efremov. Since that time, the appointment of military A. depends on the highest authority. The army chieftains, in a sign of the dignity of their ancestors, carried in their hands a “notch” ( cane ), which, leaving the post, they handed over to the newly elected to this rank with a special ceremony. Peter the Great, wishing to give the army chieftains more importance and power, granted the Don Seal in 1704 a silver seal and a notch decorated at the ends with a silver frame ; on the upper rim there was an inscription: "the notch of the Don army in 1704." In 1705, he granted military chieftains as a sign of their dignity a parnach , gilded in silver and decorated with colored stones .

In Ukraine, the military chieftain was called the hetman . The chiefs of individual villages, also elected, were once called smoky chieftains, and later simply otamans or village chieftains. The latter were at the same time judges. Complaints about their decisions, mostly verbal, came to the hundredth office , where the chief ataman sat, the first person in the hundred after the centurion. Together with the centurion, he decided matters in the hundred-strong office and, in the absence of his rules, his position. This title was very important from 1600 to the half of the 18th century . The elected chief of the entire Zaporizhzhya Sich was called the ataman and was nominally subordinate to the hetman; the chiefs of individual units were called smoky chieftains (Sich was divided into smokers, that is, groups of houses or dwellings).

Further, everywhere the leader of the detachment that was campaigning was called the ataman of the camp. In the absence of the military chieftain, a post correcting him was appointed under the name of the punishable chieftain . In the 19th century , when the heir to the throne was considered the military ataman of all Cossack troops, the Cossack troops were constantly controlled by punishable atamans.

Finally, the chief ataman is generally called the senior in business, for example, the fishing chieftain - the temporary head of fishing on the Ural River . In permanent coastal fishing, the artel or gang also chooses the ataman (watman). This is the main manager of the work: “without the ataman, the Duvan will not be taken”, that is, the booty will not be divided. In this sense, the head of the fishing party, fishing brigade, the word "watman" (wataman, chieftain) was first mentioned in the Novgorod letters of the XIII century. In the Little Russian and Novorossiysk Territories, the chieftain, the village headman, also the senior shepherd or shepherd , a big fishing tackle, etc., are called the ataman.

• About chieftains on apologetika.eu
• Ataman // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Ataman // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : in 66 volumes (65 volumes and 1 additional) / Ch. ed. O. Yu. Schmidt . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1926-1947.