Characterist

The first mention of the existence of a character among Zaporizhzhya Cossacks dates back to the 15th century. About the writers wrote Russian and Byzantine sources. The Polish publicist Bartosz Paprotsky left a mention of the characterists who caught enemy bullets with their own hands and threw them back at their enemies. Those into whom bullets thrown by characterists fell died on the spot.

The most famous characterist in Ukrainian mythology is the idealized image of the Cossack Mamaia , who was a collective image of a Cossack sage, a wandering storyteller. In Ukrainian paraphrases and legends, hetmans and cat chieftains were typical. According to Ukrainian mythology, the most famous character among the Zaporizhzhya military leaders was Ivan Serko , who during the atamanism from 1659 to 1680 conducted 244 battles and was never defeated. Cossacks believed that Ivan Serko knew in advance with whom and where to fight and during the battle he turned into a wolf or hawk, casting a spell over the enemy army. The firman of the Turkish Sultan about prayers in mosques for the death of Ivan Serko is known. Ukrainian writer Adrian Kashchenko wrote about Ivan Serko:

“Could a simple man with a small handful of comrades independently, without someone else's help, fight off a much larger and much armed Turkish or Tatar army and more than 30 thousand janissaries, like rams, cut out between sichi smokers? Who, if not a characterist, could break into a nest of a large horde with a bunch of comrades in Crimea, destroy its cities, save the slaves who were driven there from all lands and take large prey ^[1] . ”

There is a legend that the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks for five years did not bury Ivan Serko after his death, carried his body with him on military campaigns, so that he and the dead would bring fear to the enemies and help them win. Before the funeral, the Cossacks allegedly amputated the right hand of the deceased Ivan Serko and always took her with them on military campaigns so that she would serve them as a talisman. ^[2]

In Ukrainian folk tales, Jerelevsky’s characterists are mentioned, who “forged guns and knew how to speak them, was a well-known shooter and hunter, was not afraid of either clouds or thunder”, three brothers of Kanzibera, one of whom “was a great charmer - knew how to conjure his money and no one took them. " The names associated with these people have been preserved in onomastics: Dzherelevskoye tract, Kantsiberovskoye lake.

It was believed that the characterists were strong sorcerers, capable of stopping heavy bleeding, talking bullets, catching bullets with bare hands, walking on water and fire, spending hours under water, becoming invisible, hypnotizing, appearing in several places at the same time and causing terrible horror among enemies. The characterists could see the future, resurrect the dead and control the weather. If necessary, the characterist could take the image of an animal, most often a bear or a wolf. The character could only be killed with a silver bullet.

The deceased characterist, so that he could not resurrect, had to drive a stake in the chest. The character was buried face down. According to the historian Svetlana Bessonova, “dangerous people-sorcerers, whose posthumous influence was undesirable, were buried in this way.” To do this, they were buried face down so that the sun would not touch them with their life-giving ray ” ^[3] . One of these burials was discovered in 1936 in the so-called " Arkhangelsk grave " near the village of Arkhangelskoye, Yasinovatsky district, Donetsk region .

The characterist possesses a positive image in Ukrainian mythology, which is why he was often mentioned in various works in art and literature.

• Nikolai Gogol mentions in the novel “The Night Before Christmas” the healer Cossack Patsyuk ^[4] .
• Ukrainian artist Vasily Kornienko painted the painting "Character".
• One of the albums of the band “ Resuscitation ” is called “ Character ”.
• In the film “ The One Who Passed Through the Fire ” (M. Ilyenko, 2012), the main character Ivan Dodoka says that his father was a “characterist”.
• In the cycle of books "Revolving City" by Andrei Belyanin, the main character, Cossack Ilya Ilovaisky, is a "characterist."

• Kalyandruk T. Riddles of the Cossack characterist: monograph / ed. V. Idzio. - Lviv: LA Pіramіda, 2007. - 288 p. - ISBN 978-966-441-049-3
• Kalyandruk T. Taєmnitsі battle mysteries of Ukraine. - Lviv: LA "Pyramid", 2007. - 304 p. - ISBN 978-966-441-048-6
• Opovіdannya about glorious v_ysko zaporozke lower reaches (Ukrainian)
• Characteristics of the Zaporizhian Cossack // Yavornitsky D. І. Istoriya zaporizhzky goats. T. 1. - Lviv: Svit, 1990 .-- S. 173-180. (Ukrainian)

• Cossacks
• Cossacks
• Characteristic Cossacks or Wizards of Zaporizhzhya’s troops
• Characteristic as a system of esoteric knowledge and practice (Ukrainian)
• Characteristic that character (Ukrainian)