Esaul is a rank in the Cossack army. At first, the assistant commander was called that, later the Yesaul was equated with a captain or captain. What does this word mean?
Etymology of the word
According to one version, "esaul" is a word of Turkic origin. In some chronicles, the son of Genghis Khan is called "eke yasaul", which means "second yasaul".
According to another version, the word has Iranian roots. It came from two early Iranian words "asa" - "free" and "ul" - "son". Meant the phrase "son of the free."
Over time, the Iranian-language word entered the Turkic language, and later into Old Russian. In Ukrainian and Russian, the word has several forms: "esaul", "osavul" and others.
Cossack rank
For the first time, the position of Yesaul among the Cossacks appeared in 1578. She is mentioned in the Registered Army, which was in the Commonwe alth during the reign of Stefan Batory.
Cossack Yesaul was divided into the following ranks:
- General Yesaul - this was the highest position after the hetman, he commanded the regiments, and sometimes the entire army. In peacetime, he de alt with inspection issues. Chin was characteristic of the ZaporozhyeCossacks.
- Military - was in charge of administrative affairs, in the nineteenth century he was an adjutant, carrying out orders from the chief ataman.
- Regimental - was the main assistant to the regiment commander, performing the duties of a staff officer. The Don Cossacks had stanitsa esauls, they were considered assistants to the stanitsa ataman.
- Marching - was appointed before the start of the campaign, served as an assistant to the marching ataman. If he was absent, the captain himself could command the army. This was allowed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Artillery Yesaul is the head of artillery acting on orders.
In the sequence of military rank, the captain was higher than the captain, but lower than the military foreman.
The post of general captain, who kept the hetman's mace, lasted until 1764. She disappeared as a result of the liquidation of the hetmanship in Ukrainian lands.
The most famous Yesaul
Ivan Mazepa began his career under Hetman Doroshenko in Right-Bank Ukraine. At first he was a captain, later he became a general clerk. In 1674, on the orders of Hetman Mazepa, he went to the Crimean Khanate as an envoy. When his delegation was heading to Constantinople, he was captured by ataman Ivan Sirko.
Zaporizhzhya Cossacks decided to execute Mazepa, but as a result they sent him to the Left-bank Ukraine to Samoilovich. The hetman made him a military comrade, and a few years later he gave him the rank of general captain. So Mazepa approached the Cossack foreman. Afterthe fall of Samoilovich Mazepa took his place, becoming one of the controversial figures of his time.
Chin after 1775
By order of Prince Potemkin, the rank of Yesaul (regimental) was equated with an officer's rank. At the end of the eighteenth century, this position provided its owner with hereditary nobility.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the rank of Yesaul corresponded to the captain's. In modern times, it is equivalent to the rank of major. The post disappeared after 1917 with the advent of the Bolsheviks.
