The Global Hetmanate
We are all Cossacks at heart
Professor Grant Georgeson of Oxford University discusses the universal Cossack inheritance
The knights-errant were as much a myth as the "Dark Ages" from which they stemmed, but in the plains of Ukraine the romantic character emerged corporeal in the form of the Cossacks. These brave warriors travelled the European countryside killing empires and doing other good deeds. In their struggle against the Ottomans, the noble riders had their eyes gouged out with kebab spears and left to wander their way back home. But the Slav was a hardy people, so in tune with Nature herself that these veterans were able to assemble the bandura from scratch even when blind, continuing to journey as kobzary, singing songs of the exploits of themselves and their ancestors.
So it was that even before the Russian Empire's betrayal of its own heritage spurred an official diaspora, the Cossack tradition had spread throughout much of Eurasia, taking root in lands ranging from England to the Far East. Indeed, the Cossacks found great kinship with the Mongol tribes of olde, and with their successful space expedition in 1775, the Cossack lineage spread across the stars. Meanwhile, immigration to the New World led to quasi-hosts in the plains of North America and a handful of furtive settlements in the southern continent. The decolonization period witnessed the rapid growth of Cossacks in Africa as the black Cossacks of the Crimean region returned the tradition to their ancestral homelands. Indeed, Starszkhiy and Hutchinson (2010) theorize that Cossacks, or Cossack-derived traditions, have existed on every continent in the world since at least the 16th Century.
The recent emergence of hetmanates around the world is believed to be a natural consequence, as cultural stereotypes break down and more and more peoples have come to readily embrace this Cossack heritage (Pennatyev & Tellerchenko, 2013). Brassilard (2013) notes that this rediscovery of global Cossack identity coincides with mounting nationalist impulses. Whether this mix will lead to increased geopolitical strife or serve as an impetus for a new world citizenship remains the subject of fevered study.