Tomakivka Sich

Tomakivka Sich. A Zaporozhian Cossack fortification on Tomakivka Island, in the Dnipro River near Marhanets, 60 km south of Khortytsia Island. It was a kish of the Zaporozhian Sich; reportedly it stood from 1540 to 1593, when it was destroyed by the Tatars. After 1593 the Zaporozhian Cossacks built the Bazavluk Sich. Later the site of the Tomakivka Sich served as a rendezvous point and refuge for Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and assorted Cossack-peasant rebel groups during the Cossack-Polish War (1648–57). Even in the 18th century it was used by imperial Russian army divisions and Cossack companies during their campaigns in Southern Ukraine. Tomakivka Island now lies under the waters of the Kakhovka Reservoir (flooded in 1955).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]