CITIES, FORTRESSES, GARRISONS. FORTIFICATION AND DEFENSE STRATEGIES IN THE COSSACK HETMANATE IN THE «MILITARIY REVOLUTION» PERIOD

Abstract

Changes in the Early Modern military technologies have fundamentally affected the transformation in urban space: fortifications, planning, lifestyle of the inhabitants. At the same time, the development of new defence fortresses and the modernization of the old ones, the providing it by garrisons and artillery have become important elements of state policy. All these innovations were part of the «military revolution» in Europe. Its features in this had the important place in Eastern European states among them and the Cossack Hetmanate.The theatre of military operations on which the main enemy for a long time were the Tatars had led to the fact that most fortifications were wood-earthen.However, the development of firearms gradually forced to abandon brick and wooden fortifications of the frontal type. They were supplemented with elements of Western European fortification (bastions and ravelins), which increased the firepower of the fortress and its defensive capacity.At the same time, the Hetmanate did not have sufficient resources for largescale reconstructions of fortresses and the maintenance of permanent garrisons in them. The combination of these factors led to the fact that in the XVIII century fortification building in the Cossack Hetmanate passed into the hands of Russia and began to be used in the interests of the Empire.