Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
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Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey is a famous painting by the Russian artist Ilya Repin. The 2.58-metre by 2.03-metre canvas was started in 1880 and not finished until 1891. Repin recorded the years of work along the lower edge of the canvas. Alexander III bought the painting for 35,000 rubles, at the time the greatest sum ever paid for a Russian painting. Since then, the canvas has been exhibited in the Russian Museum of Alexander III in Saint Petersburg.
Context
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is a historical tableau, set in 1676, exploiting the legend of the reply that the Ukrainian Cossacks sent the Sultan of Turkey. The Ukrainian Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host (from 'beyond the rapids', za porohamy), inhabiting the lands around the lower Dnieper River, had defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in battle. However, the Sultan of Turkey demanded that the Cossacks submit to Turkish rule. The Cossacks, led by Ivan Sirko, replied in an uncharacteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities. The painting exhibits the Cossacks' pleasure at striving to come up with ever more base vulgarities. During Repin's time, these lovers of liberty and warfare enjoyed great popular sympathy. Repin also admired them: "All that Gogol wrote about them is true! A holy people! No one in the world held so deeply freedom, equality, and fraternity."
The text of the Sultan's letter to the Cossacks:
- As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the Sun and Moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians—I command you, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
- —Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV
- Thou Turkish Devil!
- Brother and companion to the accursed Devil, and Secretary to Lucifer himself, Greetings!
- What the hell kind of noble knight art thou? Satan voids and thy army devours. Never wilt thou be fit to have the sons of Christ under thee. Thy army we fear not, and by land and by sea in our chaikas we will do battle against thee.
- Thou scullion of Babylon, thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat-thief of Alexandria, thou swineherd of Egypt (both the Greater and the Lesser), thou Armenian pig and Tartar goat. Thou hangman of Kamyanets, thou evildoer of Podolia, thou great silly oaf of all the world and of the netherworld and, before our God, a blockhead, a swine's snout, a mare's ass, and clown of Hades. May the devil take thee!
- That is what the Cossacks have to say to thee, thou basest born of runts! Unfit art thou to lord it over true Christians!
- The date we know not, for no calender have we got. The moon [month] is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us here as with thou over there—and thou canst kiss us thou knowest where!
- Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko
- and all the Zaparozhian Cossack Brotherhood''
- Запоріжські козаки турецькому султану!
- Ти, султан, чорт турецкий, i проклятого чорта брат i товариш, самого Люцеперя секретар. Якiй ти в чорта лицар, коли голою сракою їжака не вб'єш! Чорт висирає, а твоє вiйсько пожирає. Не будеш ти, сукiн ти сину, синiв христiянських пiд собой мати, твойого вiйска ми не боiмось, землею i водою будем биться з тобою, распройоб твою мать.
- Вавилоньский ты кухар, Макидоньский колесник, Іерусалимський бравірник, Александрiйський козолуп, Великого и Малого Египту свинар, Армянська свиня, Подолянська злодиюка, Татарський сагайдак, Каменецький кат, і у всего свiту i пiдсвiту блазень, а нашого Бога дурень, самого гаспида онук и нашого хуя крюк. Свиняча морда, кобиляча срака, різницька собака, нехрещений лоб, мать твою в'йоб!
- От так тобi запорожцi виcказали, плюгавче. Не будешь ти i свиней христiанских пасти. Тепер кончаємо, бо числа не знаємо i календаря не маємо, мiсяць у небi, рік у князя, а день такий у нас, який i у вас, за це поцілуй в сраку нас!
- Пiдписали: Кошовий отаман Іван Сірко зо всiм кошем Запоріжськiм
References
- D. I. Yavornytsky (1895) History of the Zaporogian Cossacks, Vol. 2, pp. 517-518. St. Petersburg.
- M.B. Kuropas (1961) The Saga of the Ukraine. MUN Enterprises.
External links
- [Elias Repin - Master Painter From Ukraine]
- [The Cossack Letter]
- [Zaporozh'e Cossacks writing a letter to the Sultan]
- [History of the painting] ()
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