Kiev Cossacks insurrection
The Kiev Cossack insurrection was a mass peasant movement in the Kiev Governorate and Chernihiv Governorate in 1855 directed against the national and social policies of the Russian government in Ukraine.
Preconditions
The Kiev Cossacks arose purely on social grounds, characterized by the desire to restore the Cossacks as a social state and military formation.The reason for the peasant uprisings was the proclamation of the tsar's manifesto during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, which called for the formation of a people's militia ready to go to war. Among the peasants in the Kiev region, rumors began to spread that by enlisting in the militia, they would be freed from serfdom and receive landowners' estates and property. Peasants compiled lists of "free Cossacks", refused to work as serfs or follow the orders of the local administration, and created their own elected self-government bodies.
Uprising
The mass peasant movement began in February 1855 in Vasylkiv County and soon covered 8 of 12 counties of Kiev Governorate, as well as Konotop County of Chernihiv Governorate. The leaders of the Kiev Cossacks included V. Bzenko, I. and M. Bernadsky, M. Haydenko, and P. Shvaika.To suppress the "Cossacks", the Russian government sent regular troops. Bloody clashes between the peasants and the army took place in a number of villages, the largest of which were in the towns of Korsun and Tagancha and the villages of Berezna, Bykova Hrebla, and Yablunivka.