Ukraine moves South
(Narration by Nech)
Volodymyr departs
Our decision to end the war with the Golden Horde, taking only Astrakhan, was not popular with our new Hetman, Lukyan Chornynsky:
"Bah! Diplomacy is simple! First attack, then capture, then take! What is wrong with you people?"
We weren't really concerned about Chornynsky's opinion. He lasted only two years anyway before getting rip-roaring drunk and falling into the Don. His body was recovered far downstream.
Of greater concern, however, was the opinion of our Serbian friend Volodymyr. I sensed something was not right when we signed the treaty, and when we patched up a border dispute with Nogai soon afterward, Volodymyr told me plainly that he was leaving us.
"Friend Nech, the stars are calling me home. I bid you farewell."
"But Volodymyr, we need you. We would not be where we are today without your advice."
"Perhaps so, but you have stopped listening to my advice. You captured four provinces from the Khan but kept only one. You could have blocked Russian advancement into Asia but you left a corridor for them. And you could have taken territory from Nogai but you threw away the opportunity instead."
"You have heard our discussions on these issues and you know well that we had good reasons for doing these things."
"There are always good reasons for sitting when you should be acting instead. It is time for me to go."
I implored him to stay. When he refused, I begged him at least to allow us to honor him with a farewell banquet. But he declined this as well. Finally, I insisted on one last favor from him.
"When you arrived in Ukraine 25 years ago, you would not tell my predecessor your full name. Have we earned that much in 25 years? For we want to preserve your memory for our children's children."
"So be it. Know then that you have been visited by Peric. Volodymyr Peric." With that he turned to the west and departed for good. I knew we had lost a friend who could never be replaced.
I thought that would be the end of that story, but fate had other ideas. About a year later, word began to spread among the people of the mysterious Volodymyr from the mountains of Serbia. Self-proclaimed prophets appeared, claiming to be able to read Volodymyr's words in the stars. Some of these attracted quite a following, leading to a wave of cultism throughout Ukraine. Eventually the movement petered out when one by one these prophets were shown to be false.
Foreign relations
Early in 1579 the Golden Horde made their peace with Russia, paying a small amount of cash and giving up Ufa. But it was obvious the Russians would strike them again soon. And so they did, though not until 1590. In that war Russia gained Uralsk and Orenburg, leaving the formerly Great Khan with just Samara and Kalmuk.
Meanwhile, Ukraine was roiled with increased rebellion and poor stability. After the Volodymyr cult fizzled out, a group of nobles turned traitor, seeking to betray our land to Poland. Another group of expatriate Ukrainians extorted Krempsky into paying them support money in order to avoid still worse stability problems. This forced us to take a loan, further exacerbating our chronic problems with inflation. And all the while, placing and maintaining merchants was very difficult.
Events finally turned to our favor in 1586 with a complaint from our merchants of persistent harassment from the Crimeans. Suddenly it was all clear. Why had we had so much trouble with merchants at Thrace, Astrakhan, and even Kurland? It was those rotten Crimeans! Now that we had legal cause to declare war, we tried to prepare as best as possible and defeat Crimea. With the poor stability and the outstanding loan this was difficult. Krempsky waited as long as possible before announcing the war officially, but by September 1591 we had to use this opportunity, ready or not, or lose it. So war was declared.
A picture of Ukraine and Crimea one year before the war. I was able to build up the forces a little, but not much more than this:
The Crimean wars
We called our ally Georgia, and Crimea was a member of a great alliance with the Hedjaz, the Ottomans, Khazaks, Tripoli, and Nubia. However, another war was declared against this same alliance by Tunisia and Algiers later that same month.
Crimea's army was larger than ours, with 29 thousand troops. But we had a critical edge in technology as we had firearms and they didn't (OOC: 11-6). Our Hetman, Kosynsky, commanded one army which moved to Azov and began a siege there. Shaula, our Field Marshal, commanded the second army and attacked Kaffa. The Crimeans did not oppose our siege at Azov, and this city fell to us after a year.
Kaffa, however, was a much more difficult battleground. Here we needed all of Shaula's great skill and leadership, for the enemy attacked repeatedly with their entire army from Kerch. Though greatly outnumbered, Shaula deployed his forces perfectly to meet each attack and defeat the enemy. Nevertheless, the Crimeans inflicted terrible casualties by means of a scorched earth strategy, burning any food or supplies they could find before they were driven back to Kerch.
By the time Azov was captured four Crimean counterattacks at Kaffa had been defeated. Shaula's army had been battered and our trickle of reinforcements was barely adequate for him to hold the field. But now Hetman Kosynsky attacked Kerch from Azov and the Crimeans were in serious trouble. Their army had been cut in half after their heavy losses in Kaffa, and then Kosynsky beat them in Kerch and drove them to constant retreat. It was only then that we could keep a large enough army in Kaffa for Shaula to conduct an effective siege.
Our Georgian allies had encountered a problem we did not foresee. Just two months after the war began, rebels in Trabzon finally overthrew their Mameluke governor and pledged their allegiance to Georgia. This was great news -- except that now Georgia bordered the Turks. Within a few months most of the Georgian army had been defeated as Turks swarmed over Trabzon and Georgia. But all our forces were needed to vanquish the Crimeans; we could offer no assistance to our ally.
Late in 1592 Hetman Kosynsky was killed by a Crimean assassin. Unable to defeat us on the battlefield, they had resorted to extreme measures. But this outrage only caused us to burn with anger, vowing to crush them utterly. Poor Kosynsky had been married to lovely Oxana, the daughter of Andriy Vishnevtsky. They had a son, a little boy named Petro. I promised Oxana I would watch over Petro as he grew up, training him to be a brave Ukrainian soldier.
During 1593 we began to besiege Kerch, but without a good commander this siege bogged down. Meanwhile, the defeated Crimean army had set up camp at Azov in an attempt to retake their capital. Eventually our new Hetman Loboda broke the siege at Kerch in order to crush the Crimean army at Azov. This attack was successful in June, but both sides took heavy losses. We spent some months rebuilding our force and it was not until June 1594 that this army returned to Kerch, defeating Crimea and beginning a new siege. At that point Shaula and Loboda had the war under control. Kaffa was captured in August and the Crimean army badly mauled in a counterattack at Kerch in September.
The next month, Crimea offered us 72 ducats plus Kaffa. Krempsky signed the treaty, we were at peace, and we had saved our ally Georgia from further damage at the hands of the Turks.
Uncle Boris had not been idle in the meantime. Having taken Uralsk and Orenburg not long before, the Russians next turned their sights on Nogai, declaring war late in 1593. After some two and a half years the Nogai Khan conceded defeat, Russia gaining the provinces of Irgiz, which we didn't mind, and Alga, which we did. It was beginning to appear that Volodymyr was right after all; having moved cautiously, we were now boxed in by the Russians and blocked from further expansion to the East.
At about this time, early in 1596, no reasonable candidate for Hetman could be found. So it was up to Shaula, Krempsky, and I to take power formally, though by the end of the year a barely satisfactory man had been recruited.
In September 1597 once again we heard complaints from our merchants of persistent and intolerable harassment from the perfidious Crimeans. Clearly the last war had not taught them the error of their ways, so another lesson was needed. We built up strength as long as we could, five years, and then declared war while the world at large still acknowledged the legitimacy of our grievance. Georgia joined on our side while the Crimeans were in the same alliance as before. And following earlier history, just a few days after Krempsky's declaration of war the Mamelukes also started a war against the same enemy alliance, forcing them to commit to multiple fronts.
Remembering the difficulty of the previous war we were prepared for the worst, but in fact Crimea was in no condition to stand against us. The dreadful attrition problems at Kaffa lay in the distant past, and both Kerch and Azov came under siege within two months with the Crimean army in full retreat. By August 1603, after one year of war, both provinces had fallen to our forces and Crimea offered very reasonable peace terms: 42 ducats plus Kerch.
A taste of things to come
That same month, my agents reported rumors of fantastic turmoil in Moscow, a period that came to be known as the Time of Troubles. Soon all Russia was in flames as Uncle Boris appeared powerless to stop the damage from spreading. We watched with great interest and anxiety...
