The history of the Cossacks concerns the development of semi autonomous, militarised communities that emerged in the steppe regions north of the Black and Caspian seas from the late medieval period on
"Bohdan Khmelnytsky with Tugay Bey at Lviv", oil on canvas, 1885, National Museum in Warsaw. Khmelnytsky Uprising 1648–1654. Painted by Jan Matejko