I llL "lllliUI) jt;:i/il'/flt'fll.\had to withstand rigorous conditions, as is plain from the memoirs left by one
of their officers, a rough-hewn Serbian captain, S. S. Piscevic (Pishchevich).
During his first year on the steppe ( 1754) he lived 'like a shipwrecked sailor on
a desert i~land' and survived on a diet or garlil:, onions, and boiled grass, occa-
sionally seasoned with a few berries; 'everywhere there was weeping and sob-
bing', he wrote, for those wholly dependent on their pay found that after
deductions for uniforms and equipment they had nothing left for daily needs.^8
Nevertheless their settlements-in chis case the term 'colonies' is certainly
appropriate-managed to survive, although !heir military quality was adjudged
unsatisfaccory and after troubles broke ouc they were brought under closer
control ( 1763); this meant a greacer infusion of Cossacks and Ukrainian
militiamen.
The militia itself was scaled down at chis time, but was not actually disbanded
until 1769.^9 Even then !he change seems to have been rather superficial: the
units were turned into regular dragoon and infantry regiments, but the men
continued to maintain the homesteads they possessed. Catherine II, as we
know, sought to introduce greacer administrative uniformity in the empire's
borderlands, but she was wise enough to proceed slowly. The Ukrainian line of
the 1730s had now lost ics usefulness as the settlers rapidly spread southwards
into New Russia, which was established as a separate province in 1764. Over
the nexl decade the successes achieved in the war of 1768- 74 against the Turks
revolutionized the problem of Imperial defence in this quarter. Potemkin, who
was placed in supreme charge, favoured the creation of units of mobile light
cavalry, known as hussars and lancers (pikinyery), whose strength rose from
3,000 to I 0,000 by 1776.^111 Although classed as regular troops, some of them at
least were settled in the region. Their term of service was fixed at 15 years and
they were given higher rates of pay. Had this not been done, it would have
been impossible to recruit large numbers of ex-militiamen and Cossacks into
their ranks.
From an ethnic point of view these formations were predominantly
Ukrainian.^11 One soldier had to be provided from each plot (uchastok),
measuring 26 to 30 dessyatines, on which a modest land tax was payable;
settlers were allowed to acquire more land if they could afford to buy and
work it.^12 In theory this land belonged to the state, as did the original plot, but
in practice there were few obstacles to its acquisition as private property,
especially by senior officers. Most of the territory in the region, however,
remained open steppe for many years to come, since it would have been impos-
sible for the settlers to have cultivated the enormous area assigned to each
~ I Pi,hd1cvichl /-::.1•1'.\'//ye. pp. I X9-9ll.
" PS/. xviii. 13175 ( 10 Ocl. I 76K); Dubrovin, S11rnro1', p. 3X; l\er,nov,ky, lstoriyu, i. IU5.
10 PSZ xx. 14552 (24 De.:. 1776).
11 Druzhinina, Sev. Priclwmo111or'1•e, pp. 54, 63; A11e1ba.:h, Bes1edelu11g, pp. 67, 69; P. V.
Zavadov'>kY to S. R. Voroni-ov. 3 Mar. 1775. in .. 11\Vx\iv (1880), p. 146.
12 Druzhinina, Sev. Prichernumor)·e. pp. 58-60.