Background to the Battle of Khotyn 1621. The Cossacks occupy a central place in the history of Ukraine and surrounding region. They were not so much a distinct race but a way of life, a military caste whose service, though not always loyalty, was brought for concessions of land and limited independence. They inhabited a no-mans land in south-eastern Europe between the Christian states of Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy to the north, and the Ottoman Turks and their vassals to the south east For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy