Abstract:

This article is devoted to the study of the personality of Zakhary Oleksiyovych Chepiha on the basis of data from the State Archives of the Krasnodar Territory and the Collection of historical materials on the history of the Kuban Cossack army, edited by I.I. Dmitrienko. In the course of the study, we analyze the contribution of Chepiha to the development of the Black Sea Cossacks, the victories of Russia in the Russian-Turkish wars of the second half of the XVIII century. The main part of the study is devoted to the contradictory personality traits of the chieftain, their comparison and the compilation of a new historical portrait in a distraction from the pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiographic traditions. This approach seems to be the only correct one for the full implementation of the principle of objectivity in relation to such a complex phenomenon as the Cossacks in historical space of the XVIII century.

Keywords: Black Sea army, Kuban Cossacks, Russian-Turkish wars, foreman, battle, personality, contradictions