Ukrainian cossaks as allies of King Karl XII (1709). Tatyana Antonenko, Kiev, Ukraine

[Tatyana Antonenko]

It is known that Ukrainian cossaks were allies of King Karl XII in the war against Peter I. After the battle of Poltava (1709) some of cossaks tried to escape cruel executions that Peter I imposed them. Some of the cossaks were changing their clothes to Sweden uniform (Source: Fryxel, Lebensgeschichte Karls XII, Braunschweig, 1861, I, 189).
 
I would be grateful if anyone could advise: are there anywehere the registers (lists) of names of the cossaks that participated in those events with the army of Karl XII? In particular, I am interested if the name Vasylchenko (Vasilcenko, Vasilchenko, Wasilchenko...?) is mentioned there.

[Anders Andersson]

I'm not particularly familiar with the subject, but I looked up Poltava in the Swedish National Encyclopedia (NE) and found the following paragraph (my translation):
 
Pretty much all official Swedish records about the campaign disappeared at the time of capitulation, for which reason the Swedish sources are dominated by letters, diaries, and memoirs. These have been subject to intense critical research during the 20th century. On the Russian side there are remnants in the form of letters between high-ranking participants, chancellery records, and official (diplomatic) relations.  The Russian campaign and the battle of Poltava has been subject to a great deal of research on the Swedish as well as the Russian side.
 
My personal conclusion is that any official lists of Cossacks serving under Karl XII, if they existed, have probably been lost. The Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa is however known for escaping Poltava with Karl XII. Mazepa died in Bender in 1709.

[Kurt Persson]

Tatyana, please try this site;
www.g-gruppen.net
Many members are very much involved and knows a lot about this type of Subject.
Regards  
Kurt Persson

[Tatyana Antonenko]

Thanks, Anders, thanks, Kurt. I appreciate your help very much.
 
May be it would be interesting to some people to know that since 1709, when Ukrainian cossak masked with Swedish uniform escaped from Poltava to the village of Sosnova (near Pereyaslav), his family has become to be called Sweden since that time. My father belongs to this family and he says that the family was still called Sweden by villagers in at least 1990. May be even longer. I am trying to find out the documents confirming this family legend.

[Anders Andersson]

I suppose the villagers didn't use the English form of the name of Sweden... Do you mean that they used the literal translation of the name of the country into Ukrainian/Russian (Shvetsiya) or some grammatical derivative of it (like Swedes or Swedish) when referring to your ancestors?
 
This is an interesting parallel to how the people from the coastal area Roslagen (north-east of Stockholm) came to originate the name of Sweden in Finnish (Ruotsi) and Estonian (Rootsi), as well as the name of Russia itself (Rossiya, from Ros/Rus), if those theories are correct. Names can appearantly shift heavily in meaning over the centuries.

[Tatyana Antonenko]

Of course, the villagers did not use neither English, nor Swedish for Swedish (I wrote Sweden instead of Swedish by mistake). The word used to denote belonging to the family is a noun that sounds like Shvedyny - transliteration from Ukrainian. Actually, this is not the exact word that is grammatically accepted for Sweden (Shvedy). Shvedyny is rather a local derivative.
 
I have read also, that on the way that Karl XII was moving from Poltava to Bendery there are  villages with the same name  - Shvedyny. But I have not checked this yet. This was mentioned by the author of end XIX-beginning XX century, and the names could be changed.