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social conditions in Poland fomented a similar outflowof Ukrainian hunting pioneers into 'the wild grounds,'who formed themselves into the Zaporozhian ('beyondthe cataracts') Cossack 'host' on the lower Dnieper, verysimilar to that of the Don Cossacks, and an even pricklierthorn in the flesh of all who came in their path (seepp. 225-228).The Crimean khanate was a well-organized state ofpastoral Tatars, based on the very mixed Crimea, wherethere was agriculture and handicrafts and much commerce.Their numbers have been much exaggerated,and it is improbable that in the seventeenth century atany rate the khan could put into the field more than30,000 horsemen at the utmost, a number that was latermuch reduced. The Tatars made up for their lack ofnumbers by their mobility and tactics, in which theywere at a great advantage in that they aimed not at thedefeat of the enemy (they evaded battle if they could),but at the capture of booty—slaves and stock.Four times within seventy years (1521-91), riding uptheir three main trails crouched "like monkeys on greyhounds,"they raided north of the Oka into the heart ofMuscovy and in 1571 they burnt Moscow itself. After1591 they never succeeded in crossing the Oka, andgradually their raids penetrated less and less far northwards.The big musters headed by the khan in personbecame rare. The habitual danger was the swoop ofsmall bands a few hundred strong, "running about thelist of the border as wild geese flie, invading and retiringwhere they see advantage." As late as 1676-79 theconstable of Orel received one hundred and sevenmessages as to such "short and sudden rodes." Still,under Peter the Great, there were raids into the Kharkovregion almost every year between 1710 and 1718, one ofwhich years was reported to yield the Tatars over 14,000prisoners, a suspiciously high figure.The reasons why the Crimean Tatars for some threecenturies proved such difficult foes for Russians andPoles alike were their military specialization, distance,the fact that behind them lay the power of the Turks,and the fact that they acted now in conjunction with the42