As they paid very little attention to the orders of the Government, they supplied the Sultan with any number of casi belli, and were often ready to turn their arms against the power to which they professed allegiance.
During "the troublous times," for example, when the national existence was endangered by civil strife and foreign invasion, they overran the country, robbing, pillaging, and burning as they were wont to do in the Tartar aouls.

At a later period the Don Cossacks twice raised formidable insurrections--first under Stenka Razin (1670), and secondly under Pugatchef (1773)--and during the war between Peter the Great and Charles XII.

of Sweden the Zaporovians took the side of the Swedish king.
The Government naturally strove to put an end to this danger, and ultimately succeeded.

All the Cossacks were deprived of their independence, but the fate of the various communities was different.
Those of the Volga were transfered to the Terek, where they had abundant occupation in guarding the frontier against the incursions of the Eastern Caucasian tribes.

The Zaporovians held tenaciously to their "Dnieper liberties," and resisted all interference, till they were forcibly disbanded in the time of Catherine II.