Cossack Mamai is a kind of embodiment of the Ukrainian character, the image of love of freedom and immortality of the Ukrainian people. As long as the Sich exists, so much the legend of the glorious Cossack-characterniks exists.
In the Zaporizhzhya Sich, when a new young recruit of young men arrived, experienced Cossacks-characterists formed thousands of regiments from them. Field exercises began, a simple guy was trained as a defender of the grandfather's faith. After some time, a hundred of the best were selected from this thousand and further training was carried out with them. Subsequently, three or seven of them were chosen and all their knowledge was passed on to them. They were the best scouts, hardy warriors, future teachers of their own kind, they were the elite of the Cossack army.
Cossack Mamai was one of them. From the Turkic language "Mamai" means - no one, no way, no name, emptiness. According to legend, if a person does not have a name, then evil forces cannot find and conquer him. One nameless lonely Cossack, thus, personifies all Ukrainian as a whole. He is both nobody and everything at the same time.
The legends say: “The Cossack Mamai lived in the Sich, probably forever. Nobody could tell how old he was.” They say that Mamai appears suddenly and just as suddenly disappears somewhere. He appears whenever people are in trouble and saves them. People say that sometimes a horse jumps out of the mound and rushes across the steppe.
Not far from the Preobrazhensky Bridge, on the island of Khortitsa, on the side of the road, a traveler is met by a granite sculpture of Kozak-Mamai. As in numerous paintings that have come down to us from past times, the stone Cossack-Mamai sits in the pose of the Buddha and looks into eternity with an aloof look.
On a 1997 coin minted by the National Bank of Ukraine, the Cossack Mamai is dressed in a luxurious fur coat and sitting cross-legged smoking. pipe and playing the kobza. Around Mamai are the traditional elements of the Cossack military life: a horse in a rich harness, tied to a spear, with a banner driven into the ground; a green oak from which a saber dangles; pistol and stone powder box; Turkish kalpak (high hat) and a bottle of okovita (aqua vitae in Ukrainian).
On the edge of the coin there are inscriptions: (Ukrainian: Kozak Mamai, Cossack Mamai) - on the left and (Ukrainian: Person of Will and Honor, Knight of Freedom and Honor) - on the right. Above, these inscriptions are separated by a small flag on the point of a spear, and below it, a stylized viburnum spray.
Coin Mamai from the series "Heroes of the Cossack Age", Ukrainian commemorative and commemorative coins.
