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Grandpa heard Laurie in the hallway humming a tune from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.
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Laurie skipped into the study. "Oh, Grandpa, you should have come with Mom and Dad and me! The Nutcracker ballet was so good!"
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"I wish I could have. But I had a lot of work to do, Laurie." Grandpa smiled warmly.
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"What's that you've got?" He pointed to the colorful book Laurie was holding.
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"They were selling this at the theater.
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It retells the story of the Nutcracker and has photos from the ballet.
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Look!" She showed Grandpa a picture of a ballet dancer in a pink tutu.
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"I saw her dance today!" She pointed to a male dancer in a large, furry black hat. "He was my favorite!"
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"Ha! The Cossack dancer!"
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"I think they called him the Ukrainian dancer. He did amazing jumps!"
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"Yes, the Cossacks, or the horsemen of the wild steppes, as they are sometimes called, are well-known for their energetic dancing!
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They were a rough group of nomadic fighters who lived in the unsettled land between the Volga, Don, and Dnieper Rivers of modern-day Russia and Ukraine."
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"Fighters! Actually the dancer did have a sword." Laurie remembered.
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"It was fake though. What were they fighting for?"
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"Well, many of them fought for Russia, who was trying to gain control over that area.
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Russia is huge now, isn't it? But like many other countries, it started out small and fought a lot to gain its territory.
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Way back in the 800s, royal Viking families began to form states and cities around those three rivers.
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One of the first states to be established was called Kievan Rus.
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From the ninth century to the twelfth century, Kievan Rus grew to become the largest, wealthiest state in the area."
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"Does the name 'Russia' come from 'Kievan Rus'?" Laurie asked.
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"It does! But it wasn't Russia yet. In the 1200s Genghis Khan and the Mongols invaded.
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Kievan Rus remained part of the Mongol Empire until the late 1400s.
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Then a prince from the rich trading city of Moscow organized the local people to resist Mongol rule.
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This prince was named Ivan III. Later, because he had freed his people from the Mongols, he became known as Ivan the Great."
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"So now was it Russia?" Laurie wanted to know.
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"Sure, now we can finally start calling it Russia.
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We could even call it the Russian Empire because Ivan IV—Ivan the Great's grandson—named himself Russia's first czar in 1547.
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Ivan the IV was a strong ruler who conquered lots of territory for Russia.
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But he is remembered as Ivan the Terrible because his rule was also one of the bloodiest in Russian history.
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You see, Ivan was incredibly worried about losing his authority.
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This made him wary of everyone, especially the rich Russian landowners, who held a lot of power.
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So he sent loyal servants to seize the noblemen's lands.
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And to guarantee that they would never fight him for it, he executed the landowners!
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Ivan the Terrible wanted to expand Russia's borders.
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He was particularly interested in defeating the Mongol hordes to the east
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and expanding Russia's territory all the way down the Volga River to the Caspian Sea.
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To do this he needed lots of men willing to fight for him."
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"I know!" Laurie blurted out. "He used the Cossacks!"
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Laurie jumped up and pulled an imaginary sword from her hip.
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"Right!" said Grandpa. "Luckily for Ivan, those wild horsemen lived right on the Russian borders.
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'Cossack' comes from a word meaning free man.
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These men were considered free because they didn't belong to any of the states in the area.
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This meant they didn't follow any ruler's laws and didn't pay taxes to anyone.
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That probably doesn't sound like much to you, Laurie," Grandpa added, "but to adults that is a very big deal.
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Anyway, these Cossacks were usually peasant men who had left their original villages.
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They didn't like what life there had to offer them—most peasants in the Middle Ages lived practically as slaves.
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Out in the wild steppes, they became strong and excellent fighters—exactly what Ivan the Terrible needed.
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He hired these Cossacks to fight the Mongols.
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In exchange he promised to pay them and grant them continued independence.
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From then on the Cossacks became known as mercenaries. Do you know what a mercenary is?"
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Laurie shook her head.
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"A mercenary is someone who fights for pay.
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Besides the money they receive, they have no interest in the battles they fight," Grandpa explained.
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"Even after Ivan the Terrible, Russian rulers continued to employ the Cossacks,
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and they were responsible for helping Russia expand and protect its borders well into the eighteenth century."
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"Well, they couldn't have been fighting all the time," Laurie remarked, glancing at her Nutcracker book. "When did they dance?"
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"Good point. When they weren't fighting, the Cossacks liked to hunt, fish, drink, play music, and dance.
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Their dances became famous because of their incredible acrobatics.
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Cossack men were strong and fit, and they showed off their abilities by leaping into the air again and again."
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"Like this?" Laurie squatted down and then jumped up, kicking one leg out.
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"Yes! And like this!" Grandpa too jumped from his chair, crossed his arms in front of him, and kicked his feet out one at a time.
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Then the two linked arms, and began singing the theme from the Nutcracker Suite as they danced around the study.
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"One day we'll have to go to Ukraine and see a real performance by modern Cossacks!" Grandpa shouted joyfully.
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"Yeah!" Laurie answered.
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Suddenly there was a loud knock. "What on earth is all that racket?" Mom demanded from outside the door.
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Grandpa and Laurie abruptly stopped dancing.
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Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.
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"For a 65-year-old archaeologist, Grandpa is pretty fun to hang out with," Laurie thought.
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And she was glad to be his granddaughter.