Chupryna

The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan of Turkey (1880-91). Painted by Ilya Repin.

Chupryna or Oseledets (оселедець, literally "herring") is the traditional Ukrainian Cossack haircut. It describes a style of man's haircut that features a lock of hair sprouting from the top or the front of an otherwise closely shaven head. This military haicut was of Circassian or Turkish origin. The term oseledets is a recent coinage, chupryna being the traditional term. There are several Ukrainian surnames deriving from both of these words.

Origin

Exact date when chuprynas had originated remains unknown, but it is known for sure that east Slavonic warlord Prince Sviatoslav wore chupryna and a long moustache in the mid 900s. These distinctive marks are depicted in all images and monuments of him (for example, Sviatoslav sculpture at State Russian Museum). Such a haircut was common for his druzhina as well, except varyags who preferred to plait their hair and beards into long braids. All heirs of the ruling Rurik Dynasty wore chuprynas before Rus' was baptized.^[1] According to Leo the Deacon, at the times of Sviatoslav reign, oseledets was a distictive sign of noble origin.^[2]

Cossack era

A man with oseledets playing on bandura

Oseledets, a long lock of hair waved around the ear, was not a simple topknot (chub) and was worn by military men only, though every male in Ukraine cut his hair into the topknot. By the end of 19th century, oseledets almost disappeared as a haircut, and lastly was typical for Ukrainian merchants, known as chumaky.^[3]

The oseledets was a point of honor for a Zaporozhian Cossack. Oseledets could be worn only by mature warriors, with younger ones (so called dzhura's) forbidden to wear the haircut. And it was a most shameful punishment to have one's oseledets' cut off. This punishment was portrayed in Propala Hramota, a film by Boris Ivchenko.

See also

• Khokhol
• Queue (hairstyle)
• Sikha

References

1. ^ Alekseev, Sergey (2008) "Культура [Culture]" (in Russian) Россия: мы и мир [Russia: We and the World] Moscow: AST p. 39 ISBN 978-5-17-049461-3 OCLC 236113788 http://books.google.de/books?id=9nNya0t0hGcC&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false 
2. ^ Bilan, Maya; Stelʹmashchuk, Halyna (2001) (in Ukrainian) Український стрій [Ukrainian rule] Lviv: Feniks p. 41 ISBN 978-5-873-32119-3 OCLC 237514939 "Як стверджує Лев Диякон, ця зачіска у часи Святослава була на Русі ознакою високородного походження" 
3. ^ Lukashevich, Platon (1871) (in Russian (in old orthography)) Корнесловъ Латинскаго языка [Latin language phrasebook] Kiev: M. P. Fritz's typographia p. 268Available at University of Oxford 

Sources

• Stamerov K. History of Ukrainian costume: from the Scythian period to the late 17th century‎. Melbourne: Bayda Books, 1986 - 62 p. ISBN 0908480164, 9780908480166 (Page 47)