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