A sich (Ukrainian: січ),[1] was an administrative and military centre of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The word sich derives from the Ukrainian verb сікти siktý, "to chop" – with the implication of clearing a forest for an encampment or of building a fortification with the trees that have been chopped down.[2]
The Zaporozhian Sich was the fortified capital of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, located on the Dnieper, in the 16th–18th centuries in the area of what is now Ukraine. The Sich Rada was the highest organ of government in the Zaporozhian Host, or army of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The Danubian Sich was the fortified settlement of those Zaporozhian Cossacks who later settled in the Danube Delta.