Delta, where in 1830 they numbered 1,095 families. Over the years they were joined by other peasants fleeing serfdom in the Russian Empire. To date there is still a small Ukrainian minority living in the Dobruja region around Ukraine and Romania. In 1992 they numbered four thousand people according to official Romanian statistics while the local community claims to number 20,000. Known as Rusnaks they continue to pursue the traditional Cossack lifestyle of hunting and fishing. Legacy The legacy of the Danube Cossacks survived in a lyrical-comic opera called "A Zaprorozhian Cossack beyond the Danube" (Zaporozhetz za Dunayem) composed in the 1850s by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, a student of Mikhail Glinka. Although the opera historically relates to the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-9, where according to a peace treaty, the Danube cossacks were granted the right to return to their homeland, Hulak-Artemovsky reset the opera to take place in the 18th century. The opera first opened in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theatre on 14 March 1863. After its premiere it was censored and restricted from performance. In the 1870s it was revived by amateur Ukrainian theatre troupes and received a new lease on life. Today it is considered a Ukrainian opera classic. See also Ottoman Ukraine Azov Cossacks References Notations . Cossacks and military settlers on Dniester and Bug 18th-19th centuries by I.A.Antsupov. First published in Annual Almanach of Pridnestrovye, 1997, vol.1 p. 30-39 Available online on www.cossackdom.com Olena Bachynska. "The Danube Territory-land of the traditions of the Ukrainian Cossacks 18th-19th centuries". First published in Наукових записок. Збірника праць молодих вчених та аспірантів". 2001. vol.6 p. 263-274 available online at www.cossackdom.com Alexander Bachinsky, The Danube Sich 1775-1828 Odessa State University online Danube Sich by L.Malenko for the Small Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Cossackdom Footnotes External links Danubian Sich in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Ottoman period in the Balkans Bessarabia 18th century in the Zaporozhian Host Vassal states of the Ottoman Empire