First and foremost, 'Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV' is a painting finished by Repin in 1891, and as the painters rarely were experts on history of the everyday life, not to mention cared much for the historical veracity, each and every such non-contemporary depiction should be taken with a grain of salt, or maybe rather a pound. But was it possible that Cossacks writing the alleged reply could smoke tobacco? Yes, by all means.

The event portrayed on the picture allegedly took place in 1676 and is attributed to ataman Ivan Sirko. The tobacco itself was brought to Europe soon after Columbus' discovery, as earliest accounts depicting the new plant come from Spanish sources from the very late 1490's and it became a popular commodity in England, France and Spain in the late 1550s. It is generally assumed that tobacco was already known, although not popular in Central Europe as early as 1590s, mainly due to the contacts with Ottoman Empire from where new plant along with the method of smoking it was brought by diplomats and merchants (sources most commonly point to Polish envoy to Ottoman court, Uchański, who brought news of tobacco to his home country somewhere around 1590). Ottomans started to cultivate tobacco in early 1580's, with the first plantation established in 1583 near city of Muras in Western Anatolia. It was most likely brought there from Spain by Venetian merchants with whom Ottomans traded (and fiercely competed) in the Mediterranean region. In the beginning of 17th century, tobacco gained vast popularity also among Zaporozhian Cossacks, as southeastern regions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were well suited to its cultivation due to climate. In the late 1680's, around the time when Zaporozhe was transferred from the Commonwealth to Russian Tsardom, in the lands of the Cossack Hetmanate (semi-autonomous region governed by Cossacks) roughly 1500 tons of tobacco was harvested every year.

Although details concerning the smoking itself are not too common, we know that Cossacks most likely learned the methods of tobacco from Ottoman Turks, as they were known to use tobacco that was sweet and mild, what corresponds with the qualities of sun-cured leaves, dominant in Asia Minor, Balkans and Middle East in opposition to a tobacco cured by air, fire or flue that results in stronger but also harsher taste and higher nicotine content. Like Turks, Cossacks also learned to use additives to create aromatic mixes, much less popular in the West. This was the more important as, according to Anatoliy Pasternak, the most popular type of tobacco grown in Zaporozhe was 'makhorka' i.e. strong tobacco, known in the West as Aztec tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), much more abundant in nicotin but also more potent and characterised by harsher taste. The most common additives were, of course, numerous herbs well known to Cossacks who were also using them for other purposes, such as oregano, mint, gentiana and holly. They were also known to add specific herbs for their known medicinal effects, e.g. dried wormwood to alleviate insomnia or melilot for general relaxation and vasodilatory effect.