Cossack
Encyclopedia
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine
and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don
basins and who played an important role in the historical development of those nations.
The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed. Traditional historiography dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14th to 15th centuries. Towards the end of the 15th century, the Ukrainian Cossacks formed the Zaporozhian Sich centered around the fortified Dnipro islands. Initially a vassal of Poland-Lithuania
, the increasing social and religious pressure from the Commonwealth caused them to proclaim an independent Cossack Hetmanate
, initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky
in the mid-17th century. Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav
brought most of the Ukrainian Cossack state
under Russian control for the next 300 years.
The Don Cossack Host, which had been established by the 16th century, allied itself with the Tsardom of Russia
. Together they began a systematic conquest and colonisation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga
, the whole of Siberia
(see Yermak Timofeyevich
), the Yaik
and the Terek Rivers. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire
served as buffer zones on her borders. However, the expansionist ambitions of the empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension with their traditional independent lifestyle. In the 17th and 18th centuries this resulted in rebellions led by Stenka Razin
, Kondraty Bulavin and Yemelyan Pugachev
. In extreme cases, whole Hosts could be dissolved, as was the fate of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. By the end of the 18th century, Cossacks were transformed into a special social estate (Sosloviye); they served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders (as was in the case in the Caucasus War) and regularly supplied men to conflicts such as the numerous Russo-Turkish Wars. In return, they enjoyed vast social autonomy. This caused them to form a stereotypical portrayal of 19th century Russian Empire abroad and her government domestically.
During the Russian Civil War
, Cossack regions became centres for the Anti-Bolshevik White movement
, a portion of whom would form the White emigration
. The Don and Kuban Cossacks even formed short-lived independent states in their respective territories. With the victory of the Red Army
, the Cossack lands were subjected to famine, and suffered extensive repressions. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
, the Cossack lifestyle and its ideas have made a return in Russia. Special Cossack units exist in the Russian Military, while Cossacks also have a parallel civil administration and police duties in their home territories that have become an integral part of contemporary society. There are Cossack organizations in Kazakhstan
, Ukraine
and other countries.
The English word is attested from 1590.
The ethnonym Kazakh
is from the same Turkic root.
Such adventurers or Qazaqlar served as border guards in the Khanate of Kazan
.
started settling in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the Don
and the Dnieper
. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongols
broke the power of the Bulgars
on that territory. It is known that they inherited a lifestyle that persisted there long before, such as those of the Turkic Cumans
and the Circassia
n Kassaks .
Early "Proto-Cossack" groups very likely came into existence within the territories of today's Ukraine
in the mid-13th century as the Golden Horde
influence grew weak. Non-mainstream theories have ascribed their earlier existence to as early as the tenth century. Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origins, descending from Russians
, Ukrainians
, Poles
, Turks
, Tatars, and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe. However some turkologists argue that cossacks are descendants of native Cumans
of Ukraine
, who lived there long ago before Mongol invasion.
In the midst of the growing Moscow and Lithuanian powers, new political entities had appeared in the region such as Moldavia
and the Crimean Khanate
. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester
and the Volga
were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant as the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period for various reasons.
It is known that Don Cossacks, in 1380, gave the icon of the Virgin Mary to the Dmitry Donskoy.
In the 15th century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation
of independent communities, often forming local armies, entirely independent from the neighbouring states (of, e.g., Poland, Grand Duchy of Moscow or the Khanate of Crimea
). According to Hrushevsky
the first mentioning of cossacks could be found already in 14th century, however they were either of Turkic or undefined origin. He states that they (cossacks) could have been descendants from the Berlad territory (today in Romania
) that was part of the Grand Duchy of Halych, brodniki
, or even the long forgotten antes. Cossacks were a sort of a self-defense formations organized against various raids conducting by neighbors. Already in 1492 the Crimean Khan was complaining that the Kiev and Cherkasy cossacks attacked his ship near Tighina
(Bender) and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander I
promised to find the guilty among the cossacks. Sometime in the beginning of 16th century there have appeared the old Ukrainian Ballad of Cossack Holota about a cossack near Kiliya.
By the 16th century these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organisations as well as other smaller, still detached groups.
Less well-known are the Polish Cossacks (Kozacy) and the Tatar
Cossacks (Nağaybäk
lär). The term 'Cossacks' was also used for a type of light cavalry
in the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
, are a well known group of Cossacks. Their numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries, usually led by Ruthenian boyar
or prince nobility, various Polish starosta
s, merchants, and runaway peasants from the area of the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics
, participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia
, and the Ottoman Empire
. In 1552 on the banks of the Lower Dnieper was formed the first recorded Zaporizhian Host when Dmytro Vyshnevetsky
built a fortress on the island of Khortytsia
. As a result of the Khmelnytsky Uprising
in the middle of the 17th century the Zaporozhian Cossacks managed to briefly create an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate
, a suzerainty
under protection of the Russian Tsar but ruled by the local Hetmans
for half a century. In the later half of the 18th century the Zaporozhian Host was destroyed by the Russian authorities. Some Cossacks moved to the Danube
delta region and later the Kuban
region. After 1828 most of the Danubians had moved first to the Azov and later to the Kuban regions. Although today some of the Kuban Cossacks
and their descendants do not consider themselves Ukrainians
by nationality, the language most of descendants speak is a dialect of central Ukrainian
and their folklore is significantly Ukrainian.
The Zaporozhians were renowned for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassal
s, although they sometimes war loot
ed other neighbors as well. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which resulted in almost a constant low-level warfare taking place in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
.
After being asked in 1539 by the Ottoman Sultan
to restrain the Cossacks, the Grand Duke Vasili III of Russia
replied: "The Cossacks do not swear allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please." In 1549, Tsar Ivan the Terrible replied to a request of the Turkish Sultan to stop the attacks of the Don Cossacks, stating, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge." Similar exchanges passed between Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, each of which tried to exploit Cossack warmongering for its own purposes. In the 16th century, with the dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects. Registered Cossacks
were a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.
Around the end of the 16th century, relations between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
and the Ottoman Empire
, which were not cordial to begin with, were further strained by increasing Cossack aggression
. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish government could not control the fiercely independent Cossacks, but since they were nominally subjects of the Commonwealth, it was held responsible for the raids by their victims. Reciprocally, the Tatars
living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the sparsely inhabited southeast territories. Cossack pirates, however, were raiding wealthy merchant port cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, which were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the Dnieper River
. By 1615 and 1625, Cossacks had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of Constantinople
, forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth called for both parties to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but enforcement was almost non-existent on both sides. In internal agreements, forced by the Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However, boats could be rebuilt quickly, and the Cossack lifestyle glorified raids and booty. During this time, the Habsburg Empire sometimes covertly employed Cossack raiders to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars shared an animosity towards each other due to the damage done by raids from both sides. Cossack raids followed by Tatar retaliation, or Tatar raids followed by Cossack retaliation, were an almost regular occurrence. The ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire southeastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone and led to escalation of Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars
to the Battle of Cecora
and Wars in 1633–1634.
Cossack numbers expanded with peasants escaping serf
dom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta
to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognised as equal to the szlachta were constantly rebuffed, and plans for transforming the Polish-Lithuanian Two-Nations Commonwealth into Three Nations
(with the Ruthenian Cossack people) made little progress due to the Cossacks' unpopularity. The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity put them at odds with the Catholic
-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Orthodox church, making the Cossacks strongly anti-Catholic, which at the time was synonymous with anti-Polish.
's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to cede to the Cossacks' demand to expand the Cossack Registry was the last straw that prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky uprising
that started in 1648. The uprising became one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth known as The Deluge
, which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later.
The rebellion ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav
in which Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the Russian Tsar with the latter guaranteeing Cossacks his protection, recognition of Cossack starshyna (nobility) and their autonomy under his rule, freeing the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach
, which was approved by the Polish King and Sejm as well as by some of the Cossack starshyna, including Hetman
Ivan Vyhovsky
. The starshyna were, however, divided on the issue and the treaty had even less support among Cossack rank-and-file; thus it failed.
Under Russian rule the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Grand Duchy of Moscow: the Cossack Hetmanate
, and the more independent Zaporizhia. These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia
, and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia. In 1775 the Zaporozhian Host was destroyed and high-ranking Cossack leaders were sent to Solovky or killed.
With the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, many of these Cossacks settled in the area of the Danube river and became known as the Black Sea cossacks. Others settled in the area north of the Azov Sea and became known as the Azov cossacks. Some of these Cossacks later were resettled to colonise the Kuban steppe which was a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the Caucasus
. Some however ran away across the Danube
(territory under the control of the Ottoman Empire) to form a new host before rejoining the others in the Kuban.
During their stay there, a new host was founded which by the end of 1778 numbered around 12,000 Cossacks. Their settlement at the border with Russia was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the Sultan. Yet the conflict inside the new host of the new loyalty, and the political manoeuvres used by the Russian Empire, led to a split in the Cossacks. After a portion of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia they were used by the Russian army to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greek Albanians and Crimean Tatars. However after the Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792, most of them were incorporated into the Black Sea Cossack Host
which moved to the Kuban steppes. Most of the remaining Cossacks that stayed in the Danube delta returned to Russia in 1828 and created the Azov Cossack Host
between Berdyansk and Mariupol
. In 1860 all of them were resettled to the North Caucasus and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host
.
The native land of the Cossacks is defined by a line of Russian/Ruthenian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to the Dnieper via Pereyaslavl. This area was settled by a population of free people practicing various trades and crafts.
These people, constantly facing the Tatar
warriors on the steppe frontier, received the Turkic name Cossacks (Kazaks), which was then extended to other free people in northern Russia. The oldest reference in the annals mentions Cossacks of the Russian city of Ryazan serving the city in the battle against the Tatars in 1444. In the 16th century, the Cossacks (primarily those of Ryazan) were grouped in military and trading communities on the open steppe and started to migrate into the area of the Don (source Vasily Klyuchevsky
, The course of the Russian History, vol.2).
Cossacks served as border guards and protectors of towns, forts, settlements and trading posts, performed policing functions on the frontiers and also came to represent an integral part of the Russian army
. In the 16th century, to protect the borderland area from Tatar invasions
, Cossacks carried out sentry and patrol duties, observing Crimean Tatars
and nomads of the Nogai Horde
in the steppe region.
The most popular weapons used by Cossack cavalrymen were usually sabres, or shashka, and long spears.
Russian Cossacks played a key role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into Siberia (particularly by Yermak Timofeyevich
), the Caucasus and Central Asia
in the period from the 16th to 19th centuries. Cossacks also served as guides to most Russian expeditions formed by civil and military geographers and surveyors, traders and explorers. In 1648 the Russian Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov discovered a passage between North America and Asia. Cossack units played a role in many wars in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (such as the Russo-Turkish Wars, the Russo-Persian Wars
, and the annexation of Central Asia).
During Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Cossacks were the Russian soldiers most feared by the French troops. Napoleon himself stated "Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them." Cossacks also took part in the partisan
war deep inside French-occupied Russian territory, attacking communications and supply lines. These attacks, carried out by Cossacks along with Russian light cavalry and other units, were one of the first developments of guerrilla warfare
tactics and, to some extent, special operations as we know them today.
Western Europeans had had few contacts with Cossacks before the Allies occupied Paris
in 1814. As the most exotic of the Russian troops seen in France, Cossacks drew a great deal of attention and notoriety for their alleged excesses during Napoleon's 1812 campaign.
Kuban Cossacks or Kubanians (кубанцы) are Cossack
s who live in the Kuban
region of Russia
. Although numerous Cossack groups came to inhabit the Western Northern Caucasus most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of the Black Sea Cossack Host
, (originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks) and the Caucasus Line Cossack Host
.
A distinguishing feature from other Russian Cossacks is the Oseledets
haircut popular among many Kubanians. This is due to their traditional Ukrainian
roots, going back to the Zaporizhian Sich
.
The Terek Cossack Host (Russian: Терское казачье войско) was a Cossack host created in 1577 from free Cossacks who resettled from the Volga to the Terek River. In 1792 it was included in the Caucasus Line Cossack Host and separated from it again in 1860, with the capital of Vladikavkaz. In 1916 the population of the Host was 255,000 within an area of 1.9 million desyatinas. Many of the early members of the Terek Cossacks were Ossetians.[1]
formed from the Ural Cossacks, cossacks settled by the Ural River
. Their alternative name, Yaik Cossacks, comes from the old name of the river. The Ural Cossacks although speaking Russian and identifying themselves as being of primarily Russian ancestry also incorporated many Tatars
into their ranks. Twenty years after the conquest of the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan, in 1577, Moscow sent troops to disperse pirates and raiders along the Volga (one of their number was Ermak
). Some of these fled southeast to the Ural River. In 1580 they captured Saraichik. By 1591 they were fighting for Moscow. Sometime in the next century they were officially recognized.
were very much varied; at times this involved combined military operations, and at others there were famous Cossack uprisings. One particular example was the destruction of the Zaporozhian Host, which took place at the end of the 18th century. The divisions of the Cossacks within were clearly visible between those that chose to stay loyal to the Russian Monarch and continue their service (who later moved to the Kuban) and those that chose to continue their pro-mercenary role and ran off the Danube
delta.
Nevertheless by the 19th century, the Russian Empire
managed to fully annex all the control over the hosts and instead rewarded the Cossacks with privileges for their service. At this time the Cossacks were actively participating in many Russian wars. Although Cossack tactics in open battles were generally inferior to those of regular soldiers such as the Dragoon
s, Cossacks were nevertheless excellent for scouting and reconnaissance duties, as well as undertaking ambushes. In 1840 the hosts included the Don, Black Sea, Astrakhan, Little Russia, Azov, Danube, Ural, Stavropol, Mesherya, Orenburg, Siberia, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Sabaikal, Yakutsk and Tartar voiskos. By 1890s the Ussuri, Semirechensk and Amur Cossacks were added, with the last having a regiment of elite mounted rifles.
The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early 20th century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. In strictly military terms the Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army Command, who saw them as less well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussar
s, dragoons and lancer
s of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts.
During the February Revolution
of 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership, and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg
joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II
and sped his abdication.
At the end of the 19th century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire
, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the 20th century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organised into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments.
, when dynastic conflicts constantly presented themselves and inconsistency reigned with the lack of a single, competent ruler. The government began attempting to assimilate the Cossacks into the Russian culture and political system by granting elite status and enforcing military service, thus creating divisions within the Cossacks themselves as they fought to keep their own traditions alive. The government’s efforts to alter the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Cossacks caused the Cossacks to be involved in nearly all the major disturbances in Russia over a 200-year period, including the rebellions led by Stenka Razin
and Emilian Pugachev.
As Muscovy regained stability under Mikhail Romanov after the Time of Troubles
beginning in 1613, discontent steadily grew within the serf and peasant populations. The Code of 1649 under Alexis Romanov, Mikhail’s son, divided the Russian population into distinct and fixed hereditary categories. This law tied peasants to the land and forced townsmen to take on their fathers’ occupations. The Code of 1649 increased tax revenue for the central government and stopped wandering to stabilize the social order by fixing people in the same land with the same occupation of their families. The increased taxes fell mainly on the peasants as a burden and continued to widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor. As the government developed more military expeditions, human and material resources became limited, putting an even harsher strain on the peasants. War with Poland
and Sweden
in 1662 led to a fiscal crisis and riots across the country. Taxes, harsh conditions, and the gap between social classes drove peasants and serfs to flee, many of them going to the Cossacks, knowing that the Cossacks would accept refugees and free them.
The Cossacks experienced difficulties under Tsar Alexis as the influx of refugees grew daily. The Cossacks received a subsidy
of food, money, and military supplies from the tsar in return for acting as border defense. These subsidies fluctuated often and provided a source of conflict between the Cossacks and the government. The war with Poland diverted necessary food and military shipments to the Cossacks as the population of the Host
, the unit of Cossacks identified by the region in which they resided, grew with the fugitive peasants. The influx of these refugees troubled the Cossacks not only because of the increased demand for food but also because the large number of these fugitives meant the Cossacks could not absorb them into their culture through the traditional apprenticeship way. Instead of taking these steps of proper assimilation into Cossack society, the runaway peasants spontaneously declared themselves Cossacks and lived beside true Cossacks, laboring or working as barge-haulers to earn food.
As conditions worsened and Mikhail’s son Alexis took the throne, divisions among the Cossacks began to emerge. Older Cossacks began to settle and become prosperous, enjoying the privileges they earned through obeying and assisting the Muscovite system. The old Cossacks started giving up their traditions and liberties that had been worth dying for to obtain the pleasures of an elite life. The lawless and restless runaway peasants that called themselves Cossacks looked for adventure and revenge against the nobility that had caused them suffering. These Cossacks did not receive the government subsidies that the old Cossacks enjoyed and thus had to work harder and longer for food and money. These divisions between the elite and lawless would lead to the formation of a Cossack army beginning in 1667 under Stenka Razin
as well as to the ultimate failure of that rebellion.
Stenka Razin
was born into an elite Cossack family and had made many diplomatic visits to Moscow
before organizing his rebellion. The Cossacks were Razin’s main supporters and followed him during his first Persian campaign in 1667, plundering and pillaging Persian cities on the Caspian Sea
. They returned ill and hungry, tired from fighting but rich with plundered goods in 1669. Muscovy tried to gain support from the old Cossacks, asking the ataman
, or Cossack chieftain, to prevent Razin from following through with his plans. However the ataman, being Razin’s godfather and swayed by Razin’s promise of a share of the wealth from Razin’s expeditions, replied that the elite Cossacks were powerless against the band of rebels. The elite did not see much threat from Razin and his followers either, although they realized he could cause them problems with the Muscovite system if his following developed into a rebellion against the central government.
Razin and his followers began to capture cities at the start of the rebellion in 1669. They seized the towns of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan
, Saratov
, and Samara
, implementing Cossack-style rule as they went. Razin envisioned a united Cossack republic throughout the southern steppe in which the towns and villages of the area would operate with the Cossack style of government. These sieges often took place in the runaway peasant Cossacks’ old towns, leading them to wreak havoc on their old masters and get the revenge for which they were hoping. The rebels’ advancement began to be seen as a problem to the elder Cossacks, who, in 1671, decided to comply with the government in order to receive more subsidies. On April 14, ataman Yakovlev
led elders to destroy the rebel camp and captured Razin, taking him soon afterward to Moscow
.
Razin’s rebellion marked the beginning of the end to traditional Cossack practices. In August 1671, Muscovite envoys administered the oath of allegiance
and the Cossacks swore loyalty to the tsar
. While they still had internal autonomy
, the Cossacks became Muscovite subjects, a transition that would prove to be a dividing point yet again in Pugachev’s rebellion.
For the Cossack elite
, a noble status within the empire came at the price of their old liberties in the 18th century. An advancement of agricultural settlement began forcing the Cossacks to give up their traditional nomadic ways and to adopt new forms of government. The government steadily changed the entire culture of the Cossacks. Peter the Great increased service obligations for the Cossacks and mobilized their forces to fight in far-off wars. Peter began establishing non-Cossack troops in fortresses along the Iaik River and in 1734 constructed Orenburg
, a fortress of government power on the frontier that gave Cossacks a subordinate role in border defense. When the Iaik Cossacks sent a delegation to Peter to explain their grievances, Peter stripped the Cossacks of their autonomous status and subordinated them to the War College
rather than the College of Foreign Affairs, solidifying the change in the Cossacks from border patrol to military servicemen. Over the next fifty years, the central government responded to Cossack grievances with arrests, floggings, and exiles. Among the ordinary Cossacks, hatred of the elite and central government boiled and by 1772, an open state of rebellion ensued for six months between the Iaik Cossacks and the central government.
Under Catherine the Great in 1762, the Russian peasants and Cossacks once again faced increased taxation, heavy military conscription, and grain shortages that had characterized the land before Razin’s rebellion. In addition, Catherine II annulled one of Peter III’s
acts, an act interpreted to mean that economy peasants, or serfs living on church lands, were free from their obligations and payments to church authorities. In 1767, the empress refused to accept grievances directly from the peasantry. Peasants fled once again to the land of the Cossacks; in particular, the fugitive peasants set their destination for the Iaik Host, whose people were committed to the old Cossack traditions. The changing government burdened the Cossacks as well, extending its reach to reform the Cossack traditions.
Emelian Pugachev, a low-status Don Cossack, arrived in the Iaik Host in late 1772. Pugachev’s claim to be Peter III
stemmed from the expectations the Cossacks held for the late ruler, believing that Peter III would have been an effective ruler after signing an alliance with Frederick the Great of Prussia, had he not been assassinated by a plot of his wife Catherine II. Many Iaik Cossacks believed Pugachev’s claim, though those closest to him knew the truth. Others that may have known the truth but did not support Catherine II, due to her disposal of Peter III, still spread Pugachev’s claim to be the late emperor.
The first of the three phases of Pugachev’s rebellion began in September 1773. The elite-supporting Cossacks constituted the majority of the first prisoners taken by the rebels. After a five month siege of Orenburg
, a Military College became Pugachev’s headquarters. Pugachev began envisioning a Cossack tsardom, similar to Razin’s vision of a united Cossack republic. The peasantry across Russia stirred with rumors and listened to manifestos issued by Pugachev. However, Pugachev’s rebellion soon became to be seen as an inevitable failure. The Don Cossacks
refused to help the rebellion in the last phase of the revolt because they knew military troops followed Pugachev closely after lifting the siege of Orenburg
and following Pugachev’s flight from defeated Kazan
. In September, 1774, Pugachev’s own Cossack lieutenants turned him over to the government troops.
The Cossacks’ opposition to modernization
and institutionalization of political authority led them to participate in Pugachev’s rebellion. One of their last hopes to defy the increasing political authority threatening the traditional Cossack life failed. The Cossack elite, hoping to obtain noble statues, accepted the government’s reforms and the ordinary Cossacks had no choice but to give up their traditions and liberties.
that followed the October Revolution
, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Cossacks formed the core of the White Army
, but many of them also fought for the Red Army
.
The Terek Cossacks in the White service became known for their brutality toward Jews, in a series of pogroms in Southern Russia and Ukraine Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackization
(Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true of the Terek Cossacks' land. Cossacks were also banned from serving in the Red Army.
Some recent literature claims that hundreds of thousands or even millions of Cossacks were killed by the Soviet Government during Decossackization
. According to Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks", including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks. The Denikin regime alleged that in 1918–19, 5,598 were executed in the provinces of the Don, 3,442 in the Kuban, and 2,142 in Stavropol. On the other hand, historian Leonid Futorianskiy disputes these claims and argues instead that, during the preceding White Terror of the Krasnov regime, between 25-40 thousand people were killed. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivisation campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulak
s.
The man-made Soviet famine of 1932–1933 hit Don, Kuban, and Terek territories (the Northern Caucasus) very hard http://fstanitsa.ru/category/metki/golodomor. The famine caused a population decline of about 20-30% in these territories :File:Holodomor Famine map.jpg (the population decline in the rural areas, populated by ethnic Cossacks, was even higher, since metro areas were not affected by the famine). Robert Conquest
estimates the number of famine-related deaths in the Northern Caucasus to be at about 1 million. Grain and other produce were expropriated from Cossack families, leaving them to starve and die, and many families were forced out of their homes in the Winter time, leaving them to freeze to death. These facts are documented in Mikhail Sholokhov's letters to Joseph Stalin
,http://feb-web.ru/feb/sholokh/texts/shp/shp-1054.htm and by eyewitness accounts. http://www.bibliotekar.ru/golodomor/33.htm.http://fstanitsa.ru/category/metki/golodomor
In 1936, under pressure from Cossack communities, the Soviet government has lifted the ban on Cossacks serving in the Red Army.
policies pursued by Joseph Stalin
. Like other peoples of the Soviet Union
, who suffered persecution under Stalin, many Cossacks dreaming of autonomy greeted the advancing German army as liberators.
While the core of the Nazi collaborators was made up of former White Army refugees, many rank-and-file Cossacks defected from the Red Army to join the German armed forces (Wehrmacht
). As early as 1941, the first Cossack detachments, created out of prisoners of war, defectors and volunteers, were formed under German leadership. The Dubrovski Battalion formed of Don Cossacks in December 1941 was reorganised on July 30, 1942 into the Pavlov Regiment, numbering up to 350 men. The Cossacks were successfully utilized for anti-partisan activity in the rear of the German army.
The Cossack National Movement of Liberation was set in the hope of creating an independent Cossack state, Cossackia
. It was not until 1943 that the 1st Cossack Division
was formed under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz
, where Cossack emigrees, like Andrei Shkuro
and Pyotr Krasnov
, took leading positions. The 2nd Cossack Division under the command of Colonel Hans-Joachim von Schultz, formed in 1944, existed only for a year, when both Cossack divisions became part of the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps, totalling some 25,000 men, being a regular Wehrmacht unit and not Waffen-SS, as has occasionally been incorrectely alleged. Although in 1944 General von Pannwitz accepted a loose affiliation with the Waffen-SS in order to gain access to their supply of superior arms and equipment, together with control over Cossack units in France, the Corps command, structure, uniforms, ranks, etc. remained firmly Wehrmacht. The Corps contained regiments of different Cossack groups: Don
, Kuban
, Terek and Siberian Cossacks
which had been fighting Tito's partizans in Croatia. At the end of the war in 1945, they conducted a fighting retreat north-eastwards over the Karavanken Mountains into Carinthia where they surrendered to the British Army
in Allied-administered Austria
, hoping to join the British to fight Communism
. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe
. On 28 May 1945 they were duped by British assurances that they were being taken Canada or Australia. Instead they were all handed over to SMERSH on the Soviet demarcation line at Judenburg together with the civilian members of the Kazachi Stan, consisting of old folk, woman, and children Operation Keelhaul
as well as about 850 German officers and non-commissioned officers of the Corps. At the end of the war, the British repatriated between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly, many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This episode is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks
.
The majority of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army on the Southern theatre of the Eastern Front
, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched in Red Square
during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
.
The Cossack units of the Red Army acquired a reputation for cruelty towards civilians during the war. Halina Kahn, a young Polish Jewish woman in the Lodz Ghetto remembers, "We are free, the war is over, the Russian Army is coming in. That was a terrible agony: they were Cossacks and they had been on the front for three or four years, dirty and black, and they saw women for the first time and would take the women and girls to the barracks."
In the Perestroika
era Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law which allowed formation of former hosts and the creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest, the All-Mighty Don Host, was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. The Cossacks have taken an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: the War of Transnistria
, the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict
, the Kosovo War
, the First Chechen War
and the Second Chechen War
.
At the same time many attempts were made to increase the Cossack impact on Russian society and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks. However in April 2005, Vladimir Putin
, President of Russia introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" to the State Duma
, which was passed at the first reading on May 18, 2005. For the first time in decades the Cossacks were recognized as not only a distinct ethnocultural entity but also as a potent military force.
According to several sources, there are about 7 million people who currently self-identify as Russian Cossacks, mainly in Russia, and the former Soviet Union
.
In early times, Cossack bands were commanded by an ataman (later called hetman
). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada
, as were the other important band officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, a bulava
. Today, Russian Cossacks are led by Atamans, and Ukrainian - by Hetmans.
After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo
, 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks were known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks.
The ataman had executive power
s and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislative power
was given to the Band Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called starshyna. In the absence of written law
s, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the common, unwritten law.
Cossack society and government were heavily militarized. The nation was called a host (vois’ko, or viys’ko, translated as 'army'), and subdivided into regiment
al and company districts, and village posts (polky, sotni, and stanytsi).
Each Cossack settlement, alone or in conjunction with neighboring settlements, formed military units and regiments of light cavalry (or mounted infantry, for Siberian Cossacks) ready to respond to a threat on very short notice.
s) and fortresses along troublesome borders such as forts Verny (Almaty
, Kazakhstan
) in south Central Asia, Grozny
in North Caucasus, Fort Alexandrovsk (Fort Shevchenko
, Kazakhstan), Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi
, Turkmenistan
) Novonikolayevskaya stanitsa (Bautino, Kazakhstan), Blagoveshchensk
, towns and settlements at Ural
, Ishim
, Irtysh
, Ob
, Yenisei
, Lena
, Amur, Anadyr
(Chukotka
), and Ussuri River
s. A group of Albazin Cossacks settled in China
as early as 1685.
Although Cossacks are sometimes regarded as xenophobic, some Cossacks readily adapted to the cultures and customs of nearby peoples (for example, the Terek Cossacks were heavily influenced by the culture of North Caucasian tribes) and frequently married local residents (other non-Cossack settlers and natives) regardless of race or origin, sometimes setting aside religious restrictions. War brides brought from distant lands were also common in Cossack families. One of the Russian Volunteer Army
commanders, General Bogaevsky mentions in his book one of his Cossacks unit's servicemen, Sotnik Khoperski, who was Chinese by origin and brought from Manchuria during the Russian-Japanese War 1904–1905 as a child, adopted and raised by a Cossack family.
Cossacks, particularly those in rural areas, tend to have more children than other Slavic or Christian peoples in Russia.
Rural Cossacks often live in large clans led by a elder patriarch, usually a grandfather, who often has the title of Ataman
.
Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealizing freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against their enemies have contributed to this favourable image. For others they have been a symbol of repression because of their role in suppressing popular uprisings in the Russian Empire, as well as their assaults against Jews, popularized in stories by Sholem Aleichem, their participation in pogroms
and their actions during the Khmelnytsky Uprising
.
Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian
, Ukrainian
and Polish literature
s, particularly in the works of Nikolai Gogol
's Taras Bulba
, Taras Shevchenko
, Mikhail Sholokhov, Henryk Sienkiewicz
's book With Fire and Sword
. One of Leo Tolstoy
's first novellas, The Cossacks
, depicts their autonomy and estrangement from Moscow and centralized rule. Most of Polish Romantic literature deals with themes about the Cossacks.
Cossacks are also portrayed in Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade
", and Richard Connell
's short story "The Most Dangerous Game
". In many of the stories by adventure writer Harold Lamb
, the main character is a Cossack.
In Ukraine, where the Cossackdom represents historical and cultural heritage, some people have been attempting to recreate the images of Ukrainian Cossacks. Traditional Ukrainian culture is often tied in with the Cossacks, and the Ukrainian government actively supports these attempts. The traditional Cossack Bulava
is one of its national symbols, and the island of the Khortytsia
, where the Zaporozhian Sich once existed, has been restored.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many have begun seeing Russian Cossacks as defenders of Russian sovereignty. Cossacks not only reestablished all of their hosts, they also took over police and even administrative duties in their homelands. The Russian military also took advantage of the patriotic feelings among the Cossacks and as the hosts become larger and more organised, has in past turned over some of its surplus technology to them. On par with that, the Cossacks also play a large cultural role in the South of Russia. Since the whole rural population of the Rostov
, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as the Autonomous republics of the Northern Caucasus, consists almost exclusively of Cossack descendants (among the ethnic Russian population), the region was always known, even in the Soviet times for its high discipline, low crime
and conservative views, like having one of the highest rates of religious attendance and literacy rates. The result was that, amongst Russian youth, Cossacks began to represent order and, in some cases, hope, especially when compared with the presently unpopular Russian Army.
In the Russian Empire, the Cossacks were organized into several voiskos (hosts), which lived along the Russian border, or internal borders between Russian and non-Russian peoples. Each host had its own leadership and regalia as well as uniforms and ranks. However, by the late 19th century the latter were standardized following the example of the Imperial Russian Army
. Following the 1988 law, which allowed the hosts to reform and the 2005 one that legally recognized the hosts as a combat service, the ranks and insignia were kept, but on all military tickets that are standard for the Russian Army they are given below.
* Rank presently absent in the Russian Army
** The application of ranks polkovnik and general is only stable for small hosts. Large hosts are divided into divisions and consequently the Russian Army sub-ranks general-mayor, general-leitenatant and general-polkovnik are used to distinguish the atamans hierarchy of command, with the supreme ataman having the highest rank available. In such a case, the shoulder insignia has a dedicated one-, two- and three-star alignment, as normal in the Russian Army; otherwise it will be blank.
The same can be said about the colonel ranks as they are given to atamans of regional and district status. The lowest group, stanitsa, is commanded by Yesaul. If the region or district lacks any other stanitsas, then the rank polkovnik is applied automatically but with no stars on the shoulder. As the hosts continue to grow, starless shoulder batches are becoming increasingly rare.
In addition, the supreme ataman of the largest Don Cossack Host is officially titled as marshal, and so wears insignia that is derived from the Russian/Soviet marshal ranks, including the diamond Marshal Star. This is because the Don Cossack Supreme Ataman is recognized as the official head of all Cossack armies (including those outside the present Russian borders). He also has the authority to recognize and dissolve new hosts.
Cossacks were expected to provide their own uniforms. While these were sometimes manufactured in bulk by factories owned by the individual host, garments were often handed down or cut out within a family. Individual items might accordingly vary from those laid down by regulation or be of obsolete pattern. Each Host had its own distinctive uniform colourings.
For most hosts, the basic uniform comprised the standard loose-fitting tunics and wide trousers typical of Russian regular troops during the period 1881–1908. However the Caucasian Hosts (Kuban and Terek) wore the very long, open fronted, cherkesska coats with ornamental cartridge loops and coloured beshmets (waistcoats), that epitomise the popular image of the Cossacks. Most hosts wore fleece
hats with coloured cloth tops in full dress with peaked caps for ordinary duties. The two Caucasian Hosts however appear to have worn high fleece caps on most occasions.
Until 1909, Cossack regiments wore white blouse
s and cap covers of standard Russian army pattern in summer. The shoulder straps and cap bands were in the host colour as detailed below. From 1910 to 1918, a khaki-grey jacket was worn for field wear with the blue or green breeches
and coloured stripes of the dress uniform.
While most Cossacks served as cavalry
, there were infantry
and artillery
units in several of the hosts. Three regiments of Cossacks formed part of the Imperial Guard, as well as the Konvoi—the tsar's mounted escort. The Imperial Guard regiments wore tailored Government-issue uniforms which had spectacular and colourful appearance. As an example, the Konvoi wore scarlet cherkesskas, white beshmets and red crowns on their fleece hats.
* All details are based on the 1909–14 dress uniforms as portrayed in "Tablitsi Form' Obmundirovaniya Russkoi Armi", Colonel V.K. Shenk, published by the Imperial Russian War Ministry 1910–11.
.
Others, however, who are not "born" Cossacks, can become Cossacks through initiation. They are not necessarily Slavic or Christian. For example, since 2004, in the city of Perm functioned modern Russia's first Muslim Cossack unit.
Not everyone agrees that "initiated" Cossacks should be considered Cossacks at all. Nor is there consensus on what is considered a proper form of initiation.
There are people who simply put on a Cossack uniform and, essentially, pretend to be Cossacks, perhaps because there is a large ethnic Cossack population in their area and it is more convenient to try to fit in; or because that is simply a popular fad at the moment. Such individuals tend to be scoffed at by "real" Cossacks and referred to as 'ryazhenye' ('dressed up phonies').
Because of the controversies surrounding the identity issue, true population numbers of Cossacks in Russia still cannot be worked out. There are said to be 7,000,000 people in Russia who consider themselves ethnic Cossacks. Most Cossack leaders estimate the number of ethnic Cossacks as between 2.5 and 4 million.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
basins and who played an important role in the historical development of those nations.
The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed. Traditional historiography dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14th to 15th centuries. Towards the end of the 15th century, the Ukrainian Cossacks formed the Zaporozhian Sich centered around the fortified Dnipro islands. Initially a vassal of Poland-Lithuania
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, the increasing social and religious pressure from the Commonwealth caused them to proclaim an independent Cossack Hetmanate
Cossack Hetmanate
The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
, initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossack Hetmanate of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates which resulted in the creation of a Cossack state...
in the mid-17th century. Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav
Treaty of Pereyaslav
The Treaty of Pereyaslav is known in history more as the Council of Pereiaslav.Council of Pereyalslav was a meeting between the representative of the Russian Tsar, Prince Vasili Baturlin who presented a royal decree, and Bohdan Khmelnytsky as the leader of Cossack Hetmanate. During the council...
brought most of the Ukrainian Cossack state
Cossack Hetmanate
The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
under Russian control for the next 300 years.
The Don Cossack Host, which had been established by the 16th century, allied itself with the Tsardom of Russia
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
. Together they began a systematic conquest and colonisation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
, the whole of Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
(see Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich , Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization...
), the Yaik
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
and the Terek Rivers. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
served as buffer zones on her borders. However, the expansionist ambitions of the empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension with their traditional independent lifestyle. In the 17th and 18th centuries this resulted in rebellions led by Stenka Razin
Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin Тимофеевич Разин, ; 1630 – ) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.-Early life:...
, Kondraty Bulavin and Yemelyan Pugachev
Yemelyan Pugachev
Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachov , was a pretender to the Russian throne who led a great Cossack insurrection during the reign of Catherine II...
. In extreme cases, whole Hosts could be dissolved, as was the fate of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. By the end of the 18th century, Cossacks were transformed into a special social estate (Sosloviye); they served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders (as was in the case in the Caucasus War) and regularly supplied men to conflicts such as the numerous Russo-Turkish Wars. In return, they enjoyed vast social autonomy. This caused them to form a stereotypical portrayal of 19th century Russian Empire abroad and her government domestically.
During the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, Cossack regions became centres for the Anti-Bolshevik White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
, a portion of whom would form the White emigration
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
. The Don and Kuban Cossacks even formed short-lived independent states in their respective territories. With the victory of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, the Cossack lands were subjected to famine, and suffered extensive repressions. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, the Cossack lifestyle and its ideas have made a return in Russia. Special Cossack units exist in the Russian Military, while Cossacks also have a parallel civil administration and police duties in their home territories that have become an integral part of contemporary society. There are Cossack organizations in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and other countries.
Name
Vassmer's etymological dictionary traces the name to an Old East Slavic , originally from Cuman kаzаk - a free man, specifically an individual who could not find his appropriate place in society and went into the steppes, where he acknowledged no authority. It is first attested in a Cuman dictionary from the 13th century.The English word is attested from 1590.
The ethnonym Kazakh
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
is from the same Turkic root.
Such adventurers or Qazaqlar served as border guards in the Khanate of Kazan
Khanate of Kazan
The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Tatar state which occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El,...
.
Early history
It is not clear when the Slavic peopleSlavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
started settling in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the Don
Don River (Russia)
The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....
and the Dnieper
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
broke the power of the Bulgars
Bulgars
The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....
on that territory. It is known that they inherited a lifestyle that persisted there long before, such as those of the Turkic Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
and the Circassia
Circassia
Circassia was an independent mountainous country located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia and was the largest and most important country in the Caucasus. Circassia was located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea...
n Kassaks .
Early "Proto-Cossack" groups very likely came into existence within the territories of today's Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in the mid-13th century as the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
influence grew weak. Non-mainstream theories have ascribed their earlier existence to as early as the tenth century. Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origins, descending from Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, Tatars, and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe. However some turkologists argue that cossacks are descendants of native Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, who lived there long ago before Mongol invasion.
In the midst of the growing Moscow and Lithuanian powers, new political entities had appeared in the region such as Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
and the Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
and the Volga
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant as the history of the Ukrainian lands in that period for various reasons.
It is known that Don Cossacks, in 1380, gave the icon of the Virgin Mary to the Dmitry Donskoy.
In the 15th century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
of independent communities, often forming local armies, entirely independent from the neighbouring states (of, e.g., Poland, Grand Duchy of Moscow or the Khanate of Crimea
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
). According to Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
Mykhailo Serhiyovych Hrushevsky was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century...
the first mentioning of cossacks could be found already in 14th century, however they were either of Turkic or undefined origin. He states that they (cossacks) could have been descendants from the Berlad territory (today in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) that was part of the Grand Duchy of Halych, brodniki
Brodnici
The Brodnici were a 13th-century people whose ethnicity is uncertain, as various authors suggest they were Slavic, mixed Romanian-Jassic, Romanian-Slavic, or Turkic-Slavic population, probably vassals of Galicia for a period. Brodnici did not leave any provable material or written traces, which...
, or even the long forgotten antes. Cossacks were a sort of a self-defense formations organized against various raids conducting by neighbors. Already in 1492 the Crimean Khan was complaining that the Kiev and Cherkasy cossacks attacked his ship near Tighina
Tighina
Bender or Bendery, also known as Tighina is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Transnistria Republic since 1992...
(Bender) and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander I
Alexander Jagiellon
Alexander of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Jagiellon...
promised to find the guilty among the cossacks. Sometime in the beginning of 16th century there have appeared the old Ukrainian Ballad of Cossack Holota about a cossack near Kiliya.
- The Cossacks of ZaporizhiaZaporizhiaZaporizhia or Zaporozhye [formerly Alexandrovsk ] is a city in southeastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative center of the Zaporizhia Oblast...
, centered around the lower bends of Dnieper, inside the territory of modern Ukraine, with the fortified capital of Zaporozhian Sich. They were formally recognised as an independent state, the Zaporozhian Host, by a treaty with Poland in 1649. - The Don Cossack State, on the river Don, separated from the Grand Duchy of Moscow by the NogaiNogai HordeThe Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde...
states, vassals of the Ottoman EmpireOttoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. The capital of the Don Cossack State was CherkasskCherkasskStarocherkasskaya , formerly Cherkassk , is a village in Aksaysky District of Rostov Oblast, Russia, with origins dating from the late 16th century...
, later moved to NovocherkasskNovocherkasskNovocherkassk is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Tuzlov River and on the Aksay River. Population: 169,039 ; 170,822 ; 178,000 ; 123,000 ; 81,000 ; 52,000 ....
.
Less well-known are the Polish Cossacks (Kozacy) and the Tatar
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
Cossacks (Nağaybäk
Nagaybäk
Nağaybäk are an ethnoconfessional group in Russia. They are Christian descendents of Volga Tatars , and former cossacks of the Orenburg Host. The majority of the Nağaybäks live in Nagaybaksky and Chebarkulsky Districts of Chelyabinsk Oblast. They speak a sub-dialect of Tatar language's Middle dialect...
lär). The term 'Cossacks' was also used for a type of light cavalry
Light cavalry
Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...
in the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Zaporozhian Cossacks
The cossacks, who lived on the steppes of UkrainePontic-Caspian steppe
The Pontic-Caspian steppe is the vast steppeland stretching from the north of the Black Sea as far as the east of the Caspian Sea, from western Ukraine across the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District of Russia to western Kazakhstan,...
, are a well known group of Cossacks. Their numbers increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries, usually led by Ruthenian boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
or prince nobility, various Polish starosta
Starosta
Starost is a title for an official or unofficial position of leadership that has been used in various contexts through most of Slavic history. It can be translated as "elder"...
s, merchants, and runaway peasants from the area of the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth. The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
, participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
, and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. In 1552 on the banks of the Lower Dnieper was formed the first recorded Zaporizhian Host when Dmytro Vyshnevetsky
Dmytro Vyshnevetsky
Dmytro Ivanovych Vyshnevetsky was a Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks. He was also known as Baida in the Ukrainian folk songs.-Biography:...
built a fortress on the island of Khortytsia
Khortytsia
Khortytsia is a national cultural reserve located on one of the largest islands of the Dnieper river, in Ukraine.The island has played an important role in the history of Ukraine, specially in the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. This historic site is located within the city limits of...
. As a result of the Khmelnytsky Uprising
Khmelnytsky Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, was a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine between the years 1648–1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland...
in the middle of the 17th century the Zaporozhian Cossacks managed to briefly create an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate
Cossack Hetmanate
The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
, a suzerainty
Suzerainty
Suzerainty occurs where a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which controls its foreign affairs while allowing the tributary vassal state some limited domestic autonomy. The dominant entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the more powerful entity itself, is called a...
under protection of the Russian Tsar but ruled by the local Hetmans
Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks
Hetman of Ukrainian Cossacks as a title was not officially recognized internationally until the creation of the Ukrainian Hetmanate. With the creation of Registered Cossacks units their leaders were unofficially referred to as hetmans, however officially the title was known as the "Senior of His...
for half a century. In the later half of the 18th century the Zaporozhian Host was destroyed by the Russian authorities. Some Cossacks moved to the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
delta region and later the Kuban
Kuban
Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
region. After 1828 most of the Danubians had moved first to the Azov and later to the Kuban regions. Although today some of the Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century...
and their descendants do not consider themselves Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
by nationality, the language most of descendants speak is a dialect of central Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and their folklore is significantly Ukrainian.
The Zaporozhians were renowned for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
s, although they sometimes war loot
War loot
War loot refers to goods, valuables and property obtained by force from their lawful owners via looting during or after warfare. These "spoils of war" differ from tributes or other payments extracted after the fact by a victorious nation in that their extraction is largely arbitrary and immediate,...
ed other neighbors as well. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which resulted in almost a constant low-level warfare taking place in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
.
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
to restrain the Cossacks, the Grand Duke Vasili III of Russia
Vasili III of Russia
Vasili III Ivanovich was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1505 to 1533. He was the son of Ivan III Vasiliyevich and Sophia Paleologue and was christened with the name Gavriil...
replied: "The Cossacks do not swear allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please." In 1549, Tsar Ivan the Terrible replied to a request of the Turkish Sultan to stop the attacks of the Don Cossacks, stating, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge." Similar exchanges passed between Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, each of which tried to exploit Cossack warmongering for its own purposes. In the 16th century, with the dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects. Registered Cossacks
Registered Cossacks
Registered Cossacks is the term used for Cossacks formations of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth armies.-Establishing:The registered cossacks were created on the King's edict of Sigismund II Augustus on June 5, 1572 confirming the orders of the Crown Hetman Jerzy Jazłowiecki. The first senior ...
were a part of the Commonwealth army until 1699.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, which were not cordial to begin with, were further strained by increasing Cossack aggression
Aggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...
. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish government could not control the fiercely independent Cossacks, but since they were nominally subjects of the Commonwealth, it was held responsible for the raids by their victims. Reciprocally, the Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the sparsely inhabited southeast territories. Cossack pirates, however, were raiding wealthy merchant port cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, which were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the Dnieper River
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
. By 1615 and 1625, Cossacks had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth called for both parties to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but enforcement was almost non-existent on both sides. In internal agreements, forced by the Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However, boats could be rebuilt quickly, and the Cossack lifestyle glorified raids and booty. During this time, the Habsburg Empire sometimes covertly employed Cossack raiders to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars shared an animosity towards each other due to the damage done by raids from both sides. Cossack raids followed by Tatar retaliation, or Tatar raids followed by Cossack retaliation, were an almost regular occurrence. The ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire southeastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone and led to escalation of Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars
Moldavian Magnate Wars
The Moldavian Magnate Wars refer to the period at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century when the magnates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth intervened in the affairs of Moldavia, clashing with the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire for domination and influence over the...
to the Battle of Cecora
Battle of Tutora (1620)
The Battle of Ţuţora was a battle between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ottoman forces , fought from 17 September to 7 October 1620 in Moldavia, near the Prut River.- Prelude :Because of the failure of Commonwealth diplomatic mission to Constantinople, and violations of the Treaty of...
and Wars in 1633–1634.
Cossack numbers expanded with peasants escaping serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
dom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognised as equal to the szlachta were constantly rebuffed, and plans for transforming the Polish-Lithuanian Two-Nations Commonwealth into Three Nations
Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth
Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth was a proposed European state in the 17th century that would replace contemporal Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The creation of a Duchy of Ruthenia was considered at various times, particularly during the 1648 Cossack insurrection against Polish rule in...
(with the Ruthenian Cossack people) made little progress due to the Cossacks' unpopularity. The Cossacks' strong historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity put them at odds with the Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealth policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Orthodox church, making the Cossacks strongly anti-Catholic, which at the time was synonymous with anti-Polish.
Registered Cossacks
The waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachtaSzlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant refusal to cede to the Cossacks' demand to expand the Cossack Registry was the last straw that prompted the largest and most successful of these: the Khmelnytsky uprising
Khmelnytsky Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, was a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine between the years 1648–1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland...
that started in 1648. The uprising became one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth known as The Deluge
The Deluge (Polish history)
The term Deluge denotes a series of mid-17th century campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, thus comprising the Polish–Lithuanian theaters of the Russo-Polish and...
, which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later.
The rebellion ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav
Treaty of Pereyaslav
The Treaty of Pereyaslav is known in history more as the Council of Pereiaslav.Council of Pereyalslav was a meeting between the representative of the Russian Tsar, Prince Vasili Baturlin who presented a royal decree, and Bohdan Khmelnytsky as the leader of Cossack Hetmanate. During the council...
in which Cossacks pledged their loyalty to the Russian Tsar with the latter guaranteeing Cossacks his protection, recognition of Cossack starshyna (nobility) and their autonomy under his rule, freeing the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach
Treaty of Hadiach
The Treaty of Hadiach was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach between representatives of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Cossacks...
, which was approved by the Polish King and Sejm as well as by some of the Cossack starshyna, including Hetman
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
Ivan Vyhovsky
Ivan Vyhovsky
Ivan Vyhovsky was a hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks during three years of the Russo-Polish War . He was the successor to the famous hetman and rebel leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky...
. The starshyna were, however, divided on the issue and the treaty had even less support among Cossack rank-and-file; thus it failed.
Under Russian rule the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics of the Grand Duchy of Moscow: the Cossack Hetmanate
Cossack Hetmanate
The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
, and the more independent Zaporizhia. These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia
Little Russia
Little Russia , sometimes Little or Lesser Rus’ , is a historical political and geographical term in the Russian language referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the 20th century. It is similar to the Polish term Małopolska of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
, and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia. In 1775 the Zaporozhian Host was destroyed and high-ranking Cossack leaders were sent to Solovky or killed.
Black Sea, Azov and Danube Cossacks
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. Some however ran away across the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
(territory under the control of the Ottoman Empire) to form a new host before rejoining the others in the Kuban.
During their stay there, a new host was founded which by the end of 1778 numbered around 12,000 Cossacks. Their settlement at the border with Russia was approved by the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the Sultan. Yet the conflict inside the new host of the new loyalty, and the political manoeuvres used by the Russian Empire, led to a split in the Cossacks. After a portion of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia they were used by the Russian army to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greek Albanians and Crimean Tatars. However after the Russo-Turkish war of 1787–1792, most of them were incorporated into the Black Sea Cossack Host
Black Sea Cossack Host
Black Sea Cossack Host , also known as Chernomoriya , was a Cossack host of the Russian Empire created in 1787 in the southern Ukraine from former Zaporozhian Cossacks. In the 1790s, the host was re-settled to the Kuban River...
which moved to the Kuban steppes. Most of the remaining Cossacks that stayed in the Danube delta returned to Russia in 1828 and created the Azov Cossack Host
Azov Cossack Host
Azov Cossack Host was a Cossack host that existed on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, between 1832 and 1862.The host was made up of several Cossack groups who were re-settled there. The most numerous were the former Danubian Sich Cossacks, who previously returned to Russian Patronage in 1828...
between Berdyansk and Mariupol
Mariupol
Mariupol , formerly known as Zhdanov , is a port city in southeastern Ukraine. It is located on the coast of the Azov Sea, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Mariupol is the largest city in Priazovye - a geographical region around Azov Sea, divided by Russia and Ukraine - and is also a popular sea...
. In 1860 all of them were resettled to the North Caucasus and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century...
.
Russian Cossacks
These people, constantly facing the Tatar
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
warriors on the steppe frontier, received the Turkic name Cossacks (Kazaks), which was then extended to other free people in northern Russia. The oldest reference in the annals mentions Cossacks of the Russian city of Ryazan serving the city in the battle against the Tatars in 1444. In the 16th century, the Cossacks (primarily those of Ryazan) were grouped in military and trading communities on the open steppe and started to migrate into the area of the Don (source Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky dominated Russian historiography at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is still regarded as one of three most reputable Russian historians, alongside Nikolay Karamzin and Sergey Solovyov.-Early life:...
, The course of the Russian History, vol.2).
Cossacks served as border guards and protectors of towns, forts, settlements and trading posts, performed policing functions on the frontiers and also came to represent an integral part of the Russian army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
. In the 16th century, to protect the borderland area from Tatar invasions
Tatar invasions
The Mongol invasion of Europe from the east took place over the course of three centuries, from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.The terms Tatars or Tartars are applied to nomadic Turkic peoples who, themselves, were conquered by Mongols and incorporated into their horde...
, Cossacks carried out sentry and patrol duties, observing Crimean Tatars
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
and nomads of the Nogai Horde
Nogai Horde
The Nogai Horde was a confederation of about eighteen Turkic and Mongol tribes that occupied the Pontic-Caspian steppe from about 1500 until they were pushed west by the Kalmyks and south by the Russians in the 17th century. The Mongol tribe called the Manghits constituted a core of the Horde...
in the steppe region.
The most popular weapons used by Cossack cavalrymen were usually sabres, or shashka, and long spears.
Russian Cossacks played a key role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into Siberia (particularly by Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich , Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization...
), the Caucasus and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
in the period from the 16th to 19th centuries. Cossacks also served as guides to most Russian expeditions formed by civil and military geographers and surveyors, traders and explorers. In 1648 the Russian Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov discovered a passage between North America and Asia. Cossack units played a role in many wars in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (such as the Russo-Turkish Wars, the Russo-Persian Wars
Russo-Persian Wars
The Russo-Persian Wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and Persia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the most important of which were:...
, and the annexation of Central Asia).
During Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Cossacks were the Russian soldiers most feared by the French troops. Napoleon himself stated "Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them." Cossacks also took part in the partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
war deep inside French-occupied Russian territory, attacking communications and supply lines. These attacks, carried out by Cossacks along with Russian light cavalry and other units, were one of the first developments of guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
tactics and, to some extent, special operations as we know them today.
Western Europeans had had few contacts with Cossacks before the Allies occupied Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1814. As the most exotic of the Russian troops seen in France, Cossacks drew a great deal of attention and notoriety for their alleged excesses during Napoleon's 1812 campaign.
Don Cossacks
There were several groups of different origin who came to be known as Cossacks and hence there are different theories of Don Cossack origin:- Don Cossacks are run-away peasants. According to this theory Cossacks originated as bands of run-away peasants of different ethnic origins (RutheniansRutheniansThe name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
, TurksTurkish peopleTurkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, GermansGermansThe Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
etc.). The necessity of defending their lifestyle (piracy, unregulated fishing and hunting) and protecting their settlements from the attacks of Tatars, Mongols and other nomadic tribes that lived in the steppes of Southern Russia, forced these bands of escapees to organize into a military society. In exchange for protection of the Southern borders of medieval Russia, the Don Cossacks were given the privilege of not paying taxes and the tsar’s authority in Cossack lands was not as absolute as in other parts of Russia. The theory of Don Cossacks as run-away peasants implies that they colonized areas previously occupied by nomadic tribes and were first to establish permanent settlements in Don area such as villages (станицы) and cities. - Don Cossacks are descendants of Kurgan people. The Kurgan hypothesisKurgan hypothesisThe Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...
suggests that migration of people to Europe originated from the Southern steppes of what is now Russia and Ukraine. There are multiple remains of proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-EuropeansThe Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
settlements on the territory of the Don Cossacks such as Miklajlovka, Skelja-Kamenolomnja, Liventsovka. The borders of the Don Cossack land are in the very centre of territory once populated by the Kurgan people. The hypothesis suggests that Don Cossacks did not move to the steppes of Southern Russia from other parts of Europe, but rather that they are descendants of the Kurgan people that moved to this area from the Near East before further migration to Europe and India.
The theories, however, do not exclude one another. It is possible that Don Cossacks originated as descendants of Kurgan people and over time gave shelter to people of various ethnic origins that for different reasons escaped from their homeland to the Don Cossacks' territory. The reasons would be:- a) religious, as Don Cossacks were Old Believers (старообрядцы)
- b) the search for relative freedom as Don Cossacks had a primitive democratic society and autonomy within the medieval Russian Kingdom (Tsarstvo).
Kuban Cossacks
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s who live in the Kuban
Kuban
Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
region of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Although numerous Cossack groups came to inhabit the Western Northern Caucasus most of the Kuban Cossacks are descendants of the Black Sea Cossack Host
Black Sea Cossack Host
Black Sea Cossack Host , also known as Chernomoriya , was a Cossack host of the Russian Empire created in 1787 in the southern Ukraine from former Zaporozhian Cossacks. In the 1790s, the host was re-settled to the Kuban River...
, (originally the Zaporozhian Cossacks) and the Caucasus Line Cossack Host
Caucasus Line Cossack Host
Caucasus Line Cossack Host was a Cossack host created in 1832 in the Northern Caucasus. Together with the Black Sea Cossack Host it defended the Caucasus Fortified Defense Line from the inlet of Terek River to the inlet of Kuban River.In 1860 it was split into the Kuban Cossack Host and Terek...
.
A distinguishing feature from other Russian Cossacks is the Oseledets
Oseledets
Chupryna or Oseledets 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...
haircut popular among many Kubanians. This is due to their traditional Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
roots, going back to the Zaporizhian Sich
Zaporizhian Sich
Zaporizhian Sich was socio-political, grassroot, military organization of Ukrainian cossacks placed beyond Dnieper rapids. Sich existed between the 16th and 18th centuries in the region around the today's Kakhovka Reservoir...
.
Terek Cossacks
Yaik Cossacks
The Ural Cossack Host was a cossack hostCossack host
A Cossack host or Cossack viysko was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Imperial Russia...
formed from the Ural Cossacks, cossacks settled by the Ural River
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
. Their alternative name, Yaik Cossacks, comes from the old name of the river. The Ural Cossacks although speaking Russian and identifying themselves as being of primarily Russian ancestry also incorporated many Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
into their ranks. Twenty years after the conquest of the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan, in 1577, Moscow sent troops to disperse pirates and raiders along the Volga (one of their number was Ermak
Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich , Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization...
). Some of these fled southeast to the Ural River. In 1580 they captured Saraichik. By 1591 they were fighting for Moscow. Sometime in the next century they were officially recognized.
In the Russian Empire
From the start, relations of Cossacks with the Tsardom of RussiaTsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
were very much varied; at times this involved combined military operations, and at others there were famous Cossack uprisings. One particular example was the destruction of the Zaporozhian Host, which took place at the end of the 18th century. The divisions of the Cossacks within were clearly visible between those that chose to stay loyal to the Russian Monarch and continue their service (who later moved to the Kuban) and those that chose to continue their pro-mercenary role and ran off the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
delta.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
managed to fully annex all the control over the hosts and instead rewarded the Cossacks with privileges for their service. At this time the Cossacks were actively participating in many Russian wars. Although Cossack tactics in open battles were generally inferior to those of regular soldiers such as the Dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s, Cossacks were nevertheless excellent for scouting and reconnaissance duties, as well as undertaking ambushes. In 1840 the hosts included the Don, Black Sea, Astrakhan, Little Russia, Azov, Danube, Ural, Stavropol, Mesherya, Orenburg, Siberia, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Sabaikal, Yakutsk and Tartar voiskos. By 1890s the Ussuri, Semirechensk and Amur Cossacks were added, with the last having a regiment of elite mounted rifles.
The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early 20th century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. In strictly military terms the Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army Command, who saw them as less well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussar
Hussar
Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry which originated in Hungary in the 14th century, tracing its roots from Serbian medieval cavalry tradition, brought to Hungary in the course of the Serb migrations, which began in the late 14th century....
s, dragoons and lancer
Lancer
A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used in mounted warfare by the Assyrians as early as and subsequently by Greek, Persian, Gallic, Han-Chinese, nomadic and Roman horsemen...
s of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts.
During the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership, and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
and sped his abdication.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the 20th century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organised into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments.
Razin and Pugachev Rebellions
The Cossacks, as an autonomous group, had to defend their liberties and traditions against the ever-expanding Russian government. The Cossacks tended to act independently of the central government, increasing friction between the two. The government’s power began to grow in 1613 with Mikhail Romanov's ascension to the throne after the Time of TroublesTime of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
, when dynastic conflicts constantly presented themselves and inconsistency reigned with the lack of a single, competent ruler. The government began attempting to assimilate the Cossacks into the Russian culture and political system by granting elite status and enforcing military service, thus creating divisions within the Cossacks themselves as they fought to keep their own traditions alive. The government’s efforts to alter the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Cossacks caused the Cossacks to be involved in nearly all the major disturbances in Russia over a 200-year period, including the rebellions led by Stenka Razin
Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin Тимофеевич Разин, ; 1630 – ) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.-Early life:...
and Emilian Pugachev.
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
beginning in 1613, discontent steadily grew within the serf and peasant populations. The Code of 1649 under Alexis Romanov, Mikhail’s son, divided the Russian population into distinct and fixed hereditary categories. This law tied peasants to the land and forced townsmen to take on their fathers’ occupations. The Code of 1649 increased tax revenue for the central government and stopped wandering to stabilize the social order by fixing people in the same land with the same occupation of their families. The increased taxes fell mainly on the peasants as a burden and continued to widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor. As the government developed more military expeditions, human and material resources became limited, putting an even harsher strain on the peasants. War with Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in 1662 led to a fiscal crisis and riots across the country. Taxes, harsh conditions, and the gap between social classes drove peasants and serfs to flee, many of them going to the Cossacks, knowing that the Cossacks would accept refugees and free them.
The Cossacks experienced difficulties under Tsar Alexis as the influx of refugees grew daily. The Cossacks received a subsidy
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
of food, money, and military supplies from the tsar in return for acting as border defense. These subsidies fluctuated often and provided a source of conflict between the Cossacks and the government. The war with Poland diverted necessary food and military shipments to the Cossacks as the population of the Host
Cossack host
A Cossack host or Cossack viysko was an administrative subdivision of Cossacks in Imperial Russia...
, the unit of Cossacks identified by the region in which they resided, grew with the fugitive peasants. The influx of these refugees troubled the Cossacks not only because of the increased demand for food but also because the large number of these fugitives meant the Cossacks could not absorb them into their culture through the traditional apprenticeship way. Instead of taking these steps of proper assimilation into Cossack society, the runaway peasants spontaneously declared themselves Cossacks and lived beside true Cossacks, laboring or working as barge-haulers to earn food.
As conditions worsened and Mikhail’s son Alexis took the throne, divisions among the Cossacks began to emerge. Older Cossacks began to settle and become prosperous, enjoying the privileges they earned through obeying and assisting the Muscovite system. The old Cossacks started giving up their traditions and liberties that had been worth dying for to obtain the pleasures of an elite life. The lawless and restless runaway peasants that called themselves Cossacks looked for adventure and revenge against the nobility that had caused them suffering. These Cossacks did not receive the government subsidies that the old Cossacks enjoyed and thus had to work harder and longer for food and money. These divisions between the elite and lawless would lead to the formation of a Cossack army beginning in 1667 under Stenka Razin
Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin Тимофеевич Разин, ; 1630 – ) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.-Early life:...
as well as to the ultimate failure of that rebellion.
Stenka Razin
Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin Тимофеевич Разин, ; 1630 – ) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.-Early life:...
was born into an elite Cossack family and had made many diplomatic visits to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
before organizing his rebellion. The Cossacks were Razin’s main supporters and followed him during his first Persian campaign in 1667, plundering and pillaging Persian cities on the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
. They returned ill and hungry, tired from fighting but rich with plundered goods in 1669. Muscovy tried to gain support from the old Cossacks, asking the ataman
Ataman
Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...
, or Cossack chieftain, to prevent Razin from following through with his plans. However the ataman, being Razin’s godfather and swayed by Razin’s promise of a share of the wealth from Razin’s expeditions, replied that the elite Cossacks were powerless against the band of rebels. The elite did not see much threat from Razin and his followers either, although they realized he could cause them problems with the Muscovite system if his following developed into a rebellion against the central government.
Razin and his followers began to capture cities at the start of the rebellion in 1669. They seized the towns of Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan
Astrakhan
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of below the sea level. Population:...
, Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
, and Samara
Samara, Russia
Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
, implementing Cossack-style rule as they went. Razin envisioned a united Cossack republic throughout the southern steppe in which the towns and villages of the area would operate with the Cossack style of government. These sieges often took place in the runaway peasant Cossacks’ old towns, leading them to wreak havoc on their old masters and get the revenge for which they were hoping. The rebels’ advancement began to be seen as a problem to the elder Cossacks, who, in 1671, decided to comply with the government in order to receive more subsidies. On April 14, ataman Yakovlev
Ataman
Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...
led elders to destroy the rebel camp and captured Razin, taking him soon afterward to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
Razin’s rebellion marked the beginning of the end to traditional Cossack practices. In August 1671, Muscovite envoys administered the oath of allegiance
Oath of allegiance
An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to monarch or country. In republics, modern oaths specify allegiance to the country's constitution. For example, officials in the United States, a republic, take an oath of office that...
and the Cossacks swore loyalty to the tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
. While they still had internal autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
, the Cossacks became Muscovite subjects, a transition that would prove to be a dividing point yet again in Pugachev’s rebellion.
For the Cossack elite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
, a noble status within the empire came at the price of their old liberties in the 18th century. An advancement of agricultural settlement began forcing the Cossacks to give up their traditional nomadic ways and to adopt new forms of government. The government steadily changed the entire culture of the Cossacks. Peter the Great increased service obligations for the Cossacks and mobilized their forces to fight in far-off wars. Peter began establishing non-Cossack troops in fortresses along the Iaik River and in 1734 constructed Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
, a fortress of government power on the frontier that gave Cossacks a subordinate role in border defense. When the Iaik Cossacks sent a delegation to Peter to explain their grievances, Peter stripped the Cossacks of their autonomous status and subordinated them to the War College
College of War
The College of War was a Russian executive body , created in the government reform of 1717. It was the only of the six original and three new colleges to survive the decentralising reforms of Catherine II of Russia...
rather than the College of Foreign Affairs, solidifying the change in the Cossacks from border patrol to military servicemen. Over the next fifty years, the central government responded to Cossack grievances with arrests, floggings, and exiles. Among the ordinary Cossacks, hatred of the elite and central government boiled and by 1772, an open state of rebellion ensued for six months between the Iaik Cossacks and the central government.
Under Catherine the Great in 1762, the Russian peasants and Cossacks once again faced increased taxation, heavy military conscription, and grain shortages that had characterized the land before Razin’s rebellion. In addition, Catherine II annulled one of Peter III’s
Peter III of Russia
Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...
acts, an act interpreted to mean that economy peasants, or serfs living on church lands, were free from their obligations and payments to church authorities. In 1767, the empress refused to accept grievances directly from the peasantry. Peasants fled once again to the land of the Cossacks; in particular, the fugitive peasants set their destination for the Iaik Host, whose people were committed to the old Cossack traditions. The changing government burdened the Cossacks as well, extending its reach to reform the Cossack traditions.
Emelian Pugachev, a low-status Don Cossack, arrived in the Iaik Host in late 1772. Pugachev’s claim to be Peter III
Peter III of Russia
Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...
stemmed from the expectations the Cossacks held for the late ruler, believing that Peter III would have been an effective ruler after signing an alliance with Frederick the Great of Prussia, had he not been assassinated by a plot of his wife Catherine II. Many Iaik Cossacks believed Pugachev’s claim, though those closest to him knew the truth. Others that may have known the truth but did not support Catherine II, due to her disposal of Peter III, still spread Pugachev’s claim to be the late emperor.
The first of the three phases of Pugachev’s rebellion began in September 1773. The elite-supporting Cossacks constituted the majority of the first prisoners taken by the rebels. After a five month siege of Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
, a Military College became Pugachev’s headquarters. Pugachev began envisioning a Cossack tsardom, similar to Razin’s vision of a united Cossack republic. The peasantry across Russia stirred with rumors and listened to manifestos issued by Pugachev. However, Pugachev’s rebellion soon became to be seen as an inevitable failure. The Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....
refused to help the rebellion in the last phase of the revolt because they knew military troops followed Pugachev closely after lifting the siege of Orenburg
Orenburg
Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...
and following Pugachev’s flight from defeated Kazan
Kazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
. In September, 1774, Pugachev’s own Cossack lieutenants turned him over to the government troops.
The Cossacks’ opposition to modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and institutionalization of political authority led them to participate in Pugachev’s rebellion. One of their last hopes to defy the increasing political authority threatening the traditional Cossack life failed. The Cossack elite, hoping to obtain noble statues, accepted the government’s reforms and the ordinary Cossacks had no choice but to give up their traditions and liberties.
Civil War, Decossackization, and Holodomor
In the Russian Civil WarRussian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
that followed the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Cossacks formed the core of the White Army
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
, but many of them also fought for the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
The Terek Cossacks in the White service became known for their brutality toward Jews, in a series of pogroms in Southern Russia and Ukraine Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackization
Decossackization
Decossackization is a term used to describe the Bolsheviks' policy of the systematic elimination of the Cossacks of the Don and the Kuban as a social and ethnic group...
(Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true of the Terek Cossacks' land. Cossacks were also banned from serving in the Red Army.
Some recent literature claims that hundreds of thousands or even millions of Cossacks were killed by the Soviet Government during Decossackization
Decossackization
Decossackization is a term used to describe the Bolsheviks' policy of the systematic elimination of the Cossacks of the Don and the Kuban as a social and ethnic group...
. According to Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks", including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks. The Denikin regime alleged that in 1918–19, 5,598 were executed in the provinces of the Don, 3,442 in the Kuban, and 2,142 in Stavropol. On the other hand, historian Leonid Futorianskiy disputes these claims and argues instead that, during the preceding White Terror of the Krasnov regime, between 25-40 thousand people were killed. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivisation campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
s.
The man-made Soviet famine of 1932–1933 hit Don, Kuban, and Terek territories (the Northern Caucasus) very hard http://fstanitsa.ru/category/metki/golodomor. The famine caused a population decline of about 20-30% in these territories :File:Holodomor Famine map.jpg (the population decline in the rural areas, populated by ethnic Cossacks, was even higher, since metro areas were not affected by the famine). Robert Conquest
Robert Conquest
George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...
estimates the number of famine-related deaths in the Northern Caucasus to be at about 1 million. Grain and other produce were expropriated from Cossack families, leaving them to starve and die, and many families were forced out of their homes in the Winter time, leaving them to freeze to death. These facts are documented in Mikhail Sholokhov's letters to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
,http://feb-web.ru/feb/sholokh/texts/shp/shp-1054.htm and by eyewitness accounts. http://www.bibliotekar.ru/golodomor/33.htm.http://fstanitsa.ru/category/metki/golodomor
In 1936, under pressure from Cossack communities, the Soviet government has lifted the ban on Cossacks serving in the Red Army.
Second World War
During the Second World War Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict once again. A substantial number of them served with the Nazis. This can be explained by harsh repressions that many of them suffered under the collectivization and DecossackizationDecossackization
Decossackization is a term used to describe the Bolsheviks' policy of the systematic elimination of the Cossacks of the Don and the Kuban as a social and ethnic group...
policies pursued by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Like other peoples of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, who suffered persecution under Stalin, many Cossacks dreaming of autonomy greeted the advancing German army as liberators.
While the core of the Nazi collaborators was made up of former White Army refugees, many rank-and-file Cossacks defected from the Red Army to join the German armed forces (Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
). As early as 1941, the first Cossack detachments, created out of prisoners of war, defectors and volunteers, were formed under German leadership. The Dubrovski Battalion formed of Don Cossacks in December 1941 was reorganised on July 30, 1942 into the Pavlov Regiment, numbering up to 350 men. The Cossacks were successfully utilized for anti-partisan activity in the rear of the German army.
Cossackia
Cossackia is a term sometimes used to refer to the traditional areas where the Cossack communities live in Russia. Depending on its context, "Cossackia" may mean the ethnographic area of Cossack habitat or a proposed Cossack state independent from Russia....
. It was not until 1943 that the 1st Cossack Division
1st Cossack Division
The 1st Cossack Division was a Russian Cossack division of the German Army that served during World War II. It was created on the Eastern Front mostly out of Don Cossacks already serving in the Wehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancing Red Army and Soviet POWs. In 1945, the division was...
was formed under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz
Helmuth von Pannwitz
Helmuth von Pannwitz was a German general who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer during the First and the Second World Wars. Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and Supreme Ataman of the XV...
, where Cossack emigrees, like Andrei Shkuro
Andrei Shkuro
Andrei Grigoriyevich Shkuro was a Lieutenant General of the White Army.-Biography:...
and Pyotr Krasnov
Pyotr Krasnov
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov , 1869 – January 17, 1947), sometimes referred to in English as Peter Krasnov, was Lieutenant General of the Russian army when the revolution broke out in 1917, and one of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary White movement afterward.- Russian Army :Pyotr Krasnov...
, took leading positions. The 2nd Cossack Division under the command of Colonel Hans-Joachim von Schultz, formed in 1944, existed only for a year, when both Cossack divisions became part of the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps, totalling some 25,000 men, being a regular Wehrmacht unit and not Waffen-SS, as has occasionally been incorrectely alleged. Although in 1944 General von Pannwitz accepted a loose affiliation with the Waffen-SS in order to gain access to their supply of superior arms and equipment, together with control over Cossack units in France, the Corps command, structure, uniforms, ranks, etc. remained firmly Wehrmacht. The Corps contained regiments of different Cossack groups: Don
Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....
, Kuban
Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century...
, Terek and Siberian Cossacks
Siberian Cossacks
Siberian Cossacks were Cossacks who settled in the Siberian region of Russia from the end of the 16th century, following the Yermak Timofeyevich's conquest of Siberia. In early Siberia practically the whole Russian population, especially the serving-men were called Cossacks, but only in the loose...
which had been fighting Tito's partizans in Croatia. At the end of the war in 1945, they conducted a fighting retreat north-eastwards over the Karavanken Mountains into Carinthia where they surrendered to the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in Allied-administered Austria
Allied-administered Austria
The Allied occupation of Austria lasted from 1945 to 1955. Austria had been regarded by Nazi Germany as a constituent part of the German state, but in 1943 the Allied powers agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that it would be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression, and treated as a...
, hoping to join the British to fight Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. On 28 May 1945 they were duped by British assurances that they were being taken Canada or Australia. Instead they were all handed over to SMERSH on the Soviet demarcation line at Judenburg together with the civilian members of the Kazachi Stan, consisting of old folk, woman, and children Operation Keelhaul
Operation Keelhaul
Operation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947...
as well as about 850 German officers and non-commissioned officers of the Corps. At the end of the war, the British repatriated between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly, many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This episode is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks
Betrayal of the Cossacks
The Repatriation of Cossacks after WW2, also known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks, the Tragedy of Drau or the Massacre of Cossacks at Lienz refers to the forced repatriation to the USSR of the Cossacks and ethnic Russians who were allies of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.The...
.
The majority of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army on the Southern theatre of the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched in Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
Moscow Victory Parade of 1945
The Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 was a victory parade held by the Soviet army after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. It took place in the Soviet capital of Moscow, mostly centering around a military parade through Red Square...
.
The Cossack units of the Red Army acquired a reputation for cruelty towards civilians during the war. Halina Kahn, a young Polish Jewish woman in the Lodz Ghetto remembers, "We are free, the war is over, the Russian Army is coming in. That was a terrible agony: they were Cossacks and they had been on the front for three or four years, dirty and black, and they saw women for the first time and would take the women and girls to the barracks."
Modern times
Following the war, Cossack units, along with cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the post-war years many Cossack descendants were thought of as simple peasants, and those who lived inside an autonomous republic usually gave way to the particular minority and migrated elsewhere (particularly, to the Baltic region).In the Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
era Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law which allowed formation of former hosts and the creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest, the All-Mighty Don Host, was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. The Cossacks have taken an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: the War of Transnistria
War of Transnistria
The War of Transnistria was a limited conflict that broke out in November 1990 at Dubăsari between pro-Transnistria forces, including the Transnistrian Republican Guard, militia and Cossack units, and supported by elements of the Russian 14th army, and pro-Moldovan forces, including Moldovan...
, the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict
Georgian-Ossetian conflict
The Georgian–Ossetian conflict refers to the ethno-political conflict in Georgia's autonomous region of South Ossetia, which evolved in 1989 and developed into a 1991–1992 South Ossetia War. Despite a declared ceasefire and numerous peace efforts, the conflict remains unresolved, and minor armed...
, the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, the First Chechen War
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...
and the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
.
At the same time many attempts were made to increase the Cossack impact on Russian society and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks. However in April 2005, Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
, President of Russia introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" to the State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
, which was passed at the first reading on May 18, 2005. For the first time in decades the Cossacks were recognized as not only a distinct ethnocultural entity but also as a potent military force.
According to several sources, there are about 7 million people who currently self-identify as Russian Cossacks, mainly in Russia, and the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Culture and organization
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada
Rada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
, as were the other important band officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, a bulava
Bulawa
The bulawa is a ceremonial mace or baton. The word is of Turkish origin....
. Today, Russian Cossacks are led by Atamans, and Ukrainian - by Hetmans.
After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo
Treaty of Andrusovo
The Truce of Andrusovo was a thirteen and a half year truce, signed in 1667 between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were at war since 1654 over the territories of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus....
, 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks were known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks.
The ataman had executive power
Executive Power
Executive Power is Vince Flynn's fifth novel, and the fourth to feature Mitch Rapp, an American agent that works for the CIA as an operative for a covert counter terrorism unit called the "Orion Team."-Plot summary:...
s and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislative power
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
was given to the Band Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called starshyna. In the absence of written law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
s, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the common, unwritten law.
Cossack society and government were heavily militarized. The nation was called a host (vois’ko, or viys’ko, translated as 'army'), and subdivided into regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
al and company districts, and village posts (polky, sotni, and stanytsi).
Each Cossack settlement, alone or in conjunction with neighboring settlements, formed military units and regiments of light cavalry (or mounted infantry, for Siberian Cossacks) ready to respond to a threat on very short notice.
Settlements
Russian Cossacks founded numerous settlements (called stanitsaStanitsa
Stanitsa is a village inside a Cossack host . Stanitsas were the primary unit of Cossack hosts.Historically, the stanitsa was a unit of economic and political organisation of the Cossack peoples primarily in the southern regions of the Russian Empire.Much of the land was held in common by the...
s) and fortresses along troublesome borders such as forts Verny (Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
) in south Central Asia, Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
in North Caucasus, Fort Alexandrovsk (Fort Shevchenko
Fort Shevchenko
Fort Shevchenko is a military-base town and administrative center of Tupkaragan District in Mangystau Province, Kazakhstan on the Caspian Sea . Primary industries include fishing and the extraction of stone.-History:...
, Kazakhstan), Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi
Türkmenbasy, Turkmenistan
Türkmenbaşy , formerly known as Krasnovodsk and, more properly, Kyzyl-Su, is a city in Balkan Province in Turkmenistan, on the Krasnovodsk Gulf of the Caspian Sea. It is located at latitude 40.0231 North; longitude 52.9697 East, at an altitude of 27 meters. The population was 86,800, mostly...
, Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
) Novonikolayevskaya stanitsa (Bautino, Kazakhstan), Blagoveshchensk
Blagoveshchensk
Blagoveshchensk is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. Population: -Early history of the region:The early residents of both sides of the Amur in the region of today's Blagoveshchensk were the Daurs and Duchers...
, towns and settlements at Ural
Ural River
The Ural or Jayıq/Zhayyq , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi making it the third longest river in Europe after the Volga and the Danube...
, Ishim
Ishim River
Ishim River is a river running through Kazakhstan and Russia. Its length is 2,450 km , average discharge is 56,3 m³/s . It is a left tributary of the Irtysh River. The Ishim River is partly navigable in its lower reaches. The upper course of the Ishim passes through Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan...
, Irtysh
Irtysh
The Irtysh River is a river in Siberia and is the chief tributary of the Ob River. Its name means White River. Irtysh's main affluent is the Tobol River...
, Ob
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
, Yenisei
Yenisei River
Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...
, Lena
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
, Amur, Anadyr
Anadyr River
Anadyr is a river in the far northeast Siberia which flows into Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea and drains much of the interior of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its basin corresponds to the Anadyrsky District of Chukotka....
(Chukotka
Chukchi Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula , at about 66° N 172° W, is the northeastern extremity of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the...
), and Ussuri River
Ussuri River
The Usuri ula is a river in the south of the Outer Manchuria and east of Inner Manchuria . It rises in the Sikhote-Alin range, flowing north, forming part of the Sino-Russian border based on the Sino-Russian Convention of Peking in 1860, until it joins the Amur River at Khabarovsk . It is...
s. A group of Albazin Cossacks settled in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
as early as 1685.
Although Cossacks are sometimes regarded as xenophobic, some Cossacks readily adapted to the cultures and customs of nearby peoples (for example, the Terek Cossacks were heavily influenced by the culture of North Caucasian tribes) and frequently married local residents (other non-Cossack settlers and natives) regardless of race or origin, sometimes setting aside religious restrictions. War brides brought from distant lands were also common in Cossack families. One of the Russian Volunteer Army
Volunteer Army
The Volunteer Army was an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1920....
commanders, General Bogaevsky mentions in his book one of his Cossacks unit's servicemen, Sotnik Khoperski, who was Chinese by origin and brought from Manchuria during the Russian-Japanese War 1904–1905 as a child, adopted and raised by a Cossack family.
Family life
Cossack family values are simple, rigid, and to a Western eye, seem to come from another era. The men build the home and provide an income; the women cook, clean and give birth to children. Traditional Russian values, culture, and Orthodoxy form the bedrock of their beliefs.Cossacks, particularly those in rural areas, tend to have more children than other Slavic or Christian peoples in Russia.
Rural Cossacks often live in large clans led by a elder patriarch, usually a grandfather, who often has the title of Ataman
Ataman
Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks...
.
Popular image
Kiev Pogroms (1919)
The Kiev pogroms of 1919 refers to a series of Jewish pogroms in various places around Kiev carried out by Cossacks, the White Armies, and the small percentage of Bolsheviks...
and their actions during the Khmelnytsky Uprising
Khmelnytsky Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, was a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine between the years 1648–1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland...
.
Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
, Ukrainian
Ukrainian literature
Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian literature had a difficult development because, due to constant foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, there was often a significant difference between the spoken and written language...
and Polish literature
Polish literature
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages, used in Poland over the centuries, have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German and...
s, particularly in the works of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
's Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a romanticized historical novel by Nikolai Gogol. It tells the story of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. Taras’ sons studied at the Kiev Academy and return home...
, Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...
, Mikhail Sholokhov, Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...
's book With Fire and Sword
With Fire and Sword
With Fire and Sword is a historical novel by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1884. It is the first volume of a series known to Poles as the Trilogy, followed by The Deluge and Fire in the Steppe , also translated as Colonel Wolodyjowski...
. One of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's first novellas, The Cossacks
The Cossacks (novel)
The Cossacks is a short novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863 in the popular literary magazine The Russian Messenger. The Nobel prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise, calling it one of the finest in the Russian language....
, depicts their autonomy and estrangement from Moscow and centralized rule. Most of Polish Romantic literature deals with themes about the Cossacks.
Cossacks are also portrayed in Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem)
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" is an 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War...
", and Richard Connell
Richard Connell
Richard Edward Connell Jr. was an American author and journalist, probably best remembered for his short story "The Most Dangerous Game". Connell was one of the most popular American short story writers of his time and his stories appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's Weekly...
's short story "The Most Dangerous Game
The Most Dangerous Game
"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924....
". In many of the stories by adventure writer Harold Lamb
Harold Lamb
Harold Albert Lamb was an American historian, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist.Lamb was born in Alpine, New Jersey. He attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb's tutors at Columbia included Carl Van Doren andJohn Erskine. ...
, the main character is a Cossack.
In Ukraine, where the Cossackdom represents historical and cultural heritage, some people have been attempting to recreate the images of Ukrainian Cossacks. Traditional Ukrainian culture is often tied in with the Cossacks, and the Ukrainian government actively supports these attempts. The traditional Cossack Bulava
Bulawa
The bulawa is a ceremonial mace or baton. The word is of Turkish origin....
is one of its national symbols, and the island of the Khortytsia
Khortytsia
Khortytsia is a national cultural reserve located on one of the largest islands of the Dnieper river, in Ukraine.The island has played an important role in the history of Ukraine, specially in the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. This historic site is located within the city limits of...
, where the Zaporozhian Sich once existed, has been restored.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many have begun seeing Russian Cossacks as defenders of Russian sovereignty. Cossacks not only reestablished all of their hosts, they also took over police and even administrative duties in their homelands. The Russian military also took advantage of the patriotic feelings among the Cossacks and as the hosts become larger and more organised, has in past turned over some of its surplus technology to them. On par with that, the Cossacks also play a large cultural role in the South of Russia. Since the whole rural population of the Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, as well as the Autonomous republics of the Northern Caucasus, consists almost exclusively of Cossack descendants (among the ethnic Russian population), the region was always known, even in the Soviet times for its high discipline, low crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
and conservative views, like having one of the highest rates of religious attendance and literacy rates. The result was that, amongst Russian youth, Cossacks began to represent order and, in some cases, hope, especially when compared with the presently unpopular Russian Army.
Ranks
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
. Following the 1988 law, which allowed the hosts to reform and the 2005 one that legally recognized the hosts as a combat service, the ranks and insignia were kept, but on all military tickets that are standard for the Russian Army they are given below.
| Modern Cossack rank | Equivalent modern Russian Army | Equivalent foreign rank |
|---|---|---|
| Kazak | Ryadovoy | Private |
| Prikazny | Yefreitor | Corporal |
| Mladshy Uryadnik | Mladshy Serzhant | Junior Sergeant |
| Uryadnik | Serzhant | Sergeant |
| Starshy Uryadnik | Starshy Serzhant | Senior Sergeant |
| Mladshy Vakhmistr | Mladshy Praporshik* | Junior Warrant Officer |
| Vakhmistr | Praporshchik | Warrant officer |
| Starshy Vakhmistr | Starshy Praporshchik | Senior Warrant Officer |
| Podkhorunzhy | Mladshy Leitenant* | Junior Lieutenant |
| Khorunzhy | Leitenant | Lieutenant |
| Sotnik Sotnik Sotnik or Sotnyk was a military rank among the Cossack starshyna , Strelets Troops in Muscovy and Imperial Cossack cavalry , the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Ukrainian Galician Army, and the Ukrainian People's Army.-Military rank:Literally it means commander of hundred men in most Slavonic... |
Starshy Leitenant | Senior Lieutenant |
| Podyesaul | Kapitan | Captain |
| Yesaul Yesaul Yesaul, or Osaul , , a post and a rank in the Ukrainian and Russian Cossack units.The first records of the rank imply that it was introduced by Stefan Batory, King of Poland in 1576.-Cossacks in Russia:... |
Mayor | Major |
| Voiskovy Starshyna | Podpolkovnik | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Kazachy Polkovnik | Polkovnik | Colonel |
| Kazachy General** | General | General |
| Ataman Ataman Ataman was a commander title of the Ukrainian People's Army, Cossack, and haidamak leaders, who were in essence the Cossacks... |
Komandir* | Commander |
The same can be said about the colonel ranks as they are given to atamans of regional and district status. The lowest group, stanitsa, is commanded by Yesaul. If the region or district lacks any other stanitsas, then the rank polkovnik is applied automatically but with no stars on the shoulder. As the hosts continue to grow, starless shoulder batches are becoming increasingly rare.
In addition, the supreme ataman of the largest Don Cossack Host is officially titled as marshal, and so wears insignia that is derived from the Russian/Soviet marshal ranks, including the diamond Marshal Star. This is because the Don Cossack Supreme Ataman is recognized as the official head of all Cossack armies (including those outside the present Russian borders). He also has the authority to recognize and dissolve new hosts.
Uniforms
For most hosts, the basic uniform comprised the standard loose-fitting tunics and wide trousers typical of Russian regular troops during the period 1881–1908. However the Caucasian Hosts (Kuban and Terek) wore the very long, open fronted, cherkesska coats with ornamental cartridge loops and coloured beshmets (waistcoats), that epitomise the popular image of the Cossacks. Most hosts wore fleece
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
hats with coloured cloth tops in full dress with peaked caps for ordinary duties. The two Caucasian Hosts however appear to have worn high fleece caps on most occasions.
Until 1909, Cossack regiments wore white blouse
Blouse
A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist so that it hangs loosely over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if...
s and cap covers of standard Russian army pattern in summer. The shoulder straps and cap bands were in the host colour as detailed below. From 1910 to 1918, a khaki-grey jacket was worn for field wear with the blue or green breeches
Breeches
Breeches are an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles...
and coloured stripes of the dress uniform.
While most Cossacks served as cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
, there were infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
units in several of the hosts. Three regiments of Cossacks formed part of the Imperial Guard, as well as the Konvoi—the tsar's mounted escort. The Imperial Guard regiments wore tailored Government-issue uniforms which had spectacular and colourful appearance. As an example, the Konvoi wore scarlet cherkesskas, white beshmets and red crowns on their fleece hats.
| Host | Year est. | Cherkesska or Tunic | Beshmet | Trousers | Fleece Hat | Shoulder Straps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Don Cossacks Don Cossacks Don Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century.... |
1570 | blue tunic | none | blue with red stripes | red crown | blue |
| Ural Cossacks | 1571 | blue tunic | none | blue with crimson stripes | crimson crown | crimson |
| Terek Cossacks | 1577 | grey-brown cherkesska | light blue | grey | light blue crown | light blue |
| Kuban Cossacks Kuban Cossacks Kuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century... |
1864 | black cherkesska | red | grey | red crown | red |
| Orenburg Cossacks Orenburg Cossacks The Orenburg Cossack Host , a part of the Cossack population in pre-revolutionary Russia, located in the Orenburg province .... |
1744 | green tunic | none | green with light blue stripes | light blue crown | light blue |
| Astrakhan Cossacks Astrakhan Cossacks Astrakhan Cossack Host was a Cossack host of Imperial Russia drawn from the Cossacks of the Lower Volga region, who had been patrolling the banks of the Volga River from the time of Russia's annexation of Astrakhan Khanate in 1556.- History :In 1737, the Russian government relocated a number of... |
1750 | blue tunic | none | blue with yellow stripes | yellow crown | yellow |
| Siberian Cossacks Siberian Cossacks Siberian Cossacks were Cossacks who settled in the Siberian region of Russia from the end of the 16th century, following the Yermak Timofeyevich's conquest of Siberia. In early Siberia practically the whole Russian population, especially the serving-men were called Cossacks, but only in the loose... |
1750s | green tunic | none | green with red stripes | red crown | red |
| Transbaikal Cossacks Baikal Cossacks Baikal Cossacks were Cossacks of the Transbaikal Cossack Host , a Cossack host formed in 1851 in the areas beyond Lake Baikal .... |
1851 | green tunic | none | green with yellow stripes | yellow crown | yellow |
| Amur Cossacks Amur Cossacks The Amur Cossack Host , a Cossack host created in the Amur region and Primorye in the 1850s on the basis of the Cossacks relocated from the Transbaikal region and freed miners of Nerchinsk region.... |
1858 | green tunic | none | green with yellow stripes | yellow crown | green |
| Semiryechensk Cossacks Semiryechensk Cossacks Semirechye Cossask Host was a Cossack host in Imperial Russia, located in Semirechye Oblast with the center in Verny.The Semirechye Cossask Host was created out of a part of the Siberian Cossack Host in 1867... |
1867 | green tunic | none | green with crimson stripes | crimson crown | crimson |
| Ussuri Cossacks Ussuri Cossacks Ussuri Cossack Host was a Cossack Host in Imperial Russia, located in Primorye south of Khabarovsk along the Ussuri River, the Sungari River, and around the Khanka Lake.... |
1889 | green tunic | none | green with yellow stripes | yellow crown | yellow |
Modern Day Russian Cossack Identity
Unlike in Ukraine, where the issue of Cossack status and identity seems to have been resolved, in modern Russia, the question of "Who is a Cossack?" can and does create major controversies. There are ethnic or "born" (prirodnye) Cossacks, those trace or, at least, claim to trace their direct ancestry to Cossacks of the old, Tsarist era. These are mainly Orthodox Christian people, who consider themselves to be SlavicSlavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
.
Others, however, who are not "born" Cossacks, can become Cossacks through initiation. They are not necessarily Slavic or Christian. For example, since 2004, in the city of Perm functioned modern Russia's first Muslim Cossack unit.
Not everyone agrees that "initiated" Cossacks should be considered Cossacks at all. Nor is there consensus on what is considered a proper form of initiation.
There are people who simply put on a Cossack uniform and, essentially, pretend to be Cossacks, perhaps because there is a large ethnic Cossack population in their area and it is more convenient to try to fit in; or because that is simply a popular fad at the moment. Such individuals tend to be scoffed at by "real" Cossacks and referred to as 'ryazhenye' ('dressed up phonies').
Because of the controversies surrounding the identity issue, true population numbers of Cossacks in Russia still cannot be worked out. There are said to be 7,000,000 people in Russia who consider themselves ethnic Cossacks. Most Cossack leaders estimate the number of ethnic Cossacks as between 2.5 and 4 million.
See also
- History of the CossacksHistory of the Cossacks- Early history :The origins of the first Cossacks are uncertain. The traditional historiography dates the emergence of Cossacks to the 14-15th centuries...
- Cossack explorers
- Betrayal of the CossacksBetrayal of the CossacksThe Repatriation of Cossacks after WW2, also known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks, the Tragedy of Drau or the Massacre of Cossacks at Lienz refers to the forced repatriation to the USSR of the Cossacks and ethnic Russians who were allies of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.The...
- Hetmans of Ukrainian CossacksHetmans of Ukrainian CossacksHetman of Ukrainian Cossacks as a title was not officially recognized internationally until the creation of the Ukrainian Hetmanate. With the creation of Registered Cossacks units their leaders were unofficially referred to as hetmans, however officially the title was known as the "Senior of His...
- Cossack motorcycle
- Persian Cossack BrigadePersian Cossack BrigadeThe Persian Cossack Brigade was an elite cavalry unit formed in 1879 in Iran. During much of their history they were the only functional, effective military unit of the Qajar Dynasty...
- Jewish CossacksJewish CossacksOf the different branches of Cossacks the only one that documents allowing Jews into their society were the Cossacks of Ukraine. When Poland and Lithuania were merged by King Sigismund Augustus into one commonwealth the provinces of Volhynia, Podilia and the rest of Ukraine were separated from...
- Tatar invasionsTatar invasionsThe Mongol invasion of Europe from the east took place over the course of three centuries, from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.The terms Tatars or Tartars are applied to nomadic Turkic peoples who, themselves, were conquered by Mongols and incorporated into their horde...
- Crimean KhanateCrimean KhanateCrimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
- Wild FieldsWild FieldsThe Wild Field or the Wilderness is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th and 18th centuries referring to forest steppes and steppes of the Black sea and Azov sea regions...
- Kosiński UprisingKosinski UprisingKosiński Uprising is a name applied to two rebellions in Ukraine organised by Krzysztof Kosiński against the local Ruthenian nobility and magnates....
- KossakKossakKossak is the surname of the 4 generations of notable Polish painters, writers and poets, descending from the historical painter Juliusz Kossak. The family includes:* Progenitor, Juliusz Kossak , Polish painter from the partitions period...
(as a Polish family name) - Cossacks II: Napoleonic WarsCossacks II: Napoleonic WarsCossacks II: Napoleonic Wars is the fourth computer game in the Cossacks series of real-time strategy games, released in Spring 2005 to mixed reviews. This game focuses exclusively on the Napoleonic era, meaning it has a much shorter time span than others in this series, which spanned several...
- Last Kossak – Ukrainian film
- Cossack election
- GurkhaGurkhaGurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
Sources
- Knotel, Richard, Knotel, Herbert, & Sieg Herbert (1980) Uniforms of the World: A compendium of Army, Navy and Air Force uniforms 1700–1937, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
- Summerfield, Stephen (2005) Cossack Hurrah: Russian Irregular Cavalry Organisation and Uniforms during the Napoleonic Wars, Partizan Press ISBN 1-85818-513-0
- Summerfield, Stephen (2007) The Brazen Cross: Brazen Cross of Courage: Russian Opochenie, Partizans and Russo-German Legion during the Napoleonic Wars, Partizan Press ISBN 978-1-85818-555-2
Further reading
- H. Havelock, The Cossacks in the Early Seventeenth Century, English Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 50 (Apr., 1898), pp. 242–260, JSTOR
- "The Cossack Corps", General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy, US Army Historical Division, Hailer Publishing, 2007
- Le Fiamme di Zaporoze -Flames of Zaporoze – Novel on Zaporozhian cossacks of hetman Ivan Mazepa. ISBN 8861552684
External links
- Cossack Site – eng., rus., spa., fre.
- Ukraine’s own Robin Hoods The Cossacks
- Don Cossack (rus)
- Union of Cossacks – Official Cossack organisation.
- Cossackdom.com – history of Cossacks XV-XXI cent.
- History of Cossacks
- Cossack Navy 16th – 17th Centuries
- Cossack raids
- Cossacks during the Napoleonic Wars
- Zaporizhian Cossacks
- History of Ukrainian Cossacks at Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Ukrainian Cossacks
- Don Cossack Choir Russia ®. Don Cossack Choir Russia founded in 1992
- Cossacks in Italy 1944
- "The Ukrainian Registered Cossacks"
- History and current status of Cossack dzhigitovka – rus.
- Soviet Cossacks – an issue of the propaganda journal USSR in ConstructionUSSR in ConstructionUSSR in Construction was a propaganda journal published in the decade of 1930 to 1941, as well as briefly in 1949, in the Soviet Union. It became an artistic gem and counter-current in the first year of socialist realism. Its pages offered some of the greatest examples of early 20th-century...
which presents numerous images of Cossack life in Soviet Russia.