A short message about the Cossacks. Origin of the Cossacks

Brief history of the Cossacks

The history of the Cossacks is woven into the past of Russia with a golden thread. Not a single more or less significant event took place without the participation of the Cossacks. Scientists are still arguing about who they are - a sub-ethnos, a special military class or people with a certain state of mind.

As well as about the origin of the Cossacks and their name. There is a version that the Cossack is a derivative of the name of the descendants of Kasogs or Torks and Berendeys, Cherkas or Brodniks. On the other hand, many researchers tend to think that the word "Cossack" is of Turkic origin. So they called a free, free, independent person or a military guard on the border.

At various stages of the existence of the Cossacks, it included Russians, Ukrainians, representatives of some steppe nomads, the peoples of the North Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East. By the beginning of the XX century. the Cossacks were completely dominated by the East Slavic ethnic basis.

From an ethnographic point of view, the first Cossacks were divided according to the place of origin into Ukrainian and Russian. Among both those and others, free and service Cossacks can be distinguished. In Ukraine, the free Cossacks were represented by the Zaporizhzhya Sich (existed until 1775), and the service Cossacks were represented by "registered" Cossacks who received a salary for service in the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russian service Cossacks (city, regimental and sentry) were used to protect the security lines and cities, receiving salaries and lands for life for this. Although they were equated "to the service people on the instrument" (archers, gunners), but unlike them, they had a stanitsa organization and an elective system of military administration. In this form, they existed until the beginning of the 18th century. The first community of Russian free Cossacks arose on the Don, and then on the rivers Yaik, Terek and Volga. In contrast to the serving Cossacks, the coasts of large rivers (Dnieper, Don, Yaik, Terek) and the steppe expanses became the centers of the emergence of the Free Cossacks, which left a noticeable imprint on the Cossacks and determined their way of life.

Each large territorial community as a form of military-political association of independent Cossack settlements was called the Army. The main economic activities of the free Cossacks were hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. For example, in the Don Army until the beginning of the 18th century, arable farming was prohibited under pain of death. As the Cossacks themselves believed, they lived "from grass and water." The war was of great importance in the life of the Cossack communities: they were in constant military confrontation with hostile and warlike nomadic neighbors, so one of the most important sources of livelihood for them was military booty (as a result of campaigns “for zipuns and yasyr” in the Crimea, Turkey, Persia , to the Caucasus). River and sea trips were made on plows, as well as horse raids. Often several Cossack units united and carried out joint land and sea operations, everything captured became common property - duvan.

The main feature of social Cossack life was a military organization with an elective system of government and democratic order. The main decisions (issues of war and peace, election of officials, trial of the guilty) were made at general Cossack meetings, stanitsa and military circles, or Rada, which were the highest governing bodies. The main executive power belonged to the annually replaced military (koshevo in Zaporozhye) ataman. For the duration of hostilities, a marching ataman was elected, whose obedience was unquestioning.

The Cossacks took part in many wars on the side of Russia against neighboring states. To successfully perform these important functions, the practice of the Moscow tsars included annual sending of gifts, cash salaries, weapons and ammunition, as well as bread to individual Troops, since the Cossacks did not produce it. The Cossack territories played an important role as a buffer on the southern and eastern borders of the Russian state, covering it from the raids of the steppe hordes. And despite the fact that the Cossacks were beneficial monetary relations with Russia, the Cossacks have always been in the forefront of powerful anti-government actions, the leaders of the Cossack-peasant uprisings - Stepan Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Emelyan Pugachev - came out of its ranks. The role of the Cossacks during the events of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century was great.

Having supported False Dmitry I, they made up an essential part of his military detachments. Later, free Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks, as well as Russian service Cossacks, took an active part in the camp of various forces: in 1611 they participated in the first militia, the nobles already prevailed in the second militia, but at the council of 1613 it was the word of the Cossack chieftains that turned out to be decisive in the election of Tsar Michael Fedorovich Romanov. The ambiguous role played by the Cossacks in the Time of Troubles forced the government in the 17th century to pursue a policy of sharp reduction in the detachments of service Cossacks in the main territory of the state.

But appreciating their military skills, Russia was quite patient with the Cossacks, nevertheless, not abandoning attempts to subordinate them to its will. Only by the end of the 17th century did the Russian throne ensure that all the troops took the oath of allegiance, which turned the Cossacks into Russian subjects.

Since the 18th century, the state has constantly regulated the life of the Cossack regions, modernized the traditional Cossack management structures in the right direction for itself, turning them into an integral part of the administrative system of the Russian empire.

Since 1721, the Cossack units were under the jurisdiction of the Cossack expedition of the Military Collegium. In the same year, Peter I abolished the election of military chieftains and introduced the institution of chief chieftains appointed by the supreme power. The Cossacks lost their last vestiges of independence after the defeat of the Pugachev rebellion in 1775, when Catherine II liquidated the Zaporozhian Sich. In 1798, by decree of Paul I, all Cossack officer ranks were equated with general army ranks, and their holders received the rights to the nobility. In 1802, the first Regulations for the Cossack troops were developed. Since 1827, the heir to the throne began to be appointed as the august ataman of all Cossack troops. In 1838, the first combat charter for the Cossack units was approved, and in 1857 the Cossacks came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate (from 1867 the Main Directorate) of the irregular (from 1879 - Cossack) troops of the Military Ministry, from 1910 - under the authority of the General Staff.

It is not in vain that they say about the Cossacks that they are born in the saddle. Their skills and abilities earned the Cossacks the fame of the best light cavalry in the world. It is not surprising that practically not a single war, not a single major battle was complete without the Cossacks. The Northern and Seven Years War, Suvorov's military campaigns, the Patriotic War of 1812, the conquest of the Caucasus and the development of Siberia ... One can list the great and small deeds of the Cossacks for the glory of Russia and on guard of its interests for a long time.

In many ways, the success of the Cossacks was due to the "original" methods of warfare, inherited from their ancestors and steppe neighbors.

On the eve of World War I, there were 11 Cossack Troops in Russia: Don (1.6 million), Kuban (1.3 million), Terskoe (260 thousand), Astrakhan (40 thousand), Ural (174 thousand), Orenburg (533 thousand), Siberian (172 thousand), Semirechensk (45 thousand), Transbaikal (264 thousand), Amur (50 thousand), Ussuri (35 thousand) and two separate Cossack regiments. They occupied 65 million acres of land with a population of 4.4 million people. (2.4% of the population of Russia), including 480 thousand service personnel. Among the Cossacks, ethnically, Russians prevailed (78%), Ukrainians were in second place (17%), Buryats were in third (2%). and national minorities professed Buddhism and Islam.

The First World War, in which more than 300 thousand Cossacks took part, showed the inefficiency of using large horse masses. However, the Cossacks successfully operated behind enemy lines, organizing small partisan detachments.

The Cossacks, as a significant military and social force, participated in the Civil War. The combat experience and professional military training of the Cossacks was once again used to resolve acute internal social conflicts. By the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 17, 1917, the Cossacks as an estate and Cossack formations were formally abolished. During the Civil War, the Cossack territories became the main bases of the White movement (especially the Don, Kuban, Terek, Ural) and it was there that the most fierce battles were fought. The Cossack units were numerically the main military force of the Volunteer Army in the fight against Bolshevism. The Cossacks were pushed to this by the policy of decossackization pursued by the Reds (mass executions, hostage-taking, burning of villages, inciting non-residents against the Cossacks). The Red Army also had Cossack units, but they represented a small part of the Cossacks (less than 10%). At the end of the Civil War, a large number of Cossacks ended up in exile (about 100 thousand people).

In Soviet times, the official policy of decossackization actually continued, although in 1925 the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) declared unacceptable "ignoring the peculiarities of the Cossack way of life and the use of violent measures in the fight against the remnants of the Cossack traditions." Nevertheless, the Cossacks continued to be considered “non-proletarian elements” and were subject to restrictions in their rights, in particular, the ban on serving in the Red Army was lifted only in 1936, when several Cossack cavalry divisions (and then corps) were created, which proved to be excellent during the Great Patriotic War.

The very cautious attitude of the authorities towards the Cossacks (which resulted in the oblivion of their history and culture) gave rise to the modern Cossack movement. Initially (in 1988-1989) it arose as a historical and cultural movement for the revival of the Cossacks (according to some estimates, about 5 million people). Further growth of the Cossack movement was facilitated by the decree of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation "On the rehabilitation of the Cossacks" of June 16, 1992 and a number of laws. Under the President of Russia, the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops was created, a number of measures to create regular Cossack units were taken by the power ministries (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Border Troops, Ministry of Defense).

There are many theories about the origin of the Cossacks.

According to Eastern hypothesis, the Cossacks arose by the merger of Kasogs and Brodniks after the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Kasogi (Kasakhs, Kasaks) - an ancient Circassian people who inhabited the territory of the lower Kuban in the X-XIV centuries. Brodniki - a people of Turkic-Slavic origin, formed in the lower reaches of the Don in the 12th century (then a border region of Kievan Rus.

Initially, the first cell of the Cossacks was formed in the service of the Golden Horde: Kasogs and Brodniks fought against Russia on the side of the Mongols in the Battle of the Kalka (1223), which ended with the victory of the Mongols.

The Tatarized Cossacks were a dashing invincible cavalry - Dzhigits (from the ancient Chigs and Gets). The Tatar Baskaks, sent to Russia by the khans to collect tribute, always had detachments of these Cossacks with them. But no matter how the khans caressed their bodyguards, or provided them with various benefits and liberties, the freedom-loving spirit of the Cossacks lived in them.

After the split of the Golden Horde, the Cossacks who remained on its territory retained their military organization, but at the same time they found themselves in complete independence from the fragments of the former empire - the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate; and from the Moscow state that appeared in Russia. Although it is known that in 1380 the Cossacks presented the icon of Our Lady of the Don to the Grand Duke of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy and participated against Mamai in the Battle of Kulikovo on the side of the Russians.

However, in 1395 Tamerlane invaded Russia. Although Tamerlane did not reach Moscow, his ratis passed along the Don and took a huge full. Subsequently, the Don was empty, and the Cossacks went north and scattered, many settled on the Upper Don, and communities were formed in the basins of other rivers, and this is exactly what coincides with the first mention of the Cossacks on the Volga, Dnieper, Terek and Yaik.

4.2. Slavic hypothesis of the emergence of the Cossacks

According to Slavic hypothesis, the Cossacks were originally from the Slavs.

The growth of feudal exploitation and serfdom in the 15th-16th centuries. in the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian state, called the Commonwealth, led to a mass exodus of peasants outside these states to unoccupied lands in the south. As a result, from the II half of the XV century. on the outskirts of Russia and Ukraine, along the rivers Dnieper, Don and Yaik, runaway peasants settle, who call themselves free people - Cossacks. The need to wage a constant struggle against neighboring feudal states and semi-nomadic peoples required the unification of these people in military communities. In Polish chronicles, the first mention of the Cossacks dates back to 1493, when the Cherkasy governor Bogdan Fedorovich Glinsky, nicknamed "Mamai", having formed border Cossack detachments in Cherkassy, ​​captured the Turkish fortress of Ochakov.

In the first mentions, the Turkic word "Cossack" meant "guard" or vice versa - "robber". Also - "free man", "exile", "adventurer", "tramp". This word often denoted free, "no one's" people who traded with weapons. It was in this meaning that it was assigned to the Cossacks.

Most of our contemporaries draw information about the Cossacks exclusively from works of art: historical novels, dooms, films. Accordingly, our ideas about the Cossacks are very superficial, in many respects even popular prints. Confusing and the fact that the Cossacks in its development has come a long and difficult path. Therefore, the heroes of Sholokhov and Krasnov, written off from real Cossacks of the last XX century, have as much in common with the Cossacks of the sixteenth century as modern Kievans have with Svyatoslav's combatants.

Regrettably for many, but the heroic-romantic myth about the Cossacks, created by writers and artists, we will have to debunk.

The first information about the existence of the Cossacks on the banks of the Dnieper dates back to the fifteenth century. Whether they were descendants of wanderers, black hoods, or part of the Golden Horde that became glorified over time, no one knows. In any case, the Turkic influence on the customs and behavior of the Cossacks is enormous. In the end, according to the form of the Cossack council, nothing more than a Tatar kurultai, an oseledets and bloomers are attributes of representatives of many nomadic peoples ... Many words (kosh, ataman, kuren, beshmet, chekmen, bunchuk) came into our language from the Turkic . The steppe gave the Cossacks mores, customs, military techniques and even appearance.

In addition, now the Cossacks are considered an exclusively Russian phenomenon, but this is not so. The Muslim Tatars also had their own Cossacks. Long before the appearance on the historical stage of the Zaporizhzhya and Don troops, the inhabitants of the steppe were terrified by the bands of the Horde Cossacks. The Tatar Cossacks also did not recognize the power of any sovereign over themselves, but were willingly hired for military service. Moreover, both to Muslim and Christian rulers. With the disintegration of the united state of the Golden Horde into warring khanates, the vast steppe expanses from the Dnieper to the Volga became virtually no man's land. It was at this moment that the first fortified Cossack towns appeared on the banks of the steppe rivers. They played the role of bases, from where the Cossack artels went fishing, hunting or robbery, and in the event of an enemy attack, the Cossacks could sit out behind their walls.

The centers of the Cossacks were the Dnieper, Don and Yaik (Urals). In the forties of the sixteenth century, the Dnieper Cossacks, who were called Cherkasy in Russia, founded the most famous fortress on the island of Malaya Khortitsa - Zaporizhzhya Sich.

Soon, all the Cossacks who lived on the Dnieper united around the Sich, laying the foundation for the Zaporozhian Grassroots Army. The foundation of the Zaporizhzhya Sich is traditionally attributed to Dmitry Baida Vyshnevetsky, although, as the Ukrainian historian Oles Buzina recently proved, this gentry had nothing to do with the Sich. At this time, the Cossacks already represented a certain force, the number of which was replenished due to the arrival of new people from the Commonwealth, Wallachia and Little Russia. These settlers significantly changed the composition of the Cossacks, dissolving the non-Slavic Cossacks in themselves, and by the sixteenth century the Cossacks were an exclusively Russian-speaking Orthodox formation. However, in terms of mentality and occupation, the Cossacks differed significantly from the Russians and from other settled peoples.

Our historians have developed two opposite mutually exclusive views on the Cossacks. According to the first, the Cossacks are an analogue of Western European knightly orders, according to the second, the Cossacks are the spokesmen for the aspirations of the masses, the bearers of democratic values ​​and democracy. However, both of these views are untenable if you carefully study the history of the Cossacks. Unlike the knightly orders of the European Middle Ages, the Dnieper Cossacks did not arise in harmony with state power. On the contrary, the ranks of the Cossacks were replenished by people for whom there was no place in a civilized society. For the Dnieper rapids, the villagers who did not find themselves in a peaceful life came, fled, fleeing the court or the debts of the gentry and simply seekers of easy money and adventures. Not the slightest hint of the discipline characteristic of knightly orders can be found in the Sich. Instead, all contemporaries noted the self-will and unbridledness of the Cossacks. Is it possible to imagine that the master of the Templars was proclaimed and overthrown at the whim of the masses, often drunk, as was the case with the atamans of the Cossack bands? If you can compare the Sich with anything, it is more likely with the pirate republics of the Caribbean or the Tatar hordes, and not with the knights.

The legend of Cossack democracy was born in the nineteenth century thanks to the efforts of Russian poets and publicists. Brought up on the European democratic ideas of their time, they wanted to see in the Cossacks a simple people who had left the pan and royal power, fighters for freedom. The "progressive" intelligentsia picked up and inflated this myth. Of course, the peasants fled to the Sich, but they were not in charge there. The ideas of liberating the peasants from pan power did not find a response in the hearts of the Cossacks, but the opportunity to rob, hiding behind the peasants, was never missed. Then the Cossacks easily betrayed the peasants who trusted them. Fugitive peasants only replenished the ranks of the army, but it was not from them that the Zaporizhzhya top-foreman was formed, they were not the backbone of the Cossacks. No wonder the Cossacks have always considered themselves a separate people and did not recognize themselves as fugitive peasants. Sich "knights" (knights) shied away from agriculture and were not supposed to bind themselves with family ties.

So by no means all the Cossacks appear in the image of the noble Taras Bulba, sung by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. By the way, pay attention, reader: Gogol's Taras calls himself not a Ukrainian, but a Russian! Essential detail.

Another myth is the mission of defending the Orthodox faith attributed to the Cossacks. The "defenders of Orthodoxy" hetmans Vyhovsky, Doroshenko and Yuriy Khmelnytsky, without any remorse, recognized the Turkish sultan, the head of Islam, as their master. And in general, the Cossacks have never been particularly politically intelligible. Remaining true to their nature of the steppe miners, they never sacrificed real, practical benefits to abstract ideas. It was necessary - and they entered into an alliance with the Tatars;

Prior to the establishment by the Poles in the sixteenth century of the registered Cossacks, the term "Cossack" defined a special way of life. “To go to the Cossacks” meant to move beyond the border guard line, to live there, earning food by hunting, fishing and robbery. In 1572, the Polish government tried to use the activity of the Cossacks for the benefit of the state. For the service of protecting the border, detachments of Cossack mercenaries were created, called "registered Cossacks". As light cavalry, they were widely used in the wars waged by the Commonwealth. Becoming a registered Cossack was the dream of any Cossack, because it meant having a guaranteed income, clothes and food. In addition, registered Cossacks risked much less than their former fellow craftsmen. It is not surprising that the Cossacks constantly demanded to increase the registry. Initially, the register consisted of only 300 Zaporizhian Cossacks, headed by an ataman appointed by the Polish government. In 1578 the register was increased to 600 people. The Cossacks were transferred to the management of the city of Terekhtemirov with the Zarubsky monastery, located near the city of Pereyaslav, on the right bank of the Dnieper. The Cossack arsenal and hospital were located here. In the 1630s, the number of registered Cossacks ranged from 6 to 8 thousand people. If necessary, Poland hired the entire Zaporizhian army. At this time, the Cossacks received a salary, the rest of the time they had to rely on their sabers more than on royal mercy.

The golden age for the Zaporizhian army was the beginning of the seventeenth century. Under the leadership of Peter Sahaydachny, the Cossacks, who became a real force, managed to make several daring raids on the Turkish Black Sea cities, capturing huge booty. Only in Varna, the Cossacks took goods worth 180 thousand zlotys. Then Sagaidachny with his army joined the Polish prince Vladislav, who began a campaign against Moscow. The Time of Troubles raged in Russia at that time, the Polish troops besieged Moscow, and the very existence of the Muscovite kingdom was under threat. Under these conditions, twenty thousand thugs of Sahaydachny could become a decisive trump card in the long-term war between Poland and Russia. True, the Cossacks would not have been Cossacks if they had not brought trouble to their Polish employers. Initially, they ravaged the Kiev and Volyn provinces of the Commonwealth, and only then invaded Russian possessions. The first victim of the Cossacks was Putivl, then Sahaidachny captured Livny and Yelets, and his associate Mikhail Doroshenko marched through the Ryazan region with fire and sword. Only the small town of Mikhailov managed to fight back. Knowing about the fate of the cities captured by the Cossacks, where all the inhabitants were slaughtered, the Mikhailovites fought back with the despair of the doomed. Having lost almost a thousand people, Sagaidachny, who never managed to take it, was forced to lift the siege and go to Moscow to join with Prince Vladislav. On September 20, 1618, the Polish and Cossack armies united near Moscow and began to prepare for a decisive assault, which ended in failure. Soon, peace was concluded between the Moscow kingdom and the Commonwealth. As a reward for the Moscow campaign, the Cossacks received 20,000 złoty and 7,000 pieces of cloth from the Poles, although they expected more.

And just two years later, Sahaidachny sent envoys to Moscow who declared ... the desire of the registered Zaporizhzhya army to serve Russia. The reason for this appeal was the fanaticism and intransigence of the Catholic Church, which unleashed terrible persecution of Orthodoxy, and the position of the gentry, who looked at the Cossacks and Little Russians as their slaves. It was during the period of Sagaidachny's hetmanship that the impossibility of establishing a joint life of the Orthodox in the same state with the Poles became finally clear. The logical conclusion from this was the desire to break the connection with Poland imposed by historical events and arrange their own destiny according to their own interests and desires. A movement began to liberate Little Russia from Polish rule. But soon, in the battle with the Turks near Khotyn, the hetman received a mortal wound...

After the death of this commander and diplomat, difficult times begin for the Cossacks. Near Khotyn, the Cossacks saved Poland from being captured by the Turks, but they did not receive any gratitude. On the contrary, the Poles began to fear their allies and in every possible way to limit the Cossack force. The Cossacks, feeling their strength, began to demand for themselves the rights of the gentry. First of all, the right to uncontrollably exploit the peasants.

Let us pay attention to another phenomenon: despite the fierce struggle of the Cossacks for secession from the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom (the Commonwealth), the top of the Cossacks looked with envy at the Polish nobility (gentry). The Cossack foremen passionately wanted to live as wildly and luxuriously as the gentry, as well as to despise ordinary farmers, as the Polish nobles despised them. Some historians say that the Poles made a fatal mistake for themselves. They needed to accept the Cossack foreman into the gentry, without insisting on her changing her faith from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. And then the current Ukraine could remain part of the Commonwealth for centuries.

Cossacks ... A very special social stratum, estate, class. Its own, as experts would say, subculture: the manner of dressing, speaking, behaving. Peculiar songs. A sharpened concept of honor and dignity. Pride in one's own identity. Courage and dashing in the most terrible battle. For some time now, the history of Russia has been unimaginable without the Cossacks. Here are just the current "heirs" - for the most part, "mummers", impostors. To our great regret, the Bolsheviks did their best to uproot the real Cossacks even in the civil war. Those who were not destroyed were rotted in prisons and camps. Alas, the destroyed cannot be returned. To honor traditions and not become Ivans, not remembering kinship ...

History of the Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks Oddly enough, even the exact date of birth of the Don Cossacks is known. She became January 3, 1570. Ivan the Terrible, having defeated the Tatar khanates, in fact, provided the Cossacks with every opportunity to settle in new territories, settle down and take root. The Cossacks were proud of their freedom, although they took an oath of allegiance to one or another king. The kings, in turn, were in no hurry to enslave this dashing gang completely.

During the Time of Troubles, the Cossacks turned out to be very active and active. However, they often took the side of one or another impostor, and by no means stood guard over statehood and the law. One of the famous Cossack chieftains - Ivan Zarutsky - even himself was not averse to reigning in Moscow. In the 17th century, the Cossacks actively explored the Black and Azov Seas.

In a sense, they became sea pirates, corsairs, terrifying merchants and merchants. The Cossacks often found themselves next to the Cossacks. Peter the Great officially included the Cossacks in the Russian Empire, obliged them to the sovereign service, and abolished the election of atamans. The Cossacks began to take an active part in all the wars waged by Russia, in particular, with Sweden and Prussia, as well as in the First World War.

Many of the Don people did not accept the Bolsheviks and fought against them, and then went into exile. Well-known figures of the Cossack movement - P.N. Krasnov and A.G. Shkuro - actively collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. In the era of Gorbachev's perestroika, they started talking about the revival of the Don Cossacks. However, on this wave there was a lot of muddy foam, following fashion, outright speculation. To date, almost none of the so-called. Don Cossacks, and even more so chieftains, by origin and by rank, are not.

History of the Kuban Cossacks

Kuban Cossack The emergence of the Kuban Cossacks dates back to a later time than the Don Cossacks, only to the second half of the 19th century. The place of deployment of the Kuban was the North Caucasus, the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Rostov Region, Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia. The center was the city of Ekaterinodar. Seniority belonged to the koshevoy and kuren chieftains. Later, one or another Russian emperor began to appoint the supreme chieftains personally.

Historically, after Catherine II disbanded the Zaporozhian Sich, several thousand Cossacks fled to the Black Sea coast and tried to restore the Sich there, under the auspices of the Turkish Sultan. Later, they again turned to face the Fatherland, made a significant contribution to the victory over the Turks, for which they were granted the lands of Taman and Kuban, and the lands were given to them for eternal and hereditary use.

Kuban can be described as a free paramilitary association. The population was engaged in agriculture, led a settled way of life, and fought only for state needs. Newcomers and fugitives from the central regions of Russia were willingly accepted here. They mixed with the local population and became "their own".

In the fire of the revolution and civil war, the Cossacks were forced to constantly maneuver between the Reds and the Whites, looking for a "third way", trying to defend their identity and independence. In 1920, the Bolsheviks finally abolished both the Kuban army and the Republic. Massive repressions, evictions, famine and dispossession followed. Only in the second half of the 1930s the Cossacks were partially rehabilitated, the Kuban choir was restored. During the Great Patriotic War, the Cossacks fought on an equal footing with others, mainly together with the regular units of the Red Army.

History of the Terek Cossacks

Terek Cossacks The Terek Cossacks arose approximately at the same time as the Kuban Cossacks - in 1859, according to the date of the defeat of the troops of the Chechen Imam Shamil. In the Cossack power hierarchy, the Tertsy were the third in seniority. They settled along such rivers as Kura, Terek, Sunzha. Headquarters of the Terek Cossack army - the city of Vladikavkaz. The settlement of the territories began in the 16th century.

The Cossacks were in charge of the protection of the border territories, but they themselves sometimes did not disdain raids on the possessions of the Tatar princelings. The Cossacks often had to defend themselves from mountain raids. However, close proximity to the highlanders brought the Cossacks not only negative emotions. The Tertsy adopted some linguistic expressions from the highlanders, and in particular the details of clothing and ammunition: cloaks and hats, daggers and sabers.

The centers of concentration of the Terek Cossacks became the founded cities of Kizlyar and Mozdok. In 1917, the Tertsy self-proclaimed independence and established a republic. With the final establishment of Soviet power, the Tertsy suffered the same dramatic fate as the Kuban and Donets: mass repressions and eviction.

Interesting Facts

In 1949, the lyrical comedy directed by Ivan Pyryev "Kuban Cossacks" was released on the Soviet screen. Despite the obvious varnishing of reality and the smoothing of socio-political conflicts, the mass audience fell in love with it, and the song “What were you like” is performed from the stage to this day.
Interestingly, the very word "Cossack" in translation from the Turkic language means a free, freedom-loving, proud person. So the name stuck to these people, to know, is far from accidental.
The Cossack does not bow to any authorities, he is fast and free, like the wind.

The Cossacks are not some special nationality, they are the same Russian people, however, with their own historical roots and traditions.

The word "Cossack" is of Turkic origin and figuratively means "free man". In Russia, the Cossacks were called free people living on the outskirts of the state. As a rule, in the past these were runaway serfs, serfs and the urban poor.

People were forced to leave their homes due to their disenfranchised position, poverty, serfdom. These fugitives were called "walking" people. The government, with the help of special detectives, tried to search for those who had gone on the run, punish them and put them back in their old place of residence. However, mass escapes did not stop, and gradually entire free regions with their own Cossack administration arose on the outskirts of Russia. The first settlements of the settled fugitives were formed on the Don, Yaik and in Zaporozhye. The government eventually had to come to terms with the existence of a special estate - the Cossacks - and try to put it at its service.

Most of the “walking” people went to the free Don, where the native Cossacks began to settle in the 15th century. There were no duties, no compulsory service, no governor. The Cossacks had their own elected administration. They were divided into hundreds and tens, which were led by centurions and foremen. To resolve public issues, the Cossacks gathered for gatherings, which they called "circles". At the head of this free estate was an ataman chosen by the circle, who had an assistant - Yesaul. The Cossacks recognized the power of the Moscow government, were considered to be in his service, but were not distinguished by great devotion and often participated in peasant uprisings.

In the 16th century, there were already many Cossack settlements, whose inhabitants, in accordance with the geographical principle, were called Cossacks: Zaporozhye, Don, Yaik, Grebensky, Terek, etc.

In the 18th century, the government transformed the Cossacks into a closed military estate, which was obliged to carry out military service in the general system of the armed forces of the Russian Empire. First of all, the Cossacks had to protect the borders of the country - where they lived. In order for the Cossacks to remain loyal to the autocracy, the government endowed the Cossacks with special benefits and privileges. The Cossacks were proud of their position, they had their own customs and traditions, which were passed down from generation to generation. They considered themselves a special people, and the inhabitants of other regions of Russia were called "out-of-town". This continued until 1917.

The Soviet government did away with the privileges of the Cossacks and liquidated the isolated Cossack regions. Many of the Cossacks were subjected to repression. The state has done everything to destroy the traditions that have developed over the centuries. But it could not completely make people forget about their past. At present, the traditions of the Russian Cossacks are being revived again.