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.

Circassians in Krakow

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.

Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Vishnevetsky (Cossack Baida)

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.

Zaporizhian Sich
The figure of a Cossack is not identical to the type of a native Little Russian. They represent two different worlds. One is sedentary, agricultural, with a culture, way of life and customs dating back to Kievan Rus. The second - walking, unemployed, leading a robbery life. The Cossacks were born not of South Russian culture, but of the hostile elements of the nomadic Tatar steppe. No wonder many researchers believe that the first Russian Cossacks were Russified baptized Tatars. Living solely at the expense of robbery, not appreciating either their own, let alone someone else's life, prone to wild revelry and violence - these people appear before historians. They sometimes did not disdain the hijacking of their "Orthodox brothers" into captivity, followed by the sale of live goods in slave markets.
Taras Bulba, sung by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.

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;

Yuri Khmelnitsky

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.

Petr Sahaidachny

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.

Who are the Cossacks? There is a version that they trace their lineage from fugitive serfs. However, some historians argue that the origins of the Cossacks go back to the 8th century BC.

Where did the Cossacks come from?

Magazine: History from the "Russian Seven", Almanac No. 3, autumn 2017
Rubric: Mysteries of the Muscovite Kingdom
Text: Alexander Sitnikov

The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in 948 mentioned the territory in the North Caucasus as the country of Kasakhia. Historians attached particular importance to this fact only after Captain A.G. Tumansky in 1892 in Bukhara discovered the Persian geography Gudud al Alem, compiled in 982.
It turns out that Kasak Land, which was located in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, is also found there. It is interesting that the Arab historian, geographer and traveler Abu-l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Hussein (896-956), who received the nickname of the Imam of all historians, reported in his writings that the Kasaks who lived beyond the Caucasus Range were not mountaineers.
A stingy description of a certain military people who lived in the Black Sea region and in the Transcaucasus is also found in the geographical work of the Greek Strabo, who worked under the “living Christ”. He called them cossacks. Modern ethnographers provide data on the Scythians from the Turanian tribes of Kos-Saka, the first mention of which dates back to about 720 BC. It is believed that it was then that a detachment of these nomads made their way from Western Turkestan to the Black Sea lands, where they stopped.
In addition to the Scythians, on the territory of the modern Cossacks, that is, between the Black and Azov Seas, as well as between the Don and Volga rivers, the Sarmatian tribes ruled, who created the Alanian state. The Huns (Bulgars) defeated it and exterminated almost all of its population. The surviving Alans hid in the north - between the Don and Donets and in the south - in the foothills: the Caucasus. Basically, it was these two ethnic groups - Scythians and Alans, who intermarried with the Azov Slavs, formed the nationality, which received the name "Cossacks". This version is considered one of the basic ones in the discussion about where the Cossacks came from.

Slavic-Turanian tribes

Don ethnographers also connect the roots of the Cossacks with the tribes of northwestern Scythia. This is evidenced by burial mounds of the III-II centuries BC.
It was at this time that the Scythians began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, intersecting and merging with the southern Slavs who lived in Meotida - on the eastern coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov.
This time is called the era of "the introduction of the Sarmatians into the Meotians", which resulted in the tribes of the Torets (Torkov, Udz, Berenger, Sirakov, Bradas-Brodnikov) of the Slavic-Turanian type. In the 5th century, the Huns invaded, as a result of which part of the Slavic-Turanian tribes went beyond the Volga and into the Upper Don forest-steppe. Those who remained submitted to the Huns, Khazars and Bulgars, receiving the name "kasaks". After 300 years they converted to Christianity (approximately in 860 after the apostolic sermon of St. Cyril), and then, by order of the Khazar Khagan, they drove out the Pechenegs. In 965, Kasak Land came under the control of Mstislav Rurikovich.

Darkness

It was Mstislav Rurikovich who defeated the Novgorod prince Yaroslav near Listven and founded his principality - Tmutarakan, which extended far to the north. It is believed that this Cossack state was not at the peak of its power for long, until about 1060, and after the arrival of the Polovtsian tribes, it began to gradually fade away,
Many residents of Tmutarakan fled to the north - to the forest-steppe and, together with Russia, fought with the nomads. This is how the Black Hoods appeared, which in the Russian chronicles were called Cossacks and Cherkasy. Another part of the inhabitants of Tmutarakan was called Po-Don wanderers.
Like the Russian principalities, the Cossack settlements ended up in the power of the Golden Horde, however, conditionally, enjoying wide autonomy. In the XIV-XV centuries, the Cossacks were talked about as a formed community, which began to accept fugitive people from the central part of Russia.

Not Khazars and not Goths

There is another version, popular in the West, that the Khazars were the ancestors of the Cossacks. Its supporters argue that the words "Khusar" and "Cossack" are synonyms, because in both the first and second cases we are talking about fighting horsemen. Moreover, both words have the same root “kaz”, meaning “strength”, “war” and “freedom”. However, there is another meaning - it is "goose". But here, too, the champions of the Khazar trace speak of horsemen-hussars, whose military ideology was copied by almost all countries, even Foggy Albion
The Khazar ethnonym of the Cossacks is directly stated in the “Constitution of Pylyp Orlik”: “The ancient fighting Cossack people, who used to be called the Kazakhs, were first raised by immortal glory, spacious possessions and knightly honors ...” Moreover, it is said that the Cossacks adopted Orthodoxy from Constantinople (Constantinople) in the era of the Khazar Khaganate.
In Russia, this version in the Cossack environment causes fair abuse, especially against the background of studies of Cossack genealogies, whose roots are of Russian origin. So, the hereditary Kuban Cossack, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Shmarin, spoke out in this regard with anger: “The author of one of these versions of the origin of the Cossacks is Hitler. He even has a separate speech on the subject. According to his theory, the Cossacks are Goths. Visigoths are Germans. And the Cossacks are the Ostrogoths, that is, the descendants of the Ostrogoths, allies of the Germans, close to them in blood and in a warlike spirit. By militancy, he compared them with the Teutons. Based on this, Hitler proclaimed the Cossacks the sons of great Germany. So what, should we now consider ourselves descendants of the Germans?

Cossack circle: what is it?

The circle always gathered in the square in front of the village hut, chapel or church. This place was called Maidan. On Sunday or on a holiday, the ataman, going out onto the porch of the church, invited the Cossacks to the gathering. Yesauls made a “call” - they walked through the streets with an insect in their hand and, stopping at every intersection, shouted: “Atamans, well done, converge on the Maidan for the sake of the village business!”. After that, the villagers hurried to the Maidan.
All adult Cossacks participated in the "voting", women, vicious and foamy Cossacks were not allowed. Underage Cossacks could only be in the circle under the supervision of their father or godfather. Banners or icons were brought to the center of the meeting, so the Cossacks stood without a headdress. When the old ataman "resigned", he, putting down his notch, asked the atamans-well done, who would make a report. The right to report did not belong to everyone, and the ataman himself, without the consent of the elected judges, could not make a report. From here came the saying: "Ataman is not free even in the report."

6 misconceptions about the Cossacks

1. "Cossacks - a stronghold of democracy"
Writers Taras Shevchenko, Mikhail Dragomanov, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Kostomarov saw in the Zaporizhzhya freemen "common people" who, having freed themselves from the lord's captivity, tried to build a democratic society. This mythology is still alive today. The Zaporizhian Sich was indeed a champion of the idea of ​​emancipating the peasantry from serfdom. However, life in the Cossack society was far from democratic principles. The peasants who got into the Sich felt like strangers: the Cossacks did not like the plowmen and kept apart from them.
2. "Cossacks - the first Cossacks"
There is a strong opinion that the Cossacks came from the Zaporozhian Sich. Partly it is. After the dissolution of the Zaporozhian Sich, many Cossacks became part of the newly created Black Sea, Azov and Kuban Cossacks. However, in parallel with the emergence of the Cossack freemen in the Dnieper region in the middle of the 16th century, Cossack communities began to appear on the Don.
3. "The Cossack went to work with his own weapons"
This statement is not entirely true. Indeed, the Cossacks mainly bought weapons with their own money.
Only a wealthy person could afford a good firearm. An ordinary Cossack could count on captured or old weapons received “on lease”, sometimes with a redemption period of up to 30 years. There are documents that confirm that the Cossack formations were supplied with weapons. However, there were not enough weapons, and what was available was often outdated. It is known that until the 1870s, the Cossack cavalry fired flintlock pistols.
4. "Joining the regular army"
As historian Boris Frolov notes, the Cossacks "were not part of the regular army and were not used as the main tactical force." It was a separate military structure. Cossack troops most often made up regiments of light cavalry, which had the status of "irregular". Until the last days of autocracy, the reward for service was the inviolability of the lands where the Cossacks lived, as well as various benefits, for example, for trade or fishing.
5. "Letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan"
The insulting response of the Zaporozhye Cossacks to the request of the Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV to lay down their arms still raises questions among researchers. The controversy of the situation is that the original letter has not been preserved, and therefore most historians question the authenticity of this document. The first researcher of correspondence A.N. Popov called the letter "a forged letter, invented by our scribes." And the American Daniel Woh established that the letter that has survived to this day was subjected to textual alteration over time and became part of the anti-Turkish pamphlets. According to Wo, this forgery is connected with the process of formation of the national self-consciousness of Ukrainians.
6. "Loyalty of the Cossacks to the Russian Crown"
Often the interests of the Cossacks went against the established order in the empire. So it was during the largest popular riots - uprisings led by the Don Cossacks Kondraty Bulavin, Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev.

Recently, one can often hear the opinion that the Cossacks are an independent ethnic group. Some even consider the Cossacks to be a non-Slavic people. Others say that this is fiction, calling the Cossacks nothing more than Russian settlers.

Apart from the Russians

There are many versions of the origin of the Cossacks: some researchers trace their roots to the Eastern Slavs, another to the Scythians, and a third to the Khazars. The main message of these hypotheses is as follows: the Cossacks are a separate, unique ethnic group.

In the nationalist circles of the Cossacks, one can often hear the opposition of the Cossacks to the Russians. Ataman of the Don Cossacks Pyotr Krasnov during the Great Patriotic War declared: “Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people.” One of the distinguishing features of the Cossacks from the Russians was the slavish nature of the latter.

The ideas of Cossack separatism gained popularity after the fall of the monarchy in Russia, and in certain circles they remain in demand today. The intention to create a life independent of Moscow is explained by the hostility of the Russians to the Cossacks and the desire to exploit this free people.

“The Cossacks began to live in an atmosphere of slavery, despotism; Cossack consciousness began to weaken, the strength of its resistance began to decrease, and under the influence of artificial Russian history, the once beautiful image of the freedom-loving and free Cossack began to fade, ”wrote in 1931 in the Free Cossacks magazine published in Prague.

Rejecting "Russian history", the Cossacks began to create their own. Based on documents, they began to prove that the Cossacks are a special Slavic tribe, a separate national organism, which has the same right to consider itself a special Slavic people, like Russians and Ukrainians.

On November 1, 2012, a “Cossack initiative” appeared in the village of Starocherkasskaya, Rostov Region, which set out the requirement “to return to the list of peoples, nationalities and ethnic names of the Russian Federation the nationality “Cossack”, removed in the 19th century when the Cossacks were transferred from peoples to the estate by a state decision. Let's try to figure it out as far as possible.

Turks or Slavs?

The term "Cossack" itself has been recorded in the sources for a long time. For the first time, the name "Cossack" (meaning "guard") is found in the dictionary of the Polovtsian language Codex Cumanicus (early 14th century). In Russian chronicles, you can find a nickname from the base "Cossack", for example, in one of the Pskov chronicles under 1406, the posadnik Yuri Kozachkovich is mentioned.

There is the term "Cossack" in Polish sources. So, in the chronicle of 1493, it is said that the Cherkasy governor Bogdan Fedorovich Glinsky, nicknamed Mamai, having formed border Cossack detachments in Cherkasy, captured the Turkish fortress Ochakov.

According to most versions, a Cossack is "a free, independent person, an adventurer, a vagabond." For example, in Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary, a Cossack is understood as "a military man in the street, a settled warrior."

Today, the hypothesis has gained popularity, according to which the word "Cossack" is of Turkic origin. According to the linguist-Turkologist Rifkat Akhmetyanov, the term "Cossack" comes from the form "kazgak" - in the original meaning "a horse fighting off a herd during tebenevka".

The German historian Gunther Steckl pointed out that "the first Russian Cossacks were baptized and Russified Tatar Cossacks, since until the end of the 15th century all Cossacks who lived both in the steppes and in the Slavic lands could only be Tatars."

The outstanding Russian historian Sergei Solovyov looked at this issue more broadly, noting that the Cossacks in Russia, regardless of their language, faith and origin, were called free people who were not bound by any obligations, ready to work for hire and freely moving from place to place.

The situation is clearing up

In 2009, historians Vera Kashibadze and Olga Nasonova on the Don conducted anthropological studies that were supposed to shed light on the controversial issue of the origin of the Cossacks. The scientists came to the conclusion that "the anthropological history of the Don Cossacks implies processes of migration from the southeastern zones of Central Russia and a slight inclusion of southern and eastern elements in an increasing proportion to the south."

These studies generally agree with the views of the famous Soviet anthropologist Viktor Bunak, who believed that the Cossacks are a population of a colonization type, which has developed relatively recently and to a certain extent artificially formed, which has undergone obvious processes of mixing between Russians - people from different regions and regions of Russia.

The geneticists of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution "Medical Genetic Research Center" also contributed to the research of the Cossacks. Scientists used the method of determining paternity and compared the DNA of the Don Cossacks with the DNA of nationalities that, according to historical data, had or could be related to their origin.

The collection of material took place in the original Cossack villages and farms. 131 men were studied, and DNA samples were taken from people who did not have a close relationship, whose ancestors up to the third generation came from the region under study and belonged to the Don Cossacks.

The analysis showed a high level of genetic similarity between the Don Cossacks and the population of the southern regions of Russia. The Cossacks have somewhat less in common with the inhabitants of Central Russia. At the same time, the gene pool of the Cossacks has a distant resemblance to the gene pool of the steppe Turkic-speaking populations. But no connections with the original inhabitants of the Caucasus were found.

The essence of the studies outlined above can be summarized as follows: the Cossacks are flesh and blood a part of the Russian people, and, despite a number of morphological features, during the period of their separate existence, they failed to become a separate ethnic group from the Russians.

Local victory

In 2010, a curious event took place in Volgograd. The Ministry of Justice of the Volgograd region filed an application with the regional court for the liquidation of the regional national-cultural autonomy of the Cossacks of the Volgograd region. The motivation of the ministry was as follows: the Cossacks are not an ethnic group, but the descendants of runaway serfs and peasants. The regional court ruled that the demand of the department of the Ministry of Justice should be denied.

However, this did not save the Volgograd Cossacks from further legal troubles. In the end, an ethnological examination was appointed, which was conducted by ethnologist Valery Stepanov. The expert was asked a number of questions, including whether the Cossacks belong to an ethnic community, whether it is permissible to use the term “national minority” in relation to the Cossacks. The expert answered all questions in the affirmative.

It should be noted that all questions were raised carefully and even an affirmative answer to them is difficult to interpret as recognition of the Cossacks as a separate people. And as for the court's decision, it was, in fact, dictated by the fact that there should be no discrimination - restriction or, in this case, deprivation of the rights of certain categories of citizens to self-determination.

Recognize or not

This precedent shows that if the recognition of the Cossacks as a separate ethnic group cannot be substantiated scientifically, then this problem can be solved legislatively. However, not everything is so simple here.

According to Article 2 of the Law of the RSFSR of April 26, 1991 "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples", the Cossacks are classified as other historically established cultural and ethnic communities of people. Here the Cossacks are not called an ethnic group, but a community.

And here is an excerpt from the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 1992, commenting on the mentioned article: “To establish that citizens who consider themselves direct descendants of the Cossacks and have expressed a desire to jointly restore and develop forms of management, culture, life and participate in public service, as well as citizens who, in accordance with the established procedure, voluntarily joined the Cossacks, can unite in Cossack societies and create them.

Director of the Department of State Policy in the Sphere of Interethnic Relations of the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhuravsky notes that not only the current legislation at the federal level, but also international legislation does not have clear definitions of what the concepts of “people”, “nation” are and how they differ from each other. ”, “national minority”, “ethnic group”, “ethnic community”.

Considering how many speculative theories have developed around the Cossacks, it is not possible to legally issue the issue of the ethnicity of the Cossacks.

Numerous surveys of representatives of the Cossacks, including the Don, Kuban, Ural, have shown that most of them consider themselves Russian. This is an additional argument in favor of the results of anthropological and genetic studies. Today, many scientists are of the opinion that if you can talk about the Cossacks in terms of ethnology, then only as a sub-ethnos of the Russian people.

Who are the Cossacks? There is a version that they trace their lineage from fugitive serfs. However, some historians argue that the origins of the Cossacks go back to the 8th century BC.

The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in 948 mentioned the territory in the North Caucasus as the country of Kasakhia. Historians attached particular importance to this fact only after Captain A. G. Tumansky in 1892 in Bukhara discovered the Persian geography Gudud al Alam, compiled in 982.

It turns out that “Kasak Land”, which was located in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, is also found there. It is interesting that the Arab historian, geographer and traveler Abu-l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Hussein (896-956), who received the nickname of the imam of all historians, reported in his writings that the Kasaks who lived beyond the Caucasus Range are not mountaineers.
A parsimonious description of a certain military people who lived in the Black Sea region and in the Transcaucasus is also found in the geographical work of the Greek Strabo, who worked under the “living Christ”. He called them cossacks. Modern ethnographers provide data on the Scythians from the Turanian tribes of Kos-Saka, the first mention of which dates back to about 720 BC. It is believed that it was then that a detachment of these nomads made their way from Western Turkestan to the Black Sea lands, where they stopped.

In addition to the Scythians, on the territory of the modern Cossacks, that is, between the Black and Azov Seas, as well as between the Don and Volga rivers, the Sarmatian tribes ruled, who created the Alanian state. The Huns (Bulgars) defeated it and exterminated almost all of its population. The surviving Alans hid in the north - between the Don and Donets, and in the south - in the foothills of the Caucasus. Basically, it was these two ethnic groups - the Scythians and Alans, who became related to the Azov Slavs - that formed the nationality, which was called the Cossacks. This version is considered one of the basic ones in the discussion about where the Cossacks came from.

Slavic-Turanian tribes

Don ethnographers also connect the roots of the Cossacks with the tribes of northwestern Scythia. This is evidenced by burial mounds of the III-II centuries BC. It was at this time that the Scythians began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, intersecting and merging with the southern Slavs who lived in Meotida - on the eastern coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov.

This time is called the era of "the introduction of the Sarmatians into the Meotians", which resulted in the tribes of the Torets (Torkov, Udz, Berenger, Sirakov, Bradas-Brodnikov) of the Slavic-Turanian type. In the 5th century, the Huns invaded, as a result of which part of the Slavic-Turanian tribes went beyond the Volga and into the Upper Don forest-steppe. Those who remained submitted to the Huns, Khazars and Bulgars, receiving the name Kasaks. After 300 years they converted to Christianity (approximately in 860 after the apostolic sermon of St. Cyril), and then, by order of the Khazar Khagan, they drove out the Pechenegs. In 965, Kasak Land came under the control of Mctislav Rurikovich.

Darkness

It was Mctislav Rurikovich who defeated the Novgorod prince Yaroslav near Listven and founded his principality - Tmutarakan, which stretched far to the north. It is believed that this Cossack power was not at the peak of power for long, until about 1060, but after the arrival of the Polovtsian tribes, it began to gradually fade away.

Many residents of Tmutarakan fled to the north - to the forest-steppe, and together with Russia fought with the nomads. This is how the Black Hoods appeared, which in the Russian chronicles were called Cossacks and Cherkasy. Another part of the inhabitants of Tmutarakan was called the Podon wanderers.
Like the Russian principalities, the Cossack settlements ended up in the power of the Golden Horde, however, conditionally, enjoying wide autonomy. In the 14th-15th centuries, the Cossacks were talked about as a formed community, which began to accept fugitive people from the central part of Russia.

Not Khazars and not Goths

There is another, popular in the West, version that the Khazars were the ancestors of the Cossacks. Its supporters argue that the words "Khusar" and "Cossack" are synonyms, because in both the first and second cases we are talking about fighting horsemen. Moreover, both words have the same root “kaz”, meaning “strength”, “war” and “freedom”. However, there is another meaning - it is "goose". But even here, the champions of the Khazar trace speak of horsemen-hussars, whose military ideology was copied by almost all countries, even foggy Albion.

The Khazar ethnonym of the Cossacks is directly stated in the “Constitution of Pylyp Orlik”, “... the fighting old Cossack people, which used to be called the Kazar, was first raised by immortal glory, spacious possessions and knightly honors ...”. Moreover, it is said that the Cossacks adopted Orthodoxy from Constantinople (Constantinople) in the era of the Khazar Khaganate.

In Russia, this version in the Cossack environment causes fair abuse, especially against the background of studies of Cossack genealogies, whose roots are of Russian origin. So, the hereditary Kuban Cossack, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Shmarin, spoke out in this regard with anger: “The author of one of these versions of the origin of the Cossacks is Hitler. He even has a separate speech on the subject. According to his theory, the Cossacks are the Goths. The West Goths are Germanic. And the Cossacks are the Ost-Goths, that is, the descendants of the Ost-Goths, allies of the Germans, close to them in blood and in a warlike spirit. By militancy, he compared them with the Teutons. Based on this, Hitler proclaimed the Cossacks the sons of great Germany. So why should we now consider ourselves descendants of the Germans?

In ancient times, on our land, the states did not touch their borders as they do now. Between them there were gigantic spaces in which no one lived - it was either impossible due to the lack of conditions for life (no water, land for crops, you can’t hunt if there is little game), or simply dangerous because of the raids of the steppe nomads. It was in such places that the Cossacks were born - on the outskirts of the Russian principalities, on the border with the Great Steppe. In such places, people gathered who were not afraid of a sudden raid by the steppes, who knew how to survive and fight without outside help.

The first mention of the Cossack detachments dates back to Kievan Rus, for example, Ilya Muromets was called the "old Cossack". There are references to the participation of Cossack detachments in the Battle of Kulikovo under the command of the governor Dmitry Bobrok. By the end of the XIV century, two large territories were formed in the lower reaches of the Don and the Dnieper, on which many Cossack settlements were created, and their participation in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible is already undeniable. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and in the Livonian War. The first Russian charter of the village guard service was compiled by the boyar M. I. Vorotynsky in 1571. According to it, the guard service was carried out by the village (guard) Cossacks or villagers, while the city (regimental) Cossacks defended the cities. In 1612, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia, the Don Cossacks liberated Moscow and expelled the Poles from the Russian land. For all these merits, the Russian tsars approved for the Cossacks the right to own the Quiet Don forever and ever.

The Ukrainian Cossacks at that time were divided into registered in the service of Poland and grassroots, which created the Zaporozhian Sich. As a result of political and religious pressure from the Commonwealth, the Ukrainian Cossacks became the basis of the liberation movement, raised a series of uprisings, the last of which, led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, achieved its goal - Ukraine was reunited with the Russian kingdom by the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654. For Russia, the agreement led to the acquisition of part of the lands of Western Russia, which justified the title of Russian tsars - the sovereign of All Russia. Moscow Rus became a collector of lands with a Slavic Orthodox population.

Both the Dnieper and the Don Cossacks at that time were at the forefront of the struggle against the Turks and Tatars, who constantly raided Russian lands, devastating crops, driving people into captivity and bleeding our lands. Innumerable feats were accomplished by the Cossacks, but one of the most striking examples of the heroism of our ancestors is the Azov seat - eight thousand Cossacks, having captured Azov - one of the most powerful fortresses and an important communications junction - were able to fight off the two hundred thousandth Turkish army. Moreover, the Turks were forced to retreat, losing about a hundred thousand soldiers - half of their army! But over time, Crimea was liberated, Turkey was forced out of the Black Sea shores far to the south, and the Zaporizhzhya Sich lost its significance as an advanced outpost, finding itself several hundred kilometers deep in peaceful territory. On August 5, 1775, by the signing by the Russian Empress Catherine II of the manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province”, the Sich was finally disbanded. Zaporizhzhya Cossacks then divided into several parts. The most numerous moved to the Black Sea Cossack army, which carried border guards on the shores of the Black Sea, a significant part of the Cossacks was resettled to protect the southern borders of Russia in the Kuban and Azov. Five thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey, the Sultan allowed the founding of the Transdanubian Sich. In 1828, the Transdanubian Cossacks with the koshev Yosip Gladkiy went over to the side of Russia and were pardoned personally by Emperor Nicholas I. Throughout the vast territory of Russia, the Cossacks began to carry out border service. No wonder the Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III once aptly remarked: “The borders of the Russian state lie on the archak of the Cossack saddle ...”

Donets, Kuban, Terts, and later their brothers-in-arms, the Urals and Siberians, were the permanent military vanguard in all wars in which Russia fought almost without respite for centuries. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in the Patriotic War of 1812. The memory of the legendary commander of the Don Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who led the Cossack regiments from Borodino to Paris, is still alive. The very regiments about which Napoleon would say with envy: "If I had a Cossack cavalry, I would have conquered the whole world." Patrols, reconnaissance, security, distant raids - all this everyday hard military work was carried out by the Cossacks, and their battle order - Cossack lava - showed itself in all its glory in that war.

In the popular mind, the image of the Cossack as a natural equestrian warrior has developed. But there was also the Cossack infantry - scouts - which became the prototype of modern special forces. It originated on the Black Sea coast, where the scouts carried out a difficult service in the Black Sea floodplains. Later, units of scouts also successfully operated in the Caucasus. The fearlessness of the scouts - the best guards of the cordon line in the Caucasus - was paid tribute to even by their opponents. It was the highlanders who preserved the story of how the scouts, besieged at the Lipka post, preferred to burn alive - but not surrender to the Circassians, who even promised them life.

However, Cossacks are known not only for military exploits. They played no lesser role in the development of new lands and their annexation to the Russian Empire. Over time, the Cossack population moved forward to the uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development of the North Caucasus, Siberia (Yermak's expedition), the Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk. In 1648, the Siberian Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed from the Arctic Ocean (the mouth of the Kolyma) to the Pacific Ocean (the mouth of the Anadyr) and opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1697-1699 the Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov explored Kamchatka.

Cossacks during the First World War

On the very first day of the First World War, the first two regiments of the Kuban Cossacks went to the front from the Yekaterinodar railway station. On the fronts of the First World War, eleven Cossack troops of Russia fought - Donskoy, Ural, Terskoye, Kuban, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Siberian, Transbaikal, Amur, Semirechenskoye and Ussuriisk - without knowing cowardice and desertion. Their best qualities were especially clearly manifested on the Transcaucasian front, where 11 Cossack regiments of the third stage were formed only in the militia - from Cossacks of older ages, who at times could give odds to young cadres. Thanks to their incredible stamina in the heavy battles of 1914, it was they who did not allow the Turkish troops to break through - far from the worst at that time! - to our Transcaucasia and, together with the arrived Siberian Cossacks, threw them back. After the grandiose victory in the Battle of Sarykamysh, Russia received congratulations from the allied commanders-in-chief, Joffre and French, who highly appreciated the strength of Russian weapons. But the pinnacle of martial art in Transcaucasia was the capture of the mountainous fortified region of Erzerum in the winter of 1916, in the storming of which the Cossack units played an important role.

The Cossacks were not only the most dashing cavalrymen, but also served in intelligence, artillery, infantry and even aviation. So, the native Kuban Cossack Vyacheslav Tkachev made the first long-distance flight in Russia along the route Kyiv - Odessa - Kerch - Taman - Yekaterinodar with a total length of 1500 miles, despite the adverse autumn weather and other difficult conditions. On March 10, 1914, he was seconded to the 4th aviation company for its formation, and on the same day the lieutenant Tkachev was appointed commander of the XX aviation detachment attached to the headquarters of the 4th Army. In the initial period of the war, Tkachev made several very important reconnaissance flights for the Russian command, for which, by Order of the Army of the Southwestern Front dated November 24, 1914, No. 290, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George IV degree (the first among pilots).

The Cossacks showed themselves very well in the Great Patriotic War. In this most severe and difficult time for the country, the Cossacks forgot past grievances, and together with the entire Soviet people rose to defend their homeland. With honor passed until the end of the war, participating in major operations, the 4th Kuban, 5th Don Cossack Volunteer Corps. 9th Plastun Red Banner Krasnodar Division, dozens of rifle and cavalry divisions formed at the beginning of the war from the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, Stavropol, Orenburg, Urals, Semirechye, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Guards Cossack formations often performed a very important task - while mechanized formations formed the inner ring of numerous "cauldrons", the Cossacks as part of cavalry-mechanized groups broke into the operational space, disrupted the enemy's communications and created an outer ring of encirclement, preventing the release of enemy troops. In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or plastun units, but in the entire Soviet army or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace No. 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless; Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - a generic Ural Cossack, a native of Omsk; Commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral A.A. Golovko - Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya; weapons designer F.V. Tokarev - a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Yegorlyk Region of the Don Army; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Fronts, General of the Army, Hero of the USSR M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Ust-Medveditskaya Region of the Don Army, the commander of the squadron of the guard, Captain K.I. Nedorubov - Hero of the Soviet Union and full Knight of St. George, as well as many other Cossacks.

All the wars of our time, which the Russian Federation has already had a chance to wage, also could not do without the Cossacks. In addition to the conflicts in Transnistria and Abkhazia, the Cossacks took an active part in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and in the subsequent protection of the administrative border of Ossetia with Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the First Chechen campaign, the Ministry of Defense of Russia formed a motorized rifle battalion named after General Yermolov from volunteer Cossacks. Its effectiveness was so high that it frightened the pro-Kremlin Chechens, who saw the appearance of the Cossack units as the first step towards the revival of the Terek region. Under their pressure, the battalion was withdrawn from Chechnya and disbanded. During the second campaign, the 205th motorized rifle brigade was equipped with Cossacks, as well as commandant companies serving in the Shelkovsky, Naursky and Nadterechny regions of Chechnya. In addition, significant masses of Cossacks, having concluded a contract, fought in "ordinary", that is, non-Cossack units. More than 90 people from the Cossack units received government awards as a result of the hostilities, all Cossacks who participated in the hostilities and clearly fulfilled their duties received Cossack awards. For 13 years now, Cossacks in southern Russia have been holding annual field training camps, within the framework of which command and staff training with unit commanders and officers, classes in fire, tactical, topographic, mine and medical training are organized. Cossack units, companies and platoons are led by officers of the Russian army with combat experience who took part in operations in hot spots in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions. And the Cossack horse patrols became reliable assistants to the Russian border guards and the police.