Troop formation

The Kuban Cossack army was formed in 1860. Its basis was the Black Sea Cossack army and the Khopersky and Kuban regiments of the Caucasian linear Cossack army, totaling 22 cavalry regiments, 3 squadrons, 13 foot battalions and 5 batteries. He has been leading his seniority since 1696, according to the seniority of the Khopersky regiment.

Most of the troops were Black Sea Cossacks who lived in the Yeysk, Yekaterinodar and Temryuk departments of the Kuban region. The second part of the army - the so-called "lines" - the descendants of those resettled to the Kuban at the end of the 18th century. Don Cossacks, who occupied the territories of the Batalpashinsky, Caucasian, Labinsk and Maikop departments of the Kuban region.

By a decision of May 10, 1862, 12,400 Kuban Cossacks, 800 Cossacks of the Azov Cossack army, 2,000 state peasants and 600 married lower ranks of the Caucasian army were resettled to settle in the foothills of the Western Caucasus. They also became part of the Kuban army.

On August 1, 1870, the Regulations on military service and on the maintenance of combat units of the Kuban Cossack army were approved. The order of the army was established in peacetime. It included 2 Life Guards of the Kuban Cossack squadron of His Majesty's Own, 10 cavalry regiments, 2 foot scout battalions, 5 cavalry artillery batteries, 1 division in Warsaw, 1 training division.

The regulation on the military service of the Kuban Cossack army, approved on June 24, 1882, divided the service staff into 3 categories, and the combat staff into 3 more stages.

By a decision of December 24, 1890, the day of the military holiday was established for the troops - August 30.

Military exploits of the troops

The Kuban Cossack army took part in all military campaigns conducted by the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. In 1861, the Assembly Line Regiment and two Kuban cavalry regiments suppressed the Polish rebellion. On July 20, 1865, the army was awarded the St. George banner "For the Caucasian War". In 1873, the Cossacks of the Yeysk regiment of the Kuban Cossack army participated in the Khiva campaign in Central Asia. The entire army fought in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. on the territory of Bulgaria; defended Shipka, Bayazet, defended the Zorsky pass, Deve-Boina, took Kars.

Approximately 2 thousand Cossacks - Kuban took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1904 - 1905. 37 cavalry regiments fought in the First World War, 1 separate Cossack division, 2.5 guard hundreds, 24 plastun battalions and 1 separate plastun battalion, 6 batteries, 51 different hundreds, 12 teams of Cossacks of the Kuban army (about 90 thousand people in total).

Cossacks in the events of the XX century.

During the Civil War, some Cossacks, together with the Kuban Rada, spoke in favor of creating an independent Kuban. Cossacks led by Ataman A.P. Filimonov, in alliance with the Volunteer Army, supported the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating a "United and Indivisible Russia".

On January 28, 1918, the Kuban Rada proclaimed an independent Kuban People's Republic on the lands of the former Kuban region. Yekaterinodar became the capital. The republic existed until 1920. After the territory was occupied by the Reds, the republic was liquidated, and the Kuban army was abolished.

In 1920 - 1925 supporters of P.P. acted on the lands of the Kuban Cossacks. Skoropadsky - chieftains M. Pilyuk, V. Ryabokon and others. In the 1920s - 1930s. Kuban Cossack units were organized in the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. Kuban Cossack divisions fought at the front. The 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Corps, led by General N.Ya. Kirichenko.

In the early 1990s The Kuban Cossack army began its revival by organizing a number of public Cossack associations. Currently, there is a public Cossack organization "Kuban Military Cossack Society", entered in the State Register of Cossack Societies of the Russian Federation and having more than 40 thousand Cossacks in its register.

The device of the Cossack army

The basis of the Kuban army was made up of free paramilitary agricultural residents. At the head of the army was the chief ataman, who simultaneously acted as head of the Kuban region. He was in charge of appointing atamans of departments, to whom the elected atamans of villages and farms answered.

The highest body of the stanitsa power is the stanitsa gathering, which was responsible for the election of the ataman and the board. The latter at the initial stage consisted of the chieftain and two elected judges, and since 1870 the official composition of the board increased and included the chieftain, judges, assistants to the chieftain, clerk and treasurer.

Among the duties of the stanitsa societies were: military, "general search" (maintenance of postal stations, repair of roads and bridges), stanitsa (maintenance of "flying mail", escort of prisoners, guard duty).

By the end of the XIX century. The Kuban army was divided into 7 departments: Batalpashinsky, Yeysk, Ekaterinodar, Caucasian, Labinsky, Maikop, Taman.

The Cossacks in the Kuban are part of the Russian Cossacks of the North Caucasus, who today inhabit the territories of the Krasnodar Territory, the western part of the Stavropol Territory and the south of the Rostov Region, as well as the Republics of Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia.

The military headquarters of the Kuban Cossacks is the city of Krasnodar (formerly Ekaterinodar). The Kuban army was created in 1860, on the basis of the Black Sea Cossack army, adding to it the parts of the Caucasian linear Cossack army, "simplified as unnecessary", after the end of the Caucasian war.
Initially, the Cossack army was ruled by kosh and kuren chieftains, then by chief chieftains, who were personally appointed by the Russian emperor.
The military holiday is celebrated on September 12, the day of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Cossacks

Of course, in quantitative terms, it is far from what it used to be. Its ranks during the October Revolution and the Civil War that followed it, and before that the First World War, thinned significantly. According to the latest data contained in the statistics, there are now 48 thousand Cossacks in the Kuban, and taking into account their family members - just over 150 thousand. Today the Cossacks consist of eight departments, one district, 56 Cossack district societies, 486 primary societies.

Where does the name "Kuban Cossacks" come from?

from their habitats. And it is connected with the great river Kuban, whose sources are in Karachay-Cherkessia. The melt water of one of the seven highest peaks of the world, Elbrus, feeds the three largest rivers of the North Caucasus - the Kuban, Malka and Baksan. By the way, Elbrus has other names - Mingi-Tau (Karach - Balk), Oshkhamakho (Kabard - Cherk.) - a stratovolcano in the Caucasus with a height of 5642 meters above sea level. The length of the Kuban River exceeds 870 kilometers. The area of ​​its basin is 57,900 square kilometers. It is fed by the rivers Laba, Akhtyr, Urup, Karasun, Psekups, Big Zelenchuk. And the Kuban River flows into the Sea of ​​Azov. Although she used to prefer the Black Sea, but suddenly, in times far from us, she abruptly changed course and made friends with the gray-haired Azov. And here it would be appropriate to say - ancient Gorgippia, now the city of Anapa, fantastically won from the whim of the Kuban River. Its gold placer stretches along the sea for as much as forty kilometers, which to a large extent made it possible to declare the All-Russian health resort a family and children's resort.

So here's more about the Cossacks. Until 1917, the Kuban Cossack army united more than 1.3 million people in its ranks and was the second largest in Russia. In total, there were from 4.4 to 6 million Cossacks in the state. Of these, 1.5 million are Don; 589 thousand - Orenburg; 278 thousand - Terek. There were their own Cossacks in Semirechye (Kazakhstan) and even on the shores of the icy Sea of ​​Okhotsk in Kolyma. There is something else to note as well. Kuban is a historical region of the North Caucasus, gravitating towards the river of the same name and its tributaries. Since the Middle Ages, it belonged to the Nogai Horde, Circassia and the Crimean Khanate. In 1783, the picture changed dramatically. The Crimean Khanate was abolished, and the Kuban passed under the crown of the Russian Empire.

Gift of Catherine the Great

There were sovereigns in Russia who multiplied the lands of the state. Among them is Catherine the Second, whom the people called the Great with special reverence. It was she who annexed the Crimea, Tauris and Kuban to the empire. But it is one thing to increase the territory of the country, another thing is to settle in new lands. Protect from the adversary. Thanks to Catherine the Great, the Cossacks in the annexed lands were preserved. On June 30, 1792, the Empress signed the Diploma on granting the Black Sea (Zaporozhye) army of the Kuban lands. For valiant service in the last war with the Turks. That is, the Cossacks, in fact, legally received a donation. And a year later, the military judge Anton Golovaty settled forty incense. The Zaporizhzhya regiments Timoshevsky, Rogovskoy Bryukhovetsky and Kanevsky were born. The queen laid the foundations for the relationship of the Cossacks with the Russian Empire, and they practically survived until 1917. The Cossacks received the right to bear arms, the spirit of freemen, freedom, and these were their privileges. Alas, after 1917 there were few hereditary Cossacks left. After the revolution, the Cossacks, as an ethnic group, was abolished, since many of its representatives fought on the side of the White Guard. Nevertheless, in Siberia, on the Don and in the Kuban, hereditary Cossacks, although in small numbers, still remained. With them, the revival of the Cossacks began. In the Kuban, in particular.

Thanks to Catherine the Great

Recall that during the years of her reign, the so-called "Caucasian Line" was created - a network of fortresses from protection from the Crimean Tatars and mountaineers. It is quite clear that the Cossacks lived in fortresses and carried out military service. The center of this line was Ekaterinograd (Kabardino-Balkaria), founded by Prince Potemkin near the confluence of the Malka and Terek rivers. And it happened in 1783. And earlier there was a fortress Catherine. And the station is with her. In gratitude to the Empress for the land granted to the free Cossacks, they were united in Ekaterinograd. At the direction of the prince, a temple, administrative buildings and a palace for His Serene Highness, a pompous arch that opened the way to Georgia, were built in the new provincial center. But in 1822 the status of the city was abolished, and the village acquired the name Ekaterinogradskaya. By the way, Griboedov, Lermontov and Pushkin once visited the fortress. And in the current village in 2001 - President Vladimir Putin himself, who examined the museum of Alexander Sergeevich and other sights. And by the way, the name of the settlement changed several times. In 1777 it was the Catherine's fortress. Since 1786 - Yekaterinograd, the capital of the Caucasian governorship of the Russian Empire in the North Caucasus. Since 1921, under Soviet rule - Krasnogradskaya. And in 1991, its historical name was returned to it - Ekaterinogradskaya. It is located sixteen kilometers from the regional center Prokhladny and 75 kilometers from the well-known city of Nalchik in the country.

However, the Black Sea Cossacks remained very grateful to Catherine the Great for the favors granted and other initiatives in her honor. In 1792, at the behest of the highest ranks, they founded another city on the right bank of the Kuban - Ekaterinodar (from Ekaterina's Gift). True, he received his official status as a race on January 1, 1794. Yekaterinodar is conveniently located - there is little near the main river of the Kuban with the same name, but not so far from the two warm seas of Mother Russia; The Black Sea is located 120 kilometers from it, the Sea of ​​​​Azov - 140. For modern transport - mere trifles. On any weekend, you can come to the seas to rest. But with such a glorious name, the city lasted only 126 years. In 1920, the Bolsheviks renamed it Krasnodar, which today, in fact, is the southern capital of the state. It is 1300 kilometers away from Moscow. According to statistics, more than a million people live in it today. But so far, these statistics are not official. They tried to return the former name to Krasnodar. But many citizens strongly oppose it. However, the issue has not been removed from the agenda.

From the days of the past to the days of today - The roots of the Cossacks from Ivan the Terrible

Before moving on to the modern course of time, let us nevertheless point out the roots of the current Cossacks on the scale of the state. The first mentions of the ethnic group date back to 1443-1444. And this is a segment of the era of Ivan the Terrible. The Cossacks helped Ryazan and the Moscow governors fight off the invasion of the Tatar prince Mustafa. And surprisingly, not on horseback, but on skis. And since 1549, for example, the Don Cossacks, who then switched to a settled way of life, including in the Kuban, were recruited for the Moscow sovereign service. Since the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the Cossacks began to disturb with their campaigns not only the Nogais in the Volga region, but also the Crimean Tatar uluses, as well as Turkish fortresses. They played an invaluable role in the Moscow campaigns against the Crimeans in the second half of 1550 and defeated the Crimean-Turkish invasion in 1572, where the Don ataman M. Cherkashin distinguished himself. Detachments of the Don Cossacks participated in the fight against the Nogai horde, in the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan. In many battles of the Livonian War, in the defense of Pskov. For service to the sovereign, they received monetary allowance, land on communal law, and sometimes personal land plots. When organizing guard and stanitsa service in 1571, boyar children were replaced in Ukrainian settlements, who were returned to the regiments. A year earlier, the Cossacks settled a lot on the Crimean border. It should be noted that the Moscow government of the times of Ivan the Terrible, in dealing with free Cossacks, as in the future era of Catherine the Great, showed tact and the ability to negotiate, but in some cases showed a certain firmness. The state and, in particular, the Cossacks did a truly great, purposeful work on the colonization of territories to the east, south and southeast of the historical center of the Moscow state.

In subsequent centuries, the places of settlement of the Cossacks became clearer. In fact, the Kuban Cossacks are part of an ethnic group that is amazing in its influence. in the North Caucasus. Specifically, on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, the western part of the Stavropol Territory, the Rostov Region plus the Republic of Adygea and the Cossacks of Circassia. Mostly immigrants from Ukraine. The Cossack army was formed in 1860. Based on the Black Sea Cossack Army. In 178 thousand souls of both sexes, including 866 peasants plus the joined Caucasian linear Cossack army - 269 souls of both sexes, including 665 peasants. But it was abolished at the end of the Caucasian War. Recall at the same time - initially the army was controlled by koshevoi and kuren chieftains. The Kuban region was divided into seven departments headed by atamans. At the head of the villages and farms were elected chieftains, approved by the chieftains of departments. Already closer to our times, the administration of the Krasnodar Territory has designated a new date for the celebration of the KKV - September 12, the Day of the Holy Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky. The Kuban Cossack army historically developed from several groups - the Black Sea Cossacks, linear Cossacks and ascribed Cossacks.

Cossacks today are not soldiers

Speaking of today, it must be emphasized that today the Kuban Cossack army is not a regular army unit, as it was in the past. And the Cossack is not a soldier. But not a commercial organization, a society that includes in its structure the lower Cossack societies - departments, district, district, primary: city, village, farm. And all, we emphasize, the Cossacks are their members in the primary Cossack societies.
Let us recall once again - the current Kuban Cossack army consists of eight departments, one Cossack district, it has 56 district Cossack societies, 486 primary societies and a total of 48 thousand Cossacks plus wives, children, grandchildren. Total 150 thousand. Let's call the departments - Labinsk, Yeysk, Caucasian, Taman, Maikop, Ekaterinodar, Batalpashinsky (Karachay-Cherkessia). To them must be added the Special Sukhumi Department.

Plus the Black Sea Cossack District, consisting of seven RKOs - Adler, Khosta, Central Sochi, Lazorevskoye, Tuapse, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk. The Sukhumi special department is located on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia.

What are modern Kuban Cossacks busy with?

Their responsibilities are very wide. For example, public order. Together with the police (we often see patrols on our streets). There is a patrol service. Cossacks participate in the protection of the state border. They actively counteract drug trafficking. Engaged in conservation work. Fight against poaching. Help in disaster relief. Preparation of young Cossacks for military service. For the Kuban Cossacks, field training camps are organized annually.
Their task includes painstaking work with young people - patriotic, spiritual, moral education based on Cossack traditions, customs, culture. Work on their revival and preservation. Kuban Cossacks closely interact with the Russian Orthodox Church. By the media. They are also active in the international arena.
The highest official of the Kuban Cossacks is the military ataman. Since 2007, he has been Cossack General Nikolai Aleksandrovich Doluda.

Open Air Museum - "Ataman"

It is rightly said: "It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times!". How did the Kuban Cossacks live and what were they doing? A very clear and convincing answer to the question is given by the tourist ethnographic complex "Ataman". Spread over 60 hectares. On the shore of the Taman Bay. Functioning since 2009. In fact, this is a life-size Cossack village. It has several streets and 51 courtyards. And even the courtyard of Baba Yaga. And what - this character is also present in the fairy tales of the Cossacks! There is a chapel. Fair Square. Houses of a priest, a shoemaker, a potter, a fisherman. And what you will not see in the courtyards - old spinning wheels, sewing machines, irons, kerosene lamps, pottery machines, tongs, home mills, cradles, embroidered down and other pillows. True, to see the museum, it will take six hours, well, you can quickly and in three. In "Ataman" Cossack festivals are held - with songs, dances, playing folk instruments. And you won't have to go hungry. They will feed you with delicious rich Cossack borscht, dumplings with different fillings, other dishes and a glass of vodka will certainly be presented. Walk with free Cossacks and Cossacks!

The issue of the history of the Cossacks in recent decades has attracted the attention of scientists, historiographers, political scientists, government authorities, as well as the public. The once closed topic in our country has recently received a huge surge. Scientific conferences are held, monographic studies are published, countless articles and publications are published. The works of pre-revolutionary historians, as well as works published abroad by representatives of the Cossack emigration, also became available. And if the heyday of the Cossacks, their role in the history and fate of Russia in the 17th - 19th centuries were most fully reflected, although there is still much work to be done in terms of eliminating the negative stereotype of the Cossacks that developed in the Soviet period, then the most ancient period in the history of the Cossacks, its formation, least studied.

And in Russian, and in Soviet, and in foreign historiography, three approaches can be distinguished to determine the origins of the formation of the Cossacks.
one). Some pre-revolutionary researchers, as well as Cossacks abroad, trace the process of the formation of the Cossacks to the pre-Christian period and even say that the Cossacks are older than the Etruscans who founded Rome. In their assumptions, researchers who defend this point of view refer to etymological data, sometimes drawing conclusions about the genetic connection of the Cossacks with the Turkic peoples who inhabited the Caucasus and the southern steppes.
2). Noble and Soviet historiography connects the origins of the formation of the Cossacks with the establishment of serfdom in the country and that the fugitive peasants were the fertile force on which the Cossacks grew. At the same time, the fact that the Russian chronicles mention the Cossacks much earlier than feudal and serf relations arose in the country is completely ignored.
3). Today, one thing is certain that the Cossacks formed on a Slavic, Orthodox basis in the 4th-5th centuries of our era during the so-called migration of peoples - a process in which Germanic, Turkic and Slavic tribes were involved. The most active zone through which the movement of peoples was carried out was the northern Black Sea region and the South Russian steppes. The appearance of the Slavs in the South Russian steppes dates back to the 4th century. Undoubtedly, under the influence of the Slavic population living here, Prince Svyatoslav managed to make a trip to the Khazar Khaganate and Taman. Somewhere in the 7th century, the adoption of Christianity by the Cossacks dates back, long before the official baptism of Russia. Subsequently, the presence of the Slavic population in these territories led to the creation of the Tmutarakan principality, which was part of Slavic Russia. In the subsequent period, the South Russian Slavs, cut off from the metropolis, being the indigenous people of this territory, experienced raids by nomads, both Polovtsy and Tatars. Performing military functions in the Golden Horde, the Cossacks never broke with Orthodoxy, which determined the need to create a Slavic diocese to meet the spiritual needs of the Slavic population. The struggle for survival in a hostile environment of a divided Slavic population determined the need for the formation of a military structure as a form of existence for the people, with an elected leader.

There is no doubt that the Cossack population and army, as a form of its being, included non-Slavic peoples and elements, and this determined the formation of the term - Cossack. However, due to the fact that the life of the Cossack communities, and then the troops, was built according to the commandments of the Lord, everyone was required to be ready to come to the rescue of their neighbor, and sometimes sacrifice their lives, and this required everyone, including newcomers to some they would not belong to an ethnic group, the adoption of Orthodoxy. This was not only a guarantee of unity, cohesion, mutual assistance and heroism, but also the spiritual salvation of all members of the community.

Initially, two branches of the Cossacks were formed, which later took shape in the Don and Zaporozhye, depending on which states they fell into the sphere of interests, although the Cossacks themselves were sometimes outside the state territories.

The emergence of the Crimean Khanate after the collapse of the Golden Horde, the strengthening of the Ottoman Empire, the capture of Constantinople in the middle of the 15th century created a real threat to the Christian Slavic states. But the conquests and raids of the Turks and Crimean Tatars met on their way the Cossacks, who, in fact, were a hedge for both Russia and Poland. The Cossacks covered the Russian and Ukrainian population. It was from this time that the Cossacks became widely known in European states and Russia.

The Moscow princes and tsars, as well as the rulers of Poland, which included Ukraine, in their struggle against the Islamic conquerors, sought to rely on the Cossacks, paying them a salary in gunpowder and provisions. Both the Zaporozhian and Don Cossacks, creating a threat to the Ottoman civilization, waging an unceasing struggle for their ancestral lands (and the Cossacks here are an old-timer population) were outside the state territory. Therefore, business relations between the Moscow kingdom and the Commonwealth with the Cossacks were carried out through the embassy order. Against the background of the beginning process of enslavement of the peasants, the presence of such a freedom-loving center as the Zaporizhzhya Sich and the lands of the Don Cossacks was attractive for those serfs who sought to escape from captivity. That is why the process of replenishing the Cossacks with fugitive elements began. But by this time, the Cossacks had formed both structurally and spiritually, with their own life principles, military life, elements of culture and psychology. In this connection, no matter how many fugitives came to the army, they dissolved in it, losing everything that was and acquiring the qualities of a Cossack. This is how the type of Cossack was formed, a genetic type that absorbs aliens, no matter what religion they were.

Since the middle of the XVII century, we can talk about the constant contacts of the Cossacks with the state and the transition of the Cossacks to the service. But this did not rule out the fact that the Cossacks, Zaporozhye or Don, did not pursue their policy towards neighboring peoples. Often the actions of the Cossacks went against the policy of the Russian state.

To the greatest extent, the process of incorporating the Cossack troops into the state territory of Russia and their transition to public service is associated with the activities of Peter the Great. Since 1722, the Cossack issues were not in charge of the board of foreign affairs, as it was before, but the military board. Peter I sought to subordinate everything and everything to the state power, including the Russian Orthodox Church. He could not allow the existence of a willful and unbridled Cossacks. Moreover, the Cossack lands were already included in the Russian Empire.

The liquidation of Cossack liberties, the transfer of Cossack lands throughout the 18th century caused a constant movement of the peasantry, the instigator of which was the Cossacks.

The state was interested in using the military experience of the Cossacks, accumulated for centuries and so lacking in Russia. Cossack troops have always put up a military contingent, distinguished by special endurance, courage and assertiveness in achieving victory over the enemy, often outnumbering the Cossacks. The Cossack regiments were formed on a territorial basis, and this played a very important role in achieving the cohesion and courage of the soldiers.

The state built its relations with the Cossacks on the principle of a military system. The state, owning the land, endowed the Cossack troops with lands on condition that they performed military service. The land for the Cossack and the Cossack family was a decisive factor. Moreover, it does not matter at what historical stage the Cossack economy was located (natural trades, such as hunting and fishing, or agricultural production). The military lands represented a habitat for the Cossacks.

The Russian Empire, like other states, expanded its possessions. Starting from the 18th century, the state, understanding the role and importance of the Cossacks in ensuring the security of Russia's borders, actively involved the Cossacks in the economic development of new territories. The process of formation of new Cossack troops begins due to the resettlement of existing ones. This process took over 100 years. The constant resettlement of the Cossacks, carried out by the state, led to the fact that not a single generation lived on its territory for more than 25 years. This is how the Volga army arose, which subsequently moved to the Caucasus. The Terek family army, the Astrakhan army, the Black Sea, Orenburg, Siberian, Amur troops were also the result of the state policy of settling Cossacks along the borders. Parallel to this, there was a process of free people's colonization of the lands transferred to the Cossacks.

Starting from the 17th century, i.e. Since the creation of the centralized Russian state, a policy has been pursued in Russia aimed at creating the isolation of each social group in relation to each other. This was expressed most clearly in the 18th century. All Russian society was divided into estates. The Cossacks in this case were no exception, although if we talk about cultural and ethnic processes, then from the very beginning and until the defeat, two processes took place simultaneously in it, which determined the Cossacks as the only and unique phenomenon in history. On the one hand, the state in every possible way implanted estates in the Cossacks, defined it as a service estate, more and more sticking out this factor. This gave the state the opportunity to interfere in the life of the Cossack troops, to resettle and abolish them. On the other hand, ethnic processes and the isolation of the cultural sphere, which was formed under the influence of neighboring peoples, were just as strong. This is how the customs, law, costumes, culture and self-consciousness of the Cossacks were formed. Therefore, having passed through the crucible of trials at the beginning of the 20th century, the Cossacks survived precisely as an ethnic group.

To the greatest extent, ethnic processes took place in the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossack troops, each of which was distinguished by its unique culture and identity. The Kuban and Terek troops (the so-called Caucasian) were especially distinguished. Their culture developed under the influence of the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, as well as under the great influence of the culture of the neighboring mountain peoples. By the beginning of the twentieth century, these troops were real ethnic groups, and closed ones, since there was no longer an influx of outsiders into the troops from the outside, and they were an integral part of the North Caucasian civilization.

Formation and development of the Kuban Cossack army

The Kuban Cossacks, as an independent ethno-social unit (sub-ethnos), was formed in the second half of the 19th century. The formal date of the emergence of this sub-ethnos can be considered November 19, 1860, the time of the formation of the Kuban Cossack army. It should be noted that initially the name "Kuban Cossacks" was applied to various groups of Cossacks (for example, Nekrasovites) who settled in the Kuban in the late 17th - early 18th centuries, but was not yet a self-name.

The Kuban Cossacks are basically polyethnic. In the Kuban, two components acted as the initial ethno-determining principles - Russian and Ukrainian, and in a peculiar organizational form of the Cossack troops. Therefore, it is advisable to analyze their history separately.

In the initial period of the Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791. under the auspices of Prince G.A. Potemkin, the Black Sea Cossack Army was formed. Initially, it was completed in the form of volunteer teams from the Cossacks who had previously served in the Zaporizhzhya Sich. But, due to the small number of former Cossacks, representatives of different social strata of Russian society received access to the army already from October 1787.

In 1792–1794 The Black Sea Cossack army was relocated to the Right-Bank Kuban. And it is from this moment that it is customary to consider the time of the beginning of the development of the Kuban lands by the Cossacks. However, the number of troops was insufficient to protect the border and the economic development of the region. Therefore, the Russian government organized a three-stage resettlement of Ukrainian peasants (more than 100 thousand people) from the Poltava, Chernigov and Kharkov provinces to the Kuban.

The second branch is the folding of the Russian ethnographic group in the form of the Caucasian linear Cossack army. In 1794, the Don Cossacks resettled in the Kuban founded several villages up the Kuban River from the Ust-Labinsk fortress and formed the Kuban Cossack regiment. In 1801–1804 a number of Cossack villages in the Kuban were founded by the Cossacks of the Yekaterinoslav Cossack army, thus forming the Caucasian Cossack regiment. And in 1825, the Cossacks of the Khopersky Cossack Regiment were resettled to the Kuban line. Further, by the Highest Order of June 25, 1832, six linear regiments and three Cossack troops were united into the Caucasian linear Cossack army.

By decree of Emperor Alexander II on February 8, 1860, the right wing of the Caucasian line was transformed into the Kuban region, and the left wing on November 19, 1860 - into the Terek region.

The Black Sea Cossack Host was ordered to be called the Kuban Cossack Host. In addition to the Black Sea, it included the first six brigades of the Caucasian linear Cossack army. The remaining brigades made up the Terek Cossack Host.

From this moment, the countdown of the existence of the Kuban Cossack army begins precisely from the date of its foundation.

However, the seniority of the Kuban Cossack army is considered to be the seniority of the oldest of the regiments that were part of the Caucasian linear Cossack army - Khopersky, namely from 1696.

Thus, there are three dates for the seniority of the formation of the Kuban Cossack army: 1696 - according to the seniority of the Khoper Cossack regiment of the Caucasian linear Cossack army, which later became part of the Kuban Cossack army; 1792 - from the moment the Black Sea Cossacks moved to the Kuban; 1860 - from the moment of the unification of the Black Sea Cossack army and some parts of the Caucasian linear Cossack army and the formation of the Kuban Cossack army.

Before the unification, the number of the Black Sea Cossack army was about 180 thousand people. Almost 100 thousand people entered the Kuban Cossack army from the Caucasian linear Cossack army. According to the annual report for 1862, there were 195,636 men and 189,814 women in the Kuban Cossack army.

By July 1, 1914, the population of the troops was already 1,298,088 people (644,787 men and 635,351 women).

The Cossacks actively participated in all the wars of Russia in the 18th - 19th centuries. He gained particular popularity for the wars aimed at protecting Christianity and Orthodoxy, which were waged by Russia in Europe and the Caucasus. The memory of the valor of the Cossacks is still alive among the peoples protected by the Cossacks. In these wars, the Cossacks showed themselves as a defender of Christianity and Orthodoxy, only now not independently, but on behalf of the Russian Empire.

The procedure for passing military service was initially not regulated by any legislative acts. The service was not limited to a certain number of years. The term of active cordon service was set at one year, then two years of benefits were relied upon. In 1818, a certain service life was established - 25 years. In 1856, by order of the Minister of War, new terms of service were established: officers - 22 years, Cossacks - 25 years (22 years of field service and 3 - internal). Since 1864, the term of field service was 15 years, internal - 7 years.

In 1882, the Regulations on military service were adopted. The service staff of the troops is divided into three categories: preparatory, drill, reserve. In the preparatory Cossacks were listed for 3 years (from 18 to 21 years). In combatant - 12 years (from 21 to 33 years). The Cossacks were in the reserve category for 5 years (from 33 to 38 years). After that, the Cossacks retired and were released from military service.

As a result of the unification of the two troops, the military composition of the Kuban Cossack army for 1861 included: units - 42, generals - 47, headquarters officers - 84, chief officers - 652, non-commissioned officers and conscripts - 2460, ordinary Cossacks - 32071 .

According to the regulations on military service of the Kuban Cossack army of 1870, its composition in peacetime looked like this: 2 Life Guards Kuban Cossack squadrons of His Own Imperial Majesty's convoy, 10 cavalry regiments, 2 foot plastun battalions, 5 cavalry artillery batteries, a cavalry division in Warsaw and the training division. The regiments were named: Tamansky, Poltava, Ekaterinodarsky, Umansky, Urupsky, Labinsky, Khopersky, Kuban, Caucasian, Yeysky.

The total military composition of the lower ranks was determined at 36,000 people.

In May 1889, the 1st Black Sea Regiment was formed in the army.

In 1860–1864 the actions of the Kuban Cossacks as part of separate detachments of the troops of the Kuban region played an important role in the end of the long-term Caucasian war. During the unrest in Poland in 1863-1864. Kuban participated in the fighting against the rebels. The Cossacks also carried out a difficult service on the borders with Turkey and Iran. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–1878, the Kuban Cossack army fielded significant forces: 25 cavalry regiments, 12 foot battalions, 5 cavalry artillery batteries and 2 hundred imperial convoy. One cavalry regiment and two hundred scouts were sent to the Balkans, 14 regiments, one scout battalion and four batteries to the Caucasian-Asia Minor theater of operations, the rest were within the Kuban region and the Black Sea province.

In the 70-80s. 19th century Kuban took part in a number of Central Asian campaigns. In 1879, individual hundreds of the 1st Taman, 1st Poltava and Labinsk cavalry regiments as part of the Transcaspian detachment participated in a campaign in the Akhal-Teke oasis.

Three hundred of the Caucasian regiment as part of the Murghab detachment participated in battles with the Afghans on the banks of the river. Kushki.

To participate in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. in the Kuban Cossack army mobilized the 1st Yekaterinodar, 1st Uman regiments, six secondary battalions and the 1st Kuban Cossack battery. Despite the fact that the Cossacks arrived at the theater of operations in the final period of the war, they participated in a number of operations and their irretrievable losses in over three months amounted to 116 people.

At the beginning of the First World War, the Kuban Cossack army fielded 33 cavalry regiments, 18 battalions of plastuns, 5 cavalry batteries, 32 special cavalry hundreds and two hundreds of the Warsaw division (approximately 48.5 thousand people). In total, a little over 106 thousand Kuban Cossacks were mobilized during the years of the Great War.

In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kuban Cossack army was at the zenith of its glory, in its prime. The life of the troops entered a stable course. The army owned vast land plots, had a different administration from that of other provinces of Russia, and had a distinctive local self-government.

The Kuban Cossack army was ruled by an ataman appointed by the emperor, who was also the head of the Kuban region.

Since 1888, the Kuban region was divided into 7 departments, headed by chieftains appointed by the chieftain. At the head of the villages and farms were elected chieftains, who were approved by the chieftains of departments. Until 1870, the executive power in the Kuban villages was exercised by the village government, which consisted of an ataman and two elected judges. Since 1870, the court became independent and separated from the board, which included the chieftain, his assistant, clerk and treasurer. The most important function of the Cossack community was land distribution. The land area of ​​the Kuban Cossack army was over 6 million acres, of which 5.2 million belonged to the villages. The remaining lands were in the military reserve and owned by Cossack officers and officials.

Communities endowed the Cossacks with land from the age of 17 at the rate of 16 - 30 acres per 1 male soul. For equal use of land, the stanitsa lands were periodically redistributed. With the natural growth of the Cossack population, the share allotment of the Kuban Cossack was gradually reduced. In the 1860s, it averaged 23 tithes, and in 1917 it was only 7.6 tithes.

In 1917, the Kuban Cossack army consisted of 262 villages and 246 farms, in which 215,311 Cossack families lived, which accounted for 52.3% of all households in rural areas. Being engaged in agriculture, the Cossack households were better than other categories of the population equipped with agricultural machinery.

Included in the system of all-Russian jurisdiction, the Kuban Cossacks have retained their inherent democracy and original traditional culture, different from others.

Quite high for the beginning of the 20th century, the Kuban Cossacks also had a literacy rate - more than 50%. The first schools appeared in the Kuban at the end of the 18th century. In the 1860s in the Kuban Cossack army there was only one military men's gymnasium and 30 elementary schools. After 10 years, there were already 170 schools in the villages. At the beginning of the XX century. up to 30 military scholarship holders annually studied at the best universities in the country.

Since 1863, the newspaper “Kuban Military Gazette” began to appear - the first periodical in the Kuban, since 1865 public military libraries appeared, in 1879 the Kuban Military Museum of Local Lore was created, from 1811 to 1917. military singing and musical choirs worked, performing classical, spiritual and folk works.

The Kuban Cossacks were deeply religious people. The first Intercession Church in the Kuban was built on Taman at the end of the 18th century. In 1801, a five-domed Military Cathedral was erected in Yekaterinodar. At the beginning of the XX century. on the territory of the army there were already 363 churches, 5 male and 3 female monasteries, as well as one skete.

Kuban Cossacks during the years of Soviet power (Civil War, years of repression, emigration)

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 11 Cossack troops in Russia with a total number of 4.5 million people. The largest of them were the Don, Kuban and Terek troops.

But the political events that followed the 1917 revolution almost crossed out everything that the Cossacks did for the country in previous centuries. On January 24, 1919, a directive was adopted on the merciless struggle against the Cossacks. And for many years even reminders of the Cossack defenders, their military exploits and glory were eradicated from history.

After the February Revolution of 1917, a political situation developed in the Kuban that was different from the all-Russian one. Following the commissioner of the Provisional Government K. L. Bardiz, appointed from Petrograd, and the Kuban Regional Council that arose on April 16, the Kuban Military Rada at its 1st Congress proclaimed itself and the military government the highest governing bodies of the army. The “triarchy” thus formed lasted until July 4, when the Rada declared the Council dissolved, after which K. L. Bardizh transferred all power in the region to the military government.

Anticipating the development of events in Petrograd, the 2nd Regional Rada, which met in late September and early October, proclaimed itself the supreme body not only of the army, but of the entire Kuban Territory, adopting its constitution - "Temporary Regulations on the Supreme Authorities in the Kuban Territory." After the 1st session of the Legislative Rada, which began on November 1, and part of the 1st regional congress of non-residents united, they declared their non-recognition of the authority of the Council of People's Commissars and formed the Legislative Rada and the regional government on an equal footing. N.S. became the Chairman of the Rada. Ryabovol, L. L. Bych became the chairman of the government instead of A. P. Filimonov, elected ataman of the Kuban Cossack army.

January 8, 1918 Kuban was proclaimed an independent republic, which is part of Russia on a federal basis.

Putting forward the slogan of "fighting the dictatorship from the left and the right" (that is, against Bolshevism and the threat of the restoration of the monarchy), the Kuban government tried to find its own, third way in the revolution and civil strife. For 3 years in the Kuban, four chieftains were replaced in power (A.P. Filimonov, N.M. Uspensky, N.A. Bukretov, V.N. Ivanis), 5 chairmen of the government (A.P. Filimonov, L.L. Bych, F. S. Sushkov, P. I. Kurgansky, V. N. Ivanis). The composition of the government changed even more often - a total of 9 times. Such a frequent change of government was largely the result of internal contradictions between the Black Sea and the linear Cossacks of the Kuban. The first, economically and politically stronger, stood on federalist (so-called "independent") positions, gravitating towards Ukraine. Its most prominent representatives were K. L. Bardizh, N. S. Ryabovol, L. L. Bych. The second political direction, represented by Ataman A.P. Filimonov, was traditionally oriented towards a united and indivisible Russia for the Russian-speaking Linens.

In the meantime, the First Congress of Soviets of the Kuban Region, held on February 14-18, 1918 in Armavir, proclaimed Soviet power throughout the region and elected an executive committee headed by Ya. V. Poluyan. On March 14, Yekaterinodar was taken by the Red troops under the command of I. L. Sorokin. The Rada, which left the capital of the region, and its armed forces under the command of V. L. Pokrovsky, united with the Volunteer Army of General L. G. Kornilov, who set out on their first Kuban ("Ice") campaign. The bulk of the Kuban Cossacks did not support Kornilov, who died on April 13 near Ekaterinodar. However, the six-month period of Soviet power in the Kuban (from March to August) changed the Cossacks' attitude towards it. As a result, on August 17, during the second Kuban campaign, the Volunteer Army under the command of General A.I. Denikin occupied Ekaterinodar. At the end of 1918, 2/3 of it consisted of Kuban Cossacks. However, some of them continued to fight in the ranks of the Taman and North Caucasian Red armies that retreated from the Kuban.

After returning to Ekaterinodar, the Rada began to resolve issues of the state structure of the region. On February 23, 1919, at a meeting of the Legislative Rada, a 3-stripe blue-crimson-green flag of the Kuban was approved, the regional anthem "You, Kuban, you are our Motherland" was performed. The day before, a Rada delegation headed by LL Bych was sent to Paris for the Versailles Peace Conference. The idea of ​​Kuban statehood came into conflict with the slogan of General Denikin about the great, united, indivisible Russia. For Rada Chairman N.S. Ryabovol, this confrontation cost his life. In June 1919, he was shot dead in Rostov-on-Don by a Denikin officer.

In response to this murder, a general desertion of the Kuban Cossacks began from the front, as a result of which no more than 15% of them remained in the Armed Forces of southern Russia. Denikin responded to the Parisian diplomatic demarche of the Rada by dispersing and hanging the regimental priest A. I. Kulabukhov. The events of November 1919, called by contemporaries "Kuban Action", reflected the tragedy of the fate of the Kuban Cossacks, expressed by the phrase "one of us among strangers, a stranger among our own." This expression can also be attributed to the Kuban Cossacks who fought on the side of the Reds.

The capture of Ekaterinodar by the Red Army on March 17, 1920, the evacuation of the remnants of Denikin's army from Novorossiysk to the Crimea and the capitulation of the 60,000-strong Kuban army near Adler on May 2-4 did not lead to the restoration of civil peace in the Kuban. In the summer of 1920, an insurrectionary movement of the Cossacks unfolded against the Soviet regime in the Trans-Kuban region and the Azov floodplains. On August 14, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Primorsko-Akhtarskaya, a landing of Wrangel troops under the command of General S. G. Ulagay landed, ending in failure.

Nevertheless, the armed struggle of the Kuban Cossacks in the ranks of the white-green movement continued until the mid-1920s. Of the 20,000 Kuban Cossacks who emigrated, more than 10,000 remained abroad forever.

The Kuban paid a heavy price for the establishment of Soviet power. From the memorandum of the Regional Council it is known that only in the spring-autumn of 1918, 24 thousand people died here. Soviet sources give a no less frightening picture of the White Terror.

Nevertheless, in 1918 - early 1920, the region managed to avoid the negative impact of the policy of war communism and decossackization, since from the autumn of 1918 until the spring of 1920, the Kuban was in the rear of Denikin's army. Together with a strong agricultural potential, the presence of ports, this created, in comparison with other regions of Russia, more favorable conditions for economic development. The same can be said about the state of affairs in the sphere of culture and education. During the Civil War Ekaterinodar became one of the small literary capitals of Russia.

The bulk of the Kuban Cossacks ended up in emigration as a result of the Crimean evacuation in November 1920. Most of them were originally located on about. Lemnos in the Aegean. Here, after fierce disputes in December 1920, Major General V.G. Naumenko, who was at that time in Yugoslavia. Members of the Kuban regional council and elected from military units took part in the elections.

By the spring of 1921, the efforts of General Wrangel and the Cossack chieftains to export Cossack emigrants to the countries of the Balkan Peninsula were crowned with success. From May to September 1921 they were transported to Serbia and Bulgaria. About 25% of the Cossacks returned to Russia. A small part of the Kuban settled in Greece and Turkey.

A certain number of immigrants from the Kuban ended up in emigration in other ways. During the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion, more than 2 thousand Kuban left together with the rebels in Finland. Others ended up abroad as a result of evacuation from the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, crossing the Soviet-Polish and Soviet-Georgian borders.

Many emigrant Cossacks were originally in military camps or internment camps. But leaving for "their own bread", the Cossacks tried not to lose touch with each other. That part of the Cossacks that remained in the ranks of their military units, even after their transition to a refugee position, tried to find a job where all the military ranks of this unit could work. As part of their units, the Cossacks worked in Yugoslavia on the laying of highways and railways, the construction of bridges, in Bulgaria - in coal mines. Separate Cossack units in their entirety were employed in factories and factories in France. They tried to live compactly. Food in many parts was "boiler" (general, from one boiler). Not only military ranks were on allowance, but also their wives and children. Mutual aid funds were created at the units. In addition, more than 300 Kubans who settled in Yugoslavia carried out border guard duty on the border with Albania. During the years of the civil war and emigration, many Cossacks became so close to their unit and colleagues that even after leaving the unit for some reason, they tried to maintain at least some connection with them as far as possible.

The Cossacks, who broke with the army, also strengthened ties between themselves. Former villagers and brother-soldiers corresponded. In places of compact residence, the Cossacks created villages and farms that contributed to their communication, mutual assistance and the preservation of Cossack customs, rituals and culture far from their homeland. More often these were general Cossack associations, which included representatives of various Cossack troops. In places of their greatest concentration, the Kuban formed their own separate villages and farms.

In addition, the Kuban villages, according to the decision of the Kuban Rada, could include all the inhabitants of the Kuban - both Cossacks and non-Cossacks. Sometimes villages and farms were formed on a professional basis. These are the various associations of Cossack students. For example, a general Cossack student village in Prague or a Cossack student farm near the Sofia village.

The habit of rural and generally hard physical labor contributed to the relatively painless adaptation of the Cossacks abroad. They willingly took up any work and performed it in such a way that in some branches of agriculture the Cossacks were highly valued in many countries. In particular, the unemployed among the Kuban in 1923 was only 23%.

There were also representatives of the Cossack intelligentsia abroad. Many Cossacks in exile sought to receive or complete their education. The centers of the Cossack intelligentsia were Belgrade, Warsaw, Paris, Prague and Sofia. Prague occupied a special place in this regard, where the following were created: the Society for the Study of Cossacks, the Society of Kuban Journalists and Writers, the Society of Kubans and many others. In particular, the Society of Kubans, with the assistance of the Czechoslovak government, provided support, including material, to many Cossacks who finish higher and secondary educational institutions. Thanks to his support, about 300 Cossacks received diplomas of engineers, doctors, economists, etc. Among the emigrant Cossacks there were many writers, poets, artists, sculptors, actors, scientists and many other cultural and scientific figures who contributed to the culture of foreign countries and Russian emigration.

Part of the emigrant Cossacks, hoping for the revival of the Russian Empire, took part in World War II on the side of Nazi Germany, which is one of the saddest and “black” pages in the history of the Kuban Cossacks. As part of the fascist troops, even separate units were created, entirely consisting of Cossacks. These units were headed by both German and Cossack generals (P.N. Krasnov, A.G. Shkuro, etc.), who were subsequently executed and, even after the collapse of the USSR, were recognized as not subject to rehabilitation.

After the end of the war, some of the Cossacks were handed over by the allies to the Soviet government.

In the post-war period, the United States became the new and main center for the settlement of emigrant Cossacks, where the so-called “Kuban Cossack army abroad”, which consists of descendants of the Kuban Cossacks, still exists, headed by its chieftain.

At the same time, a large part of the Cossacks accepted Soviet power and remained in their homeland.

The Kuban Cossacks took an active part in the Great Patriotic War, bravely fighting in the ranks of the Red Army, which also included regular Cossack formations.

One of the clearest examples of this is the feat of the Cossacks of the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps near the village of Kushchevskaya, Krasnodar Territory, who on horseback repelled the largest enemy tank attack. This feat went down in history as the famous "Kushchevskaya attack", for which the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps, formed from Kuban and Don Cossack volunteers, was renamed the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps.

At the end of the war, the Kuban Cossacks, among separate Cossack military units, took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square in June 1945.

But even despite the fact that by special decrees of the country's leadership, the Kuban and Terek Cossacks during the Great Patriotic War were even allowed to wear the traditional Cossack uniform (Circassian), all such Cossack military formations were part of the Red Army and were subordinate to the command of the army, and, accordingly, to the leadership Soviet Union.

The very same Kuban Cossack army since 1920 on the territory of the Kuban ceased to exist. Also since that time, the concept of "ataman" has lost its meaning. There were no more atamans in the Kuban until 1990, just as there was no army itself.

The life and way of life of the Cossacks dissolved in the general Soviet environment. Cossack traditions, customs, traditional Cossack culture, folklore, Cossack way of life, traditions of Cossack self-government and the inextricable connection with Orthodoxy were mostly hidden by the “Cossack watchmen” and were not passed on to the younger generation because of fears for their own future, and therefore in the present Most of the time is irretrievably lost.

The image of the Kuban Cossack, known to Soviet people, in particular from the movie "Kuban Cossacks", was highly stylized and adjusted to the ideology of the Soviet era, and therefore, in many respects did not correspond to the original Kuban Cossacks, the meaning of life of which from time immemorial was to serve the Fatherland and the Holy Orthodox faith.

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. Regrettably, the Bolsheviks really "tried" to uproot the real Cossacks to the root back in. 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

Oddly enough, even the exact date of birth of the Don Cossacks is known. She became January 3, 1570. , having defeated the Tatar khanates, in fact, provided the Cossacks with every opportunity to settle in new territories, settle 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. officially included the Cossacks in the Russian Empire, obliged them to the sovereign service, canceled the election of chieftains. 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 - 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

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 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. The Cossacks fought on an equal footing with others, mainly together with the regular units of the Red Army.

History of the 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.

• 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.

Kuban Cossacks, Kuban Cossack army- part of the Russian Cossacks of the North Caucasus, inhabiting the territory of the modern Krasnodar Territory, the western part of the Stavropol Territory, as well as the Republics of Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia. The military headquarters - the city of Ekaterinodar - modern Krasnodar. The army was formed in 1860 on the basis of the Black Sea Cossack army, with the addition of a part of the Caucasian linear Cossack army, which was "simplified as unnecessary." , as a result of the end of the Caucasian war.

Initially, the army was ruled by kosh and kuren (from “kuren”) chieftains, later - by chief chieftains appointed by the Russian emperor. The Kuban region was divided into 7 departments, headed by chieftains appointed by the chief chieftain. At the head of the villages and farms were elected chieftains, who were approved by the chieftains of departments.

Seniority since 1696, military holiday - since 1890 appointed by the royal decree on August 28-30. The administration of the Krasnodar Territory has designated a new date for the celebration of the KKV, September 12, the day of St. Alexander Nevsky.

History of the Kuban Cossack army

Postage stamp of Russia, 2010: Kuban Cossack army

Modern sleeve patch VKO KKV

Flag of the Kuban Cossacks

Traditional dance of the Kuban Cossacks, 2000

The Kuban Cossack army historically developed from several different groups of Cossacks.

Black Sea Cossacks

By the end of the 18th century, after numerous political victories of the Russian Empire, the priorities for the development of the lands taken from Turkey and Little Russia, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire, and the Little Russians and Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich living there, radically changed. With the conclusion of the Kyuchuk-Kainarji Treaty (1774), Russia received access to the Black Sea and the Crimea. In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, weakened by "gentry democracy", was on the verge of partition.

Thus, the further need to maintain the presence of the Cossacks in their historical homeland for the protection of the southern Russian borders has disappeared. At the same time, their traditional way of life often led to conflicts with the Russian authorities. After repeated pogroms by the Cossacks of Serbian settlers, and also in connection with the support of the Cossacks of the Pugachev uprising, Empress Catherine II ordered the Zaporizhzhya Sich to be disbanded, which was carried out on the orders of Grigory Potemkin to pacify the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks by General Peter Tekeli in June 1775.

After, however, about five thousand Cossacks fled to the mouth of the Danube, creating the Transdanubian Sich under the protectorate of the Turkish Sultan, several attempts were made to integrate the remaining 12 thousand Cossacks into the Russian army and society of the future New Russia, but the Cossacks did not want to submit to the requirements of harsh discipline.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire, which received additional forces in the form of the Danube Cossacks, threatened a new war. In 1787, from the former Cossacks, Grigory Potemkin formed The army of faithful Cossacks.

The Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1792 turned out to be a decisive victory for Russia, the contribution of the Cossacks to the victory was significant. As a result of the Iasi Peace, Russia territorially strengthened its influence on the southern borders. After the conclusion of peace, the "Troops of Faithful Cossacks" were given new Russian lands obtained as a result of the war - along the Black Sea coast between the Dniester and Bug rivers, and the army itself was renamed the "Black Sea Cossack Host". In 1792, at the head of the Cossack delegation, the ataman of the Black Sea Cossack army, Anton Golovaty, went to the capital with the aim of presenting Catherine II with a petition for granting land to the Black Sea Cossack army in the Taman region and "surroundings" in exchange for the selected Sich lands. The negotiations were not easy and long - having arrived in St. Petersburg in March, the delegation waited for the Supreme decision until May. Golovaty asked to allocate lands to the army not only in Taman and the Kerch Peninsula (which Potemkin had already agreed to in 1788), but also lands on the right bank of the Kuban River, then still uninhabited by anyone. Tsarist dignitaries reprimanded Golovaty: "You demand a lot of land." But it was not in vain that Golovaty was chosen as a representative - his education and diplomacy played a role in the success of the enterprise - at an audience with the "enlightened monarch" Golovaty spoke Latin and managed to convince Catherine of the general benefit of such a resettlement - the Black Sea Cossacks were granted lands on Taman and Kuban "in perpetual and hereditary possession."

By 1793, the Black Sea people, consisting of 40 kurens (about 25 thousand people), moved as a result of several trips to the Kuban lands. The main task of the new troops was the creation of a defensive line along the entire region and the development of the national economy in the new lands. Despite the fact that the new army was significantly reorganized according to the standards of other Cossack troops of the Russian Empire, the Black Sea people were able to preserve many of the traditions of the Cossacks under the new conditions, though changing Turkish trousers for more comfortable local clothes: Circassians, etc.

Initially, the territory (until the 1830s) was limited from Taman along the entire right bank of the Kuban to the Laba River. Already by 1860, the army numbered 200 thousand Cossacks and fielded 12 cavalry regiments, 9 foot (plastun) battalions, 4 batteries and 2 guard squadrons.

They made up the majority of the Cossacks in the Yeysk, Yekaterinodar and Temryuk departments of the Kuban region.

Kuban Cossacks

Line Cossacks

linemen called the Cossacks, who, during the formation of the Kuban Cossack army in 1860, left the Caucasian linear Cossack army into a new army.

The first of them is the Kuban regiment, its members were the descendants of the Don and Volga Cossacks who moved to the middle Kuban immediately after the Kuban became part of Russia in the 1780s. Initially, it was planned to resettle most of the Don army, but this decision caused a storm of protests on the Don, and then Anton Golovaty suggested that the Chernomorians leave Budzhak for the Kuban in 1790.

The second is the Khopersky regiment, this group of Cossacks originally lived between the Khoper and Medveditsa rivers since 1444. After the uprising of Bulavin in 1708, the land of the Cossacks was almost cleared by Peter I. Part of the Bulavins who went to the Kuban formed the first outcast Cossacks - the Nekrasov Cossacks, who later went to the Balkans and then to Turkey. Despite the actual cleansing of Khopra in 1716, the Cossacks who were involved in the Northern War returned there, and after a pardon from the Voronezh governor, they were allowed to build the Novokhopyorsk fortress. For half a century, the Khopersky regiment has grown again. In the summer of 1777, during the construction of the Azov-Mozdok line, the Khoper Cossacks were resettled in the Middle Caucasus, where they fought against Kabarda and founded the fortress of Stavropol. In 1828, after the subjugation of the Karachais, they settled in the upper Kuban. They formed part of the first Russian expedition to Elbrus in 1829.

After the formation of the Kuban army in 1860, seniority was borrowed from the Khoper Cossacks, as the oldest. In 1696, the Khopers distinguished themselves in the capture of Azov during the Azov campaigns of Peter I.

A military holiday was also established - August 30, the day of Alexander Nevsky. On the eve of the revolution, the Lineians inhabited the Caucasian, Labinsk, Maikop and Batalpashinsky departments of the Kuban region.

Ascribed Cossacks

In the first half of the 19th century, state peasants, cantonists and retired soldiers who were enrolled in the Cossacks moved to the Kuban. Sometimes they settled in existing villages, sometimes they formed new ones.

Organization

Kuban Cossacks at the May Day parade in 1937

The Kuban Cossacks were a free paramilitary agricultural population. At the head of the Kuban Cossack army was the chief ataman (at the same time - the head of the Kuban region), who militarily enjoyed the rights of the head of the division, and in civil terms - the rights of the governor. He appointed atamans of departments, to whom the elected atamans of villages and farms were subordinate. The highest body of the stanitsa power was the stanitsa gathering, which elected the ataman and the board (consisted of the ataman and two elected judges, since 1870 - ataman, judges, ataman's assistant, clerk, treasurer). Stanitsa societies performed various duties: military, "general search" (maintenance of postal stations, repair of roads and bridges, etc.), stanitsa (maintenance of "flying mail", escort of prisoners, guard duty, etc.). In 1890, the day of the military holiday was established - August 30th. Since 1891, the Cossacks elected additional judges, who were the cassation instance on the decisions of the village courts.

In 1863-1917, the Kuban Military Bulletin was published; in 1914-1917 - the magazine "Kuban Cossack Bulletin", other publications were also printed.

On the eve of 1914, the army had about 1,300,000 Cossacks, 278 villages and 32 farms with a total area of ​​6.8 million acres of land. It was divided into 7 sections: Yekaterinodar, Tamansky, Yeisk, Caucasian, Labinsky, Maykop and Batalpashinsky. In peacetime, the Kuban formed:

• L.-Gv. 1st and 2nd Kuban Cossack hundreds of HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY'S OWN convoy (parking in the city of St. Petersburg);
• 1st Khopersky Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host(1st Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the city of Kutaisi);
• 1st Kuban General-Field Marshal Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (1st Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the village of Karakurt, Kars region);
• 1st Uman Brigadier Holovaty Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (1st Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the city of Kars);
• 1st Poltava Ataman Sidor White Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (2nd Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the village of Kinakiri, Erivan province);
• 1st Labinsky General Zass Regiment, Kuban Cossack Army (2nd Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the Helenendorf colony, near the city of Elizavetpol);
• 1st Black Sea Colonel Bursak 2nd Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (2nd Caucasian Cossack division, camp in Jalal-ogly, Tiflis province, now Stepanavan);
• 1st Zaporozhye Empress Catherine the Great Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (2nd Caucasian Cossack division, camp in the city of Kagyzman, Kars region);
• 1st Taman General Bloodless Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (Transcaspian Cossack brigade, camp in the village of Kashi (near the city of Ashgabat), Transcaspian region);
• 1st Caucasian Viceroy of Yekaterinoslav Field Marshal Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host(Transcaspian Cossack brigade, camp in the city of Merv, Transcaspian region);
• 1st Line General Velyaminov Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (former 1st Urupsky; 2nd Cossack consolidated division, parking in the city of Romny);
• 1st Yekaterinodar Koshevo Ataman Chapegi Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host (parking in the city of Ekaterinodar);
• Kuban Cossack Division (parking in the city of Warsaw);
• 1st Kuban Plastun General-Field Marshal Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich Battalion (Kuban plastun brigade, camp in the city of Artvin, Kutaisi province);
• 2nd Kuban Plastun Battalion
• 3rd Kuban Plastun Battalion (Kuban plastunskaya brigade, parking in the city of Pyatigorsk);
• 4th Kuban Plastun Battalion (Kuban plastun brigade, parking in the city of Baku);
• 5th Kuban Plastun Battalion (Kuban plastun brigade, camp in the city of Tiflis);
• 6th Kuban Plastun Battalion (Kuban plastun brigade, camp in the fortification of Gunib, Dagestan region);
• 1st Kuban General-Field Marshal Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Cossack Battery (parking in the city of Erivan);
• 2nd Kuban Cossack Battery (parking in the village of Sarykamysh, Kars region);
• 3rd Kuban Cossack Battery (parking in the city of Maykop, Kuban region]);
• 4th Kuban Cossack Battery (parking in the village of Kaakhka, Transcaspian region);
• 5th Kuban Cossack Battery (parking in the village of Kinakiri, Erivan province).

During the Great War, 41 cavalry regiments (including 2 highlander regiments), 1 plastun regiment, 2 cavalry divisions, 27 plastun battalions, 50 special cavalry hundreds, 9 cavalry batteries and 1 spare cavalry artillery battery were put up - a total of about 89,000 people. and 45 thousand combat horses. After Russia entered the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary (July 19, 1914), the state requisition of horses from the population was announced on the territory of the Kuban region until the end of hostilities.

Story

17th century

• 1696 - Khoper Cossacks distinguished themselves on May 21, having participated in the defeat of the Turkish fleet, and on July 17, when Azov was taken, this date then became the seniority of the Kuban army.

18th century

• 1708 - the departure of the Nekrasovites from Khopra and Don to the Kuban.
• 1700−1721 - participation of the Khoper Cossacks in the Northern War.
• 1777 - construction of the Azov-Mozdok line and resettlement of the Khoper Cossacks.
• 1781 - participation of the Khoper Cossacks in the campaign against Anapa;
• 1787−1791 - participation of the Black Sea Cossacks as part of the Chepega cavalry regiment and the White foot regiment in the Russian-Turkish war.
• 1788 - January 14 - Royal favor was declared to the colonel of the former Zaporizhzhya army Sidor Bely and other foremen of this army, and the Cossacks who repented of their error were allowed to settle on the Taman Peninsula.
• 1788 - February 27 - Count Suvorov granted the Zaporizhzhya army a military banner with the inscription " For faith and loyalty ».
• 1788 - May 13 - the army "Kosha of the faithful Zaporozhian Cossacks" settled on Taman was named " The army of faithful Cossacks of the Black Sea ».
• 1792 - the first Black Sea Cossacks arrived in Taman.
• 1792 - June 30 - the army of the Black Sea Cossacks, "as an expression of special attention and mercy, for courageous deeds on land and on the waters and unflinching loyalty during the successfully ended war with the Port of Otoman", granted Phanagoria Island with lands lying between the Kuban and the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov , “for eternal possession” and, in addition, 2 silver timpani, 2 silver trumpets and a military banner “ For faith and loyalty ».
• 1792−1796 - participation of the Black Sea Cossack regiment in the Russian-Polish war, where he distinguished himself in the capture of Prague in 1794.
• 1793 - the city of Yekaterinodar was founded.
• 1796 - two Black Sea Cossack regiments, together with the Cossacks of the Khopersky and Kuban regiments settled on the Caucasian line, were sent to the Persian campaign, as a result of which they lost half of their composition from hunger and disease. This caused in 1797 the so-called Persian revolt on the part of the Black Sea residents who returned to the Kuban.
• 1799 - October 18 - a flotilla was established under the army of the Black Sea Cossacks.

19th century

A platoon of old Kubans from St. George Knights. From an article on the 200th anniversary of the Kuban army.

• 1800 - Black Sea Cossacks participated in a punitive expedition against the highlanders for raids on their villages.
• 1801 - February 16 - the army was ordered "to signify the service to his Throne" to use the bestowed: military banner " Grace to him ”, 14 regimental banners, mace and pernach.
• 1802 - November 13 - the first Regulation on Black Sea Cossack Army , in the composition ten equestrian and ten foot (5-hundred) plkov, and service with guns and flotilla was also assigned to foot Cossacks.
• 1803 - May 13 - the previous charters were confirmed to the army and 6 more regimental banners were granted.
• 1806−1812 - four Cossack regiments participated in the Russian-Turkish war.
• 1807 - two regiments of the Black Sea Cossacks participated in the capture of Anapa, the regiment of Colonel Lyakh was dressed up for the Crimea and the regiment of Colonel Polivoda for the war with Turkey.
• 1808 - March 12 - ordered to relocate to the lands of the Black Sea army, with enrollment in it, about 15,000 Little Russian Cossacks.
• 1810 - the service of the Cossacks in the flotilla was terminated.
• 1811 - May 18 - formed from the best people of the army Guards Black Sea Hundred , assigned to the Life Guards Cossack Regiment.
• 1812 - the 9th foot regiment of the Black Sea Cossack troops, the 1st combined cavalry regiment of Colonel Plokhoy and the Guards Black Sea Hundred participated in the Patriotic War.
• 1813 - April 25 - for the exploits shown in the Patriotic War, the Guards Black Sea Hundred was ordered to be kept in everything in the position of the Life Guards of the Cossack Regiment.
• 1813 - June 15 - L.-Gds. Silver pipes were granted to the Black Sea Hundred For distinction against the enemy in the past campaign of 1813 ».
• 1813−1814 - participation of the Black Sea Cossacks in foreign campaigns of the Russian Army.
• 1815 - 4 cavalry Black Sea regiments of colonels: Dubonosov, Bursak, Porokhni and Golub were sent on a foreign campaign, but only reached the borders of Poland.
• 1820-1864 - The Black Sea Cossacks, together with the Caucasian linear Cossacks, took part in all campaigns and expeditions against the highlanders in the Caucasus.
• 1820 - April 17 - The Black Sea Cossack army is included in the composition of the troops of the Georgian Corps.
• 1820 - April 19 - 25,000 Little Russian Cossacks were enrolled in the army.
• 1825 - from the Black Sea troops for service dressed up: one cavalry regiment on the Prussian border and eight cavalry and six foot regiments for internal service.
• 1826−1828 - participation of two cavalry regiments of the Black Sea, cavalry artillery company and a special team of five hundred in the Russian-Iranian war.
• 1828−1829 - participation of three Black Sea regiments: one foot colonel Zhitovsky and two horsemen: Zalessky and Zavgorodny (on the Danube), as well as four foot regiments and a horse-artillery company of the Black Sea troops (near the Anapa fortress) in the Russian-Turkish war.
• 1828 - assault on June 12 by the Cossacks of the Turkish fortress of Anapa.
• 1830−1831 - 2 Black Sea cavalry regiments participated in the Russian-Polish war.
• 1831 - December 25 - the schedule of the Black Sea Cossack army was drawn up, consisting of: one L.-Gv. Black Sea Squadron (as part of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment), one Black Sea Cavalry Artillery Cossack No. 4 companies, eleven equestrian and ten foot regiments.
• 1832−1853 - Cossacks take part in the fighting in the Caucasus.
• 1842 - July 1 - a new Regulation on the Black Sea Cossack Host was approved, according to which it is divided into 3 districts: Tamansky, Yekaterinodar and Yeisk and is obliged to show one Life Guards Black Sea Cossack Division, twelve horse regiments, nine foot boots and one horse artillery brigade (from three horse-artillery light batteries and one garrison artillery foot company).
• 1843 - October 10 - the military banner of St. George was granted without an inscription, in commemoration of the 50-year existence of the army and in attention to the useful service of the Black Sea people and their courage.
• 1849 - participation of the Assembly Line Regiment in the Hungarian campaign.
• 1853−1856 - during the Crimean War, the Black Sea Cossacks successfully repulsed the attacks of the Anglo-French landings off the coast of Taman, and the 2nd and 8th Plastun (foot) battalions took part in the defense of Sevastopol.
• 1856−1864 - almost the entire Black Sea Cossack army, along with the Caucasian linear Cossack army, participated in hostilities in the Caucasus.
• 1856 - August 26 - The St. George banner was granted to the Black Sea army For bravery and exemplary service in the war against the French, British and Tours in 1853, 1854, 1855 and 1856 ».
• 1856 - August 30 - L.-Gds. The Black Sea Cossack division was granted the St. George standard in memory of the exploits of L.-Gds. Cossack regiment, to which he belonged.
• 1857 - April 12 - L-Guards. Silver pipes were granted to the Black Sea division: “ L.-Gv. The Black Sea Cossack division for the difference rendered by the guards hundred against the enemy in 1813, as part of the L.-Gds. Cossack regiment».
• 1860 - November 19 - renaming of the Black Sea Cossack army in Kuban Cossack army , with the accession to the latter in full force of the first six bridad, foot battalion and two horse batteries of the Caucasian linear Cossack army.
• 1860 - composition of the Army: 22 cavalry regiments, 3 squadrons, 13 foot battalions and 5 batteries.
• 1861 - A combined line regiment and two Kuban cavalry regiments participated in the suppression of the Polish rebellion.
• 1861 February 2 - the Life Guards Black Sea Cossack Division was ordered, having connected with the Life Guards the Caucasian Line Cossack squadron of His Majesty's Own convoy, to reorganize into L.-Gv. 1st, 2nd and 3rd Caucasian squadrons of His Majesty's Own convoy , in which to have 3/4 of the Cossacks of the Kuban army and 1/4 of the Terek army. Standard and silver trumpets of the L.-Gds. The Black Sea Cossack division was ordered to have with the squadron that is in the service.
• 1862 - May 10 - in order to populate the foothills of the Western Caucasus, it was ordered to resettle there 12,400 people of the Kuban Cossacks, 800 people, 2,000 state peasants (including the Little Ossian Cossacks) and 600 people married to the lower ranks of the Caucasian army, including everyone in the Kuban army.
• 1864 - October 11 - for the resettlement of most of the Cossacks to the Kuban region Azov army , this army, as an independent one, was abolished and its banners were ordered to be transferred to the Kuban army.
• 1865 - July 20 - The St. George banner was granted to the Kuban Cossack army For the Caucasian War ", A number of regiments (10th and 11th, 12th and 13th, 14th and 15th, 16th and 17th, 18th and 19th, 20th and 21st, 22nd) - St. George banners" ", with the preservation of the previous inscriptions; all other regiments, foot battalions and horse artillery batteries of the Kuban Cossack army - insignia for headgear " For distinction during the conquest of the Western Caucasus in 1864 » .
• 1867 - October 7 - Terek Cossacks L.-Gds. allocated to a special squadron, and from the Kuban made up L.-Gv. 1st and 2nd Caucasian Kuban Cossack squadrons of His Majesty's Own convoy .
• 1870 - August 1 - a new regulation on military service and on the maintenance of combat units of the Kuban Cossack army was approved, according to which the composition of the army in ordinary peacetime was determined as follows: 1) two L.-Gv. Kuban Cossack squadron of HIS MAJESTY'S OWN convoy; 2) ten horse regiments; 3) two foot scout battalions; 4) five horse artillery batteries, 5) one division in Warsaw and 6) one educational division.
• 1873 - part of the Yeysk regiment of the Kuban army participated in the Khiva campaign in Central Asia.
• 1874 - March 28 - the seniority of the Kuban Cossack army was established for the Khopersky regiment from 1696, the regiments: Urupsky - from 1858, Labinsky - from 1842 and Kuban - from 1732, and the rest of the regiments and battalions - from 1788. No special seniority was assigned to batteries.
• 1877−1878 - on the occasion of the war with Turkey, the entire Kuban army took part in hostilities, the Cossacks fought in Bulgaria; they especially distinguished themselves in the defense of Shipka (scouts), Bayazet (two hundred Umanets), in the defense of the Zorsky pass, in the Deva-Boynu and in the capture of Kars, and, likewise, in suppressing the uprising of the highlanders in Dagestan and in actions against the Turks in Abkhazia . For this, a number of Cossack units were awarded the St. George standards.
• 1880 - August 30 - The St. George banner was granted to the troops " For distinction in the Turkish war of 1877 and 1878 ».
• 1881 - three regiments of the Kuban army: Tamansky, Poltava and Labinsk took part in the capture of the Turkmen fortress Geok-Tepe.
• 1882 - June 24 - a new regulation on the military service of the Kuban Cossack army was approved, according to which its service staff is divided into 3 categories, of which the combatant, in addition, into 3 lines. The troops were ordered to be put into service: 1) in peacetime: two squadrons of His Majesty's convoy, ten cavalry regiments, one cavalry division, two battalions of scouts and five cavalry artillery batteries; 2) in wartime, in addition to these units, there are also: twenty cavalry regiments and four plastun battalions.
• 1890 - December 24 - the day of the military holiday is established: August 30 .
• 1891 - March 12 - the squadrons of the convoy are named L.-Gv. 1st and 2nd Kuban Cossack Hundreds of His Imperial Majesty's Own Convoy .
• 1896 - September 8 - in commemoration of the special Royal favor for loyalty and devotion to the Throne and the Fatherland, the army was granted: St. George's military banner "In memory of the 200-year existence of the Kuban Cossack army » « 1696-1896" with the anniversary Alexander ribbon - to the Kuban Cossack army. St. George banner "' For distinction in the Turkish War and in deeds against the Highlanders in 1828 and 1829 and during the conquest of the Western Caucasus in 1864'» « 1696-1896 - 1st Khopersky Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna Regiment; St. George Banner For distinction during the conquest of the Western Caucasus in 1864 » « 1696-1896 "- 2nd Khopersky regiment; a simple banner For fighting in the Turkish war and in cases against the Highlanders in 1828 and 1829 » « 1696-1896 "- to the 3rd Khopersky regiment, all three - with commemorative Alexander ribbons.

20th century

Kuban Cossacks on the side of Germany

• 1904−1905 - about 2 thousand Kuban Cossacks participated in the Russo-Japanese War. In May 1905, the Cossacks under the command of General P. I. Mishchenko during a horse raid captured 800 Japanese soldiers and destroyed the enemy’s artillery depot.
• 1904 - August 26 - in eternal preservation and reminder of the glorious names of the commanders of the Kuban army, who led it to victories, it was ordered to give the first order regiments: Tamansky, Poltava, Umansky, Ekaterinodarsky, Labinsk and Urupsky names: General Bezkrovny, Kosh Ataman Sidor Bely, Brigadier Golovaty, Kosh Ataman Chepega, General Zass and General Velyaminov.
• 1905-1906 - the entire second line of the Kuban army was mobilized to maintain order within the Empire.
• 1910 - April 22 - in eternal preservation and reminder of the glorious name of the organizer of the Yekaterinoslav and Black Sea troops Viceroy of Yekaterinoslavsky, Field Marshal Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky , it was ordered to give his name to the 1st Caucasian regiment of the Kuban Cossack army.
• 1910 - August 8 - in memory of the merits to Russia of the glorious Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who had been serving frontier service for a long time, and in memory of the founder of the Black Sea army, it was commanded to name the 1st Yeysk regiment of the Kuban Cossack army 1st Zaporozhye Empress Catherine the Great Regiment, Kuban Cossack Host , and the 2nd and 3rd Yeysk regiments - to name 2nd and 3rd Zaporozhye .
• 1911 - May 18 - St. George's Standard was granted For distinction in the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Russia in 1812 and for the feat shown in the battle of Leipzig on October 4, 1813» « 1811-1911 » L.-Gv. 1st and 2nd Kuban hundreds of His Imperial Majesty's Own convoy, with the jubilee St. Andrew's ribbon.
• 1914 - the number of troops: 11 cavalry regiments and 1 division, 2.5 guard hundreds, 6 battalions of scouts, 5 batteries, 12 teams and 1 hundred militia (up to 19 thousand people in total).
• 1914−1918 World War I. The Kuban Cossack army fielded 37 cavalry regiments and 1 separate Cossack division, 2.5 guard hundreds, 24 plastun battalions and 1 separate plastun battalion, 6 batteries, 51 different hundreds, 12 teams (about 90 thousand people in total).
• 1917−1920 - part of the Cossacks, led by the Kuban Rada, supported the idea of ​​the independence of the Kuban. Another part, led by the chieftain of the regiment. A.P. Filimonov, in alliance with the Volunteer Army, advocated the slogan "United and indivisible Russia."
• 1918 - the leadership of the Cossacks supported the idea of ​​uniting the Kuban with the Ukrainian Power of Hetman Skoropadsky as a federation. Ambassadors were immediately sent to Kyiv, but the unification was not destined to come true, since Yekaterinodar was occupied by the Red Army, and after a while the power of Skoropadsky fell under the onslaught of the troops of the Directory.
• 1918−1920 - On January 28, 1918, the Kuban Rada proclaimed an independent Kuban People's Republic with its capital in Ekaterinodar, which existed until 1920, on the lands of the former Kuban region. Immediately after the execution of the Chairman of the Kuban Cossack Rada, Kulabukhov, on the orders of Denikin, for refusing to transfer the gold of the Rada, the Cossacks, one by one and in whole units, began to withdraw from the front and go home, and the White Guards rolled away from Moscow.
• 1920 - The Republic and the Army are abolished.
• 1920−1932 - repression and dispossession.
• 1932-1933 - famine and mass evictions (see "Black Boards").
• After 1933, repressive measures against the Cossacks were canceled, the Kuban Cossack Choir was restored, and the Cossack units of the Red Army were formed.

During the Great Patriotic War, with the threat of the occupation of the Kuban, a whole corps was created, which consisted of about 20 thousand Kuban Cossacks. There were also Kuban units on the side of the Third Reich, a special contribution to the creation of which was made by Andrey Shkuro.

In the late 1940s the feature film "Kuban Cossacks" was released on the screens.

• January 9-10, 1956 - riots in the city of Novorossiysk. When a group of Kuban Cossacks was detained, a fight broke out between them and the police, which formed a huge crowd (about 1000 people) threw stones at the police station, broke into it and attacked employees, attacked the building of the State Bank, tried to break into the post office. Several people were killed, 3 policemen and 2 soldiers were injured, 15 Cossacks were detained. [ source not specified 544 days]
• 1961 riots in the city of Krasnodar due to rumors about the beating of a serviceman by police officers during detention for violation of wearing a uniform. The events involved 1300 Cossacks, who surrounded the building of the GOVD. During dispersal, firearms were used, 1 person was killed. 24 participants in the unrest were brought to criminal responsibility. [ source not specified 544 days]
• December 1980-9 KGB note to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU “On negative processes in the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region”: “Among a certain part of the indigenous population of the KChAO, negative processes are noted, characterized by nationalist, anti-Russian sentiments. On this basis, antisocial manifestations take place, as well as criminal offenses ... Daring hooligan antics, rape and group fights, sometimes threatening to turn into riots.
• On August 28, 1991, the Regional Public Organization “Kuban Cossack Circle “Kruglik” was registered in the Department of Justice of the Krasnodar Territory under No. 61.

Kuban Cossack Association "Russia" 09/24/91 for No. 75 Rada (All-Kuban Cossack Host) 08/27/93 for No. 307 Kuban Cossack Host 05/15/92. for number 284

• In the early 1990s The "Kuban Cossack Army" formed by the Cossacks, headed by Ataman Vladimir Gromov, declared itself the successor to the historical Army. The new army showed itself in the Georgian-Abkhaz war, breaking into Sukhum first in 1993. Today, the VKO "Kuban Cossack Army" has about 30 thousand fighters in the register. Separate Cossack units appear in the armed forces for contract soldiers and conscripts from Cossack families [ source not specified 1024 days] .

XXI Century

• 2008 Nikolai Doluda, vice-governor of the Krasnodar Territory, was elected the new Ataman of the Kuban Cossack Host, at the initiative of Governor Alexander Tkachev.

Kuban Cossacks in Moscow at the 1945 Victory Parade

Troop organization

• 1st Khopersky Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna Regiment
• 1st Kuban General Field Marshal Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Regiment
• 1st Zaporozhye Empress Catherine the Great Regiment
• 1st Ekaterinodarsky Koshevogo Ataman Chepegi Regiment
• 1st Poltava Koshevoy Ataman Sidor Bily Regiment
• 1st Caucasian Viceroy of Yekaterinoslav General-Field Marshal Prince Potemkin-Tauride
• 1st Uman Brigadier Holovaty Regiment
• 1st Taman General Bloodless Regiment
• 1st Labinsky General Zass Regiment
• 1st Line General Velyaminov Regiment
• 1st Black Sea Colonel Bursak 2nd Regiment

• Kuban Cossack division:
  • 1st Kuban Plastun Battalion
  • 2nd Kuban Plastun Battalion
  • 3rd Kuban Plastunsky battalion
  • 4th Kuban Plastun Battalion
  • 5th Kuban Plastun Battalion
  • 6th Kuban Plastun Battalion

• Kuban Cossack artillery:
  • 1st Kuban Cossack Battery
  • 2nd Kuban Cossack Battery
  • 3rd Kuban Cossack Battery
  • 4th Kuban Cossack Battery
  • 5th Kuban Cossack Battery

• Kuban local teams
  • His Imperial Majesty's Own Escort. 1 and 2 hundred. Seniority 05/18/1811. The general holiday of the convoy is October 4, the day of St. Erofei. Dislocation - Tsarskoye Selo (1.02.1913). The bulk of the ranks of the Convoy (including officers) shaved their heads. The general suit of horses is bay (grey for trumpeters).

Population

Cossacks in 1916 accounted for 43% of the population of the Kuban region (1.37 million people), that is, a little less than half. Most of the arable land belonged to the Cossacks. The Cossacks opposed themselves to the non-Cossack part of the population. Attitude to nonresident ("gamselam"), peasants was arrogant and disdainful. By this time there were 262 villages and 246 farms. The bulk of their population were Cossacks. Non-residents mostly lived in cities and villages. Believing Kuban Cossacks are Orthodox.

Quite high for the beginning of the 20th century was the literacy rate of the Kuban Cossacks - more than 50%. The first schools appeared among the Kuban Cossacks at the end of the 18th century.

Administration of the Kuban army

Yeysk Cossack Department of the KKV

Corresponds to the old Yeysk department of the Kuban region. 7 RKO, headquarters - Yeysk

• Yeysk RKO - covers the Yeysk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Yeysk.
• Shcherbinsk RKO - covers the Shcherbinovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters - the station of Staroshcherbinovskaya
• Starominsk RKO - covers the Starominsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters - the station of Starominskaya
• Kushchevskoye RKO - covers Kushchevskaya district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - station Kushchevskaya
• Kanev RKO - covers the Kanev district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the station Kanevskaya
• Uman RKO - covers the Leningradsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the Leningradskaya station (until 1934 - Umanskaya)
• Krylovskoye RKO - covers the Krylovskaya district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - station Krylovskaya
• Pavlovsky RKO - covers Pavlovsky district (Krasnodar Territory), headquarters - Pavlovskaya station

Caucasian Cossack Department of the KKV

Corresponds to the old Caucasian department of the Kuban region. 10 RKO, headquarters - Tikhoretsk

• Bryukhovetsky RKO - covers the Bryukhovetsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the station Bryukhovetskaya
• Timashevskoye RKO - covers the Timashevsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Timashevsk
• Korenovsky RKO - covers the Korenovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Korenovsk
• Vyselkovskoye RKO - covers the Vyselkovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the village of Vyselki
• Tikhoretsk RKO - covers the Tikhoretsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Tikhoretsk
• Novopokrovskoye RKO - covers the Novopokrovskiy district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters - the station Novopokrovskaya
• Beloglinskoye RKO - covers the Beloglinsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters is the village of Belaya Glina
• Tbilisi RKO - covers the Tbilisi district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the station Tbilisskaya
• Caucasian RKO - covers the Caucasian region of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Kropotkin
• Gulkevichsky RKO - covers the Gulkevichsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Gulkevichi

Taman Cossack Department of the KKV

Corresponds to the old Taman department of the Kuban region. 8 RKO. Headquarters - Krymsk

• Primorsko-Akhtarskoye RKO - covers the Primorsko-Akhtarsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk
• Kalinin RKO - covers the Kalinin district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the station Kalininskaya
• Slavyansk RKO - covers the Slavyansky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Slavyansk-on-Kuban
• Poltava RKO - covers the Krasnoarmeisky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - station Poltavskaya
• Temryuk RKO - covers the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Temryuk
• Anapa RKO - covers the territory of the urban district of Anapa, headquarters - the city of Anapa
• Crimean RKO - covers the Krymsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Krymsk
• Abinsk RKO - covers the Abinsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Abinsk

Yekaterinodar Cossack Department of the KKV

Partially corresponds to the old Ekaterinodar department of the Kuban region. 5 RKO. Headquarters - Krasnodar (until 1920 - Yekaterinodar)

• Ust-Labinsk RKO - covers the Ust-Labinsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Ust-Labinsk
• Dinskoye RKO - covers the Dinskoy district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the station Dinskaya
• RKO Ekaterinodar Cossack Society - covers the territory of the urban district of the city of Krasnodar, there is also a headquarters.
• Seversky RKO - covers the Seversky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters of the Severskaya station
• Goryacheklyuchevskoye RKO - the territory of the Goryachiy Klyuch urban district, headquarters - Goryachiy Klyuch

Maikop Cossack Department of the KKV

Partially corresponds to the Maykop department of the Kuban region. 8 RKO. Headquarters - Maykop

• Krasnogvardeyskoye RKO - covers the Krasnogvardeysky district of the Republic of Adygea, headquarters - the village of Krasnogvardeyskoye
• Belorechenskoye RKO - covers the Belorechensky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Belorechensk
• Apsheronsk RKO - covers the Apsheronsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Apsheronsk
• Giaginskoye RKO - covers the Giaginsky district of the Republic of Adygea, the headquarters - the village of Giaginskaya
• RKO of the city of Maikop - covers the territory of the urban district of Maikop, there is also a headquarters.
• Maykop RKO - covers the Maikop district of the Republic of Adygea, the headquarters - the urban-type settlement of Tulsky
• Koshekhablsky RKO - covers the Koshekhablsky and Teuchezhsky districts of the Republic of Adygea, the headquarters is the village of Koshekhabl
• Mostovskoe RKO - covers the Mostovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters - the urban-type settlement of Mostovskoy

Labinsk Cossack Department of the KKV

Corresponds to the old Labinsk department of the Kuban region. 6 RKO. Headquarters - Armavir

• Kurganinsk RKO - covers the Kurganinsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Kurganinsk
• Novokubansk RKO - covers the Novokubansky district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Novokubansk
• Armavir RKO - covers the territory of the city district of Armavir, headquarters - the city of Armavir
• Uspenskoye RKO - covers the Uspensky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters is the village of Uspenskoye
• Labinsk RKO - covers the Labinsk district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - Labinsk
• Otradnensky RKO - covers the Otradnensky district of the Krasnodar Territory, the headquarters - the station Otradnaya

Batalpashinsky Cossack Department of the KKV

Corresponds to the old Batalpashinsky department of the Kuban region. 5 RKO. Headquarters - Cherkessk (until 1934 - Batalpashinsk)

• Batalpashinsky GKO - covers the Abaza, Adyge-Khablsky districts of Karachay-Cherkessia, as well as the territory of the Cherkessk urban district, and the headquarters there.
• Prikubansky RKO - covers the Prikubansky district of Karachay-Cherkessia, headquarters - the village of Kavkazsky
• Urupskoye RKO - covers the Urupsky district of Karachay-Cherkessia, the headquarters of the station Predgradnaya
• Zelenchuksky RKO - covers the Zelenchuksky district of Karachay-Cherkessia, the headquarters of the station Zelenchukskaya
• Ust-Dzhegutinsky RKO - covers the Ust-Dzhegutinsky district of Karachay-Cherkessia, headquarters - the city of Ust-Dzheguta

Black Sea Cossack District KKV

Historically, it was not part of the Kuban region, but in the Black Sea province. Today 7 RKO. Headquarters - Sochi

• Novorossiysk RKO - covers the territory of the urban district of Novorossiysk, headquarters - Novorossiysk
• Gelendzhik RKO - covers the territory of the urban district of Gelendzhik, headquarters - Gelendzhik
• Tuapse RKO - covers the Tuapse district of the Krasnodar Territory, headquarters - the city of Tuapse
• Lazarevskoye RKO - covers the Lazarevsky district of the Sochi urban district, headquarters - the Lazarevskoye microdistrict
• Sochi RKO - covers the Khostinsky district of the Sochi urban district, the headquarters is the Khosta microdistrict
• Central RKO of the resort city of Sochi - covers the Central District of Sochi, headquarters - Sochi
• Adler RKO - covers the Adler district of the Sochi urban district, the headquarters is the Adler microdistrict

Abkhaz Special Cossack Department of the KKV

Historically, the territory of the Gagra region was part of the Black Sea province. After the civil war, the famine in 1933 and the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in 1993, many refugees and volunteers from the Kuban settled in Abkhazia. Now the special department includes one full-fledged RSC.

• The Gagra RKO covers the Gagra district of Abkhazia, the headquarters is the city of Gagra

The KKV also includes many villages in the neighboring Stavropol Territory, including in the territories of the Novoaleksandrovsky, Izobilnensky, Shpakovsky, Kochubeevsky, Andropovsky and Predgorny districts. In addition, there are many organizations located outside the Kuban, including in Moscow, St. Petersburg, on the Don and in other cities and regions of Russia and beyond.