Cossacks ... A completely special social stratum, estate, class. Its own, as experts would say, subculture: the manner of dressing, speaking, behaving. Peculiar songs. A heightened concept of honor and dignity. Pride in your own identity. Courage and daring in the most terrible battle. For some time now the history of Russia is unimaginable without the Cossacks. Here are just the current "heirs" - for the most part, "mummers", impostors. Tragically, the Bolsheviks "tried very hard" to root out real Cossacks even in the civil war. Those who were not destroyed were rotted away in prisons and camps. Alas, the destroyed cannot be returned. To honor traditions and not to become Ivan, not remembering kinship ...
History of the Don Cossacks
Don Cossacks Oddly enough, even the exact date of birth of the Don Cossacks is known. It became January 3, 1570. Ivan the Terrible, having defeated the Tatar khanates, in fact, provided the Cossacks with every opportunity to settle in new territories, settle down and put down roots. 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 were very active and active. However, they often took the side of this or that impostor, and by no means stood on the guard of statehood and the law. One of the famous Cossack chieftains, Ivan Zarutsky, was not even averse to reigning in Moscow himself. In the 17th century, the Cossacks actively developed the Black and Azov Seas.
In a way, they became by sea pirates, corsairs, terrifying merchants and merchants. Cossacks often found themselves next to the Cossacks. Peter the Great officially included the Cossacks in the Russian Empire, obliged them to the sovereign service, canceled the election of atamans. The Cossacks began to take an active part in all the wars that Russia waged, in particular with Sweden and Prussia, as well as in the First World War.
Many of the donors did not accept the Bolsheviks and fought against them, and then went into exile. Famous figures of the Cossack movement - P.N. Krasnov and A.G. Shkuro - actively collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. In the era of Gorbachev's perestroika, they started talking about the revival of the Don Cossacks. However, on this wave there was a lot of muddy foam, following fashion, outright speculation. To date, almost none of the so-called. Don Cossacks, and even more so atamans by origin and rank, are not.
History of the Kuban Cossacks
Kuban Cossack The emergence of the Kuban Cossacks dates back to a later time than the Don one - only to the second half of the 19th century. The place of deployment of the Kuban was North Caucasus, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov Region, Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia. The center was the city of Yekaterinodar. The seniority belonged to the koshev and kuren atamans. Later, one or another Russian emperor began to appoint the supreme atamans personally.
Historically, after the dissolution of the Zaporozhye Sich by Catherine II, 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 awarded the lands of Taman and Kuban, and the lands were given to them for eternal and hereditary use.
The Kubans can be described as a free militarized association. The population was engaged agriculture, led a sedentary lifestyle, and fought only for state needs. Newcomers and fugitives from the central regions of Russia were willingly accepted here. They mixed with the local population and became "their own".
In the fire of the revolution and civil war, the Cossacks were forced to constantly maneuver between the red and white, 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. Mass repression, evictions, famine and dispossession of kulaks followed. Only in the second half of the 30s. the Cossacks were partially rehabilitated, the Kuban Choir was restored. During the Great Patriotic War, the Cossacks fought on an equal basis with others, mainly together with the regular units of the Red Army.
History of the Terek Cossacks
The Tersk Cossacks The Tersk Cossacks arose at about 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, Tertsy were the third in seniority. They settled along such rivers as Kura, Terek, Sunzha. The headquarters of the Terek Cossack army is the city of Vladikavkaz. The settlement of the territories began in the 16th century.
The Cossacks were in charge of the protection of border territories, but they themselves sometimes did not hesitate to raid the possessions of the Tatar princelings. Cossacks often had to defend themselves from mountain raids. However, the close proximity to the highlanders brought not only negative emotions to the Cossack. The Tertsy adopted some linguistic expressions from the mountaineers, and in particular the requisites of clothing and ammunition: cloaks and hats, daggers and sabers.
The established cities of Kizlyar and Mozdok became the centers of concentration of the Terek Cossacks. 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 Don people: massive repressions and evictions.
Interesting Facts
In 1949, the lyrical comedy "The Kuban Cossacks" directed by Ivan Pyryev appeared on the Soviet screen. Despite the obvious varnishing of reality and the smoothing out of socio-political conflicts, she fell in love with the mass audience, and the song "What You Were" is performed from the stage to this day.
It is interesting that the very word "Cossack" in translation from the Turkic language means a free, freedom-loving, proud person. So the name stuck to these people, you know, is far from accidental.
The Cossack does not bow before any authorities, he is fast and free like the wind.
Definition of the Cossacks
The Cossacks are an ethnic, social and historical group of united Russians, Ukrainians, Kalmyks, Buryats, Bashkirs, Tatars, Evenks, Ossetians, etc.
Cossacks - (from Turk: Cossack, Cossack - daring, free man) - the military class in Russia.
Cossacks (Cossacks) are a sub-ethnic group of the Russian people living in the southern steppes of Eastern Europe, in particular, Russia and Kazakhstan, and earlier - and Ukraine.
In a broad sense, the word "Cossack" meant a person belonging to the Cossack estate and state, which included the population of several localities of Russia, who had special rights and responsibilities. In a narrower sense, the Cossacks are part armed forces Russian Empire, mainly cavalry and horse artillery, and the word "Cossack" itself means the lower rank of the Cossack troops.
External General characteristics Cossacks
Comparing the separately developed features, we can note the following features characteristic of the Don Cossacks. Straight or slightly wavy hair, thick beard, straight nose with a horizontal base, wide eyes, large mouth, light brown or dark hair, gray, blue or mixed (with green) eyes, relatively tall, weak subbrachycephaly, or mesocephaly, relatively wide face. Using the latter signs, we can compare the Don Cossacks with other Russian peoples, and they, apparently, are more or less common for the Cossack population of the Don and other Great Russian groups, allowing, on a wider scale of comparison, the Don Cossacks to be attributed to one prevailing on the Russian plain to the anthropological type, characterized in general by the same differences.
The nature of the Cossacks
A Cossack cannot consider himself a Cossack if he does not know and does not observe the traditions and customs of the Cossacks. During the years of hard times and the destruction of the Cossacks, these concepts were pretty weathered and distorted under the alien influence. Even our old people, who were already born in Soviet time, do not always interpret the unwritten Cossack laws correctly.
Merciless to enemies, the Cossacks in their midst were always complacent, generous and hospitable. At the heart of the character of the Cossack was some kind of duality: he is cheerful, playful, funny, then unusually sad, silent, inaccessible. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the Cossacks, constantly looking into the eyes of death, tried not to miss the joy that befell them. On the other hand - they are philosophers and poets at heart - they often thought about the eternal, about the vanity of existence and about the inevitable outcome of this life. Therefore, the basis in the formation of the moral and ethical foundations of the Cossack societies was the 10 commandments of Christ. Teaching children to observe the commandments of the Lord, the parents, according to their popular perception, taught: do not kill, do not steal, do not fornicate, work according to your conscience, do not envy another and forgive the offenders, take care of your children and parents, cherish girlish chastity and feminine honor, help the poor, do not offend orphans and widows, defend the Fatherland from enemies. But first of all, strengthen the Orthodox faith: go to Church, observe fasts, cleanse your soul - through repentance from sins, pray to the only God Jesus Christ and add: if someone can do something, then we cannot - we are Cossacks.
The origin of the Cossacks
There are many theories of the origin of the Cossacks:
1. Eastern hypothesis.
According to V. Shambarov, L. Gumilyov and other historians, the Cossacks arose through the merger of Kasogs and Brodniks after the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Kasogi (Kasakhi, Kasaki) are an ancient Circassian people who inhabited the territory of the lower Kuban in the X-XIV centuries.
Brodniki are a people of Turkic-Slavic origin, formed in the lower reaches of the Don in the 12th century (then the border region Kievan Rus.
There is still no single point of view among historians about the time when the Don Cossacks appeared. So NS Korshikov and VN Korolev believe that “in addition to the widespread point of view about the origin of the Cossacks from Russian fugitive people and industrialists, there are other points of view as hypotheses. According to RG Skrynnikov, for example, the original Cossack communities consisted of Tatars, which were then joined by Russian elements. LN Gumilyov proposed to lead the Don Cossacks from the Khazars, who, mixing with the Slavs, made up the roamers, who were not only the predecessors of the Cossacks, but also their direct ancestors. More and more experts are inclined to believe that the origins of the Don Cossacks should be seen in the ancient Slavic population, which, according to archaeological discoveries of recent decades, existed on the Don in the 8th – 15th centuries. "
The Mongols were loyal to the preservation of the subjects of their religions, including the people who were part of their military units. There was also the Saraysko-Podonsk bishopric, which allowed the Cossacks to preserve their identity.
After the split of the Golden Horde, the Cossacks who remained on its territory retained their military organization, but at the same time found themselves completely independent from the fragments of the former empire - the Nogai Horde and Crimean Khanate; and from the Moscow state that appeared in Russia.
In Polish chronicles, the first mention of the Cossacks dates back to 1493, when the Cherkasy voivode Bogdan Fedorovich Glinsky, nicknamed "Mamai", having formed border Cossack detachments in Cherkassy, captured turkish fortress Ochakov.
The French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep, in his book "Traite des nationalites" (1923), expressed the idea that the Cossacks should be considered a separate nation from the Ukrainians, since the Cossacks are probably not Slavs at all, but Byzantinized and Christianized Turks.
2. Slavic hypothesis
According to other points of view, the Cossacks were originally from the Slavs. So the Ukrainian politician and historian V. M. Lytvyn in his three-volume "History of Ukraine" expressed the opinion that the first Ukrainian Cossacks were Slavs.
According to his research, sources speak of the existence of the Cossacks in the Crimea at the end of the XIII century. In the first mentions, the Turkic word "Cossack" meant "guard" or vice versa - "robber". Also - "free man", "exile", "adventurer", "vagabond", "defender of the sky." This word often denoted free, "no man's" people who traded with weapons. In particular, according to the old Russian epics dating back to the reign of Vladimir the Great, the hero Ilya Muromets is called the "old Cossack". It was in this sense that it was assigned to the Cossacks.
The first memories of such Cossacks date back to 1489. During the campaign of the Polish king Jan-Albrecht against the Tatars, the Christian Cossacks showed the way to his army in Podolia. In the same year, detachments of atamans Vasily Zhily, Bogdan and Golubts attacked the Tavan ferry in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and, having dispersed the Tatar guards, robbed the merchants. Subsequently, the khan's complaints about the Cossack attacks became regular. According to Lytvyn, given how habitually this designation is used in documents of that time, it can be assumed that the Cossacks-Rusich were known for more than one decade, at least from the middle of the 15th century. Considering that the evidence of the phenomenon of the Ukrainian Cossacks was localized on the territory of the so-called "Wild Field", it is possible that their neighbors from the Turkic-speaking (mainly Tatar) environment, the Ukrainian Cossacks borrowed not only the name, but also many other words, will take appearance, organization and tactics, mentality ... Litvin V. believes that in ethnic composition Cossacks a certain place is occupied by the Tatar element.
Cossacks in history
Representatives of various nationalities participated in the formation of the Cossacks, but the Slavs prevailed. From an ethnographic point of view, the first Cossacks were divided according to the place of origin into Ukrainian and Russian. Among both those and others, free and service Cossacks can be distinguished. Russian service Cossacks (policemen, regimental and sentry) were used to protect the notch lines and cities, receiving for this salary and land for life. Although they were equated with "service people by the device" (archers, gunners), in contrast to them, they had a stanitsa organization and an elective system of military control. They existed in this form until the beginning of the 18th century. The first community of Russian free Cossacks arose on the Don, and then on the Yaik, Terek and Volga rivers. In contrast to the service Cossacks, the centers of the emergence of the free Cossacks became the coasts of large rivers (Dnieper, Don, Yaik, Terek) and the steppe expanses, which left a noticeable imprint on the Cossacks and determined their way of life.
Each large territorial community as a form of military-political unification of independent Cossack settlements was called the Voisk. The main economic occupation of the free Cossacks was hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. For example, in the Don Host until the beginning of the 18th century, arable farming was prohibited on pain of death. As the Cossacks themselves believed, they lived "from grass and water."
War was of great importance in the life of the Cossack communities: they were in constant military confrontation with hostile and militant nomadic neighbors, therefore, one of the most important sources of livelihood for them was war booty (as a result of the campaigns "for zipuns and yasyrs" in Crimea, Turkey, Persia , to the Caucasus). River and sea trips on plows were made, as well as horse raids. Often several Cossack units united and carried out joint land and sea operations, everything captured became common property - duvan.
The main feature of public Cossack life was a military organization with an elective system of government and democratic order. The main decisions (questions of war and peace, the election of officials, the court of the guilty) were made at general meetings of the treasury, stanitsa and military circles, or Rada, which were the highest governing bodies. The main executive power belonged to the ataman, who was replaced annually by the military (koshevoy in Zaporozhye) chieftain. At the time of hostilities, a marching chieftain was elected, whose submission was unquestioning.
Diplomatic relations with the Russian state were maintained by sending winter and light villages (embassies) to Moscow with an appointed chieftain. From the moment the Cossacks entered the historical arena, their relations with Russia were distinguished by ambivalence. Initially, they were built on the principle of independent states with one enemy. Moscow and the Cossack Troops were allies. Russian state acted as the main partner and played the leading role as the strongest party. In addition, the Cossack Troops were interested in receiving monetary and military assistance from the Russian Tsar. The Cossack territories played an important role as a buffer on the southern and eastern borders of the Russian state, covering it from the raids of the steppe hordes. Cossacks also took part in many wars on the side of Russia against neighboring states. For the successful fulfillment of these important functions, the practice of the Moscow tsars included the annual sending of gifts, cash salaries, weapons and ammunition to individual Troops, as well as bread, since the Cossacks did not produce it. All communications between the Cossacks and the tsar were conducted through the Ambassadorial Prikaz, that is, as with a foreign state. It was often beneficial for the Russian authorities to represent the free Cossack communities as completely independent from Moscow. On the other hand, the Moscow state was dissatisfied with the Cossack communities, which constantly attacked Turkish possessions, which often ran counter to Russian foreign policy interests.
Often periods of cooling occurred between the allies, and Russia stopped all assistance to the Cossacks. Moscow's discontent was also caused by the constant departure of its subjects to the Cossack regions. The democratic order (all are equal, no authorities, no taxes) became a magnet that attracted more and more enterprising and courageous people from the Russian lands.
The fears of Russia turned out to be by no means groundless - during the 17-18 centuries the Cossacks were at the forefront of powerful anti-government uprisings, the leaders of the Cossack-peasant uprisings - Stepan Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Emelyan Pugachev - emerged from its ranks. The role of the Cossacks was great during the events of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century. Having supported False Dmitry I, they made up a significant part of his military detachments. Later, the free Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks, as well as Russian service Cossacks, took an active part in the camp of various forces: in 1611 they participated in the first militia, nobles already prevailed in the second militia, but at the council of 1613 it was the word of the Cossack atamans that was decisive in the election of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov.
In the 16th century, under King Stefan Batory, the Cossacks were formed in the regiments of the Commonwealth to carry out border guard duties and as an auxiliary army in the wars with Turkey and Sweden. These Cossack detachments received the name of the Registered Cossacks. As light cavalry, they were widely used in the wars waged by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the Registered Cossacks, Armored Cossacks also stand out, occupying a niche of medium cavalry - lighter than the Winged Hussars, but heavier than the usual Registered Cossack troops.
Cossack communities ("troops", "hordes") began to form on the territory of the Muscovy of the 16th and 17th centuries. from the sentry and village services that guarded the border territories from the devastating raids of the hordes Crimean Tatars and nogayev. However, according to the official version, the oldest of all Cossack formations is the Zaporozhye Sich, founded in the second half of the 16th century on the territory of present-day Ukraine, which was then part of the Polish state. After a long period of nominal dependence on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it became part of the Russian Empire in the middle of the 17th century, and was destroyed by Catherine II in the 18th century. A part of the Cossacks went beyond the Danube, to the territory then belonging to Turkey, and founded the Transdanubian Sich, some retained their Cossack status, but were resettled to the Kuban, as a result of which the Kuban Cossack army arose.
In the Moscow state of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Cossacks were part of the sentry and village services, guarding the border territories from the ruinous raids of the Crimean Tatars and Nogai. The central administration of the city Cossacks was first the Streletsky order, and then the Discharge order. The Siberian Cossacks were in charge of the Siberian Order, the Zaporozhye and Little Russian Cossacks - the Little Russian Order.
Don Cossacks swore allegiance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1671, and from 1721 the army was subordinated to the St. Petersburg Military Collegium. By the end of the reign of Peter the Great, following the Don and Yaik Cossacks, the rest of the Cossack communities were transferred to the department of the military collegium. Their internal structure was transformed, a hierarchy of government authorities was introduced. Having subjugated 85 thousand Cossacks to its power, the government used them to colonize the newly conquered lands and protect state borders, mainly southern and eastern.
In the first half of the 18th century, new Cossack troops were created: Orenburg, Astrakhan, Volzhskoe. V late XVIII century, the Yekaterinoslav and Black Sea Cossack troops were created.
Over time, the Cossack population moved forward into uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development of the North Caucasus, Siberia (Ermak's expedition), the Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk.
The controversial role played by the Cossacks in Time of Troubles, forced the government in the 17th century to pursue a policy of a sharp reduction in the detachments of service Cossacks in the main territory of the state. But on the whole, the Russian throne, taking into account the most important functions of the Cossacks as a military force in the border areas, showed patience and sought to subordinate it to its rule. In order to consolidate loyalty to the Russian throne, the tsars, using all the levers, managed to achieve by the end of the 17th century the acceptance of the oath by all the Troops (the last Don Army was in 1671). From voluntary allies, the Cossacks turned into Russian subjects.
With the incorporation of the southeastern territories into Russia, the Cossacks remained only a special part of the Russian population, gradually losing many of their democratic rights and conquests. Since the 18th century, the state has constantly regulated the life of the Cossack regions, modernized the traditional Cossack management structures in the right direction for itself, turning them into component part administrative system of the Russian empire.
Since 1721, the Cossack units were under the jurisdiction of the Cossack expedition of the Military Collegium. In the same year, Peter I abolished the election of military atamans and introduced the institution of order atamans appointed by the supreme power. The Cossacks lost the last remnants of independence after the defeat Pugachev revolt in 1775, when Catherine II liquidated the Zaporozhye Sich. In 1798, by the decree of Paul I, all the Cossack officer ranks were equated to the general army, and their owners received the rights to the nobility. In 1802, the first Regulations for the Cossack troops were developed. In 1827, the heir to the throne was appointed the most august ataman of all Cossack troops. In 1838, the first drill regulations for the Cossack units were approved, and in 1857 the Cossacks came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate (from 1867 the Main Directorate) of the irregular (from 1879 - the Cossack) troops of the War Ministry, from 1910 - into the subordination of the General Staff.
From the 19th century to the October Revolution, the Cossacks mainly performed the role of defenders of the Russian statehood and the support of the tsarist power.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Guard included three Cossack regiments. The Cossack Life Guards Regiment was formed in 1798. The regiment distinguished itself in the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino, in the campaign against Paris in 1813-1814 and across the Danube in 1828. The Life Guards Ataman Regiment was formed as part of the Don Army in 1775; in 1859 he became a guard; was considered exemplary among the Cossack regiments. The Consolidated Cossack Life Guards Regiment was formed in 1906, it consisted of one hundred from the Ural and Orenburg Cossack troops, fifty from the Siberian and Transbaikal and a platoon from the Astrakhan, Semirechensky, Amur and Ussuri Cossack troops. In addition, His Own was formed from the Cossacks. Imperial Majesty Convoy.
During the civil war, most of the Cossacks opposed the Soviet regime. Cossack regions became a pillar White movement... The largest anti-Bolshevik armed formations of the Cossacks were the Don Army in the south of Russia, the Orenburg and Ural armies in the east. At the same time, some of the Cossacks served in the Red Army. After the revolution, the Cossack troops were disbanded.
During the years of the civil war, the Cossack population was subjected to massive repressions in the process, according to the wording of the Central Committee directive of January 24, 1919, of merciless mass terror against the tops of the Cossacks "by their universal extermination", and the Cossacks who "took any direct or indirect participation in the fight against Soviet power ", initiated by the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee in the person of its Chairman Ya. M. Sverdlov.
In 1936, restrictions on the service of the Cossacks in the units of the Red Army were lifted. This decision received great support in Cossack circles, in particular, the Don Cossacks sent the following letter to the Soviet government, published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on April 24, 1936:
“Let our Marshals Voroshilov and Budyonny just call the cry, we will fly like falcons to defend our Motherland ...
In accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Defense K. E. Voroshilov No. 67 dated April 23, 1936, some cavalry divisions received the status of Cossacks. On May 15, 1936, the 10th Territorial Cavalry North Caucasian Division was renamed into the 10th Terek-Stavropol Territorial Cossack Division, the 12th Territorial Cavalry Division stationed in the Kuban was renamed into the 12th Kuban Territorial Cossack Division, the 4th Cavalry Leningrad Red Banner The division named after Comrade Voroshilov was renamed into the 4th Don Cossack Red Banner Division named after K.E. Voroshilov, the 6th Cavalry Chongarskaya Red Banner named after Comrade Budyonny was renamed into the 6th Kuban-Tersk Cossack Red Banner Division named after K.E. SM Budyonny, the 13th Don Territorial Cossack Division was also formed on the Don. The Kuban Cossacks served in the 72nd Cavalry Division, the 9th Plastun Rifle Division, the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps (later renamed the 4th Guards Kuban Cavalry Corps), the Orenburg Cossacks served in the 11th (89th) , then the 8th Guards Rivne Order of Lenin, the Order of Suvorov of the Cossack cavalry division and the Cossack militia division in Chelyabinsk.
The detachments sometimes included Cossacks who had previously served in the White Army (such as K.I.Nedorubov). By a special act, the wearing of a previously prohibited Cossack uniform was restored. Cossack units were commanded by N. Ya. Kirichenko, A. G. Selivanov, I. A. Pliev, S. I. Gorshkov, M. F. Maleev, V. S. Golovskoy, F. V. Kamkov, I. V. Tutarinov , Ya. S. Sharaburko, I. P. Kalyuzhny, P. Ya. Strepukhov, M. I. Surzhikov and others. Also, such commanders include Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky, who commanded the Kuban brigade in battles on the Chinese Eastern Railway back in 1934. In 1936, the dress uniform for the Cossack units was approved. In this uniform, the Cossacks walked at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945. The first parade as part of the Red Army with the participation of Cossack units was to take place on May 1, 1936. However, for various reasons, participation in the military parade of the Cossacks was canceled. Only on May 1, 1937, the Cossack units as part of the Red Army marched in a military parade across Red Square.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Cossack units, both regular, as part of the Red Army, and volunteer ones, took an active part in hostilities against the Nazi invaders. On August 2, 1942, near the village of Kushchevskaya, the 17th cavalry corps of General N. Ya.Kirichenko as part of the 12th and 13th Kuban, 15th and 116th Don Cossack divisions stopped the offensive of large Wehrmacht forces moving from Rostov to Krasnodar ... In the Kushchevskaya attack, the Cossacks destroyed up to 1,800 soldiers and officers, captured 300 people, captured 18 guns and 25 mortars.
On the Don, a Cossack hundred from the village of Berezovskaya under the command of a 52-year-old Cossack, senior lieutenant K.I. title of Hero Soviet Union.
In most cases, the newly formed Cossack units, volunteer Cossack hundreds were poorly armed, the detachments, as a rule, came Cossacks with melee weapons and collective farm horses. Artillery, tanks, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, communication units and sappers in the detachments, as a rule, were absent, in connection with which the detachments suffered huge losses. For example, as it is mentioned in the leaflets of the Kuban Cossacks, “they jumped from saddles onto the armor of tanks, closed the viewing slits with cloaks and overcoats, set fire to cars with Molotov cocktails”. Also, a large number of Cossacks poured into the national parts of the North Caucasus as volunteers. Such units were created in the fall of 1941 following the example of the experience of the First World War. These cavalry units were also popularly called "Wild Divisions". For example, in the fall of 1941, 255 separate Chechen-Ingush cavalry regiment was formed in Grozny. It consisted of several hundred Cossack volunteers from among the natives of Sunzha and Terskie villages... The regiment fought at Stalingrad in August 1942, where in two days of fighting, on August 4-5 at the station (crossing) Chilekovo (from Kotelnikovo to Stalingrad) lost in battles against units of the 4th tank army Wehrmacht 302 soldiers, led by the regiment commissar, art. political instructor M. D. Madaev. There are 57 Russian Cossacks among the dead and missing of this regiment during these two days. Also, volunteer Cossacks fought in all national cavalry units from the rest of the republics of the North Caucasus.
Since 1943, the Cossack cavalry divisions and tank units were united, in connection with which mechanized cavalry groups were formed. Horses were used to a greater extent for organizing fast movement; in battle, the Cossacks were used as infantry. Plastun divisions were also formed from the Kuban and Terek Cossacks. From among the Cossacks, 262 cavalrymen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 7 cavalry corps and 17 cavalry divisions received guards ranks.
In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or Plastun units, but in the whole Soviet army or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace # 1, Hero of the Soviet Union DF Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless; Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D. M. Karbyshev - ancestral Ural Cossack Kryashen, a native of Omsk; commanding Northern Fleet Admiral A. A. Golovko - Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Cool; designer-gunsmith F.V. Tokarev - Don Cossack, a native of the village of Yegorlyk Oblast of the Don Cossack; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Front, General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union M.M. Popov - Don Cossack, a native of the village of Ust-Medveditskaya Oblast of the Don Army, etc.
The Cossacks took an active part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944.
Cossack troops
By the beginning of the First World War, there were eleven Cossack troops:
1. Don Cossack army, seniority - 1570 (Rostov, Volgograd, Kalmykia, Lugansk, Donetsk);
2. Orenburg Cossack army, 1574 (Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan in Russia, Kustanai in Kazakhstan);
3. Terek Cossack army, 1577 (Stavropol, Kabardino-Balkaria, S. Ossetia, Chechnya, Dagestan);
4. Siberian Cossack army, 1582 (Omsk, Kurgan, Altai region, North Kazakhstan, Akmola, Kokchetav, Pavlodar, Semipalatinsk, East Kazakhstan);
5. Ural Cossack army, 1591 (until 1775 - Yaitskoe) (Ural, former Guryev in Kazakhstan, Orenburg (Ileksky, Tashlinsky, Pervomaisky districts) in Russia;
6. Transbaikal Cossack army, 1655 (Chita, Buryatia);
7. Kuban Cossack army, 1696 (Krasnodar, Adygea, Stavropol, Karachay-Cherkessia);
8. Astrakhan Cossack army, 1750 (Astrakhan, Volgograd, Saratov);
9. Semirechenskoe Cossack army, 1852 (Almaty, Chimkent);
10. Amur Cossack army, 1855 (Amur, Khabarovsk);
11. Ussuriysk Cossack army, 1865 (Primorskiy, Khabarovskiy);
During the collapse of the Russian Empire and the civil war, several Cossack state formations were proclaimed:
· Kuban People's Republic;
· Don Cossack Republic;
· Terek Cossack Republic;
Ural Cossack Republic
· Siberian-Semirechenskaya Cossack Republic;
· Transbaikal Cossack Republic;
In addition to differences in uniform between various Cossack troops, there were also differences in the color of uniforms, wide trousers and stripes with band caps:
1. Amur Cossacks - dark green uniforms, yellow stripes, green shoulder straps, dark green cap with a yellow band;
2. Astrakhan Cossacks - blue uniforms, yellow stripes, yellow shoulder straps, blue cap with yellow band;
3. Volga Cossacks - blue uniforms, red stripes, a red shoulder strap with a red piping, a blue cap with a red band;
4. Don Cossacks - blue uniforms, red stripes, blue shoulder straps with red piping, blue cap with a red band;
5. Yenisei Cossacks - a khaki uniform, red stripes, a red shoulder strap, a khaki cap with a red band;
6. Transbaikal Cossacks - dark green uniforms, yellow stripes, yellow shoulder straps, dark green cap with a yellow band;
7. Kuban Cossacks - a black or so-called lilac Circassian coat with gazyry, black wide trousers with a crimson half-lamp, a papakha or a Kubanka (at the scouts) with a crimson top, crimson shoulder straps and a hood. The same with the Terek Cossacks, only the colors are light blue;
8. Orenburg Cossacks - dark green uniforms (chekmen), gray-blue harem pants, light blue stripes, light blue shoulder straps, dark green cap crown with light blue piping and band;
9. Siberian Cossacks - a khaki uniform, scarlet stripes, a scarlet shoulder strap, a khaki cap with a scarlet band;
10. Terek Cossacks - black uniform, light blue edging, shoulder strap light blue, black cap with light blue band;
11. Ural Cossacks - blue uniforms, crimson stripes, crimson shoulder straps, a blue cap with a crimson band;
12. Ussuriysk Cossacks - dark green uniforms, yellow stripes, yellow shoulder straps with green piping, dark green cap with a yellow band;
Cossacks in Russia have been known since the 14th century. Initially, these were settlers who fled from hard work, court or hunger, who mastered the free steppe and forest expanses. of Eastern Europe, and later reached the Asian boundless spaces, passing through the Urals.
Kuban Cossacks
The Kuban Cossacks were formed by the "loyal Zaporozhians" who moved to the right bank of the Kuban. These lands were granted to them by Empress Catherine II at the request of the military judge Anton Golovaty with the mediation of Prince Potemkin. As a result of several campaigns, all 40 kurens of the former Zaporozhye army moved to the Kuban steppes and formed several settlements there, while changing the name from Zaporozhye Cossacks to Kuban. Since the Cossacks continued to be part of the regular Russian army, they also had a military task: to create a defensive line along all the boundaries of the settlement, which they successfully completed.
In fact, the Kuban Cossacks were militarized agricultural settlements, in which all men in peacetime were engaged in peasant or craft work, and during the war or by order of the emperor, they formed military detachments that acted as part of the Russian troops as separate combat units. At the head of the entire army was the order chieftain, who was chosen from among the Cossack nobility by voting. He also had the rights of the governor of these lands on the orders of the Russian tsar.
Before 1917, the total number of the Cossack Kuban army was more than 300,000 sabers, which was a huge force even at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Don Cossacks
Since the beginning of the 15th century, people began to settle in the wild lands belonging to no one on the banks of the Don River. They were different people: escaped convicts, peasants who wanted to find more arable land, Kalmyks who came from their distant eastern steppes, robbers, adventurers and others. Less than fifty years later, the sovereign Ivan the Terrible, who reigned in Russia at that time, received complaints from the Nogai prince Yusuf that his ambassadors began to disappear in the Don steppes. They became victims of the Cossack robbers.
This was the time of the birth of the Don Cossacks, which got its name from the river, near which people set up their villages and farms. Until the suppression of the uprising of Kondraty Bulavin in 1709, the Don Cossacks lived a free life, not knowing the tsars or any other government besides their own, however, they had to submit to the Russian Empire and join the great Russian army.
The main heyday of the glory of the Donskoy army was in the 19th century, when this huge army was divided into four districts, in each of which regiments were recruited, which soon became famous all over the world. The total service life of the Cossack was 30 years with several interruptions. So, at the age of 20, the young man went to the service for the first time and served for three years. Then he went home for two years on vacation. At the age of 25 he was again called up for three years, and again after serving two years he was at home. It could be repeated before four times, after which the warrior remained in his village for good and could only be drafted into the army during the war.
The Don Cossacks could be called a militarized peasantry with many privileges. The Cossacks were freed from many taxes and duties that were imposed on peasants in other provinces, and they were initially freed from serfdom.
It cannot be said that the Don residents easily got their rights. They have long and stubbornly defended every concession of the king, and sometimes even with weapons in their hands. There is nothing more terrible than a Cossack revolt, all the rulers knew this, so the demands of the warlike settlers were usually satisfied, albeit reluctantly.
Khopyor Cossacks
In the 15th century, in the basins of the river. Khopra, Bityuga fugitive people appear from the Ryazan principality, who call themselves Cossacks. The first mention of these people dates back to 1444. After the annexation of the Ryazan principality to Moscow, immigrants from the Moscow state also appeared here. Here fugitives escape from serf bondage, persecution of boyars and governors. The newcomers settle on the banks of the rivers Vorona, Khopra, Savala and others. They call themselves free Cossacks, are engaged in animal hunting, beekeeping, and fishing. Even monastic grounds appear here.
After the church schism in 1685, hundreds of schismatics-Old Believers flock here, who did not recognize the "Nikonian" corrections of church books. The government is taking measures to stop the flight of peasants to the Khopersky Territory, demands from the Don military authorities not only not to accept fugitives, but also to return those who had previously fled. Since 1695, there have been many fugitives from Voronezh, where the Russian fleet was created by Peter I. Workers fled from the shipyards, soldiers, serfs. The population in the Khopersky Territory is growing rapidly due to the Little Russian Cherkassians who fled from Russia and resettled.
In the early 80s of the 17th century, most of the schismatics-Old Believers were expelled from the Khopersky region, many remained. During the resettlement of the Khopersky regiment to the Caucasus, several dozen families of schismatics fell into the number of settlers on the line, and from the old line their descendants ended up in the Kuban villages, including Nevinnomysskaya.
Until the 80s of the 18th century, the Khoper Cossacks did little to obey the Don military authorities, they often simply ignored their orders. In the 80s, during the time of the ataman Ilovaisky, the Don authorities established close contact with the Khopers and considered them an integral part of the Don Army. In the fight against the Crimean and Kuban Tatars, they are used as an additional force, creating detachments from the Khoper Cossacks on a voluntary basis - hundreds, fifty - for the duration of certain campaigns. At the end of such campaigns, the detachments dispersed to their homes.
Zaporozhye Cossacks
The word "Cossack" in translation from Tatar means "free man, vagabond, adventurer." Initially, it was so. Beyond the Dnieper rapids, in the wild steppe, which did not belong to any state, fortified settlements began to appear, in which armed people gathered, mainly Christians, who called themselves Cossacks. They raided European cities and Turkish caravans, making no distinction between the two.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Cossacks began to represent a significant military force that was noticed by the Polish crown. The then ruling Commonwealth King Sigismund offered the Cossacks service, but was rejected. However, such a large army could not exist without some kind of command, in connection with which separate regiments, called kurens, were gradually formed, which were united into larger formations - koshi. Above each such kosh stood the kosh chieftain, and the council of the kosh chieftains was the supreme command of the entire Cossack army.
A little later, on the Dnieper island of Khortytsya, the main stronghold of this army was erected, which was called the "slash". And since the island was located immediately beyond the rapids of the river, it got its name - Zaporizhzhya. By the name of this fortress and the Cossacks who were in it, they began to be called Zaporozhye. Later, all the warriors were called that, regardless of whether they lived in the village or in other Cossack settlements in Little Russia - southern borders Russian Empire, on which the state of Ukraine is now located.
Later, the Polish crown still received these incomparable warriors for its service. However, after the revolt of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the Zaporozhye army came under the rule of the Russian tsars and served Russia until its disbandment on the orders of Catherine the Great.
Khlynov Cossacks
In 1181, the Novgorodians-ushkuiniks founded a fortified camp on the Vyatka River, the town of Khlynov (from the word khlyn - “ushkuinik, river robber”), renamed at the end of the 18th century to Vyatka and began to commune with autocracy. From Khlynov they undertook their trade travels and military raids to all parts of the world. In 1361, they penetrated into the capital of the Golden Horde, Saraichik, and plundered it, and in 1365, beyond the Ural ridge, to the banks of the Ob River.
By the end of the 15th century, Khlynov's Cossacks had become terrible throughout the Volga region, not only for the Tatars and Mari, but also for the Russians. After the overthrow of the Tatar yoke, Ivan III drew attention to this restless and uncontrollable people, and in 1489 Vyatka was taken and annexed to Moscow. The defeat of Vyatka was accompanied by great atrocities - the main leaders of the people Anikiev, Lazarev and Bogodayschikov were brought to Moscow in chains and executed there; zemstvo people moved to Borovsk, Aleksin and Kremensk, and merchants to Dmitrov; the rest are turned into slaves.
Most of the Khlynovsky Cossacks with their wives and children left on their ships:
Some on the Northern Dvina (according to the searches of the ataman of the village of Severyukovskaya V.I.
Others down the Vyatka and Volga, where they took refuge in the Zhigulevsky mountains. Trade caravans gave this freemen a chance to acquire "zipuns", and the border towns of the Ryazan people hostile to Moscow served as a place for the sale of booty, in exchange for which the Khlynovites could receive bread and gunpowder. In the first half of the 16th century, this freeman from the Volga was dragged to the Ilovlya and Tishanka, which flow into the Don, and then settled along this river up to Azov.
Still others are on the Verkhnyaya Kama and Chusovaya, on the territory of the modern Verkhnekamsky region. Subsequently, in the Urals, huge possessions of the Stroganov merchants appeared, which the tsar allowed to hire detachments of Cossacks from among the former Khlynovites to protect their estates and conquer the border Siberian lands.
Meshchersky Cossacks
The Meshchersky Cossacks (they are Meshchera, they are Mishare) are residents of the so-called Meshchera region (presumably the southeast of the modern Moscow region, almost the entire Ryazan, partly Vladimir, Penza, north of the Tambov region and further to the middle Volga region) with the center in the city of Kasimov, which made up in the future, the people of the Kasimov Tatars and the small Great Russian sub-ethnos of Meshchera. The camps of the Meshchersky were scattered throughout the forest-steppe of the upper reaches of the Oka and the north of the Ryazan principality, they were even in the Kolomensky district (the village of Vasilyevskoye, Tatarsky Khutors, as well as in the Kadomsky and Shatsky districts. Horse Don Cossacks, Kasimov Tatars, Meshchera and the indigenous Great Russian population of the southeast of Moscow, Ryazan, Tambov, Penza and other provinces The term “meschera” presumably has a parallel with the word “Mozhar, Madyar” - that is, in Arabic “The fighting man.” The villages of the Meshchersky Cossacks also bordered on the villagers of the Northern Don. Samikh Meshcheryakov was also willingly attracted to the sovereign's city and guard service.
Seversk Cossacks
They lived on the territory of modern Ukraine and Russia, in the basins of the Desna, Vorskla, Seim, Sula, Bystraya Sosna, Oskol and Seversky Donets rivers. Mentioned in written sources from the end. XV to XVII centuries
V XIV-XV centuries sevryuki constantly came into contact with the Horde, and then with the Crimean and Nogai Tatars; with Lithuania and Muscovy. Living in constant danger, they were good warriors. Moscow and Lithuanian princes willingly accepted sevryuk into service.
In the 15th century, stellate sturgeons, thanks to their stable migration, began to actively populate the southern lands that were then in vassalage from Lithuania Novosilsky principality.
V XV-XVII centuries stellate sturgeons were already a militarized border population guarding the borders of adjacent parts of the Polish-Lithuanian and Moscow states. Apparently, they were in many ways similar to the early Zaporozhye, Don and other similar Cossacks, they had some autonomy and a communal military organization.
In the 16th century, they were considered representatives of the (ancient) Russian nationality.
As representatives of the service people, sevryuk are mentioned as early as the beginning of the 17th century, in the era of the Time of Troubles, when they supported the Bolotnikov uprising, so that this war was often called "sevryukovskaya". The Moscow authorities responded with punitive operations, up to the defeat of some volosts. After the end of the Troubles, the Sevryuk cities of Sevsk, Kursk, Rylsk and Putivl were colonized from Central Russia.
After the division of Severshchina under the agreements of the Deulinsky armistice (1619), between Muscovy and the Commonwealth, the name of sevryuk practically disappears from the historical arena. Western Severshchina is undergoing active Polish expansion (serf colonization), northeastern (Moscow) is populated by service people and serfs from Great Russia. Most of the Seversk Cossacks passed into the position of the peasantry, some joined the Zaporozhye Cossacks. The rest moved to the Lower Don.
Volga (Volga) army
They appeared on the Volga in the 16th century. They were all sorts of fugitives from the Moscow state and people from the Don. They "stole", delaying trade caravans and interfering with proper relations with Persia. Already at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, there were two Cossack towns on the Volga. The Samara bow, at that time covered with impenetrable forests, was a safe haven for the Cossacks. The small river Usa, crossing the Samara bow in the direction from south to north, made it possible for them to warn caravans moving along the Volga. Noticing the appearance of ships from the tops of the cliffs, they swam across the Usa in their light canoes, then dragged themselves to the Volga and attacked the ships by surprise.
In the current villages of Ermakovka and Koltsovka, located on the Samarskaya Luka, the places where Ermak and his comrade Ivan Koltso once lived are still recognized. To eliminate Cossack robberies, the Moscow government sent troops to the Volga and built cities there (the latter are indicated in the historical sketch of the Volga).
In the XVIII century. the government begins to organize the correct Cossack army on the Volga. In 1733, 1057 families of Don Cossacks settled between Tsaritsyn and Kamyshenka. In 1743, it was ordered to settle in the Volga Cossack towns of the natives and captives of the Saltan-ul and Kabardin people, who are being baptized. In 1752, separate teams of the Volga Cossacks who lived below Tsaritsyn were united in the Astrakhan Cossack regiment, which laid the foundation for the Astrakhan Cossack army, formed in 1776. In 1770, 517 Volga Cossack families were transferred to the Terek; from them were formed the Mozdok and Volga Cossack regiments, which were part of the Cossacks of the Caucasian line, which was transformed in 1860 into the Terek Cossack army.
Siberian army
Officially, the army led and continues its origins from December 6, 1582 (December 19 according to the new style), when, according to the chronicle legend, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, as a reward for the capture of the Siberian Khanate, gave Yermak's squad the name "Tsar's Serving Rat". This seniority was bestowed on the army by the Highest order dated December 6, 1903. And it, thus, began to be considered the third oldest Cossack army in Russia (after the Donskoy and Terskoy).
The army as such was formed only in the second half of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. a whole series of orders of the central government, caused by military necessity, at different times. The milestone can be considered the Regulations of 1808, from which the history of the Siberian linear Cossack army itself is usually counted.
In 1861, the army underwent a significant reorganization. The Tobolsk Cossack Cavalry Regiment, the Tobolsk Cossack Foot Battalion and the Tomsk City Cossack Regiment were numbered to him, and a set of troops from 12 regimental districts was installed, which put in service a hundred in the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, 12 cavalry regiments, three foot half-battalions with rifle half-squads a horse-artillery brigade of three batteries (later the batteries were turned into regular ones, one was included in the Orenburg artillery brigade in 1865 and two in the 2nd Turkestan artillery brigade in 1870).
Egg army
At the end of the 15th century, free communities of Cossacks were formed on the Yaik River, from which the Yaik Cossack army was formed. According to the generally accepted traditional version, like the Don Cossacks, the Yaik Cossacks were formed from migrant refugees from the Russian kingdom (for example, from the Khlynovsky land), and also, thanks to the migration of Cossacks from the lower reaches of the Volga and Don. Their main occupations were fishing, salt mining, and hunting. The army was controlled by a circle that gathered in the Yaitsky town (on the middle reaches of the Yaik). All Cossacks had the per capita right to use the land and to participate in the elections of atamans and military foremen. From the second half of XVI For centuries, the Russian government attracted the Yaik Cossacks to guard the southeastern borders and military colonization, initially allowing them to receive fugitives. In 1718 the government appointed the chieftain of the Yaitsk Cossack army and his assistant; some of the Cossacks were declared fugitive and were subject to return to their former place of residence. In 1720, there was a riot of the Yaik Cossacks, who did not obey the order of the tsarist authorities to return the fugitives and replace the elected chieftain with the appointed one. In 1723, the unrest was suppressed, the leaders were executed, the election of atamans and foremen was abolished, after which the army was divided into the foremen and the military side, in which the former adhered to the line of government, as guaranteeing their position, the latter demanded the return of traditional self-government. In 1748, a permanent organization (staff) of the army was introduced, divided into 7 regiments; the military circle finally lost its meaning.
Subsequently, after the suppression of the Pugachev uprising in which the Yaik Cossacks took an active part, in 1775 Catherine II issued a decree stating that, in order to completely obliterate the turmoil that had happened, the Yaitsky army was renamed the Ural Cossack army, the Yaitsky town in Uralsk (it was renamed and more whole line settlements), even the Yaik river was named the Ural. The Ural army finally lost the remnants of its former autonomy.
Astrakhan army
In 1737, by a decree of the Senate in Astrakhan, a three-hundred Cossack team was formed from Kalmyks. In March 28, 1750, on the basis of the team, the Astrakhan Cossack regiment was established, for the replenishment of which up to the regular number of 500 people put in the regiment, Cossacks were recruited in the fortress of Astrakhan and the fortress of Krasny Yar from commoners, former riflemen and city Cossack children, as well as Don horsemen Cossacks and newly baptized Tatars and Kalmyks. The Astrakhan Cossack army was created in 1817; it included all the Cossacks of the Astrakhan and Saratov provinces.
In ancient times, states on our land did not touch their borders as they do now. Between them there were huge spaces in which no one lived - it was either impossible due to the lack of living conditions (there is no water, land for crops, you cannot hunt if there is little game), or it was simply dangerous because of the raids of the nomadic steppe dwellers. It was in such places that the Cossacks were born - on the outskirts of the Russian principalities, on the border with the Great Steppe. In such places, people gathered who were not afraid of a sudden raid of the steppe inhabitants, who knew how to survive and fight without outside help.
The first mentions of Cossack detachments date back to Kievan Rus, for example, Ilya Muromets was called an “old Cossack”. There are references to the participation of Cossack detachments in the Battle of Kulikovo under the command of the governor Dmitry Bobrok. By the end of the XIV century, two large territories in the lower reaches of the Don and Dnieper, on which many Cossack settlements were created and their participation in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible is already indisputable. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and in the Livonian War. The first Russian charter of the stanitsa guard service was drawn up by the boyar M. I. Vorotynsky in 1571. According to it, the stanitsa (guard) Cossacks or stanitsa men carried out the guard service, while the city (regimental) Cossacks defended the cities. In 1612, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia, the Don Cossacks liberated Moscow and expelled the Poles from the Russian land. For all these merits, the Russian tsars approved the Cossacks' right to own the Quiet Don for ever and ever.
At that time, the Ukrainian Cossacks were divided into the register in the service of Poland and the grassroots, which created the Zaporizhzhya Sich. As a result of political and religious pressure from the Rzecz Pospolita, the Ukrainian Cossacks became the basis liberation movement, raised a series of uprisings, the last of which, led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, achieved its goal - Ukraine was reunited with the Russian kingdom of the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654. For Russia, the agreement led to the acquisition of part of the lands of Western Russia, which justified the title of the Russian tsars - the sovereign of All Russia. Muscovite Rus became a gatherer of lands with a Slavic Orthodox population.
Both the Dnieper and Don Cossacks at that time were at the forefront of the struggle against the Turks and Tatars, who constantly raided the Russian lands, devastating crops, driving people into captivity and bleeding our lands. Countless feats were performed by the Cossacks, but one of the most striking examples the heroism of our ancestors is the Azov seat - eight thousand Cossacks, having captured Azov - one of the most powerful fortresses and an important communication center - were able to fight off the two hundred thousandth Turkish army. Moreover, the Turks were forced to retreat, having lost about one hundred thousand soldiers - half of their army! But over time, Crimea was liberated, Turkey was pushed out from the shores of the Black Sea far to the south, and the Zaporizhzhya Sich lost its importance as an advanced outpost, finding itself several hundred kilometers inland in peaceful territory. On August 5, 1775, by the signing of the Russian Empress Catherine II of the manifesto "On the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and its reckoning with the Novorossiysk province", the Sich was finally disbanded. The Zaporozhye Cossacks then split into several parts. The most numerous moved to the Black Sea Cossack army, which carried border guards on the shores of the Black Sea, a significant part of the Cossacks was resettled to protect the southern borders of Russia in the Kuban and Azov. The Sultan allowed the five thousand Cossacks who left for Turkey to found the Transdanubian Sich. In 1828, the Trans-Danube Cossacks with Koshev Yosip Gladky went over to the side of Russia and were pardoned personally by Emperor Nicholas I. Throughout the immense territory of Russia, the Cossacks began to carry out border guards. It is not without reason that Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III once aptly remarked: "The borders of the Russian state lie on the archak of the Cossack saddle ..."
The Donets, Kuban, Tertsy, and later their brothers in arms, the Urals and Siberians, were the permanent combat vanguard in all the wars in which Russia fought for centuries almost without respite. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in Patriotic War 1812 year. The memory of the legendary commander of the Don Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who led the Cossack regiments from Borodino to Paris, is still alive. The very regiments about which Napoleon would say with envy: "If I had Cossack cavalry, I would have conquered the whole world." Patrols, reconnaissance, security, distant raids - all this daily hard military work was carried out by the Cossacks, and their order of battle - Cossack lava - showed itself in all its glory in that war.
In the popular mind, the image of the Cossack as a natural equestrian warrior was formed. But there was also the Cossack infantry - scouts - who became the prototype of modern special-purpose units. It originated on the Black Sea coast, where the scouts carried out a difficult service in the Black Sea floodplains. Later, the plastuns' divisions also operated successfully in the Caucasus. Even their opponents paid tribute to the fearlessness of the scouts - the best guards of the cordon line in the Caucasus. It was the highlanders who preserved the story of how the plastuns besieged at the Lipkin post chose to burn alive - but not surrender to the Circassians, who even promised them life.
However, the Cossacks are known not only for military exploits. They played no less a role in the development of new lands and their annexation to the Russian Empire. Over time, the Cossack population moved forward into uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development of the North Caucasus, Siberia (Ermak's expedition), the Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk. In 1648 the Siberian Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed from Arctic Ocean(the mouth of the Kolyma) to Tikhy (the mouth of the Anadyr) and opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1697-1699 the Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov explored Kamchatka.
Cossacks during the First World War
On the very first day of the First World War, the first two regiments of the Kuban Cossacks went to the front from the Yekaterinodar railway station. Eleven Cossack troops of Russia fought on the fronts of the First World War - Donskoe, Ural, Terskoe, Kubanskoe, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Siberian, Zabaikalskoe, Amur, Semirechenskoe and Ussuriyskoe - not knowing cowardice and desertion. Their best qualities were especially clearly manifested on the Transcaucasian front, where 11 Cossack regiments of the third order were formed only in the militia - from the Cossacks of older ages, who sometimes could give a head start to cadre youth. Thanks to their incredible stamina in the heavy battles of 1914, it was they who prevented the breakthrough of the Turkish troops - far from being the worst at that time! - to our Transcaucasia and together with the arrived Siberian Cossacks threw them back. After a tremendous victory in the Battle of Sarykamysh, Russia received congratulations from the allied commanders-in-chief, Joffre and French, who highly appreciated the power of Russian weapons. But the top martial arts in the Transcaucasus, the capture of the mountain fortified region Erzurum in the winter of 1916 began, in the assault of which the Cossack units played an important role.
The Cossacks were not only the most dashing cavalry, but also served in intelligence, artillery, infantry and even aviation. Thus, the indigenous Kuban Cossack Vyacheslav Tkachev made the first long-distance flight in Russia along the route Kiev - Odessa - Kerch - Taman - Yekaterinodar with a total length of 1,500 versts, despite unfavorable autumn weather and other difficult conditions. On March 10, 1914, he was seconded to the 4th Aviation Company after its formation, and on the same day, Tkachev was appointed commander of the 20th Aviation Detachment attached to the headquarters of the 4th Army. In the initial period of the war, Tkachev made several reconnaissance flights, very important for the Russian command, for which, by order of the army Southwestern Front dated November 24, 1914 No. 290 was awarded the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George IV degree (the first among the pilots).
The Cossacks showed themselves very well in the Great Patriotic War. In this most severe and difficult time for the country, the Cossacks forgot the past grievances, and together with the entire Soviet people rose to defend their homeland. The 4th Kuban, 5th Don Volunteer Cossack Corps passed with honor until the end of the war, participating in major operations. 9th Plastun Red Banner Krasnodar Division, dozens of rifle and cavalry divisions formed at the beginning of the war from the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, Stavropol, Orenburg, Ural, Semirechye, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Guards Cossack formations often performed a very important task - while mechanized formations formed an inner ring of numerous "cauldrons", Cossacks, as part of mechanized cavalry groups, burst out into the operational space, disrupted enemy communications and created an outer encirclement ring, preventing the release of enemy troops. In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or Plastun units, but in the entire Soviet army or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace # 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless; Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - ancestral Ural Cossack, a native of Omsk; Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral A.A. Golovko is a Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya; gunsmith designer F.V. Tokarev - Don Cossack, a native of the village of Yegorlyk Region of the Don Cossack; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Front, General of the Army, Hero of the USSR M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Ust-Medveditskaya Oblast of the Don Cossacks, the commander of a squadron of the guard, Captain K.I. Nedorubov - Hero of the Soviet Union and complete St. George's Knight, as well as many other Cossacks.
All the wars of our time, which the Russian Federation has already had a chance to wage, also did not go without the Cossacks. In addition to the conflicts in Transnistria and Abkhazia, the Cossacks took an active part in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and in the subsequent protection of the administrative border of Ossetia with Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the First Chechen Campaign, the Russian Ministry of Defense formed a motorized rifle battalion named after General Yermolov from volunteer Cossacks. Its effectiveness was so high that it frightened the pro-Kremlin Chechens, who saw in the appearance of Cossack units the first step towards the revival of the Terek region. Under their pressure, the battalion was withdrawn from Chechnya and disbanded. During the second campaign, the 205th motorized rifle brigade, as well as commandant companies serving in the Shelkovsky, Naursky and Nadterechny regions of Chechnya, were equipped with Cossacks. In addition, significant masses of Cossacks, having signed a contract, fought in "ordinary", that is, non-Cossack units. More than 90 people from Cossack units received government awards as a result of hostilities, all Cossacks who participated in hostilities and clearly fulfilled their duties received Cossack awards. For 13 years, the Cossacks in the south of Russia have been annually holding field training camps, within the framework of which command and staff trainings with unit commanders and officers have been organized, as well as training in fire, tactical, topographic, mine and medical training. Cossack units, companies and platoons are headed by officers Russian army with combat experience who took part in operations in hot spots in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions. And the Cossack mounted patrols became reliable assistants to the Russian border guards and the police.
The true history of Russia. Notes of an amateur [with illustrations] Guts Alexander Konstantinovich
What are the Cossacks?
What are the Cossacks?
“Eastern (Don) Cossacks were called Horde, Azov, Western (Dnieper) Zaporozhye, Little Russian, Lithuanian. From this, the researchers mixed, found the Cossacks where they were not, and were lost in conjectures. Dnieper Cossacks were sometimes called Circassians, or Cherkassians. This name probably came from the city of Cherkasy. This city was located beyond the Dnieper, below Kanev, for the settlements of the Cossacks, when Poland began to receive and patronize them, were originally on the right side of the Dnieper. Not far from Cherkasy, the most ancient main Cossack camp, Chigirin was later founded by the Cossacks, which was their main city. The name of Cherkasy ... this name of the Cossack city made many people think that the Cossacks were migrants from the Caucasus, and that it was the Highland Circassians ... The beginning of the Cossack Dnieper city of Cherkasy can be attributed to the last 20 years of the 15th century, and Bogdan, voivode Cherkassky, could be the same leader of the Cossacks, what was then Dashkovich. Consider his campaign to Ochakov: this is a real Cossack raid, repeated by Dashkovich in 1516! - On the Don, subsequently, it was also built by people from the Dnieper, Cossacks who joined the Don, the city of Chekrassk, or Cherkaska. This name seemed precious to them, like the name of Moscow to a Russian who was called a Muscovite and a Muscovite ”(Polevoy, T. Z. S. 665).
« Gorodetsky Cossacks called free people who lived near Kasimov (Meshchersky town, from which the name Meshchersky Cossacks), and further near the Volga (hence the name of the Volga Cossacks) ”(Polevoy, T. Z. S. 684).
This is not all the Cossacks. Let's look for others as well.
The year is 1496. “That same spring Maya came the news to the Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich from the Kazan Khan Makhamet-Amin that the Shiban Khan Mamuk was coming to him with great force, and they were repaired Kazan Cossacks Kalimet, Urak, Sadyr, Agish "(Tatishchev, vol. 6, p. 86).
“In Asia to this day the whole Turkish Horde is called Cossacks (Kirghiz-Kaisaks). Tatars and Russians adopted the name of a Cossack in the 15th century in the sense of a homeless, wandering daring warrior ”(Polevoy, T.Z. P. 663). These daredevils were united into Hordes!
“It is not known ... when exactly Dashkov left Russia. In 1515, he was already in command of the Zadneprovsky Cossacks, and robbed Russia together with the Crimeans ”(Polevoy, T.Z. S. 666). In other words, Dnieper Cossacks headed by the fugitive from Russia, voivode Evstafy Dashkovich, participated in military campaigns against the Moscow Russian state.
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