The history of the emergence of the Cossacks in Rus'. Cossack troops on the territory of the Russian Empire (11 photos)

In the development of any nation, moments arose when a certain ethnic group separated and thereby created a separate cultural layer. In some cases such cultural elements coexisted peacefully with their nation and the world as a whole, in others they fought for an equal place in the sun. An example of such a warlike ethnic group can be considered such a stratum of society as the Cossacks. Representatives of this cultural group have always been distinguished by a special worldview and very intense religiosity. Today, scientists cannot figure out whether this ethnic layer of the Slavic people is a separate nation. The history of the Cossacks dates back to the distant 15th century, when the states of Europe were mired in internecine wars and dynastic coups.

Etymology of the word "Cossack"

A bunch of modern people has a general idea that a Cossack is a warrior or a type of warrior who lived in a certain historical period and fought for their freedom. However, such an interpretation is quite dry and far from the truth, if we also take into account the etymology of the term “Cossack”. There are several main theories about the origin of this word, for example:

Turkic (“Cossack” is a free person);

The word comes from kosogs;

Turkish (“kaz”, “cossack” means “goose”);

The word comes from the term "kozars";

Mongolian theory;

The Turkestan theory is that this is the name of nomadic tribes;

In the Tatar language, “Cossack” is a vanguard warrior in the army.

There are other theories, each of which explains this word in completely different ways, but the most rational grain of all definitions can be identified. The most common theory says that a Cossack was a free man, but armed, ready for attack and battle.

Historical origin

The history of the Cossacks begins in the 15th century, namely in 1489 - the moment the term “Cossack” was first mentioned. The historical homeland of the Cossacks is Eastern Europe, or more precisely, the territory of the so-called Wild Field (modern Ukraine). It should be noted that in the 15th century the named territory was neutral and did not belong to either the Russian Kingdom or Poland.

Basically, the territory of the “Wild Field” was subject to constant raids. The gradual settlement of immigrants from both Poland and the Russian Kingdom into these lands influenced the development of a new class - the Cossacks. In fact, the history of the Cossacks begins from the moment when ordinary people, peasants, begin to settle in the lands of the Wild Field, while creating their own self-governing military formations in order to fend off the raids of the Tatars and other nationalities. By the beginning of the 16th century, the Cossack regiments had become a powerful military force, which created great difficulties for neighboring states.

Creation of the Zaporozhye Sich

According to historical data that are known today, the first attempt at self-organization by the Cossacks was made in 1552 by the Volyn prince Vishnevetsky, better known as Baida.

At his own expense, he created a military base, the Zaporozhye Sich, which was located on the Cossacks’ entire life. The location was strategically convenient, since the Sich blocked the passage of the Tatars from the Crimea, and was also located in close proximity to the Polish border. Moreover, the territorial location on the island created great difficulties for the assault on the Sich. The Khortytsia Sich did not last long, because it was destroyed in 1557, but until 1775, similar fortifications were built according to the same type - on river islands.

Attempts to subjugate the Cossacks

In 1569, a new Lithuanian-Polish state was formed - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Naturally, this long-awaited union was very important for both Poland and Lithuania, and the free Cossacks on the borders of the new state acted contrary to the interests of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Of course, such fortifications served as an excellent shield against Tatar raids, but they were completely uncontrolled and did not take into account the authority of the crown. Thus, in 1572, the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth issued a universal, which regulated the hiring of 300 Cossacks for the service of the crown. They were recorded in a list, a register, which determined their name - registered Cossacks. Such units were always in full combat readiness in order to quickly repel Tatar raids on the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as suppress periodic uprisings of peasants.

Cossack uprisings for religious-national independence

From 1583 to 1657, some Cossack leaders raised uprisings in order to free themselves from the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and other states that were trying to subjugate the lands of the yet unformed Ukraine.

The strongest desire for independence began to manifest itself among the Cossack class after 1620, when Hetman Sagaidachny, together with the entire Zaporozhye army, joined the Kiev Brotherhood. Such an action marked the cohesion of Cossack traditions with the Orthodox faith.

From that moment on, the battles of the Cossacks were not only liberating, but also religious in nature. Increasing tension between the Cossacks and Poland led to the famous national liberation war of 1648 - 1654, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In addition, no less significant uprisings should be highlighted, namely: the uprising of Nalivaiko, Kosinsky, Sulima, Pavlyuk and others.

Decossackization during the Russian Empire

After the unsuccessful national liberation war in the 17th century, as well as the outbreak of unrest, the military power of the Cossacks was significantly undermined. In addition, the Cossacks lost support from Russian Empire after going over to the Swedish side in the battle of Poltava, in which he led the Cossack army

As a result of this series of historical events, a dynamic process of decossackization began in the 18th century, which reached its peak during the time of Empress Catherine II. In 1775, the Zaporozhye Sich was liquidated. However, the Cossacks were given a choice: to go their own way (live the usual peasant life) or join the hussars, which many took advantage of. Nevertheless, there remained a significant part of the Cossack army (about 12,000 people) that did not accept the offer of the Russian Empire. To ensure the former safety of the borders, as well as to somehow legitimize the “Cossack remnants,” the Black Sea Cossack Army was created in 1790 on the initiative of Alexander Suvorov.

Kuban Cossacks

The Kuban Cossacks, or Russian Cossacks, appeared in 1860. It was formed from several military Cossack formations that existed at that time. After several periods of decossackization, these military formations became a professional part armed forces Russian Empire.

The Kuban Cossacks were based in the North Caucasus region (the territory of modern Krasnodar Territory). The basis of the Kuban Cossacks was the Black Sea Cossack army and the Caucasian Cossack army, which was abolished due to the end Caucasian war. This military formation was created as a border force to control the situation in the Caucasus.

The war in this territory was over, but stability was constantly under threat. Russian Cossacks became an excellent buffer between the Caucasus and the Russian Empire. In addition, representatives of this army were involved during the Great Patriotic War. Today, the life of the Kuban Cossacks, their traditions and culture have been preserved thanks to the formed Kuban Military Cossack Society.

Don Cossacks

The Don Cossacks are the most ancient Cossack culture, which arose in parallel with the Zaporozhye Cossacks in the middle of the 15th century. Don Cossacks were located in the Rostov, Volgograd, Lugansk and Donetsk regions. The name of the army is historically associated with the Don River. Main difference Don Cossacks from other Cossack formations in that it developed not just as a military unit, but as an ethnic group with its own cultural characteristics.

The Don Cossacks actively collaborated with the Zaporozhye Cossacks in many battles. During the October Revolution, the Don army founded its own state, but the centralization of the “White Movement” on its territory led to defeat and subsequent repressions. It follows that a Don Cossack is a person who belongs to a special social formation based on the ethnic factor. The culture of the Don Cossacks has been preserved in our time. On the territory of the modern Russian Federation there are about 140 thousand people who record their nationality as “Cossacks”.

The role of the Cossacks in world culture

Today, the history, life of the Cossacks, their military traditions and culture are actively studied by scientists all over the world. Undoubtedly, the Cossacks are not just military formations, but a separate ethnic group that has been building its own special culture for several centuries in a row. Modern historians are working to reconstruct the smallest fragments of the history of the Cossacks in order to perpetuate the memory of this great source of a special Eastern European culture.

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

Separate from the Russians

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

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

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

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

Having rejected “Russian history,” the Cossacks began to create their own. Based on documents, they began to prove that the Cossacks were a special Slavic tribe, a separate national organism that has the same right to consider itself a special Slavic people as the Russians and Ukrainians.

On November 1, 2012, in the village of Starocherkasskaya, Rostov region, a “Cossack initiative” appeared, which set out the demand “to return to the list of peoples, nationalities and ethnic names of the Russian Federation the nationality “Cossack”, which was removed in the 19th century when the state decided to transfer Cossacks from peoples to class.” Let's try to figure out how possible this is.

Turks or Slavs?

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

There is the term “Cossack” in Polish sources. Thus, the chronicle of 1493 says that the Cherkassy governor Bogdan Fedorovich Glinsky, nicknamed Mamai, having formed border Cossack detachments in Cherkassy, ​​captured Turkish fortress Ochakov.

According to most versions, a Cossack is “a free, independent person, an adventurer, a tramp.” For example, in Explanatory dictionary Dahl defines a Cossack as “a military man in the street, a settled warrior.”

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

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

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

The situation is becoming clearer

In 2009, historians Vera Kashibadze and Olga Nasonova conducted anthropological research on the Don, which was supposed to shed light on the controversial issue of the origin of the Cossacks. The scientists came to the conclusion that “the anthropological history of the Don Cossacks implies processes of migration from the south-eastern zones of Central Russia and a slight inclusion of southern and eastern elements in increasing proportions to the south.”

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

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

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

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

The essence of the above research can be boiled down to the following: the Cossacks are, by flesh and blood, part of the Russian people, and, despite a number of morphological features, during the period of their isolated existence they failed to turn into an ethnic group separate from the Russians.

Local victory

In 2010, a curious event occurred in Volgograd. The Ministry of Justice of the Volgograd Region filed an application with the regional court to liquidate the regional national-cultural autonomy of the Cossacks of the Volgograd Region. The motivation of the ministry was this: Cossacks are not an ethnic group, but the descendants of runaway serfs and peasants. The regional court decided to refuse to satisfy the request of the department of the Ministry of Justice.

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

It should be noted that all the questions were posed carefully and even an affirmative answer to them is difficult to interpret as recognition of the Cossacks as a separate people. As for the court's decision, it was, in essence, dictated by the need to prevent discrimination - restrictions or, in this case, deprivation of the rights of certain categories of citizens to self-determination.

To admit it or not

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

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

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

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

Considering the number of speculative theories that have developed around the Cossacks, it is not possible to legislate the issue of the ethnicity of the Cossacks.

Numerous surveys of representatives of the Cossacks, including the Don, Kuban, and Ural Cossacks, showed that most of them consider themselves Russian. This is an additional argument in favor of the results of anthropological and genetic research. Today, many scientists are of the opinion that if we can talk about the Cossacks in ethnological terms, then only as a subethnic group of the Russian people.

Leo Tolstoy, in turn, believed: “In our history, the Cossacks appear suddenly. Probably, the Cossacks began either nameless or under a different name. The chronicles mention wanderers who went beyond the borders of the principalities to wander...”

Other sources also speak about the Brodniks, saying that the Brodniks later became Cossacks. In the chronicle of 1147, Brodniks are mentioned as warriors of Svyatoslav Olgovich, participating in the fight against the Chernigov princes. But in the period preceding that indicated in the chronicle, the Prince of Chernigov, and then the Grand Duke of Kyiv in 1113-1125. there was Vladimir Monomakh, during whose reign there is no information about the wanderers.

The first information about wanderers comes during the period of the collapse of the state and the decline of Kievan Rus. Thus, the brodniks, Christians of Russian origin who wandered the Don steppes, could be residents of the Galician, Kyiv or Tmutarakan principalities, who could not be a warlike people for a number of reasons.

In the Lithuanian Chronicle mentioned above about the population living under the command of the atamans, whom Olgerd found on Podol in the 14th century, people who fled from Novgorod could be indicated. These people could also be the Novgorod ushkuiniki squeezed out by the Moscow princes.

The history of the Cossacks can be traced back to the internecine struggle of the sons of Vladimir “The Saint” - Mstislav “The Daring” and Yaroslav “The Wise”, who, exercising their daring and wisdom, “halved” the empire created by their grandfather Svyatoslav onto the right and left sides of the Dnieper, thereby defining the border future territorial conflicts.

As a result of the “showdown” of the fifth generation of the grand ducal family Ancient Rus' collapsed into many dwarf states with special subjects of the federal fragmentation of Rus' - the Feudal Republics. There were two of them - Novgorod and Pskov with their democracies. During the reign of Moscow Prince Ivan III, one can trace all the details of the historical events that served as the beginning of “organized robbery” on the southern borders of Rus'.

However, the events preceding this story began to unfold somewhat earlier, during the reign of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II “The Dark” (1425−1462). By this time, the Russian lands during the Tatar-Mongol yoke were divided into three separate territories occupied by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the lands of the former Galician-Volyn Principality, which after the death of Daniil Galitsky were divided between Lithuania, Poland and Hungary.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the hereditary possession of Jogaila, which the Polish king Sigismund Augustus, the last Jagiellon, donated to the Polish crown. In 1569, a common Sejm for Lithuania and Poland was assembled in the city of Lublin, after which, under Polish pressure, Southwestern and Northwestern Rus' were annexed to it, to which Polish officials went. This Union of Lublin ended the separate existence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The Lithuanian nobility converted to Catholicism, which became a lordly faith in Western Rus', and Orthodoxy became a servile and Cossack faith. Cossacks appear in different parts of the Russian world. We see them in the Ukrainian elderships of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the banks of the Dnieper, where the Cossacks formed the squads of Dashkevich and Dmitry Vishnevetsky. They were then organized into a military class under the command of hetmans.

At the same time, the Cossacks arbitrarily founded a military brotherhood behind the Dnieper rapids called the Zaporozhye Sich. The organizers of the Cossack estate at the beginning of the 16th century are considered to be two people: the Cherkasy and Kanev elder Evstafiy Dashkovich and the Khmelnytsky elder Predislav Lyankoronsky, although this paramilitary estate was created much earlier by Russian princes.

The punitive expedition of Vasily II, which crushed the Novgorod opposition, forced all opponents of Moscow to flee to the borders of the Seversk principality. These Novgorodians, who fled from persecution, were the first settlers of the border lands, hiding from the Moscow prince. The unification of Rus' by Ivan III also forced his opponents to look for a place where they could hide from the hands of the Moscow prince.

This place was the Shemyakin inheritance - the border lands separating Rus' from Lithuania, the Crimean Khanate and the “Wild Field”. According to many historians, the word “Cossack” is of Turkic origin and means a lightly armed warrior. Cossacks were later called robbers united in organized detachments; Perhaps the name “Cossack” is associated with the collection of tax (yasak), the reverse side of the tax (robbery) of which the Cossacks were engaged in for a long period of time.

The “Cossacks” mentioned by A. Ishimova were allies of Grand Duke Ivan III. There was a Kasimov kingdom - appanage principality, created for Tatar princes who went into service with their people. For the first time it was granted by Vasily II the Dark to the former Kazan prince Kasim. Thus, the “Cossacks” did not suddenly disappear anywhere, but went to their principality, where they lived, protecting the borders of the state and participating in all armed conflicts together with Russian soldiers.

Tsar Ivan IV, continuing to strengthen the borders of the state, accepted the Lithuanian prince Dimitry Vishnevetsky into the service and organized a mobile defense with him by the Cossacks western borders Russian state, having experience of a similar structure from their ancestors. The Vishnevetsky princes had huge estates on both sides of the Dnieper to the Russian border, and subsequently it was on these lands that the Cossacks tried to create their own Cossack state.

Maxim KALASHNIKOV, Sergei BUNTOVSKY

The Ukrainian gentry did not want “freedom for the people”, but to become Polish gentry...

Most of our contemporaries draw information about the Cossacks exclusively from works of art: historical novels, thoughts, films. Accordingly, our ideas about the Cossacks are very superficial, in many ways even popular. Confusion is also caused by the fact that the Cossacks have traveled a long and difficult path in their development. Therefore, the heroes of Mikhail Sholokhov and Pyotr Krasnov, copied from real Cossacks of the last 20th century, have as much in common with the Cossacks of the sixteenth century as modern Kyivians do with the warriors of Svyatoslav.

As sad as it may be for many, we will have to debunk the heroic-romantic myth about the Cossacks, created by writers and artists.

The first information about the existence of the Cossacks on the banks of the Dnieper dates back to the fifteenth century. Whether they were descendants of the Brodniks, the Black Klobuks, or the part of the Golden Horde that became glorified over time, no one knows. In any case, the Turkic influence on the customs and behavior of the Cossacks is enormous. In the end, in terms of the form of the Cossack Rada, it is nothing more than the Tatar kurultai, Oseledets and trousers - attributes of representatives of many nomadic peoples... Many words (kosh, ataman, kuren, beshmet, chekmen, bunchuk) came into our language from Turkic . The steppe gave the Cossacks morals, customs, military techniques and even appearance.

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

Circassians in Krakow. Maybe these were the first Cossacks who professed Islam...

The centers of the Cossacks became the Dnieper, Don and Yaik (Ural). In the forties of the sixteenth century, the Dnieper Cossacks, who in Rus' were called Cherkasy, founded the most famous fortress on the island of Malaya Khortytsia - the Zaporozhye Sich.

Soon all the Cossacks living on the Dnieper united around the Sich, laying the foundation for the Zaporozhye Lower Army. The founding of the Zaporozhye Sich is traditionally attributed to Dmitry Baida Vishnevetsky, although, as the Ukrainian historian Oles Buzina recently proved, this nobleman had nothing to do with the Sich. At this time, the Cossacks already represented a certain force, the number of which was replenished by the arrival of new people from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Wallachia and Little Russia. These settlers significantly changed the composition of the Cossacks, dissolving non-Slav Cossacks, and by the sixteenth century the Cossacks were an exclusively Russian-speaking Orthodox entity. However, in terms of mentality and occupation, the Cossacks differed significantly from both the Russians and other settled peoples.

Our historians have developed two opposing, mutually exclusive views of the Cossacks. According to the first, the Cossacks are an analogue of Western European knightly orders; according to the second, the Cossacks are the exponents of the aspirations of the masses, bearers of democratic values ​​and democracy. However, both of these views turn out to be untenable if you carefully study the history of the Cossacks. Unlike the knightly orders of the European Middle Ages, the Dnieper Cossacks did not arise in harmony with state power. On the contrary, the ranks of the Cossacks were replenished by people for whom there was no place in a civilized society. Villagers who had not found themselves in peaceful life came to the Dnieper rapids, nobles and simply seekers of easy money and adventure fled to escape trial or debt. Not the slightest hint of the discipline characteristic of knightly orders can be found in the Sich. Instead, all contemporaries noted the willfulness and unbridledness of the Cossacks. Is it possible to imagine that the Master of the Templars was proclaimed and overthrown at the whim of the masses, often while drunk, as was the case with the atamans of the Cossack bands? If the Sich can be compared with anything, it is more likely with the pirate republics of the Caribbean or the Tatar hordes, and not with the knights.

Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Vishnevetsky (Cossack Baida)

The legend of Cossack democracy was born in the nineteenth century thanks to the efforts of Russian poets and publicists. Brought up on the European democratic ideas of their time, they wanted to see in the Cossacks simple people who had left the lordly and tsarist power, fighters for freedom. The “progressive” intelligentsia picked up and inflated this myth. Of course, the peasants fled to the Sich, but they were not the ones in charge there. The ideas of liberating the peasants from the master’s rule did not find a response in the hearts of the Cossacks, but the opportunity to rob, hiding behind the peasants, was never missed. Then the Cossacks easily betrayed the peasants who trusted them. Fugitive peasants only replenished the ranks of the army, but it was not from them that the Zaporozhye top sergeant-major was formed, they were not the backbone of the Cossacks. It was not for nothing that the Cossacks always considered themselves a separate people and did not recognize themselves as fugitive men. The Sich “knights” (knights) shunned agriculture and were not supposed to bind themselves to family ties.

The figure of a Cossack is not identical to the type of a native Little Russian. They represent two different worlds. One is sedentary, agricultural, with a culture, way of life and customs dating back to Kievan Rus. The second is a walker, unemployed, leading a life of robbery. The Cossacks were generated not by South Russian culture, but by the hostile elements of the nomadic Tatar steppe. It is not without reason that many researchers believe that the first Russian Cossacks were Russified baptized Tatars. Living solely on robbery, not valuing their own life, much less that of others, prone to wild revelry and violence - this is how these people appear before historians. They sometimes did not disdain the abduction of their “Orthodox brothers” into captivity and the subsequent sale of live goods in slave markets.

So, not all Cossacks appear in the image of the noble Taras Bulba, glorified by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. By the way, pay attention, reader: Gogol’s Taras calls himself not Ukrainian, but Russian! An essential detail.

Another myth is the protection mission Orthodox faith, attributed to the Cossacks. “Defenders of Orthodoxy” hetmans Ivan Vygovsky, Petro Doroshenko and Yuri Khmelnitsky, without any remorse, recognized the Turkish Sultan, the head of Islam, as their master. And in general, the Cossacks were never particularly politically discerning. Remaining true to their steppe nature as breadwinners, they never sacrificed real, practical benefits to abstract ideas. It was necessary - and they entered into an alliance with the Tatars, it was necessary - they went together with the Poles to ravage the Great Russian lands in Time of Troubles 1603-1620, it is necessary - they went to Turkey from under the rule of the Russian Empire.

Before the establishment of the registered Cossacks by the Poles in the sixteenth century, the term “Cossack” defined a special way of life. “Being a Cossack” meant moving beyond the border guard line, living there, earning a living by hunting, fishing and robbery. In 1572, the Polish government tried to use the activity of the Cossacks for the benefit of the state. To serve as border guards, detachments of mercenary Cossacks, called “registered Cossacks,” were created. They were widely used as light cavalry in the wars fought by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Becoming a registered Cossack was the dream of any Cossack, because it meant having a guaranteed income, clothing and food. In addition, registered Cossacks risked much less than their former brothers in the craft. It is not surprising that the Cossacks constantly demanded to increase the register. Initially, the register numbered only 300 Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by an ataman appointed by the Polish government. In 1578 the register was increased to 600 people. The Cossacks were given control of the city of Terekhtemirov with the Zarubsky monastery, located near the city of Pereyaslav, on the right bank of the Dnieper. The Cossack arsenal and hospital were located here. In the 1630s, the number of registered Cossacks ranged from 6 to 8 thousand people. If necessary, Poland hired the entire Zaporozhye army. At this time, the Cossacks received a salary; the rest of the time they had to rely on their sabers more than on the royal favor.

The golden age for the Zaporozhye army was the beginning of the seventeenth century. Under the leadership of Peter Sagaidachny, the Cossacks, who became a real force, managed to carry out several daring raids on Turkish Black Sea cities, capturing huge booty. In Varna alone, the Cossacks took 180 thousand zlotys worth of goods. Then Sagaidachny and his army joined the Polish prince Vladislav, who began his campaign against Moscow. At that time, the Time of Troubles was raging in Russia, Polish troops were besieging Moscow, and the very existence of the Muscovite kingdom was under threat. Under these conditions, twenty thousand of Sagaidachny’s thugs could become a decisive trump card in the long-term war between Poland and Rus'.

Taras Bulba, sung by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

True, the Cossacks would not be Cossacks if they had not caused trouble for their Polish employers. Initially, they ravaged the Kiev and Volyn voivodeships of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and only then invaded Russian possessions. The first victim of the Cossacks was Putivl, then Sagaidachny captured Livny and Yelets, and his associate Mikhail Doroshenko swept through the Ryazan region with fire and sword. Only the small town of Mikhailov managed to fight back. Knowing the fate of the cities captured by the Cossacks, where all the inhabitants were massacred, the Mikhailovites fought back with the despair of the doomed. Having lost almost a thousand people, Sagaidachny, who was unable to take it, was forced to lift the siege and go to Moscow to unite with Prince Vladislav. On September 20, 1618, the Polish and Cossack armies united near Moscow and began to prepare for a decisive assault, which ended in failure. Soon peace was concluded between the Muscovite kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As a reward for the Moscow campaign, the Cossacks received 20,000 zlotys and 7,000 pieces of cloth from the Poles, although they expected more.

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

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

No one knows what this Cossack thought...

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

Cossacks... A completely special social stratum, estate, class. Its own, as experts would put it, subculture: way of dressing, speaking, behaving. Peculiar songs. A heightened concept of honor and dignity. Pride in one's own identity. Courage and daring in the most terrible battle. For some time now, the history of Russia has been unimaginable without the Cossacks. But the current “heirs” are, for the most part, “mummers”, impostors. Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks tried very hard to uproot the real Cossacks during the civil war. Those who were not destroyed rotted in prisons and camps. Alas, what was destroyed cannot be returned. To honor traditions and not become Ivans, not remembering kinship...

History of the Don Cossacks

Don Cossacks Oddly enough, it is even known exact date birth of the Don Cossacks. It became January 3, 1570. Ivan the Terrible, having defeated the Tatar khanates, essentially 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 completely enslave this dashing gang.

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 did not at all stand 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, Cossacks actively explored the Black and Azov Seas.

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

Many of the Donets did not accept the Bolsheviks and fought against them, and then went into exile. Famous figures Cossack movement - P.N. Krasnov and A.G. Shkuro - actively collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. During 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, and outright speculation. To date, almost none of the so-called. Don Cossacks and especially atamans by origin and rank are not such.

History of the Kuban Cossacks

Kuban Cossack The emergence of the Kuban Cossacks dates back to a later time than the Don Cossacks - only to the second half of the 19th century. The location of the Kuban residents was North Caucasus, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Rostov region, Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia. The center was the city of Ekaterinodar. Seniority belonged to the Koshe and Kuren atamans. Later, the supreme atamans began to be appointed personally by one or another Russian emperor.

Historically, after Catherine II disbanded the Zaporozhye Sich, several thousand Cossacks fled to the Black Sea coast and tried to restore the Sich there, under the patronage 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 paramilitary association. The population was engaged in 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 “one of their own.”

In the fire of revolution and civil war The Cossacks were forced to constantly maneuver between the Reds and the Whites, looked for a “third way,” and tried to defend their identity and independence. In 1920, the Bolsheviks finally abolished both the Kuban army and the Republic. Mass repressions, evictions, famine and dispossession followed. Only in the second half of the 30s. The Cossacks were partially rehabilitated, the Kuban Choir was restored. To the Great Patriotic War Cossacks fought on an equal basis with others, mainly together with regular units of the Red Army.

History of the Terek Cossacks

Terek Cossacks The Terek Cossacks arose around the same time as the Kuban Cossacks - in 1859, on the date of the defeat of the troops of the Chechen Imam Shamil. In the Cossack power hierarchy, the Terets were the third in seniority. They settled along rivers such as the Kura, Terek, and 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 protecting the border territories, but they themselves sometimes did not hesitate to raid the possessions of the Tatar princes. The Cossacks often had to defend themselves from mountain raids. However, the close proximity to the highlanders brought the Cossacks not only negative emotions. The Tertsy adopted some linguistic expressions from the mountaineers, and in particular the details of clothing and ammunition: burkas and hats, daggers and sabers.

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

Interesting Facts

In 1949, the lyrical comedy “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, it fell in love with the mass audience, and the song “What You Were” is performed on stage to this day.
It is interesting that the word “Cossack” itself, translated 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 to any authority; he is fast and free, like the wind.