Cossacks History

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HISTORY

the HISTORY of COSSACKS

colonel W.V.CHERESHNEFF, 1952

THE COSSACKDOM

Who are the Cossacks? Are they a people, a party, a military group? Are they part and parcel of the Russian people, or are they an independent nation, entitled to recognition as

such?

Not long ago a traff ic off icer in Brooklyn gave a ticket to an offending motorist. As usual, the latter w as full of indignation and, to express his disdain, called the off icer a Cossack . The

patrolman hauled the motorist into traff ic court, w here the judge immediately passed the f ollowing, sentence: "Present your apology to the of ficer for calling him a Cossack and pay a

fine of five dollars for the traf fic v iolation; otherw ise ? ten days in jail. To this judge and to the many others w ho have had no opportunity of learning about the Cossacks, the author

dedicates this article.

It is doubtful if anyone could be found w ho doesn't think he know s something about the Cossacks. But it is just as doubtful if one could find tw o persons, not themselvesCossacks,

w hose conception about them is the same. The reason for such divergent view s is that they are based on dif ferent sources of information, on different historical periods and events,

on biased approaches and the prejudiced opinions of those w ho by chance have learned about one narrow phase or a short period of Cossacklife.

Some people, such as the French, remember the Cossacksas the superb cavalry of the Russian Emperor, the conquerors of Napoleon, the unique troops w ho proved to be so

unexpectedly kind and chivalrous during their occupation of Paris in 1814.

The Chinese still think of the Cossacksas the vanguard of the Russians, the horsemen w ho "carried the borders of the Russian Empire on the pommels of their saddles.

Military men throughout the w orld admire the Cossacksfor their high "esprit de corps, for their valor, tenacity and habit of alw ays performing acts beyond the call of duty, of alw ays

reaching for the impossible.

Students of the Imperial Period of Russia admire the Cossacksfor their part in establishing the House of Romanoff as the rulers of Russia. On the other hand, Cossack leaders

such as Razin and Pugachov w ere the patron saints of the liberals and revolutionists w ho fought against the Romanoff s,

To geographers the Cossacks are the intrepid explorers and discoverers w ho opened to civilization the vastness of Northern Asia, w ho discovered Kamchatka and the Bering Strait,

w ho w ere the f irst to cross, that s trait in modern times, w ho made the firs t permanent settlements in Alaska and along the West Coast of the North American continent, penetrating and

establishing forts and settlements as f ar south as the present city of San Francisco.

Russian schoolboys of pre-revolutionary Russia learned about the Cossacksas the f rontiersmen of the Russia State, w ho conquered and presented Siberia to the Czar of Russia

and opened this vast land for subsequent colonization; to that schoolboy the Cossacks w ere for centuries protectors of the remote and long land frontier of Russia. To his counterpart

of today, the schoolboyin the Soviet Union, the Cossacksare presented as class enemies of the trueBolsheviks , as the people w ho refused to accept the doctrines of Communism

and the so-called benefits of the Soviet State and who, because of their "backwardness and stubbornness," had to be liquidated one and all.

Descendants of political refugees from the Czarist regime pictureCossacks as the trusted guardians of the Czars, brutal "gendarmes" too often employed by the Imperial

Government in the suppression of popular protests, revolts and manifestations of a liberal character. For them the Cossacks w ere a military caste, part of the Russian people, and not

the very best part either.

Immediate neighbors of the Cossacks,w ho w ere in a position to learn about the Cossacksat f irst hand by personal observation, knew them for their loyalty and patriotism, their

eternal struggle for freedom, their heroic stand against Bolshevist aggression and tyranny, their free and easy w ay of living, and, finally, for their passionate love for their

Cossackland. To them the Cossacks w ere a separate people, and their land the refuge f or the oppressed.

To the Cossacksthemselves there has never been any question as to their identity. They have their own national history, their ow n w ay of life, their traditions and usages, their

particular linguistic originality, the proud knowledge of their part in shaping the destiny of humanity, and the inner consciousness that they are a separate ethnic and social group. Yet,

at the same time, w ith a few fr inge exceptions, the solid core of the Cossacksdo not conceive of existing outside the Commonw ealth of Peoples w ho in pre-revolutionary times
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composed the Russian Empire. The fringes are, on one hand, a very small group of Cossacks, for the most part f ormer generals and high officials under the Czars, w ho deny a

separate existence to the Cossacksand consider them just an odd and picturesque part of the Russian Army; at the other extreme is also a small, but highly vocal group of

Cossacks , primarily of the y ounger generation, w ho claim that the Russians have alw ays been the oppressors of the Cossacks, and that in the future all Cossacks shall and will

live under the banner of the free andindepe ndent nation "Kazakia."

Although the author realizes the utter impossibility of giving in a few w ords a comprehensive history of the Cossacks., a description of their present social, political and economic

situation, and the reasons and motives for their aspirations and claims to recognition, the author, himself a Cossack, presents the Cossacks to the general public as they see

themselves, hoping in this brief sktech to correct some of the more common misconceptions about them.

I. A Brief History of the Cossacks

Centuries ago the forefathers of the present day Cossacks settled in the steppes of the southeastern corner ofEurope, bordering on the Black Sea and the Caucasian Mountains on the south, the Caspian Sea and the river Volga

on the east, the forests of the Great Russian Plain on the north and the river Dniester on the w est. Since the daw n

of civilization these steppes had been crossed again and again by the peoples of the Great Migration. The original

Cossacksw ere the product of an intermixture of all these peoples w ith the previous settlers of the Slavic race.

Byzantine writers of the Tenth Century described the Cossacks as a separate people w ho lived on the river

Don, and called them "the brave and strong people." In old Russian chronicles they w ere similarly described f or the

first time in 1261. The Don Cossacksfought on the side of the Russian Grand Duke Dimitryagainst the Tartars

in 1380. In all the records of that period the Cossacksw ere described as a series of independent communities,

loosely bound into larger units of a military character, entirely separate from the Russian State. The Russian

historian Karamzin w rote: "Where theCossacks came from cannot be said w ith certainty, but, in any event, it [their

State] existed prior to the Tartar invasion of 1223. These knights lived separately, w ithout pledging allegiance tothe Russians , the Poles or the Tartars." Their tribal units, organizations s imilar to Scottish clans, occupied the whole

area betw een the rivers Dniester on the West and the Volga on the East. At the head of each tribe w as an Ataman, or Hetman, elected by the people; the people also elected, for a

specifically limited term, the other administrative officers of the tribe: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. Supreme legislative authority rested in the Tribal

Assembly (the King, or the Rada). Executive pow ers w ere vested in the Ataman; at time of w ar he w as the supreme commander in the field. In the absence of w ritten laws , the

Cossacks w ere governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the Common, unw ritten law .

In the Sixteenth Century these numerous Cossack clans consolidated into tw o large republics: one, know n as the Zaporojie, on the low er bends of the river Dnieper, sandwiched

betw een Russia, Poland and the Tartars of the Crimea; the other, theDon Cossack State, on the river Don, separating the then weak Russian Statefrom the Mongol and Tartar

tribes, w hich w ere at that time vassals of the pow erful Sultan of Turkey. Numerous Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish and other historical documents of that period contain mentions

of these two states, alw ays referring to them as sovereign republics. For instance, in 1549 the famous Czar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, replying to a request of the Turkish

Sultan to stop the aggressive actions of the Don Cossacks,stated, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my

knowledge." Ten years before that, in a reverse situation, when Czar Vassily the Third asked the Sultan to curb the Cossacks, the Sultan replied. "The Cossacks do not swe ar

allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please ."

This w as the period during w hich the expansion of Russia intensified and the consolidation of Poland took place. Both states w ere enforcing the feudal sys tem w hich attached

peasants to the land and made them the property of the nobles. This policy, coupled w ith the territorial expansion of these tw o states and their conquest of their w eaker neighbors,

created a condition in which all men who did not relish the idea of becoming somebody's slave, and all w ho valued personal freedom, fled to the southeast and f ound refuge in the land

of the Cossacks w here they could be free. A ll protests and ultimatums of the Czars and the Kings to return their subjects w ere of no avail; the Cossacksthen coined their famous

motto: "There is no extradition from the Don."

Incidentally, this exodus of freedom-loving people from medieval Russia to the land of the Cossacksis the foundation for the official Russian historians' assertion that Cossackdom

originated in that period, and that the Cossacksw ere nothing more than the hordes of Russian peasants w ho had run aw ay f rom their masters, the Russian boyars. On this ground

some Russian politicians of the later Imperial period refused to recognize the Cossacksas separate and distinct from the Russians proper as an ethnical group. At the present

moment, how ever, this theory is supported only by the most reactionary circles of the Russian emigration, w ho in this respect are in perfect accord w ith the Kremlin. All other

historians and political leaders recognize that the Cossacks, as an independent ethnic and political entity, existed long before this exodus of the freedom loving element from

Muskovite Russia and the Poland of the Nobles. It should be noted, in passing, that the very w ord "Kazak" (Cossack) means, in Tartar "The Freeman."


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The two great Cossack States of that period, the Donand the Zaporojie, constituted unique military orders w hose main raison d'etre w as to protect the Eastern Catholic Church from

Roman Catholicism and Mohammedanism. It can be truly said that but f or the f anatical res istance of the Cossacks of Zaporojie, militant Roman Catholicism would have taken over and

conquered the w hole of Eastern Europe, while at the same time, unless the Don Cossacks had been in its w ay, Mohammedanism might have become the dominant religion

everyw here east of Poland.

In the course of time the Cossacksgrew in numbers and became a nation of profess ional soldiers; they established an endless chain of posts and settlements, protecting Russian

tow ns and v illages f rom the raids and invasions of the militant Mongol and Tartar tribes f rom the south and the east. The Cossacksknew that passive defense alone could not stop

and prevent these raids, and they often carried the w ar to the enemy. Af oot and on their sw ift horses, and quite often in their crude boats, they raided the settlements and camps of

the neighboring Tartars of Crimea and As trakhan; they sacked border tow ns and fortresses of Polcfid; at times they joined w ith the Poles and Crimean Tartars and w aged w ar against

various Russian Principalities; they pillaged and burned the Black Sea ports of Turkey and those of Persia on the Caspian Sea. As an example of their daring and prow ess, historiansrecite the exploits of a band of Zaporojie Cossacksw ho in the Sixteenth Century penetrated the Straits of the Bosphorus, crossed the Sea of Marmora, squeezed through the

Dardanelles, sailed the long Mediterranean Sea, captured the Spanish city of Saragossa, and held it against all comers f or a f ull two years. Again, in 1696, the Don Coss acks, sailing

the Sea of Azov in their f limsy row boats, in the presence of the Russian Czar Peter the Great,met and destroyed the pow erful Turkish f leet. Similarly, though much later, in 1828

the Cossacks of Zaporojie , in the w ar of Russia against Turkey, sailed the Black Sea in their light boats (they called them "chaikes," the seagulls) and took by assault the pow erful

Turkish fortress Brailov.

As mentioned before, during the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries the principal role of the Cossacks consisted of the protection of Russia and, occasionally, of Poland f rom

the aggressive Mohammedan peoples. The next, the Seventeenth Century, w as for them an era of colonization w hen the frontiers of Russia w ere moved southw ard and

eastw ard. Originally their penetration w as at the expense of the Tartars, w ho lived along the northern shores of the Black Sea; then they crossed the Volga and built their towns and

forts in the foothills of the Urals; then the f amous Ataman of the Don Cossacks,Ermak, crossed the Urals, conquered the Tartars of Siberia and "presented" that vast land to Ivan the

Terrible . At the same time other Cossacks moved southw ard and established the Terek clan on the northern slopes of the Caucasian mountains. Following Ermak, w ho w as killed in

a skirmish w ith the nomads, rov ing Cossack bands continued their penetration eastw ard, until finally they discovered and colonized for Russia the remote provinces of the Far East.This process of penetrat ion and discovery , of scouting and acquisition, is similar to the "Westw ard Ho" expansion in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries in America: the same

w ilderness, hostile natives, hardships, and the urge to get a little further and to see w hat lies beyond each successive hill. Just as the discovery of the American West w as made

possible through the toil and sw eat and blood of the intrepid bands of f rontiersmen, w hose names w ere often unknown to the settlers w ho followed them, so the discovery and

conquest of Siberia and the Far East called for superhuman eff orts ? to cross mile-w ide rivers, to penetrate virgin taiga forests, alw ays short of food and amunition. It should be noted

that for the most part this drive toward the broad Pacific w as on the Cossacksow n initiative; all they got (and that infrequently) f rom the Russian pow er w as some lead and powder.

Yet every new ly discovered land w as taken by the Cossacks in the name of the Russian Czar and "presented" to him by the conquerors. Without w ritten commissions these men

served the Czar as his diplomats, settlers and border guards.

In this process of moving the borders of the Russia State outward, the to camp on f rozen tundra, alw ays f acing resistance from the aborigines, Cossackscustomarily set military

posts and for ts, garrisoned by a f ew w ounded and crippled men and some fr iendly natives; soon they w ould get themselves w ives fr om among the local belles; then a tow n w ould be

built around the fort, roads be laid out to the nearest forts (stanitzas) ; and finally, a new clan (voisko) would be established, guarding the new subjects of the Russian Czarand

protecting the new border. Eleven such clans existed in Russia before there volution of 1917, strung f rom the Black Sea to the shores of the Pacific, "eleven pearls in the crow n of

the Russian Emper or."

It was in 1646 that the Cossackscame to the shores of the Pacific Ocean; tw o years later Dejnev, a Cossack ataman, discovered the Bering Strait; within a few years the

Cossacks had crossed this r ibbon of w ater and established settlements in Alaska, Kamchatka and all through the Pacific Northw est. Still later the Cossacks,moving southward

tow ard China, took for Russia the rich Amur, Ussuri and Maritime Provinces., establishing contact w ith China, Korea and Japan. In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries the

Cossack regimentsw ere incorporated in the Russian Army, and as part of it fought against Napoleon and in the Crimea and four Turkish Wars. They bore the brunt of the

struggle for conquest and possession of the Caucasus and Turkestan. When the major w ars w ith the neighboring states w ere over and the borders of the Empire had become

stabilized, the Cossacksw ere given another, not less arduous, task: to keep the new frontiers inviolate and to protect peaceful settlers from hostile actions by Turks, Persians,

Afghans, Mongols and Manchus. Other Cossack regimentsw ere strung along the borders separating Russia f rom her w estern neighbors, the Aus trians and Germans. The exploits

of the Cossacksin World War Iare too w ell know n to be dwelt upon here. It will suff ice to state that the Cossacks w ere in the vanguard of the Russian Armyw hen it was

advancing and the same Cossacks w ere covering the army at the time of retreats. Notwithstanding such exposure, Cossack prisoners of w ar w ere so rare an event, that in 1914

and 1915 the few captured Cossacks w ere carried in special cages through distant Hungarian towns to show people that even Cossacks could be taken prisoners.


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II. The Fight for Freedom and Liberty

Important w as the part the Cossacksplayed in building the Russian Empire. Just as important for them w as their resistance and f ight for f reedom w henever that mighty empire

attempted to curb the Cossack liberties.

To begin w ith, the original settlers, the aborigines of the "Wild Steppes," the region betw een the rivers Dnieper and Volga, were f ree men, ow ing allegiance to no one. With the

exception of a s hort period in the Fourteenth Century w hen the Cossacksw ere compelled to recognize the s overeignty of Genghiz Khan and Tamerlane, the Cossacksw ere left to

shift f or themselves. They w ere too troublesome for any potentate to claim them for his ow n. This situation ended in the Sixteenth Century w hen the rivalry of the neighboring great

states of Russia, Poland and Turkey sucked the Cossacks into the repeated w ars betw een those nations. Each of these giants wanted to get the w arlike Cossackson its side, and

each claimed them as subjects. There w as another reason for the rulers of Russia and Poland to show interest in the internal aff airs of the Cossacks.The end of the SeventeenthCentury is know n as a period of social upheaval in these states, particularly in Russia. It w as a period w hen the serfs repeatedly revolted against their masters, the boyars and the

nobles, the Church and the State. The Cossacks, who themselves never knew slavery , always supported and aided those who f ought to remain free, or to throw off the yoke of

slavery. By this time the State had become pow erful and w as strong enough to suppress every such revolt of the masses. Each time this happened the Cossackshad to pay w ith

their lives for taking the side of the oppressed. The Czarson many occas ions sent their troops to "bring order into the Cossack lands."

Still, up to the Seventeenth Century the Cossack states remained free, only at times and for short per iods acknow ledging the sovereignty sometimes of Poland and sometimes of

Russia. But at that time the Cossacks of Zaporojie , forced by economic dependency to ally themselves w ith a strong pow er, and f inding themselves in a squeeze in the higher

politics of Russia, Turkey and Poland, had to seek a firmer alliance w ith one of these pow ers, and their choice w as the people of the same religious f aith, Russia. Of their f ree w ill, w ith

solemn pomp and circumstance, the Zaporojie Cossacks,together w ith the people of the Eastern Ukraine, led by their Hetm an Bogdan Chmielnitsky, recognized the sovereignty

of the Russian Czar Alexis. Ironically, starting w ith this ruler of Russia, all his success ors promulgated and pursued a def inite policy of reducing the Cossacksto the status of a

military caste. The Cossacksrevolted, and Czar Alexis w as the first to send a military expeditionof major size to crush the rebellion. Stenka Razin, the leader of that

rebellion, w as captured and executed on the famous Red Square in Moscow , and his men, w ho w anted to set all Russian serfs f ree, w ere dispersed. Czar Alexis' son, Peterthe Great of Russia, had to deal with a similar uprising on the Don, w hen the Cossacks, under their A taman Boulavin, protes ted against Peter's sending regiments of the regular army

"to keep the Cossacks in check." The rebellion w as crushed and Boulavin committed suicide; thousands of Cossacks w ere hanged; and scores of their tow ns w iped out. To put an

end to the unreliable and freedom loving society of the Don Cossacks, Peter the Great officially annexed the Don to his Empire , and put an end to its ex istence as a free state.

Later, during the very s ame years that the American colonists w ere revolting against their British rulers and establishing a new , free nation, the United States, the Russian

Empress Catherine the Greattook every vestige of freedom from the Cossacks of the Ukraine , destroyed Siech, the principal camp of the Zaporojie Cossacks and disbanded

that Order of the Cossack Knights.

This condition continued down to our day: the central Russian government w as bent on curbing the Cossack privileges and liberties,and adopted one after another measures

forcing the Cossacksto the unenviable level of the Russian peasant (yet expecting at the same time the Cossacks to retain their unique military qualities!) ; w hile the Cossacksheld

to the shreds of their f ormer independence and jealously guarded w hat w as left of it.

The fast grow ing Russian state did not w ant the Cossacksas a separate people, nor as a series of independent clans. The Cossacks, w ith their war like characteristics, w hose

w hole historical existence w as a chain of w ars and raids and penetrations into hostile areas, w ere needed as fighters only. Incorporated into the Russian army, the Cossacks

w ere put on horses; and thus w as created the best light cavalry in the world. These horsemen in many a battle bested the cream of the crop of the heavy cavalry of Frederick the

Great; they outfought the famous troops of Marshal Murat and chased the remnants of Napoleon's Grand Army from Russia; they carried the battle flags of the Russian Army from

the Seine to the Pacific, and from Finland to the gates of Constantinople.

From times of old the Cossacksw ere know n for their loyalty and their military quality of obeying orders w ithout questioning their merits. Taking advantage of these qualities, Russian

rulers quite often employed the Cossacks for the suppression of revolutions and riots engineered by the liberal and revolutionary groups in Russia, and for crushing separatist

movements in the recently annexed provinces.

The unenviable reputation of the Cossacksas brutal executioners in the Czar's service originated from this phase of their service in the Russian Army. Three Russian w ords ? the

pogrom , the knut (or nagaika) and the Cossack? entered hand in hand into the pages of Western dictionaries and school books. The impression w as created and universally

accepted that the Cossacksconducted the pogromsand terrifiedthe Jewish populationof the w estern provinces of Russia.

Actually thepogromsw ere expressions of mob rule directed against the Jew s and carried out by the low est, the most ignorant portion of the Russian peasantry and the scum of

the big cities. They w ere usually engineered by the anti-semitic, ultra-conservative patriotic societies, and encouraged, at least in some instances, by the government.

The pogroms of ten resulted in some loss of life and great destruction of propertyin the Jewish s ectionsof such big cities as Kishenev, Bielostok, and others. When the mob got out


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of hand and the instigators lost control over the rioters, the government off icials w ould call the nearest army units to suppress the disorders and the pillage. Usually, the Cossacks

w ould be the first to s addle, and gallop to the scene of the riot. In a short time, using their horse w hips on the mob, they w ould disperse the drunken tramps and f arm hands, and the

pogrom w ould be over.

But the radicals and the revolutionary press in Russia and in the countries unfriendly to its government, constantly looking for something to undermine and damage the prestigeand

good nameof the monarchy, w ould publish the next day a shocking account of the pogrom and the part the government had had in it. They w ould describe how the Cossacks

w ere called on to protect the mob from the resisting Jewsand how they horse-w hipped every Jew w ho happened to be on the street.

The best proof of the actual role played by Cossacks in the pogromsis preserved to the present day in the archivesof several Cossack regiments, in the form of beautifully

inscribed and even more beautifully w orded scrolls, presented to these regiments by organized Jew ishcommunities, societiesand synagogues , as tokens of their gratitude

for the protection afforded by the Cossacksto the Jewsin the suppression of pogroms.A strange paradox should be noted in the make-up and employment of the Cossacks: on the one hand, they w ere constantly fighting for the

retention of their liberties and privileges, w hile, on the other, they w ere blindly carrying out orders directed tow ard the suppression of the

liberties of other peoples. Due to this situation, some Russian statesmen regarded the Cossacksas the most loyal subjects of the Czars (in f act,

to the last days of the Monarchy, the personal bodyguard of the Russian Emperors w ere composed only of Cossacks), w hile others

considered them the most unreliable, revolutionary element, dissatisfied w ith the loss of their absolute independence and forever ready to take

up arms against the central authorities. For example, a single shot of a Don Cossack on the streets of St. Petersburg decided the outcome of the

first phase of the 1917 revolution; it w as made against the established authorities.

How to Become a Cossack

To a certain extent Cossackdom w as an ideal form of human relations, tested and tried in the course of many turbulent centuries, based on a

truly democratic form of voluntary co-existence of different racial groups in one union. Often these groups w ere of different blood, language,

religion and degree of civilization; yet they indestructibly bound themselves together by their w ay of living, their social structure, economicstandards, deep love f or their land and homes, and their es tablished order and traditions.

To begin w ith, the Cossacksnever claimed any exclusiveness; the best minds among them repeatedly proclaimed that there had never been

any special Cossacks' God,and that our Lord God w ould not have entertained the idea of c reating separately such an unruly tribe as the

Cossack.s From the time of the establishment of small Cossack camps in the southeast of Europe to the period of the liquidation of the

Cossacks under the Communist government of Soviet Russia, it was not diff icult to become a Cossack . In the first period of their

existence, prior to the formation of the large clans, the Cossack communitiesw ere of a s trictly military character. The Cossacks, w hen not

in an actual war, lived in their forts and camps in which w omen were not allow ed. It w as a w arrior's w orld; the Cossack clans w ere similar to the various knightly orders of w estern

Europe. Every Cossack , from the eager youngster to the graying veteran of many w ars, w as a fighter, first and last. Any other occupation w as strictly forbidden to the Cossack ,

under severe penalty; and all trades, shops and stores in Cossack settlements w ere in the hands of non-Cossacks .

Going from one w ar to another as they did, there were very f ew "gray-haired veterans"; at times the Cossackkourens and regiments returned from the wars w ith just a few able-

bodied men in the ranks; new blood would be needed. New comers w ere gladly accepted; all w ho w anted to join w ere w elcomed. Formalities for admission w ere few : a candidate had

to be a physically sound specimen and had "to believe in God"; he was called on to make the sign of the cross, and, if w illing and able to do so, w as pronounced aCosackand was

assigned to the kouren (regimental unit) of his ow n choice, or to that unit which had suf fered the greatest losses in the last w ar or raid.

When the unsettled and dangerous conditions in the lands of the Cossacksgradually stabilized and the troublesome Tartars and Asiatics w ere pushed back, in the Eighteenth and

Nineteenth Centuries it became relatively safe f or a man w ith a plow to make a hut and to start farming close to a Cossack fort. With these adventurous f irst settlers c ame their w omen.

These new settlers gradually colonized and peopled the then "No Man's Land"; in this w ay the present day Eastern Ukraine w as formed and its population became know n as the

Ukrainian Coss acks. Such farmers w ere required to list themselves w ith the nearest kouren, and they w ere subject to being called to arms at a moment's notice.

The Cossacksthemselves gradually began to know and to appreciate the comfort and benefits of a settled, civilized life. Their cus tom w as to bring their captives, men, w omen and

children, from their raids. The men w ould work for their captors f or a w hile, and then w ould either be set f ree and able to join theCossacks, or returned, upon payment of ransom or

in exchange for captured Cossacks , to their people. Children w ould be converted to Christianity and raised as Cossacks. Young w omen and girls w ould eventually become some

Cossack's w ife. Because of this manner of "adopting" f ormer enemies, there are many foreign-sounding sur names among the Cossacks. It is not difficult to trace the origin of some

old Cossack clans, like the Poliakovs, the Pospolitakis, the Kalmikovs and the Nogayetzs.

Married Cossacksacquired a taste for the comforts of a home betw een w ars. Soon they learned other occupations; restrictions against farming were lifted. Thus w as created a


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new Cossack, a farmer in peacetime, but every ready to mount his sw ift horse and go to w ar, leaving his w ife to tend to the f arm until his return, often af ter many, many years. Their

w omen, living in the borderlands, quite frequently had to defend themselves f rom marauding Tartar bands, and there is many a story of Cossackwomenw ho successfully defended

their towns against such raiders.

With the passage of years there w ere many changes in the method of building up the Cossack ranks to the numbers needed for the protection of the less w arlike population of the

Russian Empire. Relations w ith formerly hostile neighbors became friendly; trophies of warhad no girls among them any more. Although the birth rate w as high, still the rate of

death, from wounds and epidemics in remote localities, w as higher. The government of Russia solved this problem radically and simply ? an Imperial Ukaze w ould be issued,

commanding several long existing and prosperous Cossack tow ns to assign a certain number of families for transfer to barren and dangerous parts of the borderland "to establish

new Cossack tow ns." With much suf fering and the tragic breaking up of f amily ties, often af ter an armed resistance, the designated families w ere moved to the new place. Whenever

the number of such emigrants w as not suf ficient to populate the barren spot, the government w ould, by another Ukaze, settle in the same place soldiers f rom the regiments of theRegular Army w ho happened to be nearby at the time. In such a manner not only w ere new settlements built, not only were new clans (the Voiskos) c reated, but Cossacks

themselves w ere made from men w ho prior to the Ukaze had no connection w ith the Cossacks.Such "making Cossacks" by decree w as taking place as late as the last tw o decades

of the Nineteenth Century. Some Cossacks w ere, therefore, quite new and young in this w orld. Yet, invariably, w hen a crisis came, like heavy losses in w ars, or a revolution broke

out, these new Cossacks proved to be just as brave, tenacious and just as strong in their conviction that they w ere a shade better than the next best man as their older Cossack

brethren.

There was another, much simpler, though not alw ays easier, w ay of becoming a Cossack ? any girl w ho chanced to marry a Cossack would automatically become herself a

Cossack. Such a non-Cossack-born female, after the death of her husband, received all the benefits and r ights of his w idow in the same manner as if her ancestors had been

Cossacks for generations.

Finally in the latest pre-Revolutionary period, a person w ho desired to become a Cossack could do so, by, f irst proving in some tangible w ay that he w ould be an asset to a Cossack

community; second, by obtaining a consent resolution from the general assembly (the sobor) of that community; and, third, by securing an approval f rom the District A taman? upon

overcoming all these obstacles, the applicant's name w as entered on the rolls, he became a full-fledged Cossack, and the w hole stanitza w ould "go on a binge" for a couple of days tocelebrate the new member of their community.

Military Duties of Cossacks

As w as indicated above, a Cossack originally w as a w arrior and nothing else ? a professional fighter. He w as "employed" only w hen he was in a war., declared or undeclared.

Periods in between w ere few ., and the "unemployed" Cossack spent his time in drinking, preparing equipment for future actions, electing and replacing his administration, in hunting

and fishing, and in drinking and w asting the trophies and loot w hich he had brought home fr om the last w ar or said. Going to war, a Cossack had to bring w ith him all his arms , and a

horse, if he w as w ith a mounted outfit. A Cossack w ho, as a result of too much carousing and drinking, lost his w eapons w as unmercifully f logged by his f riends and elders w hen

he show ed up in the ranks unarmed. This principle of the Cossack's bringing all the articles of his uniform and other necessities, as w ell as his ow n arms and horse, continued to be in

force down to our day. This obligation distinguished a Cossack from the conscripts of the regular Army. Cossacks w ere proud of their arms, of ten passed from grandfather to f ather,

and from father to son, and of their horses. On the other hand, quite often it w as a hardship or even a calamity for a not too w ell-to-do Cossack familyto equip three or four sons for

the service in the regiment in a short space of time.

Originally there w as no time limit on the Cossack's military service; he w as alw ays in the ranks. In time of w ar he w as in saddle and in

formation at the sound of the big drum or the church bell. No one knew w hen he w ould be back. Later, w hen Catherine the Great of

Russiadestroyed, in 1775, the last order of knights in the w orld, the Siech of the Zaporojie Cossacks, the Cossacks w ho remained in

Russia (quite many emigrated into Turkey and became respected subjects of the Sultan, preserving their identity dow n to our day) w ere

moved to new locations ? eventually to the Kuban re gionin the northern Caucasus ? again to guard the borders of the ever grow ing empire

from its w arlike neighbors to the south. They still had to go to w ar at a moment's notice, but their service in the regiment w as not a life-long

job any more. The term was reduced; at first to tw enty-five years of active service (and to death in the" reserve), and gradually to w hat it

w as in the years before the First World War ? f our years in a f irst line regiment, four years in a second line regiment, and four years in a unit of the third line, then in the armed reserve

until the age of fif ty-six. When listed in the second and third line outfits, the Cossackslived at home, but w ere in constant readiness and subject to summer camps and periodical drills.

Wars became few and, w ith the exception of the time served in a f irst line regiment, the Cossack stayed home in his stanitza(tow n) w ith his family, tilling the soil and free to engage in

any other occupation.

Cossacks Before the Revolution of 1917

Forced to relinquish their sovereignty to the Czars of Russia, the Cossacks managed to retain semi-autonomy; w ithin the borders of their eleven provinces they w ere independent. It


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is true that theAtaman, or chief of each c lan (Voisko), w as appointed by the Emperor; it is equally true that a recently established practice w as to appoint only non-Cossacks to be

Atamans; it is true that the tendency of the central government was to abridge the ancient rights and privileges of the Cossacks w hich had been recognized in a special Charter by

every Emperor upon his access ion to the throne. But in the main, the Cossacks w ere the masters of their ow n lives.

Proud as the Cossacks w ere of their military prow ess and glory, they cherished much more their w ay of living. The main principles of Cossack-dom were full and complete equality in

rights and duties ? equality social, political and economic. Each Cossack Voisk aw as a democracy, pure and simple.

All their administration w as elective. All communal matters w ere discussed and decided by the general assembly (the sbor) , composed of all male Cossacks of each stanitza; all local

off icers, beginning with the stanitza's ataman, w ere elected, mostly for a term of three years , at these sbors. Every of ficer could be impeached for inef ficiency or malfeasance. The

duties of all elected officers w ere strictly defined, as w ell as their rights and powers. In general, their rights w ere broad, but alw ays short of infringement on the personal freedom and

dignity of their constituents. The Cossacks w ere a proud people. Thev had no classes, social or economic, and the few attempts on the part of the central government to create aclass of nobles, from among the distinguished Cossack officers and generals, alw ays met w ith determined opposition from the rank and file, as w ell as fr om the intended

beneficiaries of the scheme.

Cossackdom is the long established combination of complete individual freedom w ith the iron discipline of organized society ; it is an absolute equality in rights and privileges, and just as

absolute an equality in carrying common burdens and duties; it is a sensible and practical unity of individual initiative and private ow nership of things personal w ith communal

ow nership of the gifts of nature and the means of production.

The last half century, immediately preceding the beginning of the First World War, 1864 to 1914, w as a period of economic and cultural achievement in Cossack history. It w as a

comparatively quiet period in the history of the Russian nation, w hen the Cossacks had an opportunity of staying home and attending to their peaceful pursuits. It was a period w hen

the Cossacks proved that their w ay of living, their system of democratic institutions w ith no dictation from above, paid large dividends.

By this tim tehe tw o original Cossac k clans, the Don and the Zaporojie, branched out and formed eleven Cossack states, extending along the borders of the Empire from the lack Sea to

the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The names of these eleven states, s tarting from the w est and going eastw ard w ere: Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, Ural, Orenburg, Semirechjie, Sibir,

Zabaikal, Amur, and Ussury. The first six states w ere in European Russia and the last f ive in Asia. Some states w ere large,w ith populations in the millions (tw o millions of DonCossacks), w hile others w ere small (just a few thousand in the Ussury Voisko). These Cossacksw ere diff erent in their appearance, fac ial characteristics, and even in the uniforms

they w ore; but in the main they were the same; they cherishrd theier free and easy w ay of life; they knew that they were born for w ar; they w ere proud to be Cossacks. Their

institutions w ere also alike, as w ell as their military service. Each Cossack w ent to his ow n regiment, where his father and foref athers had served; each served along side his

schoolmates and next door neighbors; their off icers w ere boys f rom the same stanitzas, often close relatives, w ho chose to go to military school w hen others preferred to s tay at

home to help their fathers in farming. Their military uniforms w ere practically the same as their every-day dress, mostly adopted f rom or influenced by the neighboring mountaineers

or nomads. The total population of all the Cossack states amounted to slightly over f ive million. It should be noted, in passing, that w hile originally every Cossack statew as on the

fringe of the Russian state, beganning w ith the rapid expansion of Russia tow ard its present southeastern borders, some of these Cossack states f ound themselves w ell w ithin these

new borders. At the brink of the First World War seven Cossack states, among them the largest and the oldest, like the Don and Ural, w ere far inside the new borders of the emipre.

This situation was f raught w ith danger for the very existance of these states ? they ceased to be buff er states, intended to absorb the first shock of the advancing enemy or to repel

the marauding bands of Bakh-tiari or the Afghans, and when they lost this quality, w hat w as the justification for treating the Cossacks diff erent from the rest of the Russian

population?

Another potential danger to the existence of the Cossack stateslurked in the ''minorities" problem; the bountiful and free life in the Cossack lands continued to attract adventurers and

the dissatisfied long after the Cossacks had lost interest in filling their ranks w ith newcomers f rom every s ide. These new emigrees settled in Cossack tow ns, mostly as traders and

mechanics of all sorts; gradually they acquired land and plots in tow ns. Their number w as alw ays increasing, to the point that in 1914-1917 in some of the richest Cossack states,

the non-Cossack population exceeded the Cossacks. The builders of the Empire in St. Petersburg w ere pondering on this situation and w ere coming to the conclusion that, for the

benefit of the w hole nation, the anomaly of having a separate people, with separate cus toms, law s and privileges should be removed forever.

THE COSSACKS IN PEACE TIME

Living for centuries at the c rossroads of Eastern Europe, in close contact w ith various nations and peoples, the energetic and curious Cossackseasily observed the ways of living of

these peoples and w illingly adopted from them all that looked worth w hile copying. Ever ready in w ar to discard some attractive trophy f or something more glittering and valuable, the

Cossackretained the same trait in peaceful pursuits; and, as a result, before the Revolution of 1917, theCossackshad the largest agricultural machines and theory ? the best for

their situation of w orking and dairy cattle, and they had several famous breeds of saddle horses. The Cossacks undoubtedly w ere the best farmers in Russia; the wheat and corn

from the Kuban and Don were the chief items of export through the ports of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov ; in Cossack pastures roamed sw ift horses, f uture mounts for the

regular cavalry regiments of the Russian Army; the best table wines in Russia w ere produced from the grapes grow n on the Don and the Terek; the best tobacco w as cultivated on


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the Kuban foothills of the Caucasian ridge; the Ural Cossacks w ere famous as fishermen, and who does not know of Russian caviar and sturgeon steaks. Orenburg woolen shaw ls

w ere always the most cherished possession of the Moscow belles, while the w ord "Astrakhan" rings familiarly to all of us. The Cossacksof Siberiaand Amurand Ussuryw ere

intrepid trappers and hunters, going alone after the ferocious Siberian tigers.

These principal occupations, like farming, cattle, sheep and horse breeding, fishing and hunting, made the Cossacksrich. Their wealth created an envy in the masses of the Russian

peasantry, land hungry and of ten destitute. Goaded by the Bolsheviks, they later so w illingly responded to the cry, "On to the Don, on to the Kuban!" sounded by Leninand Trotzky.

But in addition to the rich black earth, so good for farming and ranching, the land of the Cossacks contained tremendous riches below the ground. Within the territories occupied by the

Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks are the renow ned anthracite mines of the Donetz region, the oil fields of Grozny and Maikop, the salt of Ural and the as yet uncounted w ealth of

minerals, including gold, silver, nickel and marble in the mountain ridges of the Caucasus, Ural, Altai and Trans-Baikal. The best fisher ies in Russia w ere found in the deltas of the Volga,

Kuban, Ural, Irtish and Amur; some of the best game preserves w ere also in the Cossack lands.How ever, this bounty of Mother Nature cannot by itself explain the fact that the Cossacksw ere among the most advanced peoples of the Russian Empire. They w ere in the f ront

ranks in the fields of education and culture because they practiced the old Russian proverb, "Education is light and ignorance is darkness." The Cossack landsw ere covered with

hundreds of schools and institutions of learning. In the absence of any compulsory law , in the years preceding the Revolution of 1917, every Cossack boy and girl received an

elementary school education; a great many of them w ent to the high schools or attended the special trade or vocational schools w hich w ere established in every good-sized Cossack

tow n; and even f rom the smallest and most remote towns there w ere, as a rule, several young men and girls attending colleges and taking special courses in the great universities in

central Russia. It should be noted here that this urge of the Cossacks to give to their youth a broad general education was f row ned upon by the Czar's government; the Cossacks

w ere repeatedly told that the only education they needed w as special military training; that ambitious young men ought to be sent to the military schools and colleges, to become trained

officers f or the Cossack regiments; as to the girls ? w hy, they ought to stay home, "particularly because higher education invariably carries w ithin itself the seeds of discontent and

revolutionary ideas."

This paternal advice and admonition had its results, and the supreme ambition of a Cossack of the ranks was to see his son w ith silver eqaulettes on his broad shoulders. But more

and more Cossacks w ere sending their boys and girls to the civil seats of learning; they resented the implication that they w ere a military cate only; they w ere conscious of theirseparate ethnic entity, and they w anted to have their own sons and daughters as the teachers, judges, bankers, traders, mechanics and priests in their schools, courts, of fices,

factories, shops and in their churches.

How w ell the Cossacks succeeded in their drive to conquer the f ields of the arts and sciences, other than the military trade, show s in the fact that in the last tw o centuries one could

hardly find in Russia cultural, accomplishment, or an advance in science, or a new movement in the arts, w here the Cossacks hadn't their men and w omen in the f ront ranks. They had

their scientists and explorers, educators and w riters, artists and composers, executives and industrialists; but whether one of them was a senator, or a w orld know n agriculturist, or a

bishop of great fame, he was still a Cossack, first and last.

Land Ownership

"In payment for faithful military service, w hich had been full of hardships," each Cossack clan (Voisko), by special imperial grant, received acknow ledgment of full ow nership over

the lands originally conquered and settled by the Cossacks. Each clan w as the ow ner of its land, not the individual members of it. Each clan divided its land into three parts. One part,

including forests, rivers, mines and part of the arable land, remained in the clan as a w hole; the other tw o parts the c lan subdivided among the stanitzas (the tow ns); each stanitza, in

turn, kept part as tow nship property, f or communal use, and the other part w as distributed among! the individual families, according to the number of male Cossacksw ho had reached

the age of seventeen. As a rule, families w ere large and the sons remained in the family until long after the end of their active military service; f rom the stanitza's communal land each

young man, upon reaching the age of seventeen, received his parcel of land; and the larger the family, the richer it w as in the land it used and in the number of w orking hands.

Periodically, each stanitza redis tributed its land among the grow ing families, and each time the parcel given to an individual was smaller; when there w as no more communal land in a

stanitza to distribute among itsfamilies, then the clan would give f or the stanitza an additional piece of land f rom the clan's part. So., there w ere instances w hen a stanitza, originally

established on the banks of the Kuban, would have a parcel or tw o of land situated on the Pshish river, quite a distance f rom the original place. Individual lots became so small that

tow ard the end of the f irst decade of our century the w ealth of families had diminished to such an extent that equipping two or three youngsters f or service in a f irst line regiment, w ith

horses, w eapons, uniforms, saddle, etc., w as breaking the back of manyCossack fathers. In such cases the w hole township came to the aid of the family, and the young man

appeared in the ranks just as w ell equipped as any other.

Rich w as the soil in the Cossack lands; highly important and cherished w ere the grants and privileges enjoyed by the Cossacks. They were excused f rom payment of many taxes;

to a great extent they were their own masters. But it was not "f or free"; the Cossackspaid w ith full value for these r ights and privileges. Every Cossack , man and w oman, lived

under the constant threat of being called for active service. In peace time the object w as either to increase the strength of border garrisons on an uneasy stretch of the border; or

maybe to augment the police forces in times of unrest in the interior. In time of w ar, the Cossacksimmediately trebled their regiments, and often had to put in the field additional units,


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many of them composed of men in their forties and fifties. In a prolonged conflict like the First World War, practically the entire able-bodied population of the Cossacksw as called to

arms. Toward the end of that w ar, fully ten percent of the w hole Cossack populationw as at the front, and it w as a real treat to see a male Cossack on a stanitza street; unusually it

w as a convalescent w arrior, on a short leave before returning to his regiment. All work which had been done by the stronger, such as w orking in the fields, making new roads and

erecting: new community buildings w as done by Cossack w omen and children. The losses on the battlefield w ere great, and rare w as the home that had its men and boys all alive

and untouched. The Cossacks paid dearly for their privileges.

The Revolution of 1917

Many a cr ime and a cruel injust ice w ere committed by the Czar's government in its dealings w ith the Cossacks. Yet it must be admitted that, on the w hole, the cardinal policies of

that government, as w ell as its methods, in making the new ly conquered tribes and recently annexed peoples subject to dictates from the center w ere w ise, humane and far-sighted.

Instances of revolts and uprisings on the part of the tribes w hich lived in far aw ay fr inge provinces w ere extremely rare. All annexed lands at first w ere given a generous degree ofautonomy; they w ere allowed to retain their courts and administrative institutions; they continued to be governed by their beys and pr inces, according to their tr ibal common law and

customs; they w ere permitted to use their native language in dealing w ith the off icials of the Crow n; there w as an absolute religious tolerance, and an absolute equality w ith the

conquerors as to the education of their sons and daughters in government schools. Like no other great nation there w as in the Russia of that period a great ratio of non-natives

occupying the most important positions and off ices in the military and civil life of the Empire. The hand of the Czar w as heavy, but it w as put dow n gently and the pressure w as

gradually applied.

Another picture w as created w hen the government w as taken over firs t by the "professional revolutionists" and later by the Bolsheviks. Communism and Cossackdom do

not mix, and from the firs t days of the triumph of the party of Lenin and Stalin, these tw o social ideals clashed and entered into mortal combat.

As w as indicated above, the Cossacks accepted theRussian Revolution of 1917 as something in w hich they had very little interest, aside from re-establishing their cherished and

centuries-old institutions w hich had been curbed in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by the Czar's government. They declared their neutrality in the internal aff airs of the

Russian people and asked its new rulers to leave them alone. Follow ing a stirring public declaration to that effect, made by the Atamanof the Don Coss acks, General Kaledin, on

the Moscow Conference in the summer of 1917, the Provisional Government of Kerenskydeclared the Cossacks to be traitors and dissidents and made an ineffective attempt tocrush their "rebellion" by sending an armed force to the borders of the land of the Don Cossacks, but on the w hole the Cossacks w ere permitted to re-establish their autonomous tribal

structure.

Civil War ? 1917-1920

This atmosphere of cool tolerance and non-interference continued until the overthrow of the Kerensky governmentby the Bolsheviks of Lenin and Trotsky.The Cossacks

w ere immediately placed high on the list of enemies of the proletariat, and fighting broke out along the borders of each of the eleven Cossack territories. The Cossacks, w ith their

ancient cry "A ll for one, and one f or all" rose to the defense of their land, institutions and their f reedom.


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The massacre of Cossacks and Russian Army officers by Red Army "shooting team". Painter Shmarin

The Civil War in Russiaw as joined. There w ere many others besides the Cossacks w ho did not acceptCommunism . As distinguished from the "red" radicals, they all were

loosely called the "White Russians." A great number of the active opponents of the Bolsheviksf led to the Cossacks and fought against the Reds, using Cossack territories as their

base, and the Cossacksas their allies. In addition to filling the ranks of the fighting units of the armies of Admiral Kolchak, Generals Ivanov, Udenich, Denikin, Wrangel and others, the

Cossacks put into the f ield their ow n armies, commanded by their Atamans.
http://www.armymuseum.ru/dsh_e.html


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Cossacks vs. Bolchevicks

This w ar lasted for more than three years, f rom 1917 to 1920, and it was conducted w ith great ruthlessness on both sides. The Cossacks fought w ith desperate courage against an

enemy tw enty-tw o times superior in number. The position of theCossacksw as made all the more diff icult because they possessed practically no w ar industry and no arsenals.Particularly in the first phase of this w ar, the Cossacksknew of only one method of arming themselves ? it w as to capture arms from the enemy. Literally the entire population of the

Cossack states, including the w omen, took part in defending their land and f reedom from the Bolsheviks. The Cossacks suff ered tremendous losses in that war ; every Cossack

home had its share of dead and maimed. As a rule the Reds burned every Cossack farm and house that offered them resistance. After three years of a desperate and hopeless

struggle, the Cossacksand their allies, the "White," their resources exhausted, w ere defeated. Their land w as occupied by their mortal enemies, the Communists.

Cossacks in Exile

Nearly all of the fifty thousand Cossacksw ho w ere fortunate enough to escape w ith their lives into the Balkans, Turkey, Persia, Poland and China, left their homeland as organized

army units. Together w ith them w ent their atamans, parliaments and a few private persons and f amilies. The Cossacks car ried w ith them their State regalia, battle flags and archives.

By far the greatest part of this group eventually settled in the Balkan countries and there, by hard w ork and perseverance, prospered and became substantial citizens again. Another

part w ent farther, to Czechoslovakia and France; of this group many young men acquired a higher education and became professional men, also achieving considerable prosperity and

renow n. They retained their "Governm ents in Exile.," supported their s ick and aged, published periodicals and books relating to the Cossack glories of the past, and encouraged their

sons to w ait for the coming hour of liberation of their country. They even held elections, sending delegates to such great centers of Cossack concentration as Paris or Belgrade, toelect the Atamans. Unfortunately, some of the elected atamans decided to follow the footsteps of Hitler, Mussolini and other dictators, and ref used to step dow n at the termination of

their terms of of fice. Even now one of the Cossack clans, the Kuban, has for its ataman a person who w as elected to that four year term of off ice thirty-one years ago. How ever, w ith

the passage of the years and through changed circumstances, the pow er and authority of the atamans became negligible and the directing hand belongs now to elected and

recognized councils and committees.

This peacef ul life in their second homelands continued until the start of the Second World War, w hen these Cossacksfound themselves betw een the anvil and the hammer. All their

sympathy w as w ith their former allies of the First World War, w ith the forces of Democracy, but, in their determination to ally themselves w ith anyone who w as starting a w ar

against their oppressors, the Communists,they f ound themselves f ighting, some against the Red Army and others against the partisans of Tito, side by side w ith the totalitarian

legions. When Hitler's forces w ere beaten, these Cossacks, for the second time in the course of a man's life, had to drop everything, lose all they had created in the over tw enty y ears

of ex ile, and flee again before the advancing Reds. That flight w as costly to their enemy; all w ho could carry a gun joined the retreating armed formations, and fought day and night as

the rear guard of the fleeing Germans. They literally "fought unto death"; the Reds took no prisoners f rom among these units. The main direction of this retreat w as f rom Yugoslavia to

Austria, then to Northern Italy, and finally to Germany.Under the Sickle and Hammer


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Those Cossacksw ho had remained in Russia after their defeat in 1920, the families, the kin of those f ew w ho had managed to escape, and all those w ho had been in the ranks and

w hose regiments w ere cut off from the ports of embarkation, had to live under the stiff yoke of their conquerors. Their leaders and the heads of f amilies w ere the first to be liquidated

in the dreaded chambers of the Ghekaand the OGPU;their families w ere split and dispersed; newcomers, faithful followers of Leninand veterans of the Red Guard, w ere settled in

Cossack homes. All who w ere allowed to stay in their stanitzas w ere forced to become virtual slaves in the collective farms and factories; they w ere forbidden to w ear their

traditional dress; their regiments w ere disbandedand their young men had to serve in Red Arm y units. The pressure on them w as terrific, but even then the Cossacksrefused to

give I'n and continued their usually passive, but at time violently active resistance to the masters of the Russian people. They became experts in sabotage and hiding their identities.

From time to time such passive re sistancew ould erupt into a violent revolt, w ith public executions of the most hated members of the secret police and the special punitive units.

As a result of repeated uprisings f rom 1922 to 1937, the Cossacks w ere officiallydecreed by the Krem lin to be enem ies of the Soviet State, and as such, subject to an

absolute and complete liquidation. Every means w ere used by theBolsheviksto ex terminate the Cossacks, including a famine, artificially created by trusted lieutenants of Stalinin 1922 and again in 1933. In consequence, close to four million Cossacksperishedor disappeared in the years betw een 1920 and 1940, from famine and privation, in res isting

forced collectivization, in rebellions and riots, and in the slave labor camps of Siberia and the Far East.

And yet their spirit could not be crushed, and those Cossacks w ho managed to survive the terror and escape the clutches of the Soviet secret police , held high the torch of their

determination to w in back their freedom and their independent way of life. They beliwed that their hour had c ome w hen Hitler'sarmies in 1940 advanced tow ard the lands of the

Cossacks as liberators of Russiaf rom the tyranny of Communism . Town af ter tow n and village after village greeted the Germansw ith flowers and the traditional Russian

"bread and salt." The Red Army soldiers surrendered by whole divisions, w ithout offering any resistance to the advancing German patrols.By the thousands the

younger Cossacks joined the ranks of Hitler's auxiliaries "to get even with the Communists." Alas, very soon they saw the true face of Hitler's "supermen/ but it w as

already too late for them to turn back. When the Germans began their fr ozen exodus f rom the Cossack steppes, the w hole Cossack population left their homes and., w ith w omen and

children, on foot and in horse carts, w ent into exile. Nearly 150,000 Cossacks retreated with the Germans from Russia . The price they paid for the paradox of having their

sympathy w ith the Western Allies and actually fighting alongside Hitler's regiments w as truly appalling; thousands upon thousands of these unfortunates fell into the hands of the

rapidly advancing units of the Red Army; their fate invariably was exile to the concentration camps in the Far North, and systematic, planned extermination by cold and starvation.Others died f rom huger and f rom the bullets of red partisans in the f orests of White Russia and Poland. The survivors, w ho fled to sections of Austria and Germany, w hich fell to the

advancing allied divisions, finally found themselves interned in the former camps for Hitler's forced labor. There a great many of these Germans found their fathers and older friends

w ho had escaped from the Reds tw enty-tw o years before, at the end of the civil war against the Bolsheviks.

The Effect of Yalta

For many of these Cossacksthe joy of reunion w ith their kin and the happiness of f inding security and refuge w as short lived; in accordance w ith an agreement signed in Tehran and

Yalta by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, they w ere forcibly surrendered by the Allies to the Reds and "repatriated" to the Soviet Union.

The most tragic eventof this kind occurred near the city of Lienz, in Austria. Tow ard the end of the w ar General Krasnoffand some other Cossack leaderspersuaded Hitler

and his authorities to allow all civilians and non-fighting Cossacksto settle on a permanent basis in the sparsely settled foothills of the Italian Alps. The Cossacks moved there in

numbers and established a refugee settlement, w ith several stanitzas and posts, w ith their administration, churches, schools and defense units. When the victorious Allies moved from

central Italy into the Italian Alps, the German command ordered the Cossacks to leave their new homes and to retreat northw ard, into Aus tria. There, on the banks of the river Drave,

nearLienz, the British army units caught up w ith the Cossacks and interned them in a hastily arranged camp. For a f ew days the British fed these refugees and created theimpression that they understood the unique problem of this group, and could see the reason f or their f ear and uneasiness. The advance units of the RedArmyw ere only a few miles

to the east, rapidly surging to establish contact w ith the Allies. And then, suddenly, just w hen the Cossacks decided thatunder the protection of the British flag they had

nothing to worry about, the sons of "perfidious Albion" turned over the free men of Cossackdom to their Communist enemies . On May 28, 1945, twenty-one

hundred and forty-six Cossack officers and generals, including the world famous cavalry leaders, Generals Krasnoff, Shkuro and Kiletch-Girey (all NOT

SOVIET CITIZENS) , were, through a ruse, disarmed and carried in British cars and trucks to a neighboring town held by the Reds. There they w ere surrendered to

the RedArmygeneral, w ho immediately ordered them to stand trial f or treason. Many of these Cossack leaders had never been nominally citizens and subjects of the

Soviet Union, being the men who had left Russia in 1920, at the end of the civil war, and therefore could not be guilty of any treason. Some of these men were

executed on the spot; the higher officers were subjected to mock trials at Moscow and were also executed. For example, General Krasnoff was hanged by a

hook through the lower jaw, on a public square; this in the Twentieth Century in the capitol of the "most advanced nation of the world!" The bulk of this group

was sent to slave labor camps in the Far North and Siberia, to suffer a slow and painful death in the hands of their tormentors.


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BETRAYAL OF COSSACKS AT LIENTZ,Austria, June 1945. Painting by S.G.Korolkoff

Three days later, on June 1, 1945, the rank and file of this group of Cossacks, 32,000 men, womenand children(!), were simi larly bayonettedby the British into

cattle cars and camions , and delivered to the Bolsheviks, by them to be taken back to the Soviet Union, there to work and die as slaves of the "Great Father of the

Peoples," Joseph Stalin. Similar scenes were enacted in the same year, 1945, in the American Zone of Occupation, in Austria and Germany. Many more

thousands of Cossacks were beaten by rifle buttsinto waiting Soviet trucks and trains . Close to 45,000 Cossacks were in this m anner "repatriated" into the land

of their executioners. However, a great many Cossacks succeeded in fleeing these extraditions and hid themselvesin the forests and mountains; many were

saved by the local German population; but the greatest number of the escapees found safety and salvation in changing their identity, disguising themselves as

Ukrainians, Latvians, Poles , Yugoslavians, Turks, Armenians and even Ethiopians. Eventually, as such, they were admitted into the camps for Displaced Persons .

Under such assumed nationalities and names a considerable number of them cameto the United States under the Dis placed Persons Act; others left the D.P.

camps for any land which would open its doors to them. But still a great number of such "turn coats" are in Germany and Austria, in France and Italy, afraid to

disclose their real identity and feeling the uncomfortable proximity of the land beyond the Iron Curtain. They still distrust everybody and live in constant fear of

extradition to the Soviets; they still play safe, and prefer to go about under the guis e of their ass umed nationalities. Their real names and origin they disclose only to

their brother' Cossacks, particularly to the Cossack councils and unions .

The Cossacks in the United States

Several thousands of Cossacksw ho came to the United Statesare rapidly becoming (some for the four th time in their lives!) solid, substantial citizens; some work on the farms in

every state of the union; others have settled in the large centers of population in the Atlantic States and on the West Coast, and w ork in shops, factor ies and plants.

For the present, due to language difficulties, even the men w ith special training and members of the professions are engaged in manual tasks; but, w ithout exception, they w ork and

study and learn and are anxious to become a part of this great nation. They w ill become good citizens of the United States; those w ho remain here w ill be among the first to answ er the

call to arms to go again to f ight the oppressors of all the peoples beyond the Iron Curtain, and firs t of all to liberate the great and peace-loving Russian people.The Cossacksw ho have come recently to the United States, w hile waiting for that call to arms, true to their f irst love have grasped every opportunity of settling on the land and


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becoming independent, individual farmers, servants to no one. As to their habit, they stick together and settle in groups, acquiring adjoining parcels of land. Already several Cossack

settlementshave been established, each giving promise that in a few years it w ill become a show place of the community, and, after a longer period of time, who knows ? This

nation may be just as proud of the Cossacks in New Jersey, as it is proud now to have the Dutch in Pennsylvania, or the Finns and Norw egians in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

A typical example of such a budding colony is the brand new settlement of Cossacks in the Buena Vista tow nship, near V ineland, New Jersey. There a group of fif ty Cossacks is

already transforming 1,000 acres of abandoned brushland into a highly diversif ied agricultural and poultry raising community. Their number constantly increases, and in a few years

they expect to have there a new tow n, w ith its own ataman and the sbor (tow n council of elders), w ith its own c hurch, school and public buildings, including a museum for the

preservation of the Cossack regalia, dress and arms. They hope to establish there the foundation of another ethnic group in this nation of ours ? the American Cossacks. It promises

to be a sturdy group of people, one used to hardships and hard w ork, and one absolutely incapable of being sw ayed by the Communists' sw eet songs and rosy pictures.

The clearing house and the guiding hand for this group, a.s w ell as for others, the most substantial and far- sighted groups of Cossacks in the United States, is the World CossackAssociation, a center created by the first Cossack immigrants many years ago. The Executive Council of this organizations is composed of the elected atamans of the component

members, stanitzas, and other representatives of the larger groups. Through their medium the Cossacks keep in touch w ith political developments, w herever they carry a promise of a

Crusade of the Democrac ies against Communism. Particular ly they follow and watch the activities of all anti-Communist organizations composed of ref ugees from Russia, and also

such American groups as the one headed by a f ormer Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Admiral Kirk. Quite recently their attention w as attracted by an attempt of several Russian

groups, mostly of a liberal hue, to unite into one great unit all political and national subdivisions of the organized part of the refugees from behind the Iron Curtain. The Cossacks w ere

not invited to that conference, presumably because they are not a political party on the one hand, and, on the other, because in the eyes of some Russian diehards, theCossacksare

part and parcel of the Russian people, its military class and nothing more.

Commenting on this ridiculous anomaly, w hen the traditional Russian liberals touchingly united w ith the extreme reactionaries , the World Cossack Association made public a special

declaration, w hich, in part, is quoted below:

"All Cossacks outside of Russia, subscribing in to to under the cardinal principles of these (Gen. Kaledin's Declaration in August, 1917, at Moscow , and the Declaration of the

Southeastern Union of the Don, Kuban, Terek, in 1920) previous pronunciamentos, and remaining true to their historical w ays and traditions, do hereby declare:"1. All Cossacks, considering themselves f irmly bound to the Free Russian State, stand on their former positions, to w it:

"a. All Cossacks believe and trust that the new Russian State w ill take the f orm of a Federated Republic of the Free Provinces and Peoples of Russia;

"b. All Cossacks believe and stand f or granting the w idest federative rights to the 'f ringe states' and peoples of the Russian State, but they object to the dismemberment of Russia into

separate, independent republics;

"c. All Cossacks trust that the f inal decision, w hether the Russian State w ill be a federated republic, or a monarchy, or w hether it w ill assume some other f orm of national structure,

must depend and hinge on the decision of the All-Russia Council of Peoples Deputies or the Constitutional Assembly, law fully proclaimed and organized later, upon establishing a firm

order and peace in the land;

"d. All Cossacks, considering themselves a part of the family of the Peoples of Russia, cannot visualize establishment of the future Russia w ithout their active participation in the

creation of that state;

"e. All Cossacks, possessing a program for their ow n governmental structure, their ow n ideal of the human community, an ideal tested and found true in the course of many centuries,

and sealed w ith the blood of their great forefathers?"declare, openly and freely, that they, the Cossacks, w ith any form of Russian regime, shall, w ith a firm hand, defend for themselves their ow n natural, free, ageless democratic order

? in the same manner as they did in the course of past centuries."

These are the cardinal human principles for w hich the Cossacks died in their glorious past. For these principles the remnants of a proud people are ready to f ight to the death now.
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