Cossack Division is preparing for peacekeeping operations
In the Kuban, in the Abinsk Cossack camps and on the Rayevsky training ground near Novorossiysk, the annual field gatherings of the 1 Taman Cossack Division were held.
The commander, chieftain of the Taman branch of the Kuban Cossack society, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, Cossack colonel, Hero of the Kuban, Ivan Bezugly, tells about the emergence and activities of the first and so far only Cossack territorial unit in the Russian Federation.
- Ivan Vasilyevich, the combination "Cossack division" sounds so far somewhat unusual. How was it created, on whose initiative, and what is its purpose?
- The division was created by the Cossacks of the Taman branch of the Kuban Cossack army on their own initiative, in the context of the tasks facing the army. It was formed by the results of the events of the “Crimean Spring” and the beginning of the confrontation in the Donbass, in which the Cossacks took the most active and direct part. Looking at the map of the Krasnodar Territory, we will see that it has a maritime border with Turkey and Ukraine. To this we can add that the Cossacks of Abkhazia, which borders Georgia, are organizationally part of the Kuban Cossack army.
The division we have created is, in essence, a joint territorial defense, ready to tackle a wide variety of tasks: defense of the region, occupying and holding positions, fighting with sabotage and reconnaissance groups, participating in counter-terrorism measures, protecting public order, combating mass unrest, fighting natural disasters and man-made disasters. To this can be added the training of draftees, as well as the retraining of those who are in reserve.
The formation of the division was a response of the Taman Cossacks to the emerging geopolitical challenges to our country and the attempts of the anti-Russian forces to destabilize the domestic political situation, and therefore occurred in record time.
The intensive organizational measures that began in January of 2015 allowed, by September of the same year, to bring to the military field four Cossack regiments and a separate Plastun division (today, in the 8 division, regiments combined into two brigades and a separate battalion).
Of course, we did not come to this in one day. From the very first steps of the Cossack rebirth, we clearly determined that folklore, traditional crafts, farming are all beautiful and very important. But the main goal of the Cossack is military service, protection of the Russian state. And life itself pushed us to this thought.
Recall that time: local conflicts were raging across the expanses of the former USSR, the country was flooded with lawlessness. We ourselves are faced with a well-organized ethnic crime, which had to be resisted - to protect our loved ones and our land, which we unequivocally attacked. It happened, I remind you, in the conditions of almost total corruption and paralysis of power. We could only count on ourselves.
And from the very first steps of Cossack societies, combat training has become the most important component of their life. Initially, these were training teams, they grew into hundreds, those - in battalions. Then, on the basis of regional societies, shelves were created, which, by the year of 2014, were consolidated into two brigades. Which, in turn, became the basis for the division.
- And from what moment did the initiative “from below” receive support “from above”?
- Not immediately. So, in 90, when some high-ranking officials were inclined to regard patriotic activity as anti-state, we were not accused of anything, almost of creating illegal armed groups.
However, time put everything in its place, proving that we were right. After all, it was thanks to us, even in the most difficult years, that we managed to preserve peace and stability in the Kuban and prevent serious ethnic and inter-religious conflicts.
Today, the military ataman Nikolai Alexandrovich Daluda made military field gatherings obligatory for all divisions, troops, and we have the support of both regional and central authorities and the ministry of defense.
Suffice it to say that the governor of the Krasnodar Territory was visiting field camps; we were handed the Combat Banner of the division.
- You said about the readiness of the compound to solve a wide range of tasks. What builds confidence in this?
- Most of them we already had to solve in one form or another. We can recall the actions of the Cossacks in overcoming the consequences of the floods in Krymsk in the 2012 year, and even earlier - protecting countrymen from the illegal actions of illegal migrants and curbing extremist tricks on their part. This may also include the provision of the Sochi Olympics and, of course, participation in the “Crimean Spring”, where the Cossacks protected public order in Simferopol and Sevastopol and weapons in their hands they protected Perekop and the Turkish ramp against extremists entering the peninsula.
The Cossacks of the Taman Division took part in all armed conflicts in the post-Soviet space, as well as in the Balkans. As a part of the Russian army, other power structures and voluntary formations. Our Cossacks, working in private military companies, protected the merchant ships from attacks by pirates off the coast of Africa, and carried out complex operations to free hostages and hijacked ships. And in Syria, fighting with 2013 year. In the Donbass, as a volunteer, with 2014 th. So the experience gained richest.
We do everything so that he may not be in vain: we preserve and systematize it, pass it on to young Cossacks. As a result, the division is regarded as a truly universal tool for solving a wide variety of tasks. It is not by chance that today the command of the unit is trying to ensure that the Cossacks, in addition to mastering traditional combat skills, can equally successfully carry out actions of a hybrid nature, as well as in peacekeeping operations.
- As I understand it, the Cossack division is very different from the formations of the Russian army or the Rosguards?
- Yes, it is rather possible to compare it with the Cossack regiments of the second and third lines of the Russian Empire, which consisted of Cossacks on concession or in reserve. Cossacks on the benefits, as well as in the preparatory discharge lived at home, were engaged in farming, but participated in military training.
Actually, this idea was taken as a basis. We have a staff list, commanders, specialists, but there is no standard equipment, parks, or weapons. What we need to prepare is provided by the Russian army during the lessons. And what is important, no one, neither ordinary Cossacks, nor commanders, receive a monetary arrest, even such as they receive for serving in the reserve.
- And what is the motivation?
- The motivation is simple: patriotism and the desire to be Cossacks. War in a certain sense is the meaning of the life of a Cossack. In the old documents I have repeatedly encountered the following wording: “If the Cossack was lucky to be at war.” That is, participation in the defense of the faith and the Fatherland was considered happiness. A lot of natural Cossacks serve in the army, in special services, in PMCs. It is not surprising that the current Cossacks choose for themselves the life of a defender of the Motherland and its interests, which is in full danger. But even those who, due to age or other reasons, are “civilians”, work in the national economy, in the private sector, or even are retired, do not want to move away from military service, want to be “in the cage.” So this is in our genes. People are not just ready to undergo training, participate in training sessions and exercises, they still spend their money and time, tearing it away from the family.
- But after all, the events themselves, such large-scale as divisional fees, require funds. Who pays them?
- Well, the army team money from us for the spent ammunition, for the work of instructors do not take. Transport, food, equipment at the gathering provide territorial societies that exhibit units and units. They, in turn, help the authorities. And also businessmen who, in the majority Cossacks, consist in the Cossack societies help.
In addition, we ourselves have a serious training potential - we did not have problems with experienced personnel who are able to prepare young people. Many of the Taman Cossacks have officer ranks, serious combat experience and are marked by high state awards.
- As I understand it, combat training is not limited to fighting charges?
- She goes constantly. The combat training system of the division was developed - the CSKA combat training system was taken as the basis. Why she? Because the athletes of this club, being military, most of the time were engaged in sports training. The Cossacks of the division, too, cannot, as soldiers in the barracks, engage exclusively in combat training, they work in the national economy, study in educational institutions, and solve domestic issues.
The first company of each battalion reconnaissance. These companies are staffed with the most prepared Cossacks, including those with experience in military operations.
The intelligence of the 1 th Taman regiment was brought to divisional subordination. In addition, a commandant company was created at the division headquarters. Its tasks include the maintenance of order during divisional duties. The curricula for each regiment were developed and approved - there are six of them in the division (two district Cossack societies form one regiment).
Scouts and specialists such as signalmen, sappers, gunners, and others, are engaged more intensively in the combat training system of the airborne troops for these specialties.
- In the division there are gunners?
- Of course, our task is to create a fully-fledged unit that can only be armed, and can be sent into battle.
In the Donbass, when our brothers, the Cossacks of the Great Don Cossacks and the militia, beat off the artillery systems of the APU — howitzers, self-propelled artillery systems, MLRS and even mortars, they very often had problems with the presence of specialists able to maintain this equipment and fire from it. It is clear that they have resolved these issues as well, and today the gunners of the people's republics are far superior in the skill of the enemy, but it is better to be initially prepared.
We are trying to pay great attention to tactical training, reproducing all possible situations that Cossacks may encounter.
On the basis of the 7 Airborne Assault Division train instructors with junior officers of the Cossack division, as well as intelligence specialists, engineers, communications men, anti-aircraft gunners and gunners.
Actually, scouting classes are held weekly - we have our own training sites in the mountain-wooded area. One of the results of this study was the participation of Cossack intelligence officers in demonstration demonstrations of the intelligence of the 7 division, which was awarded a diploma. That is, the officers of the Airborne Forces highly appreciated the level of training of our intelligence officers.
The expression is known that generals always prepare for past wars. In the sense that, based on the experience of the past war, they create instructions, teaching methods and so on.
But in order to prepare the Cossacks, especially our youth, you need to carefully monitor everything that happens on the battlefields of the planet, identify all the latest trends, compare, analyze and predict the further development of military affairs. And on the basis of these forecasts form curricula. Thank God that in the division, in the Taman department, there are a lot of competent officers who are able to conduct this work and successfully cope with it.
Working with a sword or jigging is our national tradition, it is beautiful. But today this is not enough, it is necessary that the modern Cossack could work with the means of communication, control the UAV, be well acquainted with information technology, in a word, be a trained specialist. At the same time, it is the bearer of all the glorious traditions of our heroic ancestors.
The commander, chieftain of the Taman branch of the Kuban Cossack society, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, Cossack colonel, Hero of the Kuban, Ivan Bezugly, tells about the emergence and activities of the first and so far only Cossack territorial unit in the Russian Federation.
- Ivan Vasilyevich, the combination "Cossack division" sounds so far somewhat unusual. How was it created, on whose initiative, and what is its purpose?
- The division was created by the Cossacks of the Taman branch of the Kuban Cossack army on their own initiative, in the context of the tasks facing the army. It was formed by the results of the events of the “Crimean Spring” and the beginning of the confrontation in the Donbass, in which the Cossacks took the most active and direct part. Looking at the map of the Krasnodar Territory, we will see that it has a maritime border with Turkey and Ukraine. To this we can add that the Cossacks of Abkhazia, which borders Georgia, are organizationally part of the Kuban Cossack army.
The division we have created is, in essence, a joint territorial defense, ready to tackle a wide variety of tasks: defense of the region, occupying and holding positions, fighting with sabotage and reconnaissance groups, participating in counter-terrorism measures, protecting public order, combating mass unrest, fighting natural disasters and man-made disasters. To this can be added the training of draftees, as well as the retraining of those who are in reserve.
The formation of the division was a response of the Taman Cossacks to the emerging geopolitical challenges to our country and the attempts of the anti-Russian forces to destabilize the domestic political situation, and therefore occurred in record time.
The intensive organizational measures that began in January of 2015 allowed, by September of the same year, to bring to the military field four Cossack regiments and a separate Plastun division (today, in the 8 division, regiments combined into two brigades and a separate battalion).
Of course, we did not come to this in one day. From the very first steps of the Cossack rebirth, we clearly determined that folklore, traditional crafts, farming are all beautiful and very important. But the main goal of the Cossack is military service, protection of the Russian state. And life itself pushed us to this thought.
Recall that time: local conflicts were raging across the expanses of the former USSR, the country was flooded with lawlessness. We ourselves are faced with a well-organized ethnic crime, which had to be resisted - to protect our loved ones and our land, which we unequivocally attacked. It happened, I remind you, in the conditions of almost total corruption and paralysis of power. We could only count on ourselves.
And from the very first steps of Cossack societies, combat training has become the most important component of their life. Initially, these were training teams, they grew into hundreds, those - in battalions. Then, on the basis of regional societies, shelves were created, which, by the year of 2014, were consolidated into two brigades. Which, in turn, became the basis for the division.
- And from what moment did the initiative “from below” receive support “from above”?
- Not immediately. So, in 90, when some high-ranking officials were inclined to regard patriotic activity as anti-state, we were not accused of anything, almost of creating illegal armed groups.
However, time put everything in its place, proving that we were right. After all, it was thanks to us, even in the most difficult years, that we managed to preserve peace and stability in the Kuban and prevent serious ethnic and inter-religious conflicts.
Today, the military ataman Nikolai Alexandrovich Daluda made military field gatherings obligatory for all divisions, troops, and we have the support of both regional and central authorities and the ministry of defense.
Suffice it to say that the governor of the Krasnodar Territory was visiting field camps; we were handed the Combat Banner of the division.
- You said about the readiness of the compound to solve a wide range of tasks. What builds confidence in this?
- Most of them we already had to solve in one form or another. We can recall the actions of the Cossacks in overcoming the consequences of the floods in Krymsk in the 2012 year, and even earlier - protecting countrymen from the illegal actions of illegal migrants and curbing extremist tricks on their part. This may also include the provision of the Sochi Olympics and, of course, participation in the “Crimean Spring”, where the Cossacks protected public order in Simferopol and Sevastopol and weapons in their hands they protected Perekop and the Turkish ramp against extremists entering the peninsula.
The Cossacks of the Taman Division took part in all armed conflicts in the post-Soviet space, as well as in the Balkans. As a part of the Russian army, other power structures and voluntary formations. Our Cossacks, working in private military companies, protected the merchant ships from attacks by pirates off the coast of Africa, and carried out complex operations to free hostages and hijacked ships. And in Syria, fighting with 2013 year. In the Donbass, as a volunteer, with 2014 th. So the experience gained richest.
We do everything so that he may not be in vain: we preserve and systematize it, pass it on to young Cossacks. As a result, the division is regarded as a truly universal tool for solving a wide variety of tasks. It is not by chance that today the command of the unit is trying to ensure that the Cossacks, in addition to mastering traditional combat skills, can equally successfully carry out actions of a hybrid nature, as well as in peacekeeping operations.
- As I understand it, the Cossack division is very different from the formations of the Russian army or the Rosguards?
- Yes, it is rather possible to compare it with the Cossack regiments of the second and third lines of the Russian Empire, which consisted of Cossacks on concession or in reserve. Cossacks on the benefits, as well as in the preparatory discharge lived at home, were engaged in farming, but participated in military training.
Actually, this idea was taken as a basis. We have a staff list, commanders, specialists, but there is no standard equipment, parks, or weapons. What we need to prepare is provided by the Russian army during the lessons. And what is important, no one, neither ordinary Cossacks, nor commanders, receive a monetary arrest, even such as they receive for serving in the reserve.
- And what is the motivation?
- The motivation is simple: patriotism and the desire to be Cossacks. War in a certain sense is the meaning of the life of a Cossack. In the old documents I have repeatedly encountered the following wording: “If the Cossack was lucky to be at war.” That is, participation in the defense of the faith and the Fatherland was considered happiness. A lot of natural Cossacks serve in the army, in special services, in PMCs. It is not surprising that the current Cossacks choose for themselves the life of a defender of the Motherland and its interests, which is in full danger. But even those who, due to age or other reasons, are “civilians”, work in the national economy, in the private sector, or even are retired, do not want to move away from military service, want to be “in the cage.” So this is in our genes. People are not just ready to undergo training, participate in training sessions and exercises, they still spend their money and time, tearing it away from the family.
- But after all, the events themselves, such large-scale as divisional fees, require funds. Who pays them?
- Well, the army team money from us for the spent ammunition, for the work of instructors do not take. Transport, food, equipment at the gathering provide territorial societies that exhibit units and units. They, in turn, help the authorities. And also businessmen who, in the majority Cossacks, consist in the Cossack societies help.
In addition, we ourselves have a serious training potential - we did not have problems with experienced personnel who are able to prepare young people. Many of the Taman Cossacks have officer ranks, serious combat experience and are marked by high state awards.
- As I understand it, combat training is not limited to fighting charges?
- She goes constantly. The combat training system of the division was developed - the CSKA combat training system was taken as the basis. Why she? Because the athletes of this club, being military, most of the time were engaged in sports training. The Cossacks of the division, too, cannot, as soldiers in the barracks, engage exclusively in combat training, they work in the national economy, study in educational institutions, and solve domestic issues.
The first company of each battalion reconnaissance. These companies are staffed with the most prepared Cossacks, including those with experience in military operations.
The intelligence of the 1 th Taman regiment was brought to divisional subordination. In addition, a commandant company was created at the division headquarters. Its tasks include the maintenance of order during divisional duties. The curricula for each regiment were developed and approved - there are six of them in the division (two district Cossack societies form one regiment).
Scouts and specialists such as signalmen, sappers, gunners, and others, are engaged more intensively in the combat training system of the airborne troops for these specialties.
- In the division there are gunners?
- Of course, our task is to create a fully-fledged unit that can only be armed, and can be sent into battle.
In the Donbass, when our brothers, the Cossacks of the Great Don Cossacks and the militia, beat off the artillery systems of the APU — howitzers, self-propelled artillery systems, MLRS and even mortars, they very often had problems with the presence of specialists able to maintain this equipment and fire from it. It is clear that they have resolved these issues as well, and today the gunners of the people's republics are far superior in the skill of the enemy, but it is better to be initially prepared.
We are trying to pay great attention to tactical training, reproducing all possible situations that Cossacks may encounter.
On the basis of the 7 Airborne Assault Division train instructors with junior officers of the Cossack division, as well as intelligence specialists, engineers, communications men, anti-aircraft gunners and gunners.
Actually, scouting classes are held weekly - we have our own training sites in the mountain-wooded area. One of the results of this study was the participation of Cossack intelligence officers in demonstration demonstrations of the intelligence of the 7 division, which was awarded a diploma. That is, the officers of the Airborne Forces highly appreciated the level of training of our intelligence officers.
The expression is known that generals always prepare for past wars. In the sense that, based on the experience of the past war, they create instructions, teaching methods and so on.
But in order to prepare the Cossacks, especially our youth, you need to carefully monitor everything that happens on the battlefields of the planet, identify all the latest trends, compare, analyze and predict the further development of military affairs. And on the basis of these forecasts form curricula. Thank God that in the division, in the Taman department, there are a lot of competent officers who are able to conduct this work and successfully cope with it.
Working with a sword or jigging is our national tradition, it is beautiful. But today this is not enough, it is necessary that the modern Cossack could work with the means of communication, control the UAV, be well acquainted with information technology, in a word, be a trained specialist. At the same time, it is the bearer of all the glorious traditions of our heroic ancestors.
Information