At the intersection of history and modernity
In May, 2015 will be marked 445 years from the moment of the emergence of the Don Cossacks. This anniversary is not a round date, but it is an important reason to think about the path of an entire people, scattered across several regions and countries. Namely, whether the Cossacks will remain original or turn into a crowd, entertaining rare tourists and distinguished guests. Relations of the free people and the central authority were never simple. The imperial power on the Don was disliked because it deprived the Cossacks of their almost unlimited freedoms. The Soviet authorities sought to exterminate the Cossacks. The current federal government is suspected of conducting an unofficial policy of ethnic replacement by people from the Caucasus, which is sometimes directly stated at Cossack assemblies. There are other questions. Understanding the reasons for such a distrust is easy to understand, if you remember history Don relations and Russian rulers.
The first mention of the Don Cossacks in the official version is dated 1570 year. From this date is generally accepted countdown. But actually organized settlements arose much earlier. For the first time they are mentioned 1444 year. The local Cossacks were called "Ryazan". Don Cossacks did not recognize any power over themselves, except for their own self-government. Living in open space, they learned to defend themselves from restless neighbors. For these purposes there were fortresses well protected by moats and stakes, reinforced with small cannons. Short days in these fortresses were often only men.
The absence of the state, and, consequently, of taxes, allowed the Don Cossacks to become unprecedentedly rich not only by the standards of Russia, but also by most of Europe of that time. Solid wooden houses were owned by almost every member of the village. Even a small village had hundreds of horses and thousands of cows - this is evidenced by the sources of neighboring peoples who raided for such attractive prey. On average, each Cossack had twenty horses and up to thirty cows, not counting other cattle. An ordinary Russian peasant, Yaroslavl or Vologda, neither in those years, nor later could he have imagined such wealth. Cossacks reached their highest economic prosperity on the eve of the epoch of Peter the Great.
But new times were coming. The self-sufficient owner, who was the Don Cossack, was disliked by the autocratic government, trying with all its might to deprive him of not only his property, but also traditional freedom. Soon, according to Peter’s personal order, spies began to be sent to Don to find out the number of fugitives, as well as the general state of affairs on free land. According to rumors, Peter himself was here too, and he didn’t like the freedoms much. An open intervention followed: the Cossacks were forbidden to elect atamans, create new towns, give out all the fugitives who came from 1695 of the year, etc. The demands overwhelmed the patience of local residents. A riot arose, with unprecedented cruelty suppressed by the troops. Forty-four towns along the Medveditsa and Khopru were destroyed with the complete extermination of the local population. According to various estimates, up to 20 000 Cossacks alone, not including alien people, was killed. Free Don survived this terrible slaughter, although the will on him from now on was significantly diminished. The Cossacks bypassed their traditional ingenuity to ban the founding of new villages: they began to build farms, and as far as possible from the villages (up to several tens of versts), away from power. At the same time, the villagers still treated the village, although there were also farms far beyond the village itself.
Up until the First World War, the Don Cossacks were an important part of the military power of the empire. Cossack served as alternation: four years in a campaign and four houses, and got to the place of service independently. The regiments of the first stage in peacetime served on the border, the regiments of the second stage were already in stock, at home. At least the following fact speaks about the development of economic life: in total, only in Pyatizbyanskaya and Golubinskaya villages there were about 80 thousand livestock. Alone warrior horses accounted for more than two thousand for each settlement. Also, each village had up to thirty mills, numerous baths, and one good-quality church.
Over the past thirty many serious scientific monographs have been written about the tragedy of the Cossacks on the Don during the Civil War. The exact death toll is still unknown. Part of the Cossacks fled abroad, while those remaining in Russia harbored hatred for the new government, aggravated by forceful rasskazachivaniem and hunger of the thirties. As a result, several thousand Don Cossacks fought during the Great Patriotic War on the side of Nazi Germany.
The next relative flourishing of the Don Cossacks came at the end of the eighties - the beginning of the nineties, when it received the support of the authorities, but after a few years the activity had come to naught. Cossacks again began to be divided into natural and unnatural, registered and non-registering, red and white. An ambiguous attitude has developed in the society and towards the so-called “burdened” Cossacks, who have become an integral part of any major celebration. In fact, the fashion for "mummers" was dictated "from above," where plans for "cultural development" and "interethnic peace" are carried out in a similar way.
The inertia and contradictions of our era have not bypassed other parts of public life. Many modern Cossacks see their mission solely in preserving cultural traditions, focusing on traditions and history, as well as accepting to Cossacks the largest number of members to maintain law and order in individual cities and pages. Others, although their minority, pose the question radically: the creation of their own Cossack state. Despite the fact that amendments to the legislation of the Russian Federation made calls for the secession of any territory illegal, such ideas continue to be voiced from the stands from time to time. Back in the early nineties, there was talk of creating, if not a state, then at least a Cossack autonomy, on the status similar to the national republics of the Russian Federation. The third group of the Cossacks in general ignores any social activity, considering it to be a meaningless occupation. These people do not single out their cultural identity.
In the last ten years, new Cossack associations may appear. On the basis of sports and military-historical clubs for youth, educational work is being carried out. Conducted serious historical research. Members of Cossack societies are actively involved in public life, running for local self-government, writing books, creating people's guards, participating in social patrols with the police for disadvantaged families. In some rural settlements are taken under the patronage of the school. Thus, while there is talk about whether to be or not to be the development of the Don Cossacks, the movement goes by itself, and life itself suggests its direction.
The first mention of the Don Cossacks in the official version is dated 1570 year. From this date is generally accepted countdown. But actually organized settlements arose much earlier. For the first time they are mentioned 1444 year. The local Cossacks were called "Ryazan". Don Cossacks did not recognize any power over themselves, except for their own self-government. Living in open space, they learned to defend themselves from restless neighbors. For these purposes there were fortresses well protected by moats and stakes, reinforced with small cannons. Short days in these fortresses were often only men.
The absence of the state, and, consequently, of taxes, allowed the Don Cossacks to become unprecedentedly rich not only by the standards of Russia, but also by most of Europe of that time. Solid wooden houses were owned by almost every member of the village. Even a small village had hundreds of horses and thousands of cows - this is evidenced by the sources of neighboring peoples who raided for such attractive prey. On average, each Cossack had twenty horses and up to thirty cows, not counting other cattle. An ordinary Russian peasant, Yaroslavl or Vologda, neither in those years, nor later could he have imagined such wealth. Cossacks reached their highest economic prosperity on the eve of the epoch of Peter the Great.
But new times were coming. The self-sufficient owner, who was the Don Cossack, was disliked by the autocratic government, trying with all its might to deprive him of not only his property, but also traditional freedom. Soon, according to Peter’s personal order, spies began to be sent to Don to find out the number of fugitives, as well as the general state of affairs on free land. According to rumors, Peter himself was here too, and he didn’t like the freedoms much. An open intervention followed: the Cossacks were forbidden to elect atamans, create new towns, give out all the fugitives who came from 1695 of the year, etc. The demands overwhelmed the patience of local residents. A riot arose, with unprecedented cruelty suppressed by the troops. Forty-four towns along the Medveditsa and Khopru were destroyed with the complete extermination of the local population. According to various estimates, up to 20 000 Cossacks alone, not including alien people, was killed. Free Don survived this terrible slaughter, although the will on him from now on was significantly diminished. The Cossacks bypassed their traditional ingenuity to ban the founding of new villages: they began to build farms, and as far as possible from the villages (up to several tens of versts), away from power. At the same time, the villagers still treated the village, although there were also farms far beyond the village itself.
Up until the First World War, the Don Cossacks were an important part of the military power of the empire. Cossack served as alternation: four years in a campaign and four houses, and got to the place of service independently. The regiments of the first stage in peacetime served on the border, the regiments of the second stage were already in stock, at home. At least the following fact speaks about the development of economic life: in total, only in Pyatizbyanskaya and Golubinskaya villages there were about 80 thousand livestock. Alone warrior horses accounted for more than two thousand for each settlement. Also, each village had up to thirty mills, numerous baths, and one good-quality church.
Over the past thirty many serious scientific monographs have been written about the tragedy of the Cossacks on the Don during the Civil War. The exact death toll is still unknown. Part of the Cossacks fled abroad, while those remaining in Russia harbored hatred for the new government, aggravated by forceful rasskazachivaniem and hunger of the thirties. As a result, several thousand Don Cossacks fought during the Great Patriotic War on the side of Nazi Germany.
The next relative flourishing of the Don Cossacks came at the end of the eighties - the beginning of the nineties, when it received the support of the authorities, but after a few years the activity had come to naught. Cossacks again began to be divided into natural and unnatural, registered and non-registering, red and white. An ambiguous attitude has developed in the society and towards the so-called “burdened” Cossacks, who have become an integral part of any major celebration. In fact, the fashion for "mummers" was dictated "from above," where plans for "cultural development" and "interethnic peace" are carried out in a similar way.
The inertia and contradictions of our era have not bypassed other parts of public life. Many modern Cossacks see their mission solely in preserving cultural traditions, focusing on traditions and history, as well as accepting to Cossacks the largest number of members to maintain law and order in individual cities and pages. Others, although their minority, pose the question radically: the creation of their own Cossack state. Despite the fact that amendments to the legislation of the Russian Federation made calls for the secession of any territory illegal, such ideas continue to be voiced from the stands from time to time. Back in the early nineties, there was talk of creating, if not a state, then at least a Cossack autonomy, on the status similar to the national republics of the Russian Federation. The third group of the Cossacks in general ignores any social activity, considering it to be a meaningless occupation. These people do not single out their cultural identity.
In the last ten years, new Cossack associations may appear. On the basis of sports and military-historical clubs for youth, educational work is being carried out. Conducted serious historical research. Members of Cossack societies are actively involved in public life, running for local self-government, writing books, creating people's guards, participating in social patrols with the police for disadvantaged families. In some rural settlements are taken under the patronage of the school. Thus, while there is talk about whether to be or not to be the development of the Don Cossacks, the movement goes by itself, and life itself suggests its direction.
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