Cossack
- For the ghost town in Western Australia, see Cossack, Western Australia.
- For the video game, see Cossacks: European Wars.
Cossack is the common name that has been independently shared by several population groups and military units throughout the history of Eastern Europe and some adjacent territories. The most prominent and numerous are the Russian Cossacks (Казаки) of the Don, Terek and Ural regions, as well as areas of Siberia which they colonised in the 17th century. Also famous were the Ukrainian Cossacks (Козаки) who lived on the southern steppes of modern Ukraine and played a decisive role in 17th century European Geopolitics. Although since 1775 they have moved to the Kuban area of Russia and do not consider themselves Ukrainian they are nevertheless considered progenitors of the modern Ukrainian nation by modern historians. In both cases they grew astronomically during the 15th-17th centuries due to numerous runway peasants from Moscovy and Poland-Lithuania respectively. Less well known are the Polish Cossacks (Kozacy) and the Tatar Cossacks (Nağaybäklär).
The Cossacks were famous for their military skill and self-reliance. Cossack cultures were largely suppressed during the time of the Soviet Union but are now in the process of revival.
Don Cossacks at one point formed the Don Cossack State. During the time of the Russian Empire Don Cossacks were joined by numerous Russian serfs fleeing from their owners. Don Cossacks were one of the main military forces resisting the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution in the early 20th century.
The name 'Cossacks' was also given to a kind of light cavalry in the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The name is derived from the Turkic word quzzaq, "adventurer", "freeman". This term is first mentioned in a Ruthenian document dated 1395. Cossacks (Qazaqlar) were also border keepers in the Khanate of Kazan.
The Cossacks should not be confused with the Kazakhs (people of Kazakhstan). (Kazakh is spelled Qazaq (Қазақ) in their native language).
Contents |
History
Main article: History of the Cossacks
Origins
It is not clear when the Slavic people started settling in the lower reaches of the Don and the Dnieper. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongol hordes broke the power of the Cumans and other Turkic tribes on that territory.
Proto-Cossack groups most likely came into existence within the territories of today's Ukraine in the mid-13th century, when many Slavs fled south to escape the Tatar yoke. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area between the Dniester and the Volga were mentioned in Ruthenian chronicles. More peasants escaped to the vicinities of the Don and Dnieper waterfalls in the following centuries, when the system of serfdom started to develop in Poland and Moscovy.
Historical records of the Cossacks before the 16th century are scant. In the 15th century, the Cossack society was described as a loose federation of independent communities, often forming local armies, entirely separate from the neighboring states (of, e.g, Poland, Grand Duchy of Moscow or the Khanate of Crimea).
By the 16th century these Cossack societies merged into two independent territorial organizations:
- The Cossacks of Zaporizhia, centered around the lower bends of Dnieper, inside the territory of modern Ukraine, with the fortified capital of Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the Zaporozhian Host, by a treaty with Poland in 1649.
- The Don Cossack State, on the river Don, separating Grand Duchy of Moscow from the Nogai states, vassals of the Ottoman Empire. The capital of the Don Cossack State was Cherkassk, later moved to Novocherkassk.
Some historical documents of that period refer to those states as sovereign nations with unique warrior cultures, whose main source of income was derived from the pillaging of their neighbors. They were renowned for their raids against the Ottoman Empire and its vassals, although they didn't shy away from pillaging other neighbours. Their actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Kresy), which resulted in almost a constant low-level warfare taking place in those territories for almost the entire existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1539 the Grand Duke Vasili III of Russia asked the Ottoman Sultan to curb the Cossacks and the Sultan replied: "The Cossacks do not swear allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please." In 1549, Czar Ivan the Terrible, replied to a request of the Turkish Sultan to stop the aggressive actions of the Don Cossacks, stating, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjects, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge." Similar exchanges passed between Russia, the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, each of which tried to exploit Cossack warmongering for its own purposes. Cossacks for their part were mostly happy to plunder everybody more or less equally, although in the 16th century, with the dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extending south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as their subjects. Registered Cossacks were a part of Commonwealth army until 1699.
Around the end of 16th century, the relations between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, which were not very cordial to begin with, further worsened with the growing number of independent actions by the Cossacks. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding territories under Ottoman rule. Although subjects of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish government could not control the fiercely independent Cossacks, and so was held responsible for the raids by their victims. Reciprocally, the Tatars living under Ottoman rule launched raids into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, mostly in the sparsely inhabited south-east territories. Cossack pirates, however, were raiding the heart of the Ottoman Empire, its wealthy merchant port cities, which were just two days away by boat from the mouth of the river Dnieper. By 1615, Cossacks had even manage to raze the townships on the outskirts of Istanbul. Consecutive treaties between Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth called for both parties to curb Cossacks and Tatars, but its enforcement was almost non-existent on both sides of the border. In internal agreements, forced by the Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their boats and stop raiding. However, boats could be rebuilt fast, and the Cossack lifestyle glorified raids and booty. During this time, the Habsburg Empire sometimes covertly employed Cossack raiders to ease Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars shared an animosity towards each other due to the damage done by raids from both sides. Cossack raids followed by Tatar retaliation, or Tatar raids followed by Cossack retaliation were an almost regular occurrence. The ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire south-eastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone and led to the escalation of the Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars to the Battle of Cecora and Wars in 1633-1634.
Cossack numbers expanded with peasant immigration from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to turn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into serfs eroded the Cossacks' once fairly strong loyalty towards the Commonwealth. Cossack ambitions to be recognized as equal to the szlachta were constantly rebuffed, and plans for transforming the Two-Nations Commonwealth (Polish-Lithuanian) into Three Nations (with the Cossack and Ruthenian people) were limited to a small minority. The waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachta's arrogance towards them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early 17th century. The largest and most successful of these was the Khmelnytsky rebellion, which, as part of a series of events known as The Deluge, led to the disintegration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This uprising freed Cossacks from the Polish sphere of influence; they then allied with the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach.
After this point, the Cossack nation of the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two semi-autonomous republics of the Grand Duchy of Moscow: the Cossack Hetmanate, and the more independent Zaporizhia. A Cossack organization was also established in the Russian colony of Sloboda Ukraine. These organizations gradually lost their independence, and were abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century. The Hetmanate became the governorship of Little Russia, Sloboda Ukraine the Kharkiv province, and Zaporizhia was absorbed into New Russia. In 1775 the Zaporozhian Host was dissolved and high ranking Cossack leaders were granted titles of nobility (dvoryanstvo). Most of the Zaporozhians resettled to colonise the Kuban steppe which was a crucial foothold for Russian expansion in the Caucasus. Some however ran away across the Danube (territory under the control of the Ottoman empire) to form a new host before rejoining the others in the Kuban.
During their stay there, a new host was found which by the end of 1778 numbered around 12000 cossacks and their settlement at the border with Russia met with the approval of the Ottoman Empire after the Cossacks officially vowed to serve the Sultan. Yet the confilict inside the new host of the new loyalty, and the political manouevres used by the Russian Empire had a direct split in the Cossacks themselves. After a portion of the runaway Cossacks returned to Russia they were used by the Russian army to form new military bodies that also incorporated Greek Albanians and Crimean Tatars. However after the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1791, most of them were incorporated into the Azov-Black Sea Host which moved to the Kuban steppes. The remaining Cossacks that stayed in the Danube delta returned to Russia in 1828 and too moved to the Kuban.
Russian Cossacks
The native land of the Russian Cossacks is defined by a line of the Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to the Dnieper via Pereyaslavl. This area was settled by a population of free people practising various trades and crafts.
These people, constantly facing the Tatar warriors on the steppe frontier, received the Turkic name "cossacks" which was then extended to other free people in northern Russia. The oldest reference in the annals mentions Cossacks of the Russian city of Ryazan taking part in the city's service in the battle against the Tatars in 1444. In the 16th century the Cossacks (firstly those of Ryazan) were grouped in military and trading communities on the open steppe and started to migrate into the area of the Don (source Vasily Klyuchevsky, The course of the Russian History, vol.2).
Russian Cossacks served as border guards and protectors of towns, forts, settlements and trading posts, and also came to represent an integral part of the Russian army. In the 16th century, to protect the borderland area from Tatar invasions, Russian Cossacks carried out sentry and patrol duties, observing Crimean Tatars and nomads of the Nogai Horde in the steppe region.
Russian Cossacks played a key role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into Siberia (particularly by Yermak Timofeyevich), the Caucasus and Central Asia in the period from the 16th to 19th centuries. They also served as guides to most Russian expeditions formed by civil geographers, traders, explorers and surveyors. In 1648 the Russian Cossack Simeon Dezhnev opened a passage between America and Asia.
Cossack units played a role in many wars in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries (such as the Russo-Turkish Wars and the Russo-Persian Wars).
During Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Cossacks were the Russian soldiers most feared by the French troops. Cossacks also took part in the partisan war deep inside French-occupied Russian territory, attacking communications and supply lines. These attacks, carried out by Cossacks along with Russian light cavalry and other units, were one of the first developments of guerrilla warfare tactics and, to some extent, special operations as we know them today.
Western Europeans had had few contacts with Cossacks before the Allies occupied Paris in 1814. As the most exotic of the Russian troops seen in France, Cossacks drew a great deal of attention and notoriety for their alleged excesses during the 1812 campaign.
Cossack Settlements
Russian Cossacks founded numerous settlements (called stanitsa) and fortresses along "troublesome borders" such as forts Verniy (Almaty, Kazakhstan) in south Central Asia, Grozny in North Caucasus, Fort Alexandrovsk (Fort Shevchenko, Kazakhstan), Krasnovodsk (Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan) stanitsa Novonikolaevskaya (Bautino, Kazakhstan), Blagoveschensk, towns and settlements at Ural, Ishim, Irtysh, Ob, Yenissei, Lena, Amur, Anadyr (Chukotka) and Ussury rivers, just to name a few.
Although Cossacks are sometimes regarded as xenophobic (especially by contemporary Jewish historians, who accuse the Ukrainian Cossacks of Zaporizhia of massacring Jews during the Khmelnytsky rebellion and participating in anti-Jewish pogroms), this perception is countered by evidence that Cossacks readily adapted to the cultures and customs of nearby peoples[1] (particularly the Terek Cossacks, who were heavily influenced by the culture of North Caucasian tribes) and frequently married local residents (other non-Cossack settlers and natives) regardless of race or origin, sometimes setting aside religious restrictions. War brides brought from distant lands were also not uncommon in Cossack families. One of the Russia's Volunteer Army (Добровольческая Армия) commanders, General Bogaevsky mentions in his book one of his Cossack's unit serviceman, sotnik Khoperski (Хоперский), who was chinese by origin and brought from Manjuria during Russian-Japanese War 1904-1905 as a child, obviously adoped and rised by Cossack family. (Богаевский А.П. Ледяной поход. Воспоминания 1918 г.).
Each Cossack settlement, alone or in conjunction with neighbouring settlements, formed one or more military units and regiments of light cavalry (or mounted infantry) ready to respond to a threat at very short notice.
[1] "Сопредельные с ними (поселенцами - Ред.) по "Горькой линии" казаки [...] поголовно обучались Киргизскому наречию и переняли некоторые, впрочем, безвредные привычки кочевого народа". Генерал-губернатор Казнаков в докладе Александру III, 1875. "(Among - Edit.) neigbouring (to settlers -Edit.) in Gor'kaya Liniya Cossacks [...] everyone learnt Kyrgys language and adopted some, harmless though, habits of nomadic folks" quoted Report of Governor-General Kaznakov to Tzar Alexander III, 1875.
Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire
At the end of the 19th Century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the 20th century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organised into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments. In 1914 the Hosts were:
- Cossacks of the Don (year of establishment is 1570),
- Cossacks of the Ural, 1571
- Cossacks of the Terek, 1577
- Cossacks of the Kuban, 1696
- Cossacks of Orenburg, 1744
- Cossacks of Astrakhan, 1750
- Siberian Cossacks, early 1750s (?)
- Cossacks of Gor'kaya Liniya (Ishim and Irtysh rivers, often refered as south subsidiary of Siberian (Fortification) Lines and Siberian Cossacks), 1753(?)
- Transbaikalian Cossacks, 1851
- Cossacks of the Amur, 1858
- Cossacks of Semiretshensk, 1867
- Cossacks of the Ussuri, 1889
Each Host had its own distinctive uniform of either grey, blue or green with red, crimson, yellow or light blue facings. While most Cossacks served as cavalry, there were infantry and artillery units in several of the Hosts. Three regiments of Cossacks formed part of the Imperial Guard, as well as the Konvoi - the Tsar's mounted escort.
The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the widespread worker and peasant unrest of 1905-06. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early twentieth century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. The Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army, who saw them as lacking the discipline and training of regular troops. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts. When revolution came in February 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II and speeded his abdication.
Cossacks After the Revolution
In the Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Many officers and experienced Cossacks fought for the White Army, and some of the poorer ones joined the Red Army, including notable commanders like Semyon Budennyi. Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackanization (Razkazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true for the Terek Cossacks land. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivization campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of Kulaks. The famine of 1933 hit the Don and Kuban territory the hardest.
Nevertheless, in 1936, under pressure from former Cossack descendents like Semyon Budyonny, it was decided to reintroduce Cossack forces into the Red Army. During the Second World War Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict again, as most of the Nazi collaborators came from former White Army refugees. Red Army Cossacks fought on the Southern theatre of the front, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched on Red Square during the famous victory parade in 1945.
One notable group of those who fought for the Germans was the Lienz Cossacks, who worked for the Nazis during World War Two. They surrendered to the British Army in Austria in 1945, hoping to join the British to fight Communism. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. They were accordingly handed over to the Soviet Government, to be executed or imprisoned. At the end of the war, American and British commanders "repatriated" more than 150,000 Cossack men, women, and children to the Soviet Union. Many of these people had never been Soviet citizens. This event is commonly known as the The Betrayal of Cossacks or the Secret Betrayal.
Following the war the Cossacks, along with cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the postwar years many Cossack descendants thought of themselves as simple peasants, and those who lived inside an Autonomous republic usually gave way to the particular minority and migrated elsewhere (notably the Baltic).
In the perestroika-enlightened USSR of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the USSR passed a law which allowed formation of former host (along with new ones). The largest of them, the All-Mighty Don Host's ataman was granted the Marshal rank and the right to recognize a new host. The Cossacks have taken an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: Transdniestr, Abkhazia, South Osetia,Kosovo and Chechnya. While their impact on the outcome of the conflict rarely garnered mass-media attention, Cossacks, just as before, became known for their high morale and bravery.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, efforts to revive the Cossack traditions have grown further. In April 2005, Russian President Putin introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" (О государственной службе российского казачества) to Duma, which was passed in the first reading on May 18, 2005. This brought the Cossacks even closer to their ambitions of creating an autonomous territory streching from Transdnestr all the way along the steppe to the Ural river.
Cossack organization
In early times, Cossack tribes were commanded by an ataman (later called hetman). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada, as were the other important tribe officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, called bulava.
The ataman had executive powers and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislative power was given to the Tribal Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called starshyna. In the absence of written laws, the Cossacks were governed by the "Cossack Traditions," the common, unwritten law.
Cossack society and government were heavily militarized. The nation was called a host (vois’ko, translated as "army"), and subdivided into regimental and company districts, and village posts (polky, sotni, and stanytsi).
After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo 1667, Ukrainian Cossacks are known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks.
Cossacks and religion
Although there was a small minority of Muslim Cossacks in Russia, by and large the majority of Cossacks are of the Russian Orthodox Church. The relationship between Cossacks and the Orthodox Church runs very deep, and has had strong influences on both the history of the Cossacks and that of the Orthodox Church. Traditionally, Cossacks are considered the protectors of the Church and Orthodox Christians.
Popular image of Cossacks
Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealizing freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against enemies of the Russian people have contributed to this favourable image. For others they have been a symbol of repression because of their role in suppressing popular uprisings in the Russian Empire, as well as their assaults against Jews.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many have begun seeing Cossacks as defenders of Russian sovereignty and traditional culture.
Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian literature, particularly in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Sholokhov.
Cossacks are also portrayed in Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade."
Terminology
Ukrainian Cossacks
- Hetman - a Ukrainian Cossack supreme military leader
- Bulava - a ceremonial mace, a symbol of Hetman's authority
- Starshyna - officers
- polkovnyk - colonel
- oboznyi
- osavul
- khorunzhyi
- Otaman - lieutenant
- tabor - a tactic using a set of horse-drawn wagons, mastered by Cossacks in 16-17th century
Russian Cossacks
In the Russian Empire, the Cossacks were organized into several Voisko's, which lived along Russian borderland, or internal borders between Russian and non-Russian peoples.
- Voisko ("host") - a major cossack military and administrative unit.
- Ataman - a Russian cossack military leader or subordinate leader (derived from the Turkic "ataman")
- Sotnia ("hundred") - a military unit.
- Stanitsa - cossack settlement, a village.
- Cossack, Prikazny, Uryadnik (minor and major), Podkhorunzhiy, Khorunzhiy, Sotnik, Podyesaul, Yesaul, Voiskovoy starshina, -- cossack military ranks (from lowest up)
In 1988 a Soviet law allowed Cossacks to form again. All voiskos are independent of each other, but for a voisko to be recognized as "official" it needs to have the permission of the Supreme Ataman of the All-Mighty Donsokoye Voisko (who is even allowed to wear the Marshal Star). Since most of the modern Cossack organisations (even those that found themselves outside the Russian Federation after 1991) were formed shortly after the law was passed, all of them exist in a loose "confederation" with each other.
Tatar Cossacks
See also
- Cossack motorcycle
- Kosiński Uprising
- Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks
- Cossacks: European Wars
- Cossacks 2
- Dmytro Yavornytsky
