Modern Cossacks: types, classification, divisions, charter, awards, history and historical facts. Who are the Cossacks - educational program without emotions

change from 03/18/2016 - (times of Great Scythia)

The view of modern historians on the origin of the Cossacks, it must be said, is peculiar. The places of origin and settlement of the Cossacks are called the Don, Kuban, Terek, Ural, Lower Volga, Irtysh, Amur, Transbaikalia, Kamchatka. In fact, this also includes the territory of Alaska and even California.

The origin of the word Cossack is also explained differently. Modern researchers unanimously say that the Cossacks are people who, starting from the 16th century, went to the outskirts of Russia, being runaway serfs. Some say they were hunters. Some say that they went wild and became bandits, getting involved in a war with the Muslims. But these are fairy tales, shameless, far-fetched and made up.

The Cossacks are a unique, interesting and misunderstood people or ethnic group in the West and even in Russia. Although they speak Russian, they are not exactly Russian people. Until the 17th century, they themselves did not even consider themselves to be the Russian people, that is, the Great Russians. They were different. They were proud that they were Cossacks.

They did not know what betrayal was, they did not know what cowardice was, but in fact, they were warriors from the cradle. This determined a completely different psyche of behavior. The psyche not of slaves, but of free people, masters of their lives. Therefore, the question arises - where do they come from? Because they themselves no longer remember this.

Take the Germans. They call themselves Deutsch, the Italians call them Germans, the French Alemanni. Or the Turks. They are offended that they are called Turks. In Persian, a Turk is a tramp and a thief. And all Cossacks are called in one word - Cossack.

At one time, the Cossacks conquered Siberia, and all attempts by the Turks to attack the south of Rus' and the Crimean Khan were repulsed. The war, which lasted no less than 500 years, ended in victory for the Cossacks. In fact, Rus' itself did not actually defend itself in the south. Everything was thrown into the war with the West, while in the south they did not even try to help the Cossacks. The surrender of the Azov fortress under the Romanovs is very indicative in this regard.

Turkey and the entire Muslim world were held back only by the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, holding everything on their shoulders. At the same time, it was unbearably difficult; it was a war that lasted from century to century. The Turks destroyed half of Europe, they even reached Vienna. They took Hungary and Romania. But here they were only able to reach the Crimea. And then, already in the 18th century, it became ours, Sevastopol was founded. And this happened only thanks to the support of the Cossacks.

Around 3 millennium BC. e. The Aryan population penetrates the territory of the modern Taklamakan desert, western China, and builds a powerful empire there. In Chinese mythology it is called Laolun. The Chinese themselves, when they excavated this territory, were very surprised to find the skulls of pure Caucasians and huge, huge cities. Now all this has gone under the sand. Therefore, in order not to further upset the Chinese, Taklamakan, Gobi, and the Yellow River were closed to visitors after a powerful underground nuclear weapons test.

When this territory began to turn into a desert, the Aryan population was forced to move further to the West and to Hindustan, where the climate is more humid, rivers flow, and it rains. The same Veles book writes about this. At the same time, we should not forget that Ural Rus' was already in Europe. The first wave reached the territory of the Danube and Pannonia.

But in the Vedas one can find references to the fact that Dasyu lived on the territory of Eurasia at that time. Inhumans, shaggy scary monsters possessing incredible strength, who are also called rakshasas in the Vedas. They are sometimes called Paleo-European tribes. This is a mixed Cro-Magnon-Neanderthal population that prevented the settlement of the Aryan people.

It turns out that the military class moved ahead of the Aryan tribes on horseback, liberating territories from dasyu. Moreover, these were horses that we don’t even know now. The horses found in burial mounds were not similar to Mongolian ones. They were highly gaited, fast, very tall, similar to Akhal-Teke horses. Remember, all our heroes are on horseback. We don’t have heroes like Hercules on foot.

These pioneers were then called horse asses. And their leader was called a prince - a horse ace. The prince was determined by a black or white horse in battle.

As a result of this settlement, the remnants of the Dasyu or Dogheads were driven either into the mountains of the Caucasus, Pereneev, Palmyra, or into other impassable places. And along the outskirts of the settlement of the Aryans settled the force that later formed the Don army, the Kuban army, the Terek army and the Siberian army.

Persian sources call the population southern Siberia, Central Asia, the population of the Gobi in one word - Saki or Saxons. And the sword of this people was always called kromosax - cutting edge. Sachs is a sech. People who were able to fight hundreds of people like Dasyu alone were called aces. This is how the word kassak, horse ace, appeared. Later it was transformed into Cossack, apparently in the same way as Asia into Asia. Moreover, according to the initial letter, Az is a descendant of the gods, earth form, which benefits the Earth itself.

It turns out that the Cossacks are a pure Aryan population of the military class, who continued to live their way of life, the life they had always lived. Everything was decided by the Cossack circle, where everyone was equal. The chieftain was elected for one year. In field conditions they obeyed him unconditionally; the discipline was ironclad. If there was peacetime, the chieftain was the same as everyone else. It was the highest democracy, so to speak.

By the way, Veliky Novgorod has preserved exactly the same democracy in its city. In fact, Novgorodians can be considered the same Cossacks from the military class, but they came from the Baltic.

The descendants of those Dasyu who survived that war were obviously Kartvelians. The Chinese language has Georgian roots, the roots of the Basques who lived in Spain. Once upon a time, Paleo-Asians spoke the same language, and fragments of this language found their way into both the Chinese language and the languages ​​of Georgians and Basques.

Now in the Caucasus there are eight language groups. Particularly noteworthy is the Ossetian family, which speaks the ancient Persian language. You can remember Afanasy Nikitin, 15th century, when he visited India. He calmly spoke with Iranians in Russian, and in India they also calmly understood him without any translators.

On Old Russian language the river was called in one word - Don. Therefore, Ossetians still have Sadon, Nandon, Vardon (Kuban), Danat (Danube), Eridan (Rhine). Where is Rhine? Already Western Europe.

Don’t forget about the Hercynian Forest, between France and the Elbe (Laba), where the Rhine flows. Roman authors also wrote about him. It is even called the cradle of the German people.

When Charlemagne unites three territories, Germany, France and Italy, in the 9th century, a powerful empire is created. As a result, this entire empire, united by the Merovingians, fell on the Western Slavic tribes. Many scientists, since the 19th century, including Savelyev and Lomonosov, believed that the territory of Germany was a cemetery for the Slavs. “Where the Germans passed, there was a whole region already a grave.”. There was total extermination, cutting down to the last person. There was cannibalism. Read the national German epic, it’s all there and they are proud of it. The predatory warlike gene pool has survived among the Germans to this day.

Interesting fact. In the Matrix trilogy there is such a hero as Merovingian. A very ancient program that has already survived several versions of the matrix. Merovingian loves to speak French and sells information. Is it a coincidence? But this is so, for lovers of imaginative thinking. Food for thought.

Braniborg - Brandenburg, Nikulinborg - Mecklenburg, Pomerania - Pomerania, Strehlov - Stelets, Drozdyany - Dresden. The Laba River became the Elbe, the Rhone became the Rhine. You can also remember Arkona, Retra.

Why are we talking about this now? And to the fact that in this territory there were no aces, that group of the military class that could give them worthy resistance.

Herodotus, on the territory of the Sea of ​​Azov, the northern part of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Kuban, describes an interesting people - the Meotians and Sinds or Indus. They had a slightly different anthropology. They formed the Azov army of the Kuban Cossacks. This is the only Cossack people who had dark hair and skin. Correct Aryan body and facial features, but dark eyes. Apparently, having visited India, this ethnic group absorbed the blood of the Indians or Dravidians. By the way, Ermak Timofeevich was from this group. Part of the Sinds and Meots, having left the Kuban in the 13th century at the mouth of the Dnieper, created the Zaporozhye Cossacks.

TIMES OF GREAT SCYTHIA AND SARMATIA

We do not know the real self-names of the Scythians and Sarmatians. We can only say one thing, the father of Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan War, who built Rome, with all his family on 30 ships 1200 BC. went to Troy. An ancient Cossack family went to Troy to help the Trojans in the fight against the Achaean League (a military-political union of cities of Ancient Greece on the Peloponnese Peninsula).

And Aeneas, after the defeat at Troy, on 20 ships goes first to Carthage, and then to Italy, crosses the Tiber and there, thanks to his efforts, Rome is built. It has now been proven that the Etruscans spoke Old Russian. Obviously their resettlement took place during the Trojan War.

Slavomysl also writes about this in Svetoslav’s monologue:

"...I honor the Romans, they are our kin, they remember Aeneas, just like us,
Virgil rejected the absurd fiction about him, measuring the Hellenic myth with his common sense.
I don't blame the Trojans either. Svarozhiya, who knew harmony, they rewarded Rome from the ashes of Troy
And the land was not taken away from the Etruscans: without complaining, they accepted their blood brothers in a brotherly manner...”

The Greeks called them Scythians. They were also called chipped. Translation from Russian is not required, but in English there is a consonant word school - school. But this is so, again from figurative thinking.

"...The Scythians are barbarians, but the maidens of the Scythians, shut up in temples, cast Hellas down at the feet washed by Nepra...
...But the Magi will be called from the Nepra and dressed up as Hellenes: the prophetic Vseslav was nicknamed Anacharsis,
Lyubomud, the Russian from Goluni, is the Ephesian Heraclitus... The Slovenian breed is prolific,
Lyubomudry, Svetozary and Vseslav are not uncommon in Rus'
And mothers will not stop giving birth on Nepr and Ros.
It’s a consolation for the neighbors, well, it’s not a loss for the Russians...
...The face of the Hellene is as wonderful as Herodotus’s fables about the Scythians..."

Therefore, Scythian, translated from Greek, is a shield bearer. They were simply the first to have shields, wooden shields covered with bull skin. Neither the Assyrians, nor the Greeks, nor even the Egyptians had shields at that time. If anyone made them, they were woven from wicker. And the Sarmatians, among other things, were engaged in leather tanning.

The Scythians and Sarmatians are actually one people who called themselves Russa, and their military class was Assaki. The Turks, in the 13th century, having come to the territory of Kazakhstan, began to call themselves Assacs or Cossacks, imitating the Scythian tribes.

The word russa is a sacred word, so it can be read in two directions. Ur is the sky. Uranus is the god of the sky. Therefore, Russa is an ace who came from heaven through the light. This word has been known since the time of Oriana. Therefore, both the Scythian army and the Sarmatian army were called that way.

Getae is one of the names of the military class. From it the word hetman was born. In the 8th century BC, when the Scythians crossed the Volga, the Tagar culture attacked the Cimmerians, who lived in southern Europe all the way to the Danube. The Cimmerians were tribes related to the Scythians, but refused to obey them. As a result, the Cimmerians leave for Asia Minor. The Scythians invade the territory of Media through the Caucasus. They defeat the Medes, defeat the Persians, defeat the Assyrian troops and reach the borders of Egypt. For 28 years they reigned in this territory, without fear of being attacked by the Slavs. This suggests that they were one people. Then they return again to Eastern Europe and until the 3rd century BC. live on this land.

Interestingly, all the jewelry of those times, the purely animal style that existed among the Scythians, is attributed to the Greeks. Vases, pendants, and various products are still found, and everything is made superbly. The Greeks did not have a jewelry school of this level.

Not in any Greek colony, not in Chersonesus, not in Phanagoria, not in Phasis, not a single workshop has been found where this gold or silver was cast. When they began to excavate Scythian mounds in Siberia, they began to find jewelry made in the same style, but even more beautiful. How could the Greeks reach Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Altai?

But all cultural experts unanimously say: the work of Greek masters. And the Scythians, it turns out, also had huge cities. In the cities, houses were built, hides were tanned, weaving and metallurgy were developed. The population did not know what the West was and no one from the West was allowed to visit them. The military class closely watched the advance of the Greeks. Herodotus, having arrived and studied the Scythians, did not even know that all of Scythia was covered with giant cities, without walls. They didn't need walls. If the people are powerful, they do not need fortress walls. Remember Sparta - they did not have fortress walls.

The Kushans who went to India, the Parthians who left in the 3rd century BC. to Iran, the Massagetae, whom the Greeks spoke about, the Saks or the Saxons, are all one and the same people. A people who spoke the same language, had the same faith, simply settled over a vast territory.

Incredibly, the Scythians defeated the 700 thousand army of Darius, and they also defeated the Macedonian. Moreover, Macedon himself was defeated first, having crossed the Danube with an army of 40,000. Then he moved to Persia, and from Persia he is again going to move against the Scythian people. This battle is described by Nizami, an Azerbaijani poet, in his work “Iskander”. But no one talks about it. It is not customary to say that Macedonian was defeated and stopped in this territory, and was captured.

An interesting thing is that in 320 BC, when Macedonia was defeated by Rome, part of the Macedonians, 70 percent, moved to the Baltic. They left and created the principality of the Obodrites there. Niklot is the prince of the Obodrites. Then they move to the territory of Novgorod and build Pskov. It turns out that Macedonsky didn’t even understand who he was fighting with.

In the 3rd century BC. The Sarmatians cross the Volga and attack the Scythians. The Scythians, in fact, deserved it. They began to imitate the culture of the West and dragged the Greek gods to their territory in Eastern Europe. This is how they provoked the attack of the Sarmatians. The Sarmatians swept through their territory all the way to the Danube. In fact there was a civil war.

As a result, the pro-Western Scythians fled, some to the Crimea, some beyond the Danube. The rest went to the North, mixing with the Russian population. Lomonosov called them white-eyed chud.

Thus, the Sarmatians put a dead barrier to the advance of the west to the east. They stopped Rome at one time. The Parthians beat Rome in the south, the Sarmatians beat Rome in the west, on the Danube, and the Kushans crush the Indian kingdoms, creating there a surge of new Aryan blood and a new direction for the development of religion.

At this time, the Huns moved across Central Asia, captured modern Kazakhstan and approached the banks of the Volga.

And all this is led by the military class, which we called Cossacks, Assacs or Getae.

Marcus Crassus in 57 BC marched with his legions to Parthia. The Parthian king sends his commander Suren against Crassus. The Parthians attack Crassus and all of his 22 legions who survived are sent in chains across the deserts of Iran to work for the Parthians. Rome had never known such a defeat before.

At this time, the Aorsi, Roxalans, Alans, and Iazyges attacked the Roman borders beyond the Danube. Trajan, in one of the battles in the Carpathians, loses seven legions at once during the battle with the legendary Carpathian prince Igor. For the first time, the Roman legions fell under the blows of the Russians not with swords, but with axes. For the first time, the invincible Roman infantry and the infantry of the Carpathian people met. In this battle, the Carpathian cavalry did not enter the battle. The heavy, armored cavalry of the cataphracts, with spears 4-5 meters long, lamenar armor and people in armor, stood to the side and simply looked at the hours-long cutting of infantry with infantry.

Not a single army could withstand the blow of the Sarmatian cavalry at that time. The Russian heavyweight was the warhorse of those times. But here Russian infantry destroyed the Roman infantry, ending Rome's advance north into the Carpathians.

Modern historians believe that the Sarmatian yoke hung over Eastern Europe for 600 years. Six centuries of blood. Academician Rybakov also thinks so, explaining this by the fact that the Chernigov culture moved 100 km to the north after the Sarmatian invasion. What kind of yoke can there be if the language is one, the culture is one, the race is one, everything is one.

But the Chernigov culture really moved away, because it was not needed in the steppe. The Sarmatians who came are nomadic people, and they needed vast pastures to provide food for themselves and their cattle to graze on. Rome moved millions, and it was also necessary to fight with millions.

The Scythian kingdom, which was formed on the territory of Crimea, was completely subordinated to the Sarmatians. It would be more accurate to even say Sarmatian queens, because among the Sarmatians queens had more power than kings. The female half was free, like the men, they were warriors. The memory of the Amazons is also the memory of the Sarmatians.

In fact, the heavy Sarmatian cavalry consisted of the ancestors of the Cossacks, and they passed on their skills of horse control and battle management. A powerful heavy spear remained on the Don until the 20th century. If the Kuban Cossacks were considered light cavalry, then the Don Cossacks were heavy. Back in 1914, during the First World War, the Cossacks raised Germans in Austria, Romania and Germany itself to these peaks. This tradition has been preserved since those very times.

INVASION OF THE GOTHIC UNION

IV century. Historians do not say who the Goths were or where they came from. We know that they are Germans: Visigoths and Ostrogoths. But where did they come from in the Black Sea region? They have their own historian - Jordan. But the name Jordan is not Gothic, rather southern. He wrote Gothic history. But anything could be written under Jordan.

He writes that Germanarich conquered all the Slavic peoples, he crushed the Roxalans, Aorsi, and subjugated the Slavs from the Black Sea to the Baltic.

But the Goths were not Germans then, they were Iranians. Iranians who did not want to live among their peoples on the territory of Bactria and Sogdiana (modern Turkmenistan). They moved north. They bypassed the Caspian Sea, crossed the Volga and reached the mouth of the Don, spreading across the territory of southern Rus'. During the arrival of the Goths there was not a single serious battle. Not a single chronicle talks about battles with the Goths.

The fact is that the Goths spoke Old Russian. Even Jordan himself writes that the Gothic warrior easily spoke with the Slavic warrior, with the Alan, with the Roxalan. But the problem is that the Goths, having come to Crimea, adopted Christianity. Jordan is silent about this. They became Christians according to the Arian rite. This made them treat their fellow tribesmen as enemies. The Goths came as a close people, but having adopted Christianity, they became enemies. They left Central Asia precisely because they did not accept Zoroastrianism. At that time they still retained the Vedic worldview. But apparently they lost their priests. There was a military class, but there was no priestly class. And having come to Crimea, they accepted the priestly class in the form of Christians.

Read Shambarov, Jordan - each Goth had 4-5 wives. There was a polygamous family, so the army was huge.

We have already said that there is the concept of get or assak. Hetman is the one who controls the getae. Therefore, the Goths are apparently a transcription of Jordan. In essence, these were the same getae, the military class, but which betrayed the principles of Vedic civilization. And again, it was a war and a civil war. A terrible and terrible war. With the Goths were the Alans - heavy, powerful cavalry. On the Vedic side there was also the most powerful cavalry, the same as that of the Goths.

When two cavalry of the Sarmatians and Goths met in battle, the clang of weapons could be heard for many kilometers around. Jordan writes that for some time short time Germanarich subjugated the peoples of the north. But obviously it was just a truce. There could not be complete subjugation, because Christianity did not spread to the North.

Jordan further writes that Germanarich, at the age of 100, decided to marry again and a young girl was brought to him. But it so happened that she fell in love with his son. He kills his own son, and the brothers wound Germanarich himself. The girl is torn apart by horses.

The chopping begins again. Sloven, the prince who ruled on the Volkhov in Novgorod, is participating in this cutting. He comes to the territory of southern Rus' and on the Danube, in a fierce battle, Germanarich dies, without even realizing that his entire army was killed.

At the same time, the Alans, allies of the Goths, are fighting the invasion of the Huns. The Huns began to cross the Volga and the Alans, being residents of the northern Caucasus, met the Hunnic alliance with weapons, because at that time they were already Christians.

The Huns did not go to Rus' in order to conquer it; they understood what was happening there. The Goths shed Vedic blood, and the Huns came to the aid of Rus'. The surviving Alans go to the mountains, the Huns invade the territory Eastern Europe and oust the Goths.

Some of them passed through the Taman Peninsula through Sivash, broke into the Crimea and dealt a blow to the Gothic alliance in the back, which Germanarich could not stand. The attack of the Slavs from the north and the attack of the Huns from the south.

The remaining Goths go beyond the Danube, this is already the 5th century, and the Huns go to Transcaucasia. Why in Transcaucasia? And there was Armenia, a Christian power. Balamber's army completely defeated Armenia and Georgia, marched throughout Asia Minor and reached almost Egypt.

But at this time the Goths return, led by Germanaric’s grandson Amal Vinitar. Vinithar - conqueror of the Veneti. The Goths trampled Austria, where the Veneti were.

The Huns threatened the Byzantine Empire, and Christians in Egypt were also terrified. The Library of Alexandria was already hiding. It was necessary to force Balamber to return. And he, having learned about the Gothic invasion, turned north. Does this remind you of anything from the time of Batu’s invasion?

At this time, Bus Beloyar is trying to stop the Goths. Bus won one battle against Amal Vinitar, the Goths were defeated. But he decides not to go out to the second battle, but to wait for Balamber. He was a strong magician and saw clearly that he would die and his people would die. Therefore, Bus persuades the people to wait for Balamber.

But under his pressure, he enters the fight. As a result of the terrible battle, all his warriors were killed. Seventy wounded elders were picked up by Amal Vinitar, including Bus himself, and crucified in a ravine above the waters of the Dnieper.

When the Huns found out about this, they drove their horses day and night. They even left the infantry; only the cavalry walked. At this time Sloven approached again. At the mouth of the Dnieper, the two armies of Sloven and Balamber again met with the Gothic alliance.

In a fierce struggle, the battle raged for two days. The Goths were broken, Amar Vinithar died, and the Goths were thrown beyond the Danube. That’s when Bayan wrote his anthem of victory over Amar Vinitar. It was performed for the Russian army in the Danube palace of Kyiv. Yes, there was such a Kyiv.

The Goths, finding themselves beyond the Danube, moved towards the Byzantine Empire. They destroyed the 40,000-strong army of Valens, ravaged the entire north of the Byzantine Empire, broke into Gaul, Italy, took Rome and destroyed it almost to the ground.

The West, having created an artificial people through Christian ideology, weaned them off cattle breeding and agriculture; they stopped feeding themselves. They could only rob. And when their stomach overpowered their ideology, they attacked their own allies.

The Huns cross the Danube and build their state on the territory of modern Hungary. It is still called Hungaria. And what’s interesting is that when the Huns disappear from the field of history, the Hungarians still speak Russian. Why? Yes, because there never was a Hun language. There was only Old Russian. There the Moravian state arises. After the death of Attila, part of the Hunnic people returned to the territory of Rus' and mixed with the Russian people.

The Assacians on one side and the Assacians on the other side, the Gothic Getae and the Hunnic Getae, fought among themselves. Again we see a difficult, terrible internecine struggle, which is reflected in historical chronicles as a struggle between two peoples. But in essence it was a riot of one people, organized, as usual, by a third party.

KHAGANATES

The 6th century begins. The Hunnic state disintegrates, some of the Huns return to the territory of Eastern Europe, forming the state of the Ants. Initially, the name apparently implied the opposite of the West. An - that which is opposite is opposite.

The Middle Ages are coming in the West. The beginning of the formation of the Frankish Empire. Clovis, Pepin. They build their empire, subjugate Longobord, seize the territory of Italy, Rome no longer exists for a long time. Unites modern France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. A huge, huge power that obeys the Merovingian emperors.

In the East things are no better. The Hunnic union is replaced by a union of Turkic tribes or the Turkic Khaganate. Different ethnicity, different psychology. They adopted cattle breeding skills from the Huns, but did not know agriculture. Having excellent cavalry, they constantly torment China. But China still copes with them. The Turkic Khaganate splits into Western and Eastern. Their fight begins. As a result, the eastern one is subordinated to China, and the western one flows to the west.

In the region of the northern Caspian Sea they come across settled tribes of Avars. Although the Avars are considered Iranians, they are not entirely Iranians. Essentially, these are descendants of Paleo-Asians mixed with the Aryan population. Their faith and culture were not Aryan. No one touched them because they were engaged in agriculture and sold their grain to semi-nomadic peoples. They were shamanists. Ancient culture, which fell out of both the western and the eastern.

But the Turks attacked the Avars, and they had to flee. The Avars cross the Volga in the delta region, this is the year 512, and stop.

The Avars use scorched earth tactics for the first time. No one had done this before. They waited until spring, until the Antes sowed grain, until it sprang up and ripened. And then they attacked, not the Antes, but their fields and livestock.

They burned all the grain fields and destroyed all the livestock. Their light patrols rushed throughout southern Rus', destroying everything. It is for this reason that in Russian chronicles they were called images.

They only did not touch the Don and Kuban, because there was the cradle of those who were called Cossacks. The Avars passed further north. They reached the Kama and the territory of Ukraine, reached the mouth of the Danube, and from there began to move back to the east.

As a result, a huge number of Russians found themselves without a livelihood. Moreover, the Avars summoned the Russian leader and killed him during negotiations. With the onset of winter, the population simply began to die of hunger. And the Avars took entire cities without any struggle.

There were no crops in the Don and North Caucasus, the population lived on cattle breeding and fish, so the Avars did not go there. In addition, they had no great desire to meet the heavy cavalry of the Assakhs.

Then the Don Cossacks turned to Siberian Rus', to the Savir tribe, a powerful tribe that lived in the territory from the Urals to the Yenisei. Even the Turks did not touch the Savirs. They knew that they shouldn't go north.

The Savirs receive the Assac embassy from the Don, realizing that the Avars can only be defeated together. The Savirs practically abandon Western Siberia, leaving Grastiana, their capital on the banks of the Ob. The Turks open a corridor and the Savirs go west.

The Savirs come to the Don Assacs and Alans, uniting with them on the Northern Donets. A bloody war with the Avar Kaganate begins. The Avar Kagan leaves Eastern Europe for Pannonia in Hungary and creates his headquarters there.

But the attack of the Slavs from the east and Charlemagne from the west on the Danube completely destroys the Avars. The extermination was complete, even children were not spared. It was a completely different people. If it was possible to come to an agreement with other peoples, then it was impossible to come to an agreement with the Avars. They were completely destroyed. This is how the Avar Kaganate ended its existence.

It is the military class from the Savirs of the North and the Assacs of the Don, Kuban, Terek, and lower Volga that saves the Slavic people. On the territory of Ukraine, 100 km from Kyiv, the Savirs, together with the Assacians, built their capital, Chernigov, on a hill.

The Turks occupy the territory left by the Savirs. But not all Savirs left. As a result, without war, a mixture of Turks and Savirs occurs. In fact, this is how the ethnic group of the Siberian Tatars, a mixture of Turkic and Slavic populations, arises. At the same time, Slavic psychology is practically preserved. They are warlike, inclined to argue and fight, but at the same time they are simple, reliable, and honest.

When the Siberian cities arose, the Siberian Tatars, although they were Muslims, were calmly accepted into the Cossacks. They fought with China, Manchuria, and the Japanese and never betrayed them. There were cases when they were even the first to get into a fight, and then they had to help.

In the west, the Turks, approaching the Caspian Sea, crushed a small people of farmers who called themselves Hassaki or Khazars. There were few of them and, having lost one battle, as the chronicles write, they accepted Turkic citizenship. Above them stands the Turkic kagan from the Ashinov clan.

At the beginning of the 8th century, when Khazaria became stronger, it attacked the Bulgarian nomads. The Bulgarians then were fair-haired, blue-eyed, essentially a mixture of Savirs and Turks. As a result, part of the Bulgarians goes north to follow the Savirs, and Khan Asparukh takes the other part to the Danube, where Danube Bulgaria arises.

When the Khazar Khagans converted to Judaism, they turned to the Vatican to help control the Slavic population. The Vatican sends two brothers to Chersonesos: Cyril and Methodius. Knowing Greek, they learn Russian in Chersonesos in order to later teach Christianity to the Slavic peoples.

PECHENEGS AND CUMANS

After the death of Khazaria, the Pechenegs come. Blue-eyed, fair-haired, remnants of the same Savirs, but who already spoke the Turkic language. They began to torment Rus' from the south. But they didn’t interfere with the Don. The territories occupied by the Assacians were dangerous for them. But this did not last long; by the 10th century they became allies of Rus'. Gradually, the Pechenegs moved to Bulgaria, mixed with the local population, they adopted the Bulgarian language. At the same time, Turkic words appear in the Bulgarian language.

The Pechenegs are replaced by the Polovtsians, and after them come the Mongols. If the Pechenegs came with the Vedic religion, then the Polovtsians came as Christians. They adopted Christianity back in central Asia.

Therefore, the Polovtsy, together with the Russian Christian princes, are happy to storm the Vedic cities. A terrible turmoil begins, lasting a whole century. Only Yaroslav the Wise was able to stop her, marrying all his daughters to Western rulers and marrying everyone possible.

When the Mongols arrived, they began to destroy the Cumans. To better understand who fought with whom, and who defended whom, we need to approach this issue not from an ethnic but from an ideological perspective. In essence, there was a confrontation between Vedic and Christian ideologies. Therefore, the Polovtsians and Mongols, and many others, could often be seen on both sides.

We have already written about the Mongols, so we will skip this period a little. Let's start from the moment when the Mongols or Tatars accept an aggressive world religion and attack the “infidels,” literally uprooting them at the root. That's when the Don becomes empty. The population is leaving entire families and clans. Cossacks from Moscow, Ryazan, and Dnieper appear. The Horde begins to sell thousands of Kipchak Christians to Egypt and Turkey. The Don could not defeat the Horde back then. Novgorod could not help either. At that time he was busy fighting the Livonian and Teutonic orders. A confrontation with the Muslim world begins, which lasts from the 15th to the 19th centuries. In fact, 500 years of blood.

This is how Belovezhskaya Pushcha arose. The population from Belaya Vezha went to the Belarusian woodland and took refuge there. The Mongols swept across the Don and Kuban, but the blood of the Assacs was preserved. In order to somehow survive, the Assacs are forced to convert to Christianity, but retain the Cossack circle, retain election, retain military education, preserve blood.

Circassians now live in the mountains next to the Kuban Cossacks. The Circassians have Russian, Tatar, and Kartvelian blood. They speak four dialects and have a lot of Turkic words. They are Muslims by faith. But natural Aryans are still periodically born among them.

And one more thing. Before the advent of Christianity to Rus', the steppes of the Irtysh region and Eastern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan) were inhabited by the Slavic-Aryan warrior caste - the Cumans (Cumans), who guarded the south-eastern border of Russia. The Cumans had a cult of the Family. They placed his columnar stone sculptures, made with extraordinary skill from limestone and marble, on the graves of their relatives. Tens of thousands of such statues stood on mounds and maidans, at crossroads and river banks. Until the 17th century, they were a necessary part and decoration of the steppe. Since then, most of the statues have been destroyed and only a few thousand have ended up in museums. For example, the Assacs who lived in Kazakhstan, becoming Muslims, lost their blood and turned into Kazakhs.

Numbering 4.4 million people by 1916 and occupying lands from the Black to the Yellow Sea, the Cossacks back in the 20th century were the most serious opponent of those who supported the idea of ​​​​the destruction of Russia. Even then, there were still 11 Cossack troops: Amur, Astrakhan, Don, Transbaikal, Kuban, Orenburg, Semirechenskoe, Siberian, Terek, Ural and Ussuri.

Therefore, in the party programs and propaganda literature of the Social Democratic parties, the Cossacks, after unsuccessful attempts to involve them in the revolutionary movement, were called the “stronghold of tsarism,” and, in accordance with party decisions of those years, were subject to destruction.

The result: no population, no cities, no villages. Just nameless ruins. Even memories were eradicated.

The attitude towards modern Cossacks in Russia is no less contradictory than the role of the Cossacks themselves in the development of the state and society. Some call these people, who claim the status of a separate class, mummers and pseudo-patriots, others see in the Cossacks the beginnings of a revival of the foundations of morality and culture of the Russia that we once lost. However, modern Cossacks are a whole phenomenon, which, like any other phenomenon, is difficult to give an unambiguous assessment, and even in all external attempts, an unambiguous assessment will be obviously one-sided and therefore meaningless. Therefore, we will try to look at representatives of modern Cossacks from different sides. There is only one goal: to try to clarify the situation with what the people who call themselves Cossacks really are.

We will not touch upon the historical aspect of the appearance of the Cossacks in the history of Russia, because this topic has already been voiced at Military Review. Let us focus specifically on the modern stage of the existence of the Russian Cossack.

First you need to make an attempt to separate the flies from the cutlets. The fact is that the Cossacks (at least from the position that is designated today) are by no means presented as an ethnic layer, but rather as public organization designed to solve specific problems. What problems? Whose problems? And here lies the main question. Some use the term “Cossack” itself as a kind of synonym for honor and devotion, patriotism and depth of moral traditions, while others are ready to make from this word for themselves a certain set of preferences that allow them to satisfy unbridled pride. Some are quite ready to serve the Fatherland on a voluntary basis, while others try to hastily cobble together from the very statements about hypothetical service to the Motherland a banal PR campaign, which can, in the opinion of such people, add certain social, and even political, bonuses to them.

Let us give a few examples of how the new generation of Cossacks have managed to prove themselves recently. In order for the situation to be presented as fully as possible, and everyone can appreciate the role of the Cossacks in public life, we will present several stories, both positive and negative.

Since the end of last year, the situation with the so-called Cossack patrols in major cities Russia. The activities of the Cossacks, who, in coordination with local law enforcement agencies, took to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh to carry out law enforcement activities, received diametrically opposed assessments. Some, seeing people in uniforms not assigned to any military or police unit, openly expressed their negativity and clearly had no intention of obeying the demands of the Cossack patrol. Others reacted quite calmly and believed that maintaining public order using Cossack squads was an event that showed itself quite positively.

The Cossack of the East Kazakhstan region tells the story of the “Reserve Cossack Army” “The Great Don Army” A. Popov:

I, as an ordinary Cossack, was involved in maintaining public order during the celebration of the city day. The task for me and a group of other Cossacks was set as follows: we had to prevent fairly tipsy people from entering crowded places, and if they were too eager to attend the festivities, report the incident to our immediate leader. He had already contacted the police, who tied up the hooligan. We did not have the authority to take measures against violators ourselves.

Another case.
Moscow. End of last year. Belorussky railway station. The group of Cossacks, which was later presented as a Cossack patrol, carried out law enforcement even with broader powers, which caused a discussion in society. It's about that a Cossack patrol carried out a raid and identified places of illegal trade. It was discussed that the Cossacks, when identifying places of illegal trade, began to confiscate goods and load them into a pre-prepared bus. As the Cossacks themselves stated, the bus belonged to the OBEP, and all their actions with the OBEP members were coordinated. However, after such zealous performance of duties by the Cossacks, information began to appear in the press that the Cossacks had become an instrument for dividing the market in a very busy place for trade in the capital.

Cossack patrol in Moscow at work

After that sensational raid, the first deputy ataman of the Central Cossack Army, General Kolesnikov, said that the first attempt could not be called the most successful. Obviously, new attempts to take the participation of the Cossacks in raids around Moscow were also discussed, but these raids clearly did not become systematic. Apparently, the whole point is that the authorities themselves (not only regional, but also federal) still have not decided what to do with such “happiness” (or without quotes?) as the modern Cossacks. If you give me authority, the authorities think, they might even sit on your neck; If you don’t give them powers, the electorate will be lost, and votes are so needed... In general, it’s a whole dilemma.

One of the governors who decided to regulate the activities of the Cossacks in his region is today the head of the Voronezh region, Alexei Gordeev. Not long ago, he discussed with the leaders of the local Cossacks the problems of interaction between the Cossacks and local authorities. At the meeting, the ataman of the Central Cossack Army, V. Nalimov, came up with a proposal for the Ministry of Education to create an educational institution in the region, which would be called a unified Cossack cadet corps. Vyacheslav Nalimov associates the very possibility of creating such an educational institution in the region with the fact that Cossack traditions are strong in the region and there are every opportunity to implement this kind of idea. In addition, Ataman Nalimov proposed to Governor Gordeev to create a military training and methodological center for the Cossack army, which could become a place for high-quality training of young Voronezh residents for military service. It is planned that such a center could be located north of the capital of the Black Earth Region. Alexey Gordeev promised that he was ready to personally assist in the implementation of the plans, because they are primarily aimed at caring for the younger generation and implementing plans for comprehensive pre-conscription training.

Lifting national flag in the Matvey Platov Cossack Cadet Corps (Voronezh region)

Winter training of cadets of Matvey Platov of the Cossack cadet corps (Voronezh region)

Against this seemingly benign background of interaction between the Cossacks and the official authorities, the same Voronezh region is turning into a place of active confrontation between Cossack squads and those who are trying to promote a business project to develop nickel deposits in the Khopersky Reserve. The company, which is planning to begin nickel development in the near future in the territory of the so-called Elan deposit, is encountering resistance from the public that is unprecedented in modern Russia, and the Cossacks have also supported it. For several months, in the place where the developer plans to carry out metal mining (and this is literally the very heart of the fertile black soil of Russia), Cossacks of the Second Khopersky District have set up posts. The Cossacks have already promised that if they see heavy equipment and people preparing to develop the Voronezh subsoil, they are ready to give a real fight to representatives of the mining company.

Cossack post at the site of preparation for the development of a nickel deposit (Voronezh region) (conversation with the police)

These words of the Cossack atamans aroused approval from the local population and the situation began to look very tense also because in one of his interviews, Governor Gordeev stated that he would not allow the Voronezh black soils to be destroyed exactly until he occupied the governor’s chair. However, despite this, the business lobby promotes the idea of ​​security of developments. True, at the same time, representatives of this very lobby do not mention the fact that the nickel deposit near Voronezh was known back in the Soviet years. But at that time, a number of scientists published materials according to which nickel mining in the Black Earth Region could lead to severe environmental consequences. Moreover, the nickel content in the ore in the region is relatively low, and therefore it is not a fact that mining will be profitable. The prospect of having, instead of fertile soils, a virtually dehydrated and dug-up desert on their doorstep, which may eventually be declared “not a very successful result of the nickel mining project,” clearly does not impress Voronezh residents.

The confrontation between the public, which is indirectly supported by Governor Gordeev and not even indirectly by representatives of the 2nd Khoper district of the Cossack VVD, and the lobbyists-earners is beginning to show real severity. Just the other day, the guards of that same Cossack post at the field stopped a group of geological prospectors who were preparing to begin the next portion of research work. Having found out whose interests the geologists represent, as well as their determination to begin their work, the Voronezh Cossacks, together with other local residents, decided to show the “guests” all their “hospitality”. As a result, the meeting ended with the geologists being thoroughly beaten with Cossack whips, after which they turned to the police. A criminal case was opened against the Cossacks and a number of environmentalists.

The police are increasingly visiting the Cossack post

After this “first nickel fight,” the public was again divided. Some called the Cossacks “mummered PR people,” others, on the contrary, stood up for them, declaring that this, apparently, is the only force that can still do something against the barbaric attitude towards Russian wealth.

Cossacks' appeal to President Vladimir Putin

And here is a bright representative of the “mummer hundred”

Let us recall that in September last year, Vladimir Putin approved the strategy of the Russian Cossacks. Here are a few points from the document:
a) involvement of the Russian Cossacks in carrying out tasks to ensure the security and defense capability of the Russian Federation, members of Cossack societies undergoing military service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and bodies, inclusion of members of Cossack societies in the mobilization human reserve to ensure guaranteed completion of the established terms of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as the creation of an effective system of military registration of members of Cossack societies;
b) attracting the Russian Cossacks to participate in protecting public order and ensuring environmental and fire safety, to the implementation of measures to prevent and eliminate emergency situations and eliminate the consequences natural disasters, civil defense, environmental activities;
c) attracting the Russian Cossacks to participate in protecting the state border of the Russian Federation;
d) maximum use in places of traditional and compact residence of Cossacks of the potential of Cossack societies to attract members of these societies to the protection of forests, wildlife, and cultural heritage sites;
e) attracting Russian Cossacks to government and other services in other areas of activity in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The Strategy spells out, among other things, both historical Cossack heraldry and a system for developing new heraldic signs, uniforms, awards and insignia.

The main thing is that both the Cossacks and the state do not forget that their main goal is, after all, to protect the rights and freedoms of all Russian citizens without exception, and not just those who are included in the galaxy of select people worthy of special attention. I would like to believe that in this regard the state and modern Cossacks are unanimous.

In the foreseeable retrospect, the roots of such a phenomenon as the Cossacks are clearly Scythian-Sarmatian, then the Turkic factor was strongly superimposed, then the Horde. In the Horde and post-Horde periods, the Don, Volga and Yaitsky Cossacks became greatly Russified due to the massive influx of new fighters from Rus'. For the same reason, the Dnieper Cossacks not only became Russified, but also became heavily sinned due to the influx of new fighters from the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A kind of ethnic cross-pollination took place. The Cossacks of the Aral region and from the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya could not become Russified by definition, for religious and geographical reasons, therefore they remained Kara-Kalpaks (translated from Turkic as Black Cowls). They had very little contact with Russia, but diligently served Khorezm, the Central Asian Genghisids and Timurids, about which there is a lot of written evidence. The same applies to the Balkhash Cossacks, who lived along the shores of the lake and along the rivers flowing into Balkhash. They became greatly unified due to the influx of new fighters from Asian lands, strengthening military power Mogulistan and creating the Cossack khanates. Thus, history has de facto separated the Cossack ethnic group into different ethno-state and geopolitical apartments. In order to de jure divide the Cossack subethnic groups, only in 1925, by Soviet decree, the non-Russianized Central Asian Cossacks (called Kyrgyz-Kaysaks, i.e., Kyrgyz Cossacks in tsarist times) were renamed Kazakhs. Strange as it may seem, the Cossacks and Kazakhs have the same roots; the names of these peoples are pronounced and written in Latin (until the recent past and in Cyrillic) in exactly the same way, but the ethnohistorical pollination is very different.

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In the 15th century, the role of the Cossacks in the areas bordering Russia sharply increased due to the continuous raids of nomadic tribes. In 1482, after the final collapse of the Golden Horde, the Crimean, Nogai, Kazan, Kazakh, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates arose.

Rice. 1 Collapse of the Golden Horde

These fragments of the Horde were in constant hostility among themselves, as well as with Lithuania and the Moscow state. Even before the final collapse of the Horde, during intra-Horde strife, the Muscovites and Litvins brought part of the Horde lands under their control. The anarchy and unrest in the Horde were especially well used Lithuanian prince Olgerdom. Where by force, where by intelligence and cunning, where by bribery he included many Russian principalities into his possessions, including the territories of the Dnieper Cossacks (former black hoods) and set himself broad goals: to put an end to Moscow and the Golden Horde. The Dnieper Cossacks formed the armed forces until four topics or 40,000 well-trained troops and turned out to be significant support for the policies of Prince Olgerd. And it was in 1482 that a new, three-century period of Eastern European history began - the period of the struggle for the Horde inheritance. At that time, few could have imagined that the provincial, although dynamically developing, Moscow principality would ultimately emerge victorious in this titanic struggle. But less than a century after the collapse of the Horde, under Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Moscow would unite all the Russian principalities around itself and conquer a significant part of the Horde. At the end of the 18th century. under Catherine II, almost the entire territory of the Golden Horde would come under Moscow rule. Having defeated Crimea and Lithuania, the victorious nobles of the German queen put an end to the centuries-old dispute over the Horde inheritance. Moreover, in the middle of the 20th century, under Joseph Stalin, for a short time the Muscovites would create a protectorate over the entire territory of the Great Mongol Empire, created in the 13th century. the labor and genius of the Great Genghis Khan, including China. And in this entire post-Horde history, the Cossacks took a very lively and active part. And the great Russian writer L.N. Tolstoy believed that “the entire history of Russia was made by the Cossacks.” And although this statement, of course, there is an exaggeration, but, taking a careful look at history Russian state, it can be stated that all significant military and political events in Russia did not happen without the active participation of the Cossacks. But all this will happen later.

And in 1552, Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible launched a campaign against the most powerful of these khanates - the heirs of the Horde - Kazan. Up to ten thousand Don and Volga Cossacks took part in that campaign as part of the Russian army. Reporting about this campaign, the chronicle notes that the Emperor ordered Prince Peter Serebryany to go from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazan, “... and with him the boyar children and archers and Cossacks...”. Two and a half thousand Cossacks under the command of Sevryuga and Elka were sent from Meshchera to the Volga to block transportation. During the storming of Kazan, the Don Ataman Misha Cherkashenin distinguished himself with his Cossacks. And Cossack legend tells that during the siege of Kazan, a young Volga Cossack Ermak Timofeev, disguised as a Tatar, entered Kazan, inspected the fortress, and, returning, pointed out the places most advantageous for blowing up the fortress walls.

After the fall of Kazan and the annexation of the Kazan Khanate to Russia, the military-political situation changed sharply in favor of Muscovy. Already in 1553, Kabardian princes arrived in Moscow to beat the king, so that he would accept them as citizenship and protect them against the Crimean Khan and the Nogai hordes. With this embassy, ​​ambassadors from the Greben Cossacks, who lived along the Sunzha River and neighboring the Kabardians, also arrived in Moscow. In the same year, the Siberian Tsar Edigei sent two officials to Moscow with gifts and pledged to pay tribute to the Moscow Tsar. Next, Ivan the Terrible set the task for the governors to take Astrakhan and conquer the Astrakhan Khanate. The Moscow state had to strengthen itself along the entire length of the Volga. The next year, 1554, was eventful for Moscow. With the help of the Cossacks and Moscow troops, Dervish-Ali was placed on the throne of the Astrakhan Khanate with the obligation to pay tribute to the Moscow state. After Astrakhan, Hetman Vishnevetsky joined the service of the Moscow Tsar with the Dnieper Cossacks. Prince Vishnevetsky came from the Gediminovich family and was a supporter of Russian-Lithuanian rapprochement. For this he was repressed by King Sigismund I and fled to Turkey. Returning from Turkey, with the permission of the king, he became the headman of the ancient Cossack cities of Kanev and Cherkassy. Then he sent ambassadors to Moscow and the tsar accepted him into the service with “kazatism”, issued him a safe conduct letter and sent him a salary.

Despite the betrayal of the Russian protege Dervish-Ali, Astrakhan was soon conquered, but shipping along the Volga was in full power Cossacks The Volga Cossacks were especially numerous at this time and “sat” so firmly in the Zhiguli Mountains that practically not a single caravan passed by without a ransom or was plundered. Nature itself, having created the Zhigulevskaya loop on the Volga, took care of the extreme convenience of this place for such a fishery. It is in this regard that Russian chronicles for the first time specifically note the Volga Cossacks - in 1560 it was written: “... The Cossacks thief along the Volga... The pious Sovereign sent his governors against them with many military men and ordered them to be killed and hanged.. ." The Volga Cossacks consider the year 1560 to be the year of seniority (formation) of the Volga Cossack Army. Ivan IV the Terrible could not jeopardize all eastern trade and, driven out of patience by the Cossacks’ attack on his ambassador, on October 1, 1577, he sent the steward Ivan Murashkin to the Volga with the order “... to torture, execute and hang the thieves’ Volga Cossacks.” In many works on the history of the Cossacks, there is a mention that, due to government repression, many Volga free Cossacks left - some to the Terek and Don, others to the Yaik (Ural), others, led by Ataman Ermak Timofeevich, to the Chusovsky towns to serve to the merchants Stroganov, and from there to Siberia. Having thoroughly destroyed the largest Volga Cossack army, Ivan IV the Terrible carried out the first large-scale decossackization in Russian history (but not the last).

VOLZHSKY ATAMAN ERMAK TIMOFEEVICH

The most legendary hero of the Cossack atamans of the 16th century, undoubtedly, is Ermolai Timofeevich Tokmak (Cossack nickname Ermak), who conquered the Siberian Khanate and laid the foundation for the Siberian Cossack Army. Even before joining the Cossacks, in his early youth this Pomeranian resident Ermolai son Timofeev received his first and rather sickly nickname Tokmak (tokmak, tokmach - a massive wooden mallet for compacting earth) for his remarkable strength and fighting qualities. And Ermak, apparently, has also been among the Cossacks from a young age. No one knew Ermak better than his comrades - veterans of the “Siberian capture”. In their later years, those who were spared by death lived in Siberia. According to the Esipov chronicle, compiled from the memoirs of Ermak’s still living comrades and opponents, before the Siberian campaign, the Cossacks Ilyin and Ivanov already knew him and served with Ermak in the villages for at least twenty years. However, this period of the ataman’s life is not documented.

According to Polish sources, in June 1581, Ermak, at the head of the Volga Cossack flotilla, fought in Lithuania against the Polish-Lithuanian troops of King Stefan Batory. At this time, his friend and associate Ivan Koltso fought in the Trans-Volga steppes with the Nogai Horde. In January 1582, Russia concluded the Yam-Zapolsky Peace Treaty with Poland and Ermak was given the opportunity to return to his native land. Ermak’s detachment arrives on the Volga and in Zhiguli unites with the detachment of Ivan Koltso and other “thieves’ Atamans”. To this day there is a village called Ermakovo. Here (according to other sources on Yaik) they are found by a messenger from the rich Perm salt industrialists Stroganovs with an offer to go to their service. To protect their possessions, the Stroganovs were allowed to build fortresses and maintain armed detachments in them. In addition, within the Perm land there was always a detachment of Moscow troops in the Cherdyn fortress. The appeal of the Stroganovs led to a split among the Cossacks. Ataman Bogdan Barbosha, who had previously been Ivan Koltso’s chief assistant, resolutely refused to be hired by the Perm merchants. Barbosha took several hundred Cossacks with him to Yaik. After Barboscha and his supporters left the circle, the majority in the circle went to Ermak and his villages. Knowing that for the destruction of the Tsar's caravan, Ermak has already been sentenced to quartering, and Koltso to hanging, the Cossacks accept the Stroganovs' invitation to go to their Chusovsky towns for protection from the attacks of the Siberian Tatars. There was another reason. At that time, a grandiose uprising of the Volga peoples had been raging on the Volga for several years. After the end of the Livonian War, in April 1582, royal ship troops began to arrive on the Volga to suppress the uprising. The free Cossacks found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They did not want to participate in actions against the rebels, but they did not take their side either. They decided to leave the Volga. In the summer of 1582, a detachment of Ermak and the atamans Ivan Koltso, Matvey Meshcheryak, Bogdan Bryazga, Ivan Alexandrov, nicknamed Cherkas, Nikita Pan, Savva Boldyr, Gavrila Ilyin, numbering 540 people, climbed along the Volga and Kama on plows to the Chusovsky towns. The Stroganovs gave Ermak some weapons, but they were insignificant, since Ermak’s entire squad had excellent weapons.

Taking advantage of the opportune moment when the Siberian prince Alei with the best troops went on a raid on the Perm fortress of Cherdyn, and the Siberian Khan Kuchum was busy at war with the Nogai, Ermak himself undertakes a daring invasion of his lands. It was an extremely daring and bold, but dangerous plan. Any miscalculation or accident deprived the Cossacks of any chance of return and salvation. If they had been defeated, contemporaries and descendants would have easily attributed it to the folly of the brave. But the Ermakovites won, and the winners are not judged, they are admired. We will admire it too. Stroganov's merchant ships had been plying the Ural and Siberian rivers for a long time, and their people knew the regime of these waterways very well. During the autumn floods, the water in mountain rivers and streams after heavy rains rose and mountain passes became accessible for transportation. In September, Ermak could have crossed the Urals, but if he had hesitated there until the end of the floods, his Cossacks would not have been able to drag their ships back through the passes. Ermak understood that only a swift and sudden attack could lead him to victory, and therefore he hurried with all his might. Ermak’s people more than once overcame the many miles of transportation between the Volga and Don. But overcoming the Ural mountain passes was fraught with incomparably greater difficulties. With an ax in their hands, the Cossacks made their own way, cleared rubble, felled trees, and cut a clearing. They did not have the time and energy to level the rocky path, as a result of which they could not drag the ships along the ground using rollers. According to the participants of the campaign from the Esipov chronicle, they dragged the ships up the mountain “on themselves,” in other words, in their arms. Along the Tagil passes, Ermak left Europe and descended from the “Stone” (Ural Mountains) to Asia. In 56 days, the Cossacks covered more than 1,500 km, including about 300 km upstream along Chusovaya and Serebryanka and 1,200 km downstream of the Siberian rivers and reached the Irtysh. This turned out to be possible thanks to iron discipline and solid military organization. Ermak categorically forbade any minor skirmishes with the natives on the way, only forward. In addition to the atamans, the Cossacks were commanded by foremen, pentecostals, centurions and esauls. With the detachment were three Orthodox priests and one priest. During the campaign, Ermak strictly demanded compliance with all Orthodox posts and holidays.

And now thirty Cossack plows are sailing along the Irtysh. At the front, the wind flutters a Cossack banner: blue with a wide red border. The red cloth is embroidered with patterns, and there are fancy rosettes at the corners of the banner. In the center on a blue field are two white figures standing opposite each other on their hind legs, a lion and an Ingor horse with a horn on its forehead, the personification of “prudence, purity and severity.” Ermak fought with this banner against Stefan Batory in the West, and came with it to Siberia. At the same time, the best Siberian army, led by Tsarevich Aley, unsuccessfully stormed the Russian fortress of Cherdyn in the Perm region. The appearance of Ermak’s Cossack flotilla on the Irtysh was a complete surprise for Kuchum. He hastened to gather Tatars from nearby uluses, as well as Mansi and Khanty princes with detachments, to defend his capital. The Tatars quickly built fortifications (zasek) on the Irtysh near the Chuvashev Cape and placed many foot and horse soldiers along the entire coast. On October 26, a grandiose battle broke out on the Chuvashov Cape, on the banks of the Irtysh, which was led by Kuchum himself from the opposing side. In this battle, the Cossacks successfully used the old and favorite “rook army” technique. Some of the Cossacks with stuffed animals made of brushwood, dressed in Cossack dress, sailed on plows clearly visible from the shore and continuously exchanged fire with the shore, and the main detachment unnoticed landed on the shore and, on foot, quickly attacked Kuchum’s horse and foot army from the rear and overturned it . The Khanty princes, frightened by the volleys, were the first to leave the battlefield. Their example was followed by the Mansi warriors, who took refuge after the retreat in the impenetrable Yaskalba swamps. In this battle, Kuchum’s troops were completely defeated, Mametkul was wounded and miraculously escaped capture, Kuchum himself fled, and his capital Kashlyk was occupied by Ermak.

Rice. 2 Conquest of the Siberian Khanate

Soon the Cossacks occupied the towns of Epanchin, Chingi-Tura and Isker, bringing the local princes and kings into submission. The local Khanty-Mansi tribes, burdened by the power of Kuchum, showed peacefulness towards the Russians. Just four days after the battle, the first prince Boyar and his fellow tribesmen came to Kashlyk and brought with them a lot of supplies. The Tatars, who fled from the outskirts of Kashlyk, began to return to their yurts with their families. The dashing raid was a success. Rich booty fell into the hands of the Cossacks. However, it was premature to celebrate the victory. At the end of autumn, the Cossacks could no longer set out on the return journey. The harsh Siberian winter has begun. Ice bound the rivers that served as the only means of communication. The Cossacks had to pull the plows ashore. Their first difficult winter began.

Kuchum carefully prepared to deal a mortal blow to the Cossacks and liberate his capital. However, he, willy-nilly, had to give the Cossacks more than a month’s respite: he had to wait for the return of Aley’s troops from behind the Ural ridge. The question was about the existence of the Siberian Khanate. Therefore, messengers galloped to all corners of the vast “kingdom” with orders to gather military forces. Everyone who was able to bear arms was drafted under the khan’s banners. Kuchum again entrusted command to his nephew Mametkul, who had dealt with the Russians more than once. Mametkul set out to liberate Kashlyk, having at his disposal more than 10 thousand soldiers. The Cossacks could defend themselves from the Tatars by settling in Kashlyk. But they preferred attack to defense. On December 5, Ermak attacked the advancing Tatar army 15 versts south of Kashlyk in the area of ​​Lake Abalak. The battle was difficult and bloody. Many Tatars died on the battlefield, but the Cossacks also suffered heavy losses. With the onset of darkness the battle stopped on its own. The countless Tatar army retreated. Unlike the first battle at Cape Chuvash, this time there was no panicky flight of the enemy at the height of the battle. There was no talk of capturing their commander-in-chief. Nevertheless, Ermak achieved the most glorious of his victories over the combined forces of the entire Kuchumov kingdom. The waters of Siberian rivers were covered with ice and impassable snow. The Cossack plows had long been pulled ashore. All escape routes were cut off. The Cossacks fought fiercely with the enemy, realizing that either victory or death awaited them. For each of the Cossacks there were more than twenty enemies. This battle showed the heroism and moral superiority of the Cossacks; it meant the complete and final conquest of the Siberian Khanate.

To notify the Tsar about the conquest of the Siberian kingdom in the spring of 1583, Ermak sent a detachment of 25 Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso to Ivan IV the Terrible. This was not a random choice. According to the Cossack historian A.A. Gordeeva, Ivan Koltso is the nephew of the disgraced Metropolitan Philip who fled to the Volga and the former royal guard Ivan Kolychev, a scion of the numerous but disgraced boyar family of the Kolychevs. The embassy sent gifts, tribute, noble captives and a petition in which Ermak asked for forgiveness for his previous guilt and asked to send a governor with a detachment of troops to Siberia to help. Moscow at that time was deeply affected by the failures of the Livonian War. Military defeats followed one after another. The success of a handful of Cossacks who defeated the Siberian kingdom flashed like lightning in the darkness, striking the imagination of their contemporaries. The embassy of Ermak, headed by Ivan Koltso, was received in Moscow very solemnly. According to contemporaries, there has not been such joy in Moscow since the conquest of Kazan. “Ermak and his comrades and all the Cossacks were forgiven by the tsar for all their previous guilts; the tsar presented Ivan the Ring and the Cossacks who arrived with him with gifts. Ermak was granted a fur coat from the tsar’s shoulder, battle armor and a letter in his name, in which the tsar granted Ataman Ermak to write as the Siberian Prince...” Ivan the Terrible ordered a detachment of 300 archers, led by Prince Semyon Bolkhovsky, to be sent to help the Cossacks. Simultaneously with the Koltso detachment, Ermak sent ataman Alexander Cherkas with the Cossacks to the Don and Volga to recruit volunteers. After visiting the villages, Cherkas also ended up in Moscow, where he worked long and hard and sought to send help to Siberia. But Cherkas returned to Siberia with a new large detachment, when neither Ermak nor Koltso, who had returned to Siberia earlier, were alive. The fact is that in the spring of 1584, big changes took place in Moscow - Ivan IV died in his Kremlin palace, and unrest occurred in Moscow. In the general confusion, the Siberian expedition was forgotten for a while. Almost two years passed before the free Cossacks received help from Moscow. What allowed them to stay in Siberia with small forces and resources for such a long time?

Ermak survived because the Cossacks and atamans had experience of long wars both with the most advanced European army of that time, Stefan Batory, and with nomads in the “wild field”. Their camps and winter quarters were always surrounded on all sides by the gentry or Horde for many years. The Cossacks learned to defeat them, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy. An important reason for the success of Ermak's expedition was the internal fragility of the Siberian Khanate. Since Kuchum killed Khan Edigei and seized his throne, many years have passed, filled with continuous bloody wars. Where, by force, where by cunning and deceit, Kuchum humbled the rebellious Tatar murzas (princes) and imposed tribute on the Khanty-Mansi tribes. At first, Kuchum, like Edigei, paid tribute to Moscow, but after coming into force and receiving news of the failures of Moscow troops on the western front, he took a hostile position and began to attack the Perm lands that belonged to the Stroganovs. Surrounding himself with a guard of Nogais and Kyrgyz, he strengthened his power. But the very first military failures immediately led to the resumption of internecine struggle among the Tatar nobility. The son of the murdered Edigei, Seid Khan, who was hiding in Bukhara, returned to Siberia and began to threaten Kuchum with revenge. With his help, Ermak restored the former trade communication between Siberia and Yurgent, the capital of the White Horde, located on the shore Aral Sea. Kuchum's close murza Seinbakht Tagin gave Ermak the location of Mametkul, the most prominent of the Tatar military leaders. The capture of Mametkul deprived Kuchum of a reliable sword. The nobles, who were afraid of Mametkul, began to leave the khan’s court. Karachi - the main dignitary of Kuchum, who belonged to a powerful Tatar family, stopped obeying the khan and migrated with his warriors to the upper reaches of the Irtysh. The Siberian kingdom was falling apart before our eyes. The power of Kuchum was no longer recognized by many local Mansi and Khanty princes and elders. Some of them began to help Ermak with food. Among the allies of the ataman were Alachey, the prince of the largest Khanty principality in the Ob region, the Khanty prince Boyar, the Mansi princes Ishberdey and Suklem from the Yaskalbinsky places. Their help was invaluable for the Cossacks.

Rice. 3.4 Ermak Timofeevich and the oath of Siberian kings to him

After much delay, governor S. Bolkhovsky arrived in Siberia with a detachment of 300 archers, very late. Ermak, burdened by the new noble captives led by Mametkul, hastened to send them immediately, despite the approaching winter, to Moscow with the Streltsy head Kireev. The replenishment did not please the Cossacks much. The archers were poorly trained, they wasted their supplies along the way, and difficult trials lay ahead of them. Winter 1584-1585 in Siberia was very harsh and was especially difficult for the Russians; supplies ran out and famine began. By spring, all the archers, along with Prince Bolkhovsky and a significant part of the Cossacks, died of hunger and cold. In the spring of 1585, Kuchum's dignitary, Murza Karacha, fraudulently lured a detachment of Cossacks led by Ivan Koltso to a feast, and at night, attacking them, he cut them all sleepy. Numerous Karachi detachments kept Kashlyk in a ring, hoping to starve the Cossacks to death. Ermak patiently waited for the moment to strike. Under the cover of night, the Cossacks sent by him, led by Matvey Meshcheryak, secretly made their way to the Karachi headquarters and defeated it. Karachi's two sons were killed in the battle, he himself barely escaped death, and his army fled away from Kashlyk that same day. Ermak won another brilliant victory over numerous enemies. Soon, messengers from Bukhara merchants arrived to Ermak with a request to protect them from the tyranny of Kuchum. Ermak with the rest of the army - about a hundred people - set off on a campaign. The end of the first Siberian expedition is shrouded in a dense veil of legends. On the banks of the Irtysh near the mouth of the Vagai River, where Ermak’s detachment spent the night, they were attacked by Kuchum during a terrible storm and thunderstorm. Ermak assessed the situation and ordered to get into the plows. Meanwhile, the Tatars had already broken into the camp. Ermak was the last to retreat, covering the Cossacks. The Tatar archers fired a cloud of arrows. The arrows pierced the broad chest of Ermak Timofeevich. The rapid icy waters of the Irtysh swallowed him up forever...

This Siberian expedition lasted three years. Hunger and deprivation, severe frosts, battles and losses - nothing could stop the free Cossacks, break their will to victory. For three years, Ermak’s squad did not know defeat from numerous enemies. In the last night skirmish, the thinned squad retreated, suffering minor losses. But he lost a proven leader. The expedition could not continue without him. Arriving in Kashlyk, Matvey Meshcheryak gathered a Circle, in which the Cossacks decided to go to the Volga for help. Ermak led 540 fighters to Siberia, but only 90 Cossacks survived. With ataman Matvey Meshcheryak they returned to Rus'. Already in 1586, another detachment of Cossacks from the Volga came to Siberia and founded the first Russian city there - Tyumen, which served as the basis for the future Siberian Cossack Army and the beginning of the incredibly sacrificial and heroic Siberian Cossack epic. And thirteen years after the death of Ermak, the tsarist commanders finally defeated Kuchum.

The history of the Siberian expedition was rich in many incredible events. The destinies of people underwent instant and incredible changes, and the zigzags and twists of Moscow politics never cease to amaze even today. The story of Prince Mametkul can serve as a striking example of this. After the death of Ivan the Terrible, the nobility ceased to take into account the orders of the feeble-minded Tsar Fedor. The boyars and nobles of the capital started local disputes on any occasion. Everyone demanded higher positions for themselves, citing the “breed” and service of their ancestors. Boris Godunov and Andrei Shchelkalov eventually found a way to bring the nobility to reason. By their order, the Rank Order announced the appointment of serving Tatars to the highest military posts. On the occasion of the expected war with the Swedes, a list of regiments was drawn up. According to this painting, Simeon Bekbulatovich took the post of first governor of a large regiment - commander-in-chief of the field army. The commander of the left-hand regiment was ... “Tsarevich Mametkul of Siberia.” Twice beaten and defeated by Ermak, captured and put in a pit by the Cossacks, Mametkul was treated kindly at the royal court and appointed to one of the highest posts in the Russian army.

In ancient times, states on our land did not touch their borders the way they do now. Between them there remained gigantic spaces in which no one lived - it was either impossible due to the lack of living conditions (no water, land for crops, you can’t hunt if there is little game), or simply dangerous due to raids by nomadic steppe dwellers. It was in such places that the Cossacks originated - on the outskirts of the Russian principalities, on the border with the Great Steppe. In such places people gathered who were not afraid of a sudden raid by the steppe inhabitants, who knew how to both survive and fight without outside help.

The first mentions of Cossack detachments date back to Kievan Rus, for example, Ilya Muromets was called the “old Cossack”. There are references to the participation of Cossack detachments in the Battle of Kulikovo under the command of governor Dmitry Bobrok. By the end of the 14th century, two large territories were formed in the lower reaches of the Don and Dnieper, on which many Cossack settlements were created and their participation in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible is already undeniable. The Cossacks distinguished themselves during the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and in Livonian War. The first Russian statute of the village guard service was drawn up by the boyar M.I. Vorotynsky in 1571. According to it, the guard service was carried out by the village (guard) Cossacks or villagers, while the city (regimental) Cossacks defended the cities. In 1612, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia, the Don Cossacks liberated Moscow and expelled the Poles from the Russian land. For all these merits, the Russian tsars approved the Cossacks’ right to own Quiet Don forever and ever.

The Ukrainian Cossacks at that time were divided into the registered ones in the service of Poland and the grassroots ones, who created the Zaporozhye Sich. As a result of political and religious pressure from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ukrainian Cossacks became the basis of the liberation movement and raised a number of uprisings, the last of which, led by Bohdan Khmelnitsky, achieved its goal - Ukraine was reunited with the Russian kingdom by the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654. For Russia, the agreement led to the acquisition of part of the lands of Western Rus', which justified the title of the Russian tsars - Sovereign of All Rus'. Muscovite Rus' became a collector of lands with a Slavic Orthodox population.

Both the Dnieper and Don Cossacks at that time were on leading edge the fight against the Turks and Tatars, who constantly raided Russian lands, ruining crops, driving people into captivity and bleeding our lands. Countless feats were accomplished by the Cossacks, but one of the most bright examples The heroism of our ancestors is the Sea of ​​Azov - eight thousand Cossacks, having captured Azov - one of the most powerful fortresses and an important junction of communication routes - were able to fight off the two hundred thousand strong Turkish army. Moreover, the Turks were forced to retreat, losing about one hundred thousand soldiers - half of their army! But over time, Crimea was liberated, Turkey was driven out from the shores of the Black Sea far to the south, and the Zaporozhye Sich lost its significance as an advanced outpost, finding itself several hundred kilometers inland on peaceful territory. On August 5, 1775, by signing Russian empress Catherine II of the manifesto “On the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich and on its inclusion in the Novorossiysk province”, the Sich was finally disbanded. Zaporizhian Cossacks after that they were divided into several parts. The most numerous moved to the Black Sea Cossack Army, which carried out border guards on the shores of the Black Sea; a significant part of the Cossacks were resettled to guard the southern borders of Russia in the Kuban and Azov. The Sultan allowed the five thousand Cossacks who went to Turkey to found the Transdanubian Sich. In 1828, the Transdanubian Cossacks, together with Koshevoy Josip Gladky, went over to the side of Russia and were personally pardoned by Emperor Nicholas I. Throughout the vast territory of Russia, Cossacks began to carry out border service. No wonder Tsar-peacemaker Alexander III once aptly remarked: “The borders of the Russian state lie on the arch of a Cossack saddle...”

The Donets, Kuban, Terets, and later their brothers in arms, the Urals and Siberians, were the permanent combat vanguard in all the wars in which Russia fought almost without respite for centuries. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in the Patriotic War of 1812. The memory of the legendary Don commander Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who led the Cossack regiments from Borodino to Paris, is still alive. Those same regiments about which Napoleon would say with envy: “If I had Cossack cavalry, I would conquer the whole world.” Patrols, reconnaissance, security, distant raids - all this everyday hard military work was carried out by the Cossacks, and their battle formation - the Cossack lava - showed itself in all its glory in that war.

In the popular consciousness, the image of the Cossack as a natural mounted warrior has developed. But there also existed Cossack infantry - plastuns - which became the prototype of modern units special purpose. It originated on the Black Sea coast, where plastuns carried out difficult service in the Black Sea floodplains. Later, Plastun units also operated successfully in the Caucasus. Even their opponents paid tribute to the fearlessness of the plastuns - the best guards of the cordon line in the Caucasus. It was the mountaineers who preserved the story of how the plastuns, besieged at the Lipka post, chose to burn alive - rather than surrender to the Circassians, even who promised them life.

However, the Cossacks are known not only for their military exploits. They played no less a role in the development of new lands and their annexation to the Russian Empire. Over time, the Cossack population moved forward into uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development North Caucasus, Siberia (Ermak expedition), Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk. In 1648, the Siberian Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed from the Arctic Ocean (the mouth of the Kolyma) to the Pacific Ocean (the mouth of the Anadyr) and opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1697-1699, Cossack Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov explored Kamchatka.

Cossacks during the First World War

On the very first day of the First World War, the first two regiments of the Kuban Cossacks left the Ekaterinodar station for the front. Eleven Russian Cossack troops fought on the fronts of the First World War - Don, Ural, Terek, Kuban, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Siberian, Transbaikal, Amur, Semirechensk and Ussuri - without knowing cowardice and desertion. They were especially pronounced best qualities on the Transcaucasian Front, where only 11 Cossack regiments of the third stage were created in the militia - from older Cossacks, who at times could give a head start to the cadre youth. Thanks to its incredible durability heavy battles In 1914, it was they who prevented the breakthrough of the Turkish troops - far from the worst at that time! - to our Transcaucasia and, together with the arriving Siberian Cossacks, drove them back. After the grandiose victory in the Battle of Sarykamysh, Russia received congratulations from the allied commanders-in-chief, Joffre and French, who very highly appreciated the strength of Russian weapons. But the pinnacle of martial art in Transcaucasia was the capture of the mountain fortified area of ​​Erzurum in the winter of 1916, in the assault of which Cossack units played an important role.

Cossacks were not only the most dashing cavalrymen, but also served in reconnaissance, artillery, infantry and even aviation. Thus, the native Kuban Cossack Vyacheslav Tkachev made the first long-distance flight in Russia along the route Kyiv - Odessa - Kerch - Taman - Ekaterinodar with a total length of 1,500 miles, despite unfavorable autumn weather and other difficult conditions. On March 10, 1914, he was seconded to the 4th Aviation Company upon its formation, and on the same day, Tkachev was appointed commander of the XX Aviation Detachment, attached to the headquarters of the 4th Army. IN initial period During the war, Tkachev made several very important reconnaissance flights for the Russian command, for which, by Order of the Army of the Southwestern Front dated November 24, 1914, No. 290, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, IV degree (the first among pilots).

The Cossacks performed very well in the Great Patriotic War. In this most severe and difficult time for the country, the Cossacks forgot past grievances, and along with everything Soviet people rose to defend their homeland. The 4th Kuban and 5th Don Cossack Volunteer Corps passed with honor until the end of the war, participating in major operations. 9th Plastun Red Banner Krasnodar Division, dozens of rifle and cavalry divisions formed at the beginning of the war from the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, Stavropol, Orenburg, Urals, Semirechye, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Guards Cossack formations often performed a very important task - while mechanized formations formed the inner ring of numerous “cauldrons,” Cossacks as part of cavalry-mechanized groups broke into operational space, disrupted the enemy’s communications and created an outer ring of encirclement, preventing the release of enemy troops. In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the “branded” Cossack cavalry or Plastun units, but in the entire Soviet army or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace No. 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko is a Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Besstrashnaya; lieutenant general engineering troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - ancestral Ural Cossack, native of Omsk; Commander of the Northern Fleet Admiral A.A. Golovko - Terek Cossack, native of the village of Prokhladnaya; gunsmith designer F.V. Tokarev is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Yegorlyk Region of the Don Army; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Front, Army General, Hero of the USSR M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Ust-Medveditsk Region of the Don Army, commander of the guard squadron, Captain K.I. Nedorubov - Hero of the Soviet Union and full Knight of St. George, as well as many other Cossacks.

All the wars of our time, which the Russian Federation has had to wage, also could not have happened without the Cossacks. In addition to the conflicts in Transnistria and Abkhazia, the Cossacks took an active part in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and in the subsequent protection of the administrative border of Ossetia with Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the First Chechen campaign, the Russian Ministry of Defense formed a motorized rifle battalion named after General Ermolov from volunteer Cossacks. Its effectiveness was so high that it frightened the pro-Kremlin Chechens, who saw the appearance of Cossack units as the first step towards the revival of the Terek region. Under their pressure, the battalion was withdrawn from Chechnya and disbanded. During the second campaign, Cossacks staffed the 205th motorized rifle brigade, and also commandant companies, who served in the Shelkovsky, Naursky and Nadterechny regions of Chechnya. In addition, significant masses of Cossacks, having concluded a contract, fought in “regular”, that is, non-Cossack units. More than 90 people from Cossack units received government awards based on the results of military operations; all Cossacks who participated in military operations and accurately fulfilled their duties received Cossack awards. For 13 years now, the Cossacks in the south of Russia have annually held field training camps, within the framework of which command and staff training with unit commanders and officers, classes in fire, tactical, topographical, mine and medical training have been organized. Cossack units, companies and platoons are led by Russian army officers with combat experience who took part in operations in hot spots in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions. And Cossack horse patrols became reliable assistants to Russian border guards and police.

Cossacks are not some special nationality, they are the same Russian people, albeit with their own historical roots and traditions.

The word “Cossack” is of Turkic origin and figuratively means “free man.” In Rus', Cossacks were the name given to free people living on the outskirts of the state. As a rule, in the past these were runaway serfs, serfs and the urban poor.

People were forced to leave their homes by their lack of rights, poverty, and serfdom. These fugitives were called "walking" people. The government, with the help of special detectives, tried to find those who had gone on the run, punish them and return them to their old place of residence. However, mass escapes did not stop, and gradually entire free regions with their own Cossack administration arose on the outskirts of Rus'. The first settlements of settled fugitives were formed on the Don, Yaik and Zaporozhye. The government eventually had to come to terms with the existence of a special class - the Cossacks - and try to put it at its service.

Most of the “walking” people went to the free Don, where the indigenous Cossacks began to settle in the 15th century. There were no duties, no compulsory service, no governor. The Cossacks had their own elected government. They were divided into hundreds and tens, led by centurions and tens. To resolve public issues, the Cossacks gathered in meetings, which they called “circles.” At the head of this free class was a chieftain elected by the circle, who had an assistant - the captain. The Cossacks recognized the power of the Moscow government, were considered to be in its service, but were not distinguished by great loyalty and often participated in peasant uprisings.

In the 16th century there were already many Cossack settlements, whose inhabitants, in accordance with the geographical principle, were called Cossacks: Zaporozhye, Don, Yaitsky, Grebensky, Terek, etc.

In the 18th century, the government transformed the Cossacks into a closed military class, which was obliged to carry military service in the general system of the armed forces of the Russian Empire. First of all, the Cossacks had to guard the borders of the country - where they lived. In order for the Cossacks to remain faithful to the autocracy, the government endowed the Cossacks with special benefits and privileges. The Cossacks were proud of their position; they developed their own customs and traditions that were passed on from generation to generation. They considered themselves a special people, and called residents of other regions of Russia “non-residents.” This continued until 1917.

The Soviet government put an end to the privileges of the Cossacks and liquidated the separate Cossack regions. Many of the Cossacks were subjected to repression. The state did everything to destroy centuries-old traditions. But it could not completely make people forget about their past. Currently, the traditions of the Russian Cossacks are being revived.