Cossacks

Origin of the Cossacks.

09:42 December 16, 2016

The Cossacks are a people that formed at the beginning of a new era, as a result of genetic ties between many Turanian (Siberian) tribes of the Scythian people Kos-Saka (or Ka-Saka), the Azov Slavs Meoto-Kaisar with a mixture of Ases-Alans or Tanaits (Dontsov). The ancient Greeks called them kossakha, which meant "white sakhi", and the Scythian-Iranian meaning "kos-sakha" - "white deer". The sacred deer - the solar symbol of the Scythians, can be found in all their burials, from Primorye to China, from Siberia to Europe. It was the Don people who brought this ancient military symbol of the Scythian tribes to our days. Here you will find out where the Cossacks came from, a shaved head with a forelock and a drooping mustache, and why the bearded Prince Svyatoslav changed his appearance. You will also learn the origin of many names of the Cossacks, Don, Greben, roamers, black hoods, etc., where did the Cossack military paraphernalia, hat, knife, Circassian coat, gazyri come from. And you will also understand why the Cossacks were called Tatars, where Genghis Khan came from, why the Battle of Kulikovo took place, the invasion of Batu and who was really behind all this.

"Cossacks, an ethnic, social and historical community (group), which, due to its specific characteristics, united all the Cossacks ... The Cossacks were also defined as a separate ethnic group, an independent nationality, or as a special nation of mixed Turkic-Slavic origin." Dictionary of Cyril and Methodius 1902.

As a result of the processes that in archeology are usually called "the introduction of the Sarmatians into the environment of the Meots", in the North. In the Caucasus and on the Don, a mixed Slavic-Turanian type of special nationality appeared, divided into many tribes. It was from this confusion that the original name "Cossack" originated, which was noted by the ancient Greeks in ancient times and was written as "kossakhs". The Greek inscription Kasakos was preserved until the 10th century, after which the Russian chroniclers began to mix it with the common Caucasian names Kasagov, Kasogov, Kazyag. But from the ancient Turkic "Kai-Sak" (Scythian) meant freedom-loving, in another sense - a warrior, a guard, an ordinary unit of the Horde. It was the Horde that became the unification of different tribes under a military union - whose name today is the Cossacks. The most famous: "Golden Horde", "Piebald Horde of Siberia". So the Cossacks, remembering their great past, when their ancestors lived beyond the Urals in the country of Asses (Great Asia), inherited their name of the people "Cossacks", from As and Saki, from the Aryan "as" - warrior, military estate, "Sak" - by type of weapon: from sak, whip, cutters. "As-sak" was later transformed into a Cossack. And the very name of the Caucasus - Kau-k-az from the ancient Iranian kau or kuu - mountain and az-as, i.e. Mount Azov (Asov), as well as the city of Azov in Turkish and Arabic was called: Assak, Adzak, Kazak, Kazova, Kazava and Azak.
All ancient historians claim that the Scythians were best warriors, and Svydas testifies that since ancient times they had banners in the troops, which proves the regularity in their militias. The Getae of Siberia, Western Asia, the Hittites of Egypt, the Aztecs, India, Byzantium, on banners and shields had a coat of arms depicting a double-headed eagle, adopted by Russia in the 15th century. as a legacy of their glorious ancestors.

Interestingly, the tribes of the Scythian peoples depicted on the artifacts found in Siberia, on the Russian Plain, are shown with beards and long hair on their heads. Russian princes, rulers, warriors are also bearded and hairy. So where did the settler come from, a shaved head with a forelock and a drooping mustache?
For European peoples, including the Slavs, the custom of shaving the head was completely alien, while in the east it has been widespread for a long time and very widely, including among the Turkic-Mongolian tribes. So the hairstyle with the sedentary was borrowed from the eastern peoples. In 1253 Rubruk described it in Batu's Golden Horde on the Volga.
So, we can say with confidence that the custom of shaving the head of the Slavs in Russia and in Europe was completely alien and unacceptable. It was first brought to Ukraine by the Huns, for centuries it lived among the mixed Turkic tribes living on Ukrainian lands - Avars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy, Mongols, Turks, etc., until it was finally borrowed by the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, along with all the other Turkic-Mongolian traditions of the Sich . But where does the word "Sich" come from? Here is what Strabo writes. XI.8.4:
"Saks were called all the southern Scythians attacking Western Asia." The weapon of the Saks was called sakar - an ax, from whipping, chopping. From this word, in all likelihood, the name of the Zaporozhian Sich came, as well as the word Sicheviki, as the Cossacks called themselves. Sich - the camp of the Saks. Sak in Tatar means cautious. Sakal - beard. These words are borrowed from the Slavs, Masaks, Massagets.

In ancient times, during the mixing of the blood of the Caucasoids of Siberia with the Mongoloids, new mestizo peoples began to form, which later received the name of the Turks, and this was still a long time after the emergence of Islam itself and their adoption of the Mohammedan faith. Subsequently, from these peoples and their migration to the West and Asia, a new name appeared, defining them as the Huns (Huns). Of the discovered Hunnic burials, they reconstructed the skull and it turned out that some Hunnic warriors wore a sedentary. The same warriors with forelocks were then among the ancient Bulgars who fought in the army of Attila, and many other peoples mixed with the Turks.

By the way, the Hunnic "devastation of the world" played an important role in the history of the Slavic ethnos. Unlike the Scythian, Sarmatian and Gothic invasions, the invasion of the Huns was extremely large-scale and led to the destruction of the entire former ethno-political situation in the barbarian world. The departure to the west of the Goths and the Sarmatians, and then the collapse of the empire of Attila, allowed the Slavic peoples in the 5th century. to begin mass settlement of the Northern Danube, the lower reaches of the Dniester and the middle reaches of the Dnieper.
Among the Huns there was also a group (self-name - Gur) - Bolgurs (White Gur). After the defeat in Phanagoria (Northern Black Sea, Mesopotamia Don-Volga and Kuban), part of the Bulgarians went to Bulgaria and, having strengthened the Slavic ethnic component, became modern Bulgarians, the other part remained on the Volga - the Volga Bulgarians, now Kazan Tatars and other Volga peoples. One part of the Khungurs (Hunno-gurs) - the Ungars or Ugrians, founded Hungary, the other part of them settled on the Volga and mixed with the Finnic-speaking peoples, became Finno-Ugric peoples. When the Mongols came from the east, they, with the agreements of the Kyiv prince, went west and merged with the Ungars-Hungarians. That is why we are talking about the Finno-Ugric language group, but this does not apply to the Huns in general.
During the formation of the Turkic peoples, entire states appeared, for example, from the mixing of the Caucasoids of Siberia, the Dinlins with the Gangun Turks, the Yenisei Kirghiz appeared, from them - the Kyrgyz Kaganate, after - the Turkic Kaganate. We all know the Khazar Kaganate, which became the unification of the Khazar Slavs with the Turks and Jews. From all these endless associations and separations of the Slavic peoples with the Turks, many new tribes were created, for example, the state association of the Slavs suffered from the raids of the Pechenegs and Polovtsy for a long time.

For example, according to the law of Genghis Khan "Yasu", developed by cultural Central Asian Christians of the Nestorian sect, and not by wild Mongols, hair must be shaved off, and only a pigtail is left on the crown. High-ranking personalities were allowed to wear a beard, and the rest had to shave it off, leaving only mustaches. But this is not a custom of the Tatars, but of the ancient Getae (see Chapter VI) and the Massagetae, i.e. people known as far back as the 14th century. BC and intimidating Egypt, Syria and Persia, and then mentioned in the VI century. according to R. X. by the Greek historian Procopius. The Massagetae - the Great-Saki-Geta, who made up the advanced cavalry in the hordes of Attila, also shaved their heads and beards, leaving a mustache, and left one pigtail on top of their heads. It is interesting that the military class of the Russ always bore the name Get, and the word "hetman" itself is again of Gothic origin: "great warrior."
The painting of the Bulgarian princes and Liutprand speak of the existence of this custom among the Danube Bulgarians. According to the description of the Greek historian Leo the Deacon, Russian Grand Duke Svyatoslav also shaved his beard and head, leaving one forelock, i.e. imitated the Geta Cossacks, who constituted the advanced cavalry in his army. Consequently, the custom of shaving beards and heads, leaving a mustache and forelock, is not Tatar, as it existed earlier among the Getae more than 2 thousand years before the appearance of the Tatars in the historical field.

The image of Prince Svyatoslav, who has already become canonical, with a shaved head, a long forelock and a drooping mustache, like a Zaporozhian Cossack, is not entirely correct and was imposed mainly by the Ukrainian side. His ancestors had luxurious hair and beards, and he himself was portrayed in various chronicles as bearded. The description of the forelocked Svyatoslav is taken from the above-mentioned Leo Deacon, but he became so after he became the prince not only of Kievan Rus, but also the prince of Pecheneg Russia, that is, southern Russia. But why then did the Pechenegs kill him? It all comes down to the fact that after the victory of Svyatoslav over the Khazar Kaganate and the war with Byzantium, the Jewish aristocracy decided to take revenge on him and persuaded the Pechenegs to kill him.

Well, Leo the Deacon in the X century, in his "Chronicles" gives very interesting description Svyatoslav: "The king is ready Sventoslav, or Svyatoslav, the ruler from Russia, and the hetman of their troops, was the root of the Balts, Rurikovich (the Balts are the royal dynasty of the Western Goths. From this dynasty was Alaric, who took Rome.) ... His mother, regentess Helga , after the death of her husband Ingvar, who was killed by the Greitungs, whose capital was Iskorost, she desired to unite the two dynasties of the ancient Rixes under the scepter of the Balts, and turned to Malfred, the Rix of the Greutungs, to give her sister Malfrida for her son, giving her word that she would forgive Malfred the death of her husband Having received a refusal, the city of the Greuthungi was burned by her, and the Greuthungi themselves submitted ... Malfrida was escorted to the court of Helga, where she was brought up until she grew up and became the wife of King Sventoslav ... "
In this story, the names of Prince Mala and Malusha, the mother of Prince Vladimir the Baptist, are clearly guessed. It is curious that the Greek stubbornly called the Drevlyans Greytungs - one of the Gothic tribes, and not Drevlyans at all.
Well, let's leave it on the conscience of the late ideologists, who point-blank did not notice these very Goths. We only note that Malfrida-Malusha was from Iskorosten-Korosten (Zhytomyr region). Then - again Leo the Deacon: "The equestrian warriors of Sventoslav fought without helmets and on light horses of Scythian breeds. Each of his warriors from the Rus had no hair on his head, only a long strand descending to the ear - a symbol of their military god. They fought furiously, descendants of those Gothic regiments that brought the great Rome to its knees.These horsemen of Sventoslav gathered from the allied tribes of the Greytungs, Slavs and Rosomones, they were also called in Gothic: "kosaks" - "horseman" that is, and among the Rus they were an elite, themselves but the Ruses inherited from their fathers the ability to fight on foot, hiding behind shields - the famous "tortoise" of the Vikings. The Ruses buried their fallen ones in the same way as their Gothic grandfathers, burning the bodies on their canoes or on the banks of the river, in order to then put the ashes on And those who died by their own death, they laid them in mounds, and poured hills on top. In the Goths in their land, such resting places stretch for hundreds of stages sometimes ... "
We will not understand why the chronicler calls the Rus Goths. And burial mounds in the Zhytomyr region are stumbled unmeasured. Among them there are very ancient ones - Scythian, even before our era. They are mainly located in the northern regions of the Zhytomyr region. And there are later ones, the beginning of our era, IV-V centuries. In the area of ​​the Zhytomyr hydropark, for example. As you can see, the Cossacks existed long before the Zaporozhian Sich.
And here is what Georgy Sidorov says about the changed appearance of Svyatoslav: “The Pechenegs chose him over themselves, after the defeat of the Khazar Khaganate, he becomes a prince already here, that is, the Pecheneg khans themselves recognize his power over themselves. They give him the opportunity to control the Pecheneg cavalry, and she herself the Pecheneg cavalry goes with him to Byzantium.

In order for the Pechenegs to obey him, he was forced to take on their appearance, which is why instead of a beard and long hair, he has a sedentary man and a drooping mustache. Svyatoslav was a venet by blood, his father did not wear a forelock, he had a beard and long hair, like any venet. Rurik, his grandfather, was the same, Oleg was exactly the same, but they did not adjust their appearance to the Pechenegs. Svyatoslav, in order to manage the Pechenegs, so that they believed him, he had to put himself in order, to be outwardly similar to them, that is, he became the khan of the Pechenegs. We are constantly divided, Russia is the north, the south is the Polovtsy, this is the wild steppe and the Pechenegs. In fact, it was all one Russia, steppe, taiga and forest-steppe - it was one people, one language. The only difference was that in the south they still knew the Turkic language, it was once the Esperanto of the ancient tribes, they brought it from the East, and the Cossacks knew this language up to the 20th century, too, preserving it.
In Horde Russia, not only Slavic writing but also Arabic. Until the end of the 16th century, Russians had a good command of the Turkic language at the everyday level, i.e. Turkic was the second language until then colloquial language in Russia. And this was facilitated by the unification of the Slavic-Turkic tribes into an alliance, whose name is the Cossacks. After the Romanovs came to power in 1613, they, because of the freedom and rebelliousness of the Cossack tribes, began to instill a myth about them, as about the Tatar-Mongol "yoke" in Russia and contempt for everything "Tatar". There was a time when Christians, Slavs and Muslims prayed in the same temple, this was a common faith. God is one, but the religion is different, it was then that everyone was divided and parted in different directions.
The origins of the ancient Slavic military vocabulary date back to the era of Slavic-Turkic unity. This term, so far unusual, is provable: the sources give grounds for this. And above all - a dictionary. A number of designations most general concepts military affairs is derived from the ancient Turkic languages. Such as - warrior, boyar, regiment, labor, (in the meaning of war), hunting, round-up, cast iron, iron, damask steel, halberd, ax, hammer, sulitsa, army, banner, saber, kmet, quiver, darkness (10 thousandth army ), cheers, let's go, etc. They no longer stand out from the dictionary, these invisible Turkisms, tested for centuries. Linguists notice only later, clearly "non-native" inclusions: saadak, horde, bunchuk, guard, esaul, ertaul, ataman, kosh, kuren, hero, biryuch, zhalav (banner), snuznik, rattletrap, alpaut, surnach, etc. And the common symbols of the Cossacks, Horde Russia and Byzantium, tell us that there was something in the historical past that united them all in the fight against the enemy, which is now hidden from us by false layers. Its name is the "Western World" or the Roman Catholic world under papal control, with its missionary agents, crusaders, Jesuits, but we'll talk about that later.

As mentioned above, the "settler" was first brought to Ukraine by the Huns, and in confirmation of their appearance we find in the Name Book of the Bulgarian Khans, which lists the ancient rulers of the Bulgar state, including those who ruled on the lands of present-day Ukraine:
"Avitokhol has lived for 300 years, he was born Dulo, and I eat (y) dilom tvirem ...
These 5 princes reign over the country of the Danube for 500 years and 15 shorn heads.
And then I came to the country of the Danube Isperih prince, I am the same hitherto."
So, facial hair was treated differently: "Some Russ shave their beards, others twist and braid it, like horse manes" (Ibn-Khaukal). On the Taman Peninsula, among the "Russian" nobility, the fashion for sedentary people, which was later inherited by the Cossacks, became widespread. The Hungarian Dominican monk Julian, who visited here in 1237, wrote that the local "men shave their heads baldly and carefully grow their beards, except for noble people who, as a sign of nobility, leave a little hair above their left ear, shaving the rest of their head."
And here is how the contemporary Procopius of Caesarea described fragmentarily the lightest Gothic cavalry: “They have few heavy cavalry, on long campaigns the Goths go light, with a small load on the horse, and when the enemy appears, they sit on their light horses and attack ... The Gothic horsemen are called themselves "kosak", "owning a horse". As usual, their riders shave their heads, leaving only a long tuft of hair, so they become like their military deity - Danapr. All of them have deities with heads shaved in this way and the Goths hasten to imitate them with their appearance .. If necessary, this cavalry fights on foot, and here they have no equal ... When stopping, the army puts carts around the camp for protection, which hold the enemy in case of a sudden attack ... "
To all these military tribes, with a forelock, with a beard or mustache, the name "Kosak" was fixed over time, and therefore the original written form of the Cossack name is still fully preserved in English and Spanish pronunciation.

N. Karamzin (1775-1826) calls the Cossacks a people-knight and says that its origin is more ancient than the Batyevo (Tatar) invasion.
In connection with the Napoleonic wars, the whole of Europe began to be especially interested in the Cossacks. The English general Nolan claims: "The Cossacks in 1812-1815 did more for Russia than its entire army." The French general Caulaincourt says: "Napoleon's entire numerous cavalry perished, mainly under the blows of Ataman Platov's Cossacks." The same is repeated by the generals: de Braque, Moran, de Bart, and others. Napoleon himself said: "Give me the Cossacks, and I will conquer the whole world with them." And the simple Cossack Zemlyanukhin, during his stay in London, made a huge impression on the whole of England.
The Cossacks retained all the distinctive features they received from their ancient ancestors, this is the love of freedom, the ability to organize, self-esteem, honesty, courage, love for the horse ...

Some concepts of the origin of the names of the Cossacks

Asia's Cavalry - the most ancient Siberian army, originating from the Slavic-Aryan tribes, i.e. from the Scythians, Saks, Sarmatians, etc. All of them also belong to the Great Turan, and the tours are the same Scythians. The Persians called the nomadic tribes of the Scythians "Tura", because for their strong physique and courage, the Scythians themselves began to be associated with the bulls of the Tours. Such a comparison emphasized the masculinity and courage of the warriors. So, for example, in the Russian chronicles one can find such phrases: "Brave bo be, like a tour" or "Buy tour Vsevolod" (this is how it is said about brother Prince Igor in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"). And this is where the most curious thing comes in. It turns out that in the time of Julius Caesar (F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron give a reference to this in their Encyclopedic Dictionary), the wild bulls of Turov were called "Urus"! ... And today, for the entire Turkic-speaking world, Russians are "Uruses". For the Persians, we were "urs", for the Greeks - "Scythians", for the British - "cattle", for the rest - "tartarien" (Tatars, wild) and "Urus". Many came from them, the main ones from the Urals, Siberia and ancient india, from where the military doctrine spread already in a distorted form, known to us in China as martial arts.
Later, after regular migrations, some of them were settled in the Azov and Don steppes and began to be called equestrian azes or princes (in Old Slavonic, prince - konaz) among the ancient Slavic-Russians, Lithuanians, Arsk peoples of the Volga and Kama, Mordovians and many others from ancient times became at the head of the board, forming a special noble caste of warriors. Perkun-az among the Lithuanians and the basics among the ancient Scandinavians were revered as deities. And what is a king among the ancient Germans and among the Germans könig (könig), among the Normans king, and among the Lithuanians kunig-az, if not converted from the word horseman, who came out of the land of the Azov-Asses and became the head of the board.
The eastern shores of the Azov and Black Seas, from the lower reaches of the Don, up to the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, became the cradle of the Cossacks, where they finally formed into a military caste, recognizable to us today. This country was called by all ancient peoples the land of the Azov, Asia terra. The word az or as (aza, azi, azen) is sacred to all Aryans; it means god, lord, king or folk hero. In ancient times, the territory beyond the Urals was called Asia. From here, from Siberia, in ancient times, the people's leaders of the Aryans with their clans or squads went to the north and west of Europe, to the Iranian plateau, the plains of Central Asia and India. For example, historians note the Andronov tribes or the Siberian Scythians as one of these, and the ancient Greeks - the Issedons, Sindons, Seres, etc.

Ainu - in ancient times, they moved from the Urals through Siberia to Primorye, Amur, America, Japan, are known to us today as the Japanese and Sakhalin Ainu. In Japan, they created a military caste, recognizable today by everyone as the samurai. The Bering Strait used to be called the Ain (Aninsky, Ansky, Anian Strait), where they inhabited part of North America.

Kai-Saki (not to be confused with the Kirghiz-Kaisaks),roaming the steppes, these are Polovtsy, Pechenegs, Yases, Huns, Huns, etc., lived on the territory of Siberia, in the Pinto Horde, in the Urals, the Russian Plain, Europe, Asia. From the ancient Turkic "Kai-Sak" (Scythian), meant freedom-loving, in another sense - a warrior, a guard, an ordinary unit of the Horde. Among the Siberian Scythians-Saks, "kos-saka or kos-sakha", this is a warrior, whose symbol is a totem animal deer, sometimes an elk, with branched horns, which symbolized speed, fiery flames and a shining sun.

Among the Siberian Turks, the Sun God was designated through his intermediaries - the swan and the goose, later the Khazar Slavs will accept the symbol of the goose from them, and then the hussars will appear on the historical stage.
And here is Kirgis-Kaisaki,or the Kyrgyz Cossacks, these are today's Kyrgyz and Kazakhs. They are descendants of the Gangun and the Dinling. So, in the first half of the 1st millennium AD. e. on the Yenisei (Minusinsk basin), as a result of the mixing of these tribes, a new ethnic community is formed - the Yenisei Kyrgyz.
In their historical homeland, in Siberia, they created powerful state- Kyrgyz Kaganate. In ancient times, this people was marked by Arabs, Chinese and Greeks as blond and blue-eyed, but at a certain stage they began to take Mongols as their wives and changed their appearance in just a thousand years. Interestingly, in percentage terms, the haplogroup R1A among the Kyrgyz is larger than among the Russians, but one should know that the genetic code is transmitted through the male line, and external signs are determined by the female.

Russian chroniclers begin to mention them only from the first half of the 16th century, calling them Horde Cossacks. The character of the Kirghiz is direct and proud. Kirghiz-Kaisak only calls himself a natural Cossack, not recognizing this for others. Among the Kirghiz come across all the transitional degrees of types, from purely Caucasian to Mongolian. They adhered to the Tengrian concept of the unity of the three worlds and entities "Tengri - Man - Earth" ("birds of prey - wolf - swan"). So, for example, ethnonyms found in ancient Turkic written monuments and associated with totem and other birds include: kyr-gyz (birds of prey), uy-gur (northern birds), bul-gar (water birds), bash- kur-t (Bashkurt-Bashkirs - head birds of prey).
Until 581, the Kyrgyz paid tribute to the Turks of Altai, after which they overthrew the power of the Turkic Khaganate, but gained independence for a short time. In 629, the Kyrgyz were conquered by the Teles tribe (most likely of Turkic origin), and then by the Kok-Turks. The ongoing wars with kindred Turkic peoples forced the Yenisei Kyrgyz to join the anti-Turkic coalition created by the Tang state (China). In 710-711, the Turkuts defeated the Kyrgyz and after that they were under the rule of the Turkuts until 745. In the so-called Mongol era (XIII-XIV centuries), after the defeat of the Naimans by the troops of Genghis Khan, the Kyrgyz principalities voluntarily replenished his empire, finally losing their state independence. Combat detachments of the Kyrgyz joined the Mongol hordes.
But the Kyrgyz-Kyrgyz have not disappeared from the pages of history, already in our times, their fate was decided after the revolution. Until 1925, the government of the Kyrgyz autonomy was located in Orenburg, the administrative center of the Cossack army. In order to lose the meaning of the word Cossack, the Jewish Commissars renamed the Kyrgyz ASSR into Kazakstan, which would later become Kazakhstan. By a decree of April 19, 1925, the Kirghiz ASSR was renamed the Kazakh ASSR. Somewhat earlier - on February 9, 1925, by a decree of the Central Executive Committee of the Kyrgyz ASSR, it was decided to transfer the capital of the republic from Orenburg to Ak-Mechet (formerly Perovsk), renaming it Kyzyl-Orda, since one of the decrees of 1925, part of the Orenburg region was returned to Russia. So the original Cossack lands, together with the population, were transferred nomadic peoples. Now world Zionism demands payment for the rendered "service" to today's Kazakhstan in the form of anti-Russian policy and loyalty to the West.

Siberian Tartars - Jagatai,this is the Cossack army of the Rusyns of Siberia. Ever since the time of Genghis Khan, the Tatarized Cossacks began to be a dashing invincible cavalry, which has always been in the forefront. aggressive campaigns, where it was based on the Chigets - Dzhigits (from the ancient Chigs and Gets). They were also in the service of Tamerlane, today the name among the people has remained from them, like a dzhigit, dzhigitovka. Russian historians of the eighteenth century. Tatishchev and Boltin say that the Tatar Baskaks, sent to Russia by the khans to collect tribute, always had detachments of these Cossacks with them. Caught near sea waters, some of the Chigs and Geth became excellent sailors.
According to the Greek historian Nikephoros Gregory, the son of Genghis Khan, under the name of Telepug, in 1221 conquered many peoples living between the Don and the Caucasus, including the Chigets - Chigs and Gets, as well as the Avazgs (Abkhazians). According to another historian Georgy Pakhimer, who lived in the second half of the 13th century, the Tatar commander, named Noga, subjugated all the peoples living along the northern shores of the Black Sea under his rule and formed a special state in these countries. The Alans, Goths, Chigis, Rosses and other neighboring peoples, conquered by them, mixed with the Turks, little by little learned their customs, way of life, language and clothing, began to serve in their army and raised the power of this people to the highest degree glory.
Not all of the Cossacks, but only part of it, adopted their language, customs and customs, and then, together with them, the Mohammedan faith, while the other part remained faithful to the idea of ​​Christianity and for many centuries defended its independence, dividing into many communities, or partnerships, representing one common union.

Sinds, Miots and Tanahitesthese are Kuban, Azov, Zaporozhye, partly Astrakhan, Volga and Don.
Once from Siberia, part of the tribes of the Andronovo culture moved to India. And here is an indicative example of the migration of peoples and the exchange of cultures, when some part of the Proto-Slavic peoples already moved back from India, bypassing the territory of Central Asia, passing the Caspian Sea, crossing the Volga, they settled in the territory of the Kuban, they were Sinds.

After they formed the basis of the Azov Cossack army. Approximately in the XIII century, some of them went to the mouth of the Dnieper, where they later became known as the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. At the same time, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania subjugated almost all the lands of present-day Ukraine. The Lithuanians began to recruit these military people for their military service. They called them Cossacks and during the time of the Commonwealth, the Cossacks founded the border Zaporozhian Sich.
Some of the future Azov, Zaporizhzhya and Don Cossacks, while still in India, adopted the blood of local tribes with dark skin color - the Dravidians, and among all the Cossacks, they are the only ones who have dark color hair and eyes are different. Ermak Timofeevich was just from this group of Cossacks.
In the middle of the first millennium BC. in the steppes lived on the right bank of the Don, the nomadic Scythians, who displaced the nomadic Cimmerians, and on the left bank, the nomadic Sarmatians. The population of the Don forests was original Don - all of them in the future will be called Don Cossacks. The Greeks called them Tanaites (Donets). At that time, in addition to the Tanahites, many other tribes lived near the Sea of ​​​​Azov, who spoke dialects of the Indo-European group of languages ​​​​(including Slavic), to which the Greeks gave the collective name "Meots", which in ancient Greek means "bogs" (inhabitants swampy areas). By the name of this people, the sea was named, near which these tribes lived - "Meotida" (Meotian Sea).
Here it should be noted how the Tanaites became the Don Cossacks. In 1399, after the battle on the river. Vorskla, the Siberian Tartars-Rusyns who came with Edigei, settled along the upper reaches of the Don, where Brodniki also lived, and they gave rise to the name of the Don Cossacks. Among the first Don ataman recognized by Muscovy is Sary Azman.

The word sary or sar is ancient Persian, meaning king, lord, lord; hence Sary-az-man - the royal Azov people, the same as the Royal Scythians. The word sar in this sense is found in the following proper and common nouns: Sar-kel is a royal city, but the Sarmatians (from sar and mada, mata, mother, i.e. woman) from the domination of women among this people, from them - Amazons. Balta-Sar, Sar-Danapal, Serdar, Caesar, or Caesar, Caesar, Caesar and our Slavic-Russian Tsar. Although many people tend to think that sary is a Tatar word meaning yellow, and from here they derive - red, but in the Tatar language there is a separate word for expressing the concept of red, namely zhiryan. It is noted that the Jews, leading their family on the maternal side, often call their daughters Sarah. It is also noted about female domination that from the 1st century. along the northern shores of the Azov and Black Seas, between the Don and the Caucasus, the rather powerful people of Roksolane (Ros-Alan) become known, according to Iornand (VI century) - Rokasy (Ros-Ases), whom Tacitus ranks with the Sarmatians, and Strabo - with Scythians. Diodorus Siculus, describing the Saks (Scythians) of the northern Caucasus, speaks a lot about their beautiful and cunning queen Zarin, who conquered many neighboring peoples. Nicholas of Damascus (1st century) calls the capital of Zarina Roskanakoy (from Roskanak, castle, fortress, palace). It is not for nothing that Iornand calls them Ases or Rokas, where their queen was erected a giant pyramid with a statue on top.

Since 1671, the Don Cossacks have recognized the protectorate of the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, that is, they have abandoned independent foreign policy, subordinating the interests of the Troops to the interests of Moscow, the internal order remained the same. And only when the Romanov colonization of the south advanced to the borders of the Land of the Don Army, then Peter I carried out the incorporation of the Land of the Don Army into the Russian state.
This is how some of the former Horde became the Cossacks of the Don, swore an oath to serve the tsar father for a free life and protection of borders, but refused to serve the Bolshevik authorities after 1917, for which they suffered.

So, Sindy, Miot and Tanait are Kuban, Azov, Zaporozhye, partly Astrakhan, Volga and Don, of which the first two mostly died out due to the plague, replaced by others, mainly Cossacks. When, by decree of Catherine II, the entire Zaporozhian Sich was destroyed, then after the surviving Cossacks they were collected and resettled in the Kuban.

The photo above shows the historical types of Cossacks that made up the Kuban Cossack army in the reconstruction of Yesaul Strinsky.
Here is a Khoper Cossack, three Black Sea Cossacks, a lineman and two scouts - a participant in the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. The Cossacks are all distinguished, they have orders and medals on their chests.
-The first on the right is a Cossack of the Khoper regiment, armed with a cavalry flintlock gun and a Don saber.
-Next we see a Black Sea Cossack in the form of a sample of 1840 - 1842. He holds in his hand an infantry percussion rifle, an officer's dagger and a Caucasian saber in a sheath hang on his belt. He has a cartridge bag or a carcass hanging on his chest. On the side is a revolver in a holster on a cord.

- Behind him is a Cossack in the form of the Black Sea Cossack army of the 1816 model. Its armament is a flint Cossack rifle of the 1832 model and a soldier's cavalry saber of the 1827 model.
-In the center we see an old Black Sea Cossack from the time when the Black Sea people settled in the Kuban region. He is wearing the uniform of the Zaporizhzhya Cossack army. In his hand he holds an old, apparently Turkish flintlock gun, he has two flintlock pistols in his belt and a powder flask made of horn hangs from his belt. The saber at the belt is either not visible or absent.
-Next is a Cossack in the form of a linear Cossack army. His weapons are: a flintlock infantry rifle, a dagger - beybut at the waist, a Circassian saber with a handle recessed in the sheath, and a revolver on a cord at the waist.
The last in the photograph were two Cossacks of the plastun, both armed with authorized plastun weapons - Littih double-threaded fittings of the 1843 model. Bayonet-cleavers in makeshift scabbards hang from the belt. On the side stands a Cossack pike stuck into the ground.

Brodniki and Donets.
Brodniki come from the Khazar Slavs. In the VIII century, the Arabs considered them Saklabs, i.e. white people, Slavic blood. It is noted that in 737, 20 thousand of their families of horse breeders settled on the eastern borders of Kakheti. They are indicated in the Persian geography of the tenth century (Gudud al Alam) on the Srenem Don under the name Bradas and are known there until the 11th century. after which their nickname is replaced in the sources by a common Cossack name.
Here it is necessary to explain in more detail about the origin of wanderers.
The formation of the union of Scythians and Sarmatians received the name Kas Aria, which later became distortedly called Khazaria. It was to the Slavic Khazars (CasArians) that Cyril and Methodius came to missionary work.

Their activity is where it was noted: Arab historians in the VIII century. the Sakalibs were noted in the Upper Don forest-steppe, and the Persians, a hundred years after them, Bradasov-Brodnikov. The sedentary part of these tribes, remaining in the Caucasus, obeyed the Huns, Bolgars, Kazars and Asam-Alans, in whose kingdom the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and Taman were called the Land of Kasak (Gudud al Alem). There, among them, Christianity finally triumphed, after the missionary work of St. Cyril, ok. 860
The difference between KasAriya is that it was a country of warriors, and later became Khazaria - a country of merchants, when the Jews came to power in it. And here, in order to understand the essence of what is happening, it is necessary to explain in more detail. In 50 AD, Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome. In 66-73, a Jewish uprising arose. They capture the Temple of Jerusalem, the fortress of Anthony, the entire upper city and the fortified palace of Herod, arrange a real massacre for the Romans. They then start an uprising throughout Palestine, killing both the Romans and their more moderate compatriots. This rebellion was crushed, and in 70 the center of Judaism in Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple was burned to the ground.
But the war went on. The Jews did not want to admit defeat. After the great Jewish uprising of 133-135, the Romans wiped out all the historical traditions of Judaism. A new pagan city of Elia Capitolina has been built on the site of the destroyed Jerusalem since 137, Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem. To hurt the Jews even more, the emperor Ariadne forbade them to be circumcised. Many Jews were forced to flee to the Caucasus and Persia.
In the Caucasus, Jews became neighbors to the Khazars, and in Persia they slowly entered all branches of government. It ended with a revolution and a civil war under the leadership of Mazdak. As a result, the Jews were expelled from Persia - to Khazaria, where at that time the Khazar Slavs lived there.
In the 6th century, the Great Turkic Khaganate was created. Some tribes fled from him, such as the Hungarians to Pannonia, and the Khazar Slavs (kozare, kazara), in alliance with the ancient Bulgars, united with the Turkic Kaganate. Their influence reached from Siberia to the Don and the Black Sea. When the Turkic Kaganate began to fall apart, the Khazars received the fled prince of the Ashin dynasty and drove out the Bulgars. This is how the Khazar-Turks appeared.
For a hundred years, Khazaria was ruled by Turkic khans, but they did not change their way of life: they lived in the steppe as a nomadic life and only returned to the adobe houses of Itil in winter. Khan supported himself and his army himself, without burdening the Khazars with taxes. The Turks fought against the Arabs, taught the Khazars to repel the onslaught of regular troops, as they possessed the skills of a steppe maneuver war. So, under the military leadership of the Turks (650-810), the Khazars successfully repelled periodic invasions from the south of the Arabs, which rallied these two peoples, moreover, the Turks remained nomads, and the Khazars - farmers.
When Khazaria accepted the Jews who fled from Persia, and the wars with the Arabs led to the liberation of part of the lands of Khazaria, this allowed the refugees to settle there. So, gradually, Jews who fled from the Roman Empire began to join them, it was thanks to them that at the beginning of the 9th century. a small khanate turned into a huge state. The main population of Khazaria at that time could be called "Slavs-Khazars", "Turkic-Khazars" and "Judeo-Khazars". The Jews who arrived in Khazaria were engaged in trade, for which the Khazar Slavs themselves did not show any abilities. In the second half of the 8th century, Jews expelled from Byzantium began to arrive to the Jews - refugees from Persia, in Khazaria, rabbinic Jews expelled from Byzantium, among whom there were also descendants of those expelled from Babylon and Egypt. Since the Rabbinical Jews were townspeople, they settled exclusively in the cities: Itil, Semender, Belenjer, etc. All these immigrants from the former Roman Empire, Persia and Byzantium, today we know as Sephardim.
At the beginning of the conversion of the Slavic Khazars to Judaism was not, because. the Jewish community lived apart among the Slavic Khazars and Turkic-Khazars, but over time, some of them converted to Judaism and today they are known to us as Ashkenazi.

By the end of the 8th c. The Judeo-Khazars began to gradually penetrate into the power structures of Khazaria, acting in their favorite way - by becoming related through their daughters to the Turkic aristocracy. The children of the Turkic-Khazars and Jews had all the rights of a father and the help of the Jewish community in all matters. And the children of Jews and Khazars became a kind of outcasts (Karaites) and lived on the outskirts of Khazaria - in Taman or Kerch. At the beginning of the 9th c. the influential Jew Obadiah took power into his own hands and laid the foundation for Jewish hegemony in Khazaria, acting through the Khan-puppet of the Ashin dynasty, whose mother was Jewish. But not all Turko-Khazars accepted Judaism. Soon, a coup took place in the Khazar Kaganate, resulting in a civil war. The "old" Turkic aristocracy revolted against the Judeo-Khazar authorities. The rebels attracted the Magyars (ancestors of the Hungarians) to their side, the Jews hired the Pechenegs. Konstantin Porphyrogenitus described those events as follows: “When they separated from power and flared up internecine war, the first power (the Jews) prevailed and some of them (the rebels) were killed, others fled and settled with the Turks (Magyars) in the Pecheneg lands (lower reaches of the Dnieper), made peace and were called Kabars.

In the 9th century, the Judeo-Khazar Khagan invited the Varangian squad of Prince Oleg to wage war with the Muslims of the Southern Caspian, promising to partition of Eastern Europe and help in the capture of the Kyiv Kaganate. Tired of the constant raids of the Khazars on their lands, where the Slavs were constantly taken into slavery, Oleg took advantage of the situation, captured Kyiv in 882 and refused to fulfill the agreements, the war began. Approximately in 957, after the baptism of the Kievan princess Olga in Constantinople, i.e. after enlisting the support of Byzantium, the confrontation between Kyiv and Khazaria began. Thanks to an alliance with Byzantium, the Pechenegs supported the Russians. In the spring of 965, the troops of Svyatoslav descended along the Oka and the Volga to the Khazar capital Itil, bypassing the Khazar troops that were waiting for them in the Don steppes. After a short battle, the city was taken.
As a result of the campaign of 964-965. Svyatoslav excluded the Volga, the middle reaches of the Terek and the middle Don from the sphere of the Jewish community. Svyatoslav returned independence to Kievan Rus. Svyatoslav's blow to the Jewish community of Khazaria was cruel, but his victory was not final. Returning, he passed the Kuban and the Crimea, where the Khazar fortresses remained. There were also communities in the Kuban, in the Crimea, Tmutarakan, where the Jews, under the name of the Khazars, still held dominant positions for another two centuries, but the state of Khazaria ceased to exist forever. The remnants of the Judeo-Khazars settled in Dagestan (Mountain Jews) and the Crimea (Karaite Jews). Part of the Slavic Khazars and the Turkic-Khazars remained on the Terek and the Don, mixed with local kindred tribes and, according to the old name of the Khazar warriors, they were called "Podon Brodniki", but it was they who fought against Russia on the Kalka River.
In 1180, the wanderers helped the Bulgarians in their war for independence from the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine historian and writer Nikita Choniates (Acominatus), in his "Chronicle", dated 1190, described the events of that Bulgarian war, so with one phrase he comprehensively characterizes the roamers: "Those roamers who despise death are a branch of the Russians." The initial name was worn as "Kozary", originating from the Kozar Slavs, from whom it received the name Khazaria or the Khazar Kaganate. This is a Slavic militant tribe, part of which did not want to submit to the already Judaic Khazaria, and after its defeat, uniting with their kindred tribes, they subsequently settled along the banks of the Don, where the Tanahites, Sarmatians, Roxalans, Alans (yases), Torki-Berendeys, etc. lived. The name of the Don Cossacks was received after most of the Siberian army of the Rusins ​​of Tsar Edygei settled there, which also included black hoods left after the battle on the river. Vorskla, in 1399. Edigey - the founder of the dynasty, who led the Nogai Horde. His direct descendants in the male line were the princes Urusovs and Yusupovs.
So, Brodniki are the undeniable ancestors of the Don Cossacks. They are indicated in the Persian geography of the tenth century (Gudud al Alam) in the Middle Don under the name Bradas and are known there until the 11th century. after which their nickname is replaced in the sources by a common Cossack name.
- Berendei, from the territory of Siberia, like many tribes due to climatic shocks, they moved to the Russian Plain. The field, driven from the east by the Polovtsy (Polovtsy - from the word "sexual", which means "red"), at the end of the 11th century, the Berendeys entered into various allied agreements with the Eastern Slavs. According to agreements with the Russian princes, they settled on the borders Ancient Russia and often carried guard duty in favor of the Russian state. But after that they were scattered and partly mixed with the population of the Golden Horde, and the other part - with Christians. They existed as an independent people. The formidable warriors of Siberia originate from the same lands - the Black Hoods, which means black hats (papakhas), which will later be called Cherkases.

Black hoods (black hats), Cherkasy (not to be confused with Circassians)
- moved from Siberia to the Russian Plain, from the Berendeev kingdom, the last name of the country is Borondai. Their ancestors once inhabited the vast lands of the northern part of Siberia, up to the Arctic Ocean. Their harsh temper terrified enemies, it was their ancestors who were the people of Gog and Magog, it was from them that Alexander the Great was defeated in the battle for Siberia. They did not want to see themselves in family alliances with other peoples, they always lived apart and did not consider themselves to be among any peoples.

For example, about the important role of black hoods in political life Kyiv principality testifies to the stable expressions repeatedly repeated in the annals: "the whole land of Rus and black hoods." The Persian historian Rashid-ad-din (died in 1318), describing Russia in 1240, writes: "The princes Batu with his brothers, Kadan, Buri and Buchek went on a campaign to the country of the Russians and the people of black hats."
Subsequently, in order not to separate one from the other, black hoods began to be called Cherkasy or Cossacks. In the Moscow chronicle of the end of the 15th century, under the year 1152, it is explained: "All the Black Hoods, which are called Cherkasy." The Resurrection and Kyiv Chronicles also speak of this: "And having accumulated your squad, go, catch with you the Vyacheslav regiment, all and all black hoods, which are called Cherkasy."
Black hoods, because of their isolation, easily got into the service of both the Slavic peoples and the Turkic ones. Their character and special differences in clothes, especially the headdress, were adopted by the peoples of the Caucasus, whose clothes are now considered for some reason only Caucasian. But in old drawings, engravings and photographs, these clothes, and especially hats, can be seen among the Cossacks of Siberia, the Urals, Amur, Primorye, Kuban, Don, etc. In cohabitation with the peoples of the Caucasus, an exchange of cultures took place and each tribe had something from the others, both in the kitchen, and in clothes and customs. The Siberian, Yaik, Dnieper, Grebensky, Terek Cossacks also went from the Black Hoods, the first mention of the latter dates back to 1380, when free Cossacks living near the Grebenny Gory blessed and presented the holy icon of the Virgin (Grebnevskaya) to Grand Duke Dmitry (Donskoy) as a gift .

Grebensky, Tersky.
The word comb is purely Cossack, meaning the highest line of the watershed of two rivers or beams. In each village of the Don there are many such watersheds and they are all called ridges. In ancient times, there was also the Cossack town of Grebni, mentioned in the annals of Archimandrite Anthony of the Donskoy Monastery. But not all the combers lived on the Terek, in an old Cossack song, they are mentioned in the Saratov steppes:
As it was on the glorious steppes in Saratov,
What is below the city of Saratov,
And above was the city of Kamyshin,
Cossacks-friends gathered, free people,
They gathered, brothers, in a single circle:
like Don, Grebensky and Yaitsky.
Their ataman is Ermak son Timofeevich ...
Later in their origin, they began to add "living near the mountains, i.e. near the ridges." Officially, the Tertsy trace their genealogy from 1577, when the city of Terka was founded, and the first mention of the Cossack army dates back to 1711. It was then that the Cossacks of the Free Community of Grebenskaya formed the Grebenskoye Cossack Host.

Pay attention to the photograph of 1864, where the combers inherited the dagger from the Caucasian peoples. But in fact, this is an improved sword of the Scythians akinak. Akinak is a short (40-60 cm) iron sword used by the Scythians in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. In addition to the Scythians, the tribes of Persians, Saks, Argipeys, Massagets and Melankhlens also used Akinaks, i.e. proto-Cossacks.
The Caucasian dagger is part of the national symbolism. This is a sign that a man is ready to defend his personal honor, the honor of his family and the honor of his people. He never parted with him. For centuries, the dagger has been used as a means of attack, defense and as a cutlery. The Caucasian dagger "kama" was most widely used among the daggers of other peoples, Cossacks, Turks, Georgians, etc. The attribute of gasses on the chest appeared with the advent of the first firearm with a powder charge. This detail was first added to the clothes of a Turkic warrior, was among the Mamelukes of Egypt, the Cossacks, but already as an ornament it was fixed among the peoples of the Caucasus.

The origin of the papakha is interesting. Chechens adopted Islam during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. A large Chechen delegation that visited the prophet in Mecca was personally initiated by the prophet into the essence of Islam, after which the envoys of the Chechen people accepted Islam in Mecca. Mohamed gave them astrakhan fur for the journey to make shoes. But on the way back, the Chechen delegation, believing that it was not appropriate to wear the gift of the prophet on their feet, sewed hats, and now, to this day, this is the main national headdress (Chechen hat). Upon the return of the delegation to Chechnya, without any coercion, the Chechens accepted Islam, realizing that Islam is not only "Mohammedanism", originating from the Prophet Muhammad, but this original faith of monotheism, which made a spiritual revolution in the minds of people and laid a clear line between pagan savagery and true educated faith.

It was the Caucasians, who adopted military attributes from different peoples, adding their own, such as a cloak, hat, etc., improved this style of military attire and secured it for themselves, which no one doubts today. But let's see what military vestments used to be worn in the Caucasus.

In the middle photo above we see Kurds dressed according to the Circassian pattern, i.e. this attribute of military attire is already attached to the Circassians and will continue to be assigned to them in the future. But in the background we see a Turk, the only thing he does not have is gazyrs, and this is different. When the Ottoman Empire waged war in the Caucasus, the peoples of the Caucasus adopted some military attributes from them, as well as from the Grebensky Cossacks. In this mixture of exchange of cultures and war, the recognizable Circassian and hat appeared. Turks - Ottomans, seriously influenced the historical course of events in the Caucasus, so some photos are full of the presence of Turks with Caucasians. But if not for Russia, many peoples of the Caucasus would have disappeared or assimilated, such as the Chechens who went with the Turks to their territory. Or take the Georgians who asked for protection from the Turks from Russia.

As you can see, in the past, the main part of the peoples of the Caucasus did not have their recognizable attributes today, "black hats", they will appear later, but the combers have them, as the heirs of the "black hats" (hoods). The origin of some Caucasian peoples can be cited as an example.
The Lezgins, the ancient Alans-Lezgi, are the most numerous and brave people in the entire Caucasus. They speak in a light sonorous language of Aryan root, but thanks to influence, starting from the 8th century. Arab culture, which gave them their script and religion, as well as the pressure of the neighboring Turkic-Tatar tribes, have lost a lot of their original nationality and now represent an amazing, difficult to study mixture with Arabs, Avars, Kumyks, Tarks, Jews and others.
Neighbors Lezgins, to the west, along the northern slope Caucasian ridge, Chechens live, who received the name from the Russians, actually from their large village "Chachan" or "Chechen". The Chechens themselves call their nationality Nakhchi or Nakhchoo, which means people from the country of Nakh or Noah, that is, Noah. By folk tales, they came around the 4th century. to their present place of residence, through Abkhazia, from the area of ​​Nakhchi-Van, from the foot of Ararat (Erivan province) and pressed by the Kabardians, they took refuge in the mountains, along the upper reaches of the Aksai, the right tributary of the Terek, where there is still the old village of Aksai, in Greater Chechnya , built once, according to the legend of the inhabitants of the village of Gerzel, Aksai Khan. The ancient Armenians were the first to connect the ethnonym "Nokhchi", the modern self-name of the Chechens, with the name of the prophet Noah, the literal meaning of which means Noah's people. Georgians, from time immemorial, have called Chechens "dzurdzuks", which means "righteous" in Georgian.
According to the philological researches of Baron Uslar, in the Chechen language there is some similarity with the Lezgi language, while in anthropological terms the Chechens are a people of a mixed type. In the Chechen language, there are quite a few words with the root "gun", as, for example, in the names of rivers, mountains, auls and tracts: Guni, Gunoy, Guen, Gunib, Argun, etc. Their sun is called Dela-Molch (Moloch). The mother of the sun is Aza.
As we saw above, many Caucasian tribes of the past do not have the usual Caucasian paraphernalia for us, but all the Cossacks of Russia, from the Don to the Urals, from Siberia to Primorye, have it.

And here below, there is already inconsistency in military uniforms. Their historical roots began to be forgotten, and military attributes are already copied from the Caucasian peoples.

After repeated renaming, mergers and divisions of the Grebensky Cossacks, according to the order of the Minister of War N 256 (dated November 19, 1860) "... it was ordered: from the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th brigades of the Caucasian linear Cossack troops, in full force, to form the "Terek Cossack Host", turning into its composition the horse-artillery battery of the Caucasian linear Cossack army N15th and reserve ... ".
In Kievan Rus, subsequently, the semi-settled and settled part of the black hoods remained in Porosie and was eventually assimilated by the local Slavic population, taking part in the ethnogenesis of Ukrainians. Their free Zaporizhzhya Sich ceased to exist in August 1775, when the Sich and the very name "Zaporozhian Cossacks" in Russia, according to Western plans, were destroyed. And only in 1783, Potemkin again gathers the surviving Cossacks for the sovereign's service. The newly formed Cossack teams of the Cossacks receive the name "Kosh of the faithful Cossacks of Zaporozhye", and settle in the territory of the Odessa district. Soon after that (after repeated requests of the Cossacks and for faithful service), they, by personal decree of the Empress (of January 14, 1788), are transferred to the Kuban - to Taman. Since then, the Cossacks are called Kuban.

In general, the Siberian army of the Black Hoods had a huge impact on the Cossacks of all Russia, they were in many Cossack associations and were an example of a free and indestructible Cossack spirit.
The very name "Cossack" comes from the time of the Great Turan, when the Scythian peoples of Kos-saka or Ka-saka lived. For more than twenty centuries, this name has changed little, originally among the Greeks it was written as Kossakhi. The geographer Strabo called the military people stationed in the mountains of Transcaucasia during the life of Christ the Savior by the same name. After 3-4 centuries, back in the ancient era, our name is repeatedly found in the Tanaid inscriptions (inscriptions), discovered and studied by V.V. Latyshev. Its Greek style Kasakos was preserved until the 10th century, after which the Russian chroniclers began to mix it with the common Caucasian names Kasagov, Kasogov, Kazyag. The original Greek inscription of Kossakhi gives the two constituent elements of this name "kos" and "sakhi", two words with a definite Scythian meaning "White Sahi". But the name of the Scythian tribe Sakhi is equivalent to their own Saka, and therefore the following Greek inscription "Kasakos" can be interpreted as a variant of the previous one, closer to the modern one. The change of the prefix "kos" to "kas" is obvious, the reasons are purely sound (phonetic), the peculiarities of pronunciation and the peculiarities of auditory sensations among different peoples. This difference remains even now (Cossack, Kozak). Kossaka, in addition to the meaning of White Saks (Sahi), has, as mentioned above, another Scythian-Iranian meaning - "White deer". Remember the animal style of Scythian jewelry, tattoos on the mummy of the Altai princess, most likely deer and deer buckles - these are attributes of the military class of the Scythians.

And the territorial name of this word was preserved in Sakha Yakutia (in ancient times the Yakuts were called Yakoltsy) and Sakhalin. In the Russian people, this word is associated with the image of branched horns, like elk, colloquial - elk. So, we again returned to the ancient symbol of the Scythian warriors - to the deer, which is reflected in the seal and coat of arms of the Cossacks of the Don army. We should be grateful to them for the preservation of this ancient symbol of the warriors of the Rus and Ruthenians, who come from the Scythians.
Well, in Russia, Cossacks were also called Azov, Astrakhan, Danube and Transdanubian, Bug, Black Sea, Sloboda, Transbaikal, Khoper, Amur, Orenburg, Yaik - Ural, Budzhak, Yenisei, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yakut, Ussuri, Semirechensky, Daursky, Ononsky , Nerchen, Evenk, Albazin, Buryat, Siberian, you will not cover everyone.
So, no matter how they call all these warriors, they are all the same Cossacks living in different parts of their country.

P.S.
There are in our history the most important circumstances that are hushed up by hook or by crook. Those who, throughout our historical past, constantly played dirty tricks on us, are afraid of publicity, they are afraid of being recognized. That is why they hide behind false historical layers. These visionaries invented their story for us in order to hide their dark deeds. For example, why did the Battle of Kulikovo take place in 1380 and who fought there?
- Donskoy Dmitry̆, Prince of Moscow and Grand Duke of Vladimir, led the Volga and Trans-Ural Cossacks (Sibiryaks), who are called Tatars in Russian chronicles. The Russian army consisted of the prince's cavalry and foot squads, as well as the militia. The cavalry was formed from baptized Tatars, defected Lithuanians and Russians trained in Tatar equestrian combat.
- In the Mamaev army there were Ryazan, Western Russian, Polish, Crimean and Genoese troops that fell under the influence of the West. Mamai's ally was the Lithuanian prince Jagiello, Dmitry's ally is Khan Tokhtamysh with an army of Siberian Tatars (Cossacks).
The Genoese financed the Cossack chieftain Mamai, and promised the troops manna from heaven, that is, "Western values", well, nothing changes in this world. The Cossack ataman Dmitry Donskoy won. Mamai fled to Kafu and there, as unnecessary, was killed by the Genoese. So, the Battle of Kulikovo is a battle of Muscovites, Volga and Siberian Cossacks, led by Dmitry Donskoy, with an army of Genoese, Polish and Lithuanian Cossacks, led by Mamai.
Of course, later the whole story of the battle was presented as a battle of the Slavs with foreign (Asian) invaders. Apparently, later, with tendentious editing, the original word "Cossacks" was replaced everywhere in the annals with "Tatars" in order to hide those who so unsuccessfully proposed "Western values".
In fact, the Battle of Kulikovo was only an episode of a civil war that broke out, in which the Cossack hordes of one state fought among themselves. But they sowed the seeds of discord, as the satirist Zadornov says - "traders". It is they who imagine that they are the chosen and exceptional, it is they who dream of world domination, and hence all our troubles.

These "traders" persuaded Genghis Khan to fight against his own peoples. The Pope of Rome and the French King Louis the Saints sent a thousand envoys, diplomatic agents, instructors and engineers to Genghis Khan, as well as the best of European commanders, especially from the Templars (knightly order).
They saw that no one else was fit to defeat both the Palestinian Muslims and the Orthodox Eastern Christians, Greeks, Russians, Bulgarians, etc., who once smashed ancient Rome, and then Latin Byzantium. At the same time, for fidelity and strengthening the blow, the popes began to arm the Swedish ruler of the throne, Birger, the Teutons, the swordsmen and Lithuania against the Russians.
Under the guise of scientists and capital, they occupied administrative positions in the Uighur kingdom, Bactria, Sogdiana.
It was these rich scribes who were the authors of the laws of Genghis Khan - "Yasu", in which great favor and tolerance was shown to all sects of Christians, unusual for Asia, popes and then Europe. In these laws, under the influence of the popes, actually the Jesuits, permission was expressed, with various benefits, to move from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, which was used at that time by many of the Armenians, who later formed the Armenian Catholic Church.

To cover the papal participation in this enterprise and to please the Asians, the main official roles and places were given to the best native commanders and relatives of Genghis Khan, and almost 3/4 of the secondary leaders and officials consisted mainly of Asian Christian and Catholic sectarians. That's where the invasion of Genghis Khan came from, but the "traders" did not take into account his appetite, and cleaned up the pages of history for us, preparing another meanness. All this is very similar to the "invasion of Hitler", they themselves brought him to power and got hit in the teeth by him, which had to take the goal of the "USSR" as an ally and delay our colonization. By the way, not so long ago, during the period of the opium war in China, these "traders" tried to repeat the scenario of "Genghis Khan-2" against Russia, they spud China for a long time with the help of Jesuits, missionaries, etc., but later, as they say: "Thank you Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood."
Have you wondered why the Cossacks of various stripes fought both for Russia and against it? For example, some of our historians are perplexed why the governor of the roamers Ploskinya, who, according to our chronicle, stood with 30 thousand detachments on the river. Kalke (1223), did not help the Russian princes in the battle with the Tatars. He even clearly took the side of the latter, persuading the Kyiv prince Mstislav Romanovich to surrender, and then tied him together with his two sons-in-law and handed him over to the Tatars, where he was killed. As in 1917, so here, there was a protracted civil war. Peoples related to each other pitted against each other, nothing changes, the same principles of our enemies remain, "divide and rule." And so that we do not learn from this, the pages of history are being replaced.
But if the plans of the "traders" of 1917 were buried by Stalin, then the events described above were Batu Khan. And of course, both of them were smeared with the indelible mud of historical lies, their methods are like that.

13 years after the Battle of Kalka, the "Mongols" under the leadership of Khan Batu, or Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, from beyond the Urals, i.e. from the territory of Siberia moved to Russia. Batu had up to 600 thousand troops, consisting of many, more than 20 peoples of Asia and Siberia. In 1238 the Tatars took the capital of the Volga Bulgarians, then Ryazan, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl and many other cities; defeated the Russians at the river. City, took Moscow, Tver and went to Novgorod, where at the same time the Swedes and the Baltic Crusaders were going. An interesting battle would be, the crusaders with Batu storm Novgorod. But the thaw got in the way. In 1240, Batu took Kyiv, his goal was Hungary, where the old enemy of the Chingizids, the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan, fled. Poland fell first with Krakow. In 1241, the army of Prince Henry with the Templars was defeated near Legitsa. Then Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary fell, Batu reached the Adriatic and took Zagreb. Europe was helpless, saved by the fact that Khan Udegei died and Batu turned back. Europe got in the teeth with full for its crusaders, Templars, bloody baptisms, and order reigned in Russia, the laurels for this remained with Alexander Nevsky, brother of Batu.
But then this mess began with the baptist of Russia, with Prince Vladimir. When he seized power in Kyiv, then Kievan Rus began to unite more and more with the Christian system of the West. Here it is necessary to note curious episodes from the life of the baptist of Russia, Vladimir Svyatoslavich, including the brutal murder of his brother, the destruction of not only Christian churches, the rape of the princely daughter Ragneda in front of her parents, a harem of hundreds of concubines, a war against her son, etc. Already under Vladimir Monomakh, Kievan Rus was the left flank of the Christian-crusader invasion of the East. After Monomakh, Russia split into three systems - Kyiv, Darkness-Cockroach, Vladimir-Suzdal Russia. When the Christianization of the Western Slavs began, the Eastern Slavs considered it a betrayal and turned to the Siberian rulers for help. Seeing the threat of a crusader invasion and the future enslavement of the Slavs, on the territory of Siberia, many tribes united into an alliance, so it appeared public education- Great Tartaria, which stretched from the Urals to Transbaikalia. Yaroslav Vsevolodovich was the first to call for help from Tartaria, for which he suffered. But thanks to Batu, who created the Golden Horde, the crusaders were already afraid of such a force. But all the same, on the sly, the "traders" ruined Tartaria.

Why it all happened, the question here is solved very simply. The cause of the conquest of Russia was led by papal agents, Jesuits, missionaries and other evil spirits, who promised local residents all sorts of benefits and benefits, and especially those that helped them. In addition, in the hordes of the so-called "Mongol-Tatars" there were many Christians from Central Asia, who enjoyed many privileges and freedom of religion, Western missionaries on the basis of Christianity bred there various kinds of religious movements, such as Nestorianism.

Here it becomes clear where in the West there are so many old maps of the territories of Russia and especially Siberia. It becomes clear why the state formation on the territory of Siberia, which was called Great Tartary, is hushed up. On early maps, Tartaria is indivisible, on later maps it is fragmented, and since 1775, under the guise of Pugachev, it ceased to exist. So, with the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Vatican took its place and, continuing the traditions of Rome, organized new wars for its domination. This is how the Byzantine Empire fell, and its heir Russia became the main goal for papal Rome, i.e. now the Western world "traders". For their insidious purposes, the Cossacks were like a bone in the throat. How many wars, upheavals, how much grief has befallen the lot of all our peoples, but the main historical time, known to us from ancient times, the Cossacks gave in the teeth to our enemies. Already closer to our times, they nevertheless managed to break the dominance of the Cossacks, and after the well-known events of 1917, the Cossacks were dealt a crushing blow, but it took them many centuries.

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Cossacks

COSSACKS -a; cf.

1. Cossack estate.

2. collected Cossacks. Along the Don settled to.

Cossacks

military estate in Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. In the XIV-XVII centuries. free people who worked for hire, persons who carried out military service in the border areas (city and guard Cossacks); in the XV-XVI centuries. beyond the borders of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian state (on the Dnieper, Don, Volga, Ural, Terek), self-governing communities of the so-called free Cossacks (mainly from fugitive peasants) arose, which were the main driving force of the uprisings in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries. and in Russia XVII-XVIII centuries. The government sought to use the Cossacks to guard the borders, in wars, etc., and in the 18th century. subjugated him, turning him into a privileged military class. At the beginning of the XX century. there were 11 Cossack troops (Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Transbaikal, Tersk, Siberian, Ural, Astrakhan, Semirechensk, Amur and Ussuri). In 1916 the Cossack population was over 4.4 million people, over 53 million acres of land. 1st world war put up about 300 thousand people. In 1920, the Cossacks as an estate was abolished. In 1936, Don, Kuban, and Terek cavalry Cossack formations were created to take part in the Great Patriotic war(disbanded in the second half of the 40s). Since the late 1980s the revival of the traditions, culture and life of the Cossacks began, Cossack organizations appeared.

COSSACKS

COSSACKS, an ethnic, social and historical community (group), which, due to its specific features, united all Cossacks, primarily Russians, as well as Ukrainians, Kalmyks, Buryats, Bashkirs, Tatars, Evenks, Ossetians, etc., as separate sub-ethnic groups of their peoples into a whole. Russian legislation until 1917 considered the Cossacks as a special military estate, which had privileges for performing compulsory service. The Cossacks were also defined as a separate ethnic group, an independent nationality (the fourth branch of Eastern Slavism) or even as a special nation of mixed Turkic-Slavic origin. The latest version was intensively developed in the 20th century by emigrant Cossack historians.
Origin of the Cossacks
Social organization, way of life, culture, ideology, ethno-psychic way of life, behavioral stereotypes, folklore of the Cossacks have always differed markedly from the practices established in other regions of Russia. The Cossacks originated in the 14th century on the steppe uninhabited expanses between Moscow Russia, Lithuania, Poland and the Tatar khanates. Its formation, which began after the collapse of the Golden Horde (cm. GOLDEN HORDE), took place in a constant struggle with numerous enemies far from developed cultural centers. There are no reliable written sources about the first pages of the Cossack history. The origins of the origin of the Cossacks, many researchers tried to find in the national roots of the ancestors of the Cossacks among a variety of peoples (Scythians, Polovtsians, Khazars (cm. KhAZARS), alan (cm. ALANS), Kirghiz, Tatars, Mountain Circassians, Kasogs (cm. KASOGI), roamers (cm. Wanderers), black hoods (cm. BLACK CLOBS), Torkov (cm. TORQUI (people) etc.) or considered the original Cossack military community as a result of the genetic ties of several tribes with the Slavs who came to the Black Sea region, and this process was counted from the beginning of a new era. Other historians, on the contrary, proved the Russianness of the Cossacks, emphasizing the permanent presence of the Slavs in the regions that became the cradle of the Cossacks. The original concept was put forward by the emigrant historian A. A. Gordeev, who believed that the ancestors of the Cossacks were the Russian population in the Golden Horde, settled by the Tatar-Mongols in the future Cossack territories. The long-dominated official point of view that the Cossack communities appeared as a result of the flight of Russian peasants from serfdom (as well as the view of the Cossacks as a special class) were subjected to reasoned criticism in the 20th century. But the theory of autochthonous (local) origin has a weak evidence base and is not supported by serious sources. The question of the origin of the Cossacks still remains open.
There is no unanimity among scientists on the issue of the origin of the word "Cossack" ("Cossack" in Ukrainian). Attempts were made to derive this word from the name of the peoples who once lived near the Dnieper and Don (kasogi, x (k) azars), from the self-name of modern Kirghiz - kaisaks. There were other etymological versions: from the Turkish "kaz" (i.e. goose), from the Mongolian "ko" (armor, protection) and "zah" (line). Most experts agree that the word "Cossacks" came from the East and has Turkic roots. In Russian, this word, first mentioned in the Russian chronicles of 1444, originally meant homeless and free soldiers who entered the service with the fulfillment of military obligations.
History of the Cossacks
Representatives of various nationalities participated in the formation of the Cossacks, but the Slavs prevailed. From an ethnographic point of view, the first Cossacks were divided according to the place of origin into Ukrainian and Russian. Among both those and others, free and service Cossacks can be distinguished. In Ukraine, the free Cossacks were represented by the Zaporozhian Sich (cm. Zaporizhzhya Sich)(lasted until 1775), and the service - "registered" Cossacks, who received a salary for service in the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russian service Cossacks (city, regimental and sentry) were used to protect the security lines and cities, receiving salaries and lands for life for this. Although they were equated "to the service people on the instrument" (archers, gunners), but unlike them, they had a stanitsa organization and an elective system of military administration. In this form, they existed until the beginning of the 18th century. The first community of Russian free Cossacks arose on the Don, and then on the rivers Yaik, Terek and Volga. In contrast to the serving Cossacks, the coasts of large rivers (Dnieper, Don, Yaik, Terek) and the steppe expanses became the centers of the emergence of the Free Cossacks, which left a noticeable imprint on the Cossacks and determined their way of life. Each large territorial community as a form of military-political association of independent Cossack settlements was called the Army.
The main economic activities of the free Cossacks were hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. For example, in the Don Army until the beginning of the 18th century, arable farming was prohibited under pain death penalty. As the Cossacks themselves believed, they lived "from grass and water." The war was of great importance in the life of the Cossack communities: they were in constant military confrontation with hostile and warlike nomadic neighbors, so one of the most important sources of livelihood for them was military booty (as a result of campaigns “for zipuns and yasyr” in the Crimea, Turkey, Persia , to the Caucasus). River and sea trips were made on plows, as well as horse raids. Often several Cossack units united and carried out joint land and sea operations, everything captured became common property - duvan (cm. DUVAN).
The main feature of the public Cossack life were a military organization with an elective system of government and democratic orders. The main decisions (issues of war and peace, the election of officials, the trial of the guilty) were made at general Cossack meetings, stanitsa and military circles (cm. MILITARY CIRCLE), or Rada, which were the highest governing bodies. The main executive power belonged to the annually replaced military (koshevoy) (cm. KOSHEVOY ATAMAN) in Zaporozhye) to the ataman. For the duration of hostilities, a marching ataman was elected, whose obedience was unquestioning.
Diplomatic relations with the Russian state were maintained by sending winter (cm. WINTER STATION) and light villages (embassies) with an appointed chieftain. From the moment the Cossacks entered the historical arena, their relationship with Russia was ambivalent. Initially, they were built on the principle of independent states that had one enemy. Moscow and the Cossack Troops were allies. Russian state acted as the main partner and played a leading role as the strongest party. In addition, the Cossack Troops were interested in receiving monetary and military assistance from the Russian Tsar. The Cossack territories played an important role as a buffer in the southern and eastern borders Russian state, covered it from the raids of the steppe hordes. The Cossacks also took part in many wars on the side of Russia against neighboring states. To successfully perform these important functions, the practice of the Moscow tsars included annual sending of gifts, cash salaries, weapons and ammunition, as well as bread to individual Troops, since the Cossacks did not produce it. All relations between the Cossacks and the tsar were conducted through the Ambassadorial order (cm. AMBASSADOR'S ORDER), i.e., as with a foreign state. It was often advantageous for the Russian authorities to represent the free Cossack communities as absolutely independent from Moscow. On the other hand, the Muscovite state was dissatisfied with the Cossack communities, who constantly attacked Turkish possessions, which often ran counter to Russian foreign policy interests. Quite often, periods of cooling set in between the allies, and Russia stopped all assistance to the Cossacks. Moscow was also dissatisfied with the constant departure of subjects to the Cossack regions. Democratic orders (everyone is equal, no authorities, no taxes) became a magnet that attracted more and more enterprising and courageous people from the Russian lands. Russia's fears turned out to be by no means groundless - during the 17-18 centuries, the Cossacks were at the forefront of powerful anti-government uprisings, the leaders of the Cossack-peasant uprisings - Stepan Razin - came out of its ranks (cm. RAZIN Stepan Timofeevich), Kondraty Bulavin (cm. BULAVIN Kondraty Afanasyevich), Emelyan Pugachev (cm. PUGACHEV Emelyan Ivanovich). Great was the role of the Cossacks during the events of the Time of Troubles (cm. TIME OF TROUBLES) at the beginning of the 17th century. Supporting False Dmitry I (cm. FALSE DMITRY I), they made up an essential part of his military detachments. Later, free Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks, as well as Russian service Cossacks, took an active part in the camp of various forces: in 1611 they participated in the first militia, the nobles already prevailed in the second militia, but at the council of 1613 it was the word of the Cossack chieftains that turned out to be decisive in the election of Tsar Michael Fedorovich (cm. Mikhail Fedorovich) Romanova. The ambiguous role played by the Cossacks in the Time of Troubles forced the government in the 17th century to pursue a policy of sharp reduction in the detachments of service Cossacks in the main territory of the state. But in general, the Russian throne, given the most important functions of the Cossacks as military force in the border regions, showed long-suffering and sought to subordinate him to his power. To consolidate loyalty to the Russian throne, the tsars, using all levers, managed to achieve by the end of the 17th century the adoption of the oath by all the Armies (the last Don Army - in 1671). From voluntary allies, the Cossacks turned into Russian subjects. With the inclusion of the southeastern territories into Russia, the Cossacks remained only a special part of the Russian population, gradually losing many of their democratic rights and gains. Since the 18th century, the state has constantly regulated the life of the Cossack regions, modernized the traditional Cossack management structures in the right direction for itself, turning them into an integral part of the administrative system of the Russian empire.
Since 1721, the Cossack units were under the jurisdiction of the Cossack expedition of the Military Collegium. (cm. MILITARY BOARD). In the same year, Peter I (cm. PETER I the Great) abolished the election of military chieftains and introduced the institution of chief chieftains appointed by the supreme power. The Cossacks lost their last vestiges of independence after the defeat of the Pugachev rebellion in 1775, when Catherine II liquidated the Zaporozhian Sich. In 1798, by decree of Paul I (cm. PAVEL I Petrovich) all Cossack officer ranks were equated with the general army, and their owners received the rights to the nobility. In 1802, the first Regulations for the Cossack troops were developed. Since 1827, the heir to the throne began to be appointed as the august ataman of all Cossack troops. In 1838, the first combat charter for the Cossack units was approved, and in 1857 the Cossacks came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate (from 1867 the Main Directorate) of the irregular (from 1879 - Cossack) troops of the Military Ministry, from 1910 - under the authority of the General Staff.
The role of the Cossacks in the history of Russia
The Cossacks for centuries was a universal branch of the armed forces. They said about the Cossacks that they were born in the saddle. At all times they were considered excellent riders who knew no equal in the art of horse riding. Military experts rated the Cossack cavalry as the best light cavalry in the world. The military glory of the Cossacks was strengthened on the battlefields in the Northern (cm. NORTHERN WAR 1700-1721) and the Seven Years' War (cm. SEVEN YEARS WAR), during the Italian (cm. ITALIAN CAMPAIGN OF SUVOROV) and the Swiss campaigns of A. V. Suvorov (cm. SWISS CAMPAIGN OF Suvorov) in 1799. The Cossack regiments especially distinguished themselves in the Napoleonic era. Led by the legendary ataman M. I. Platov (cm. PLATOV Matvey Ivanovich) the irregular army became one of the main culprits for the death of the Napoleonic army in Russia in the campaign of 1812, and after the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, according to General A.P. Yermolov (cm. ERMOLOV Alexey Petrovich), "the Cossacks became the wonder of Europe".
Not a single Russian-Turkish war of the 18-19th centuries could do without Cossack sabers, they participated in the conquest of the Caucasus, the conquest of Central Asia, the development of Siberia and the Far East. The successes of the Cossack cavalry were explained by the skillful use in battles of grandfather's tactics unregulated by any charters: lava (covering the enemy in loose formation), the original system of reconnaissance and guard services, etc. These Cossack "turns" inherited from the steppes turned out to be especially effective and unexpected in clashes with armies European states.
“For this, a Cossack will be born, so that the tsar will be useful in the service,” says an old Cossack proverb. His service under the law of 1875 lasted 20 years, starting at the age of 18: 3 years in the preparatory category, 4 in active service, 8 years on benefits and 5 in the reserve. Everyone came to the service with their uniforms, equipment, edged weapons and a riding horse. The Cossack community (village) was responsible for the preparation and performance of military service. The actual service, a special type of self-government and the system of land use, as a material basis, were closely interconnected and ultimately ensured the stable existence of the Cossacks as a formidable fighting force. The main owner of the land was the state, which, on behalf of the emperor, allotted to the Cossack army the land conquered by the blood of their ancestors on the rights of collective (communal) property. The army, leaving a part for the military reserve, divided the land received between the villages. The village community, on behalf of the army, periodically redistributed land shares (ranging from 10 to 50 acres). For the use of the allotment and exemption from taxes, the Cossack was obliged to perform military service. The army also allocated land plots to the Cossack nobles (the share depended on the officer rank) as hereditary property, but these plots could not be sold to persons of non-military origin. In the 19th century, agriculture became the main economic activity of the Cossacks, although different troops had their own characteristics and preferences, for example, the intensive development of fishing as the main industry in the Ural, as well as in the Don and Ussuri Army, hunting in the Siberian, winemaking and gardening in the Caucasus, Don .
Cossacks in the 20th century
At the end of the 19th century, projects for the liquidation of the Cossacks were discussed in the bowels of the tsarist administration. Before the First World War (cm. WORLD WAR I 1914-18) in Russia there were 11 Cossack Troops: Don (1.6 million), Kuban (1.3 million), Terskoe (260 thousand), Astrakhan (40 thousand), Ural (174 thousand), Orenburg (533 thousand people). ), Siberian (172 thousand), Semirechensk (45 thousand), Trans-Baikal (264 thousand), Amur (50 thousand), Ussuri (35 thousand) and two separate Cossack regiments. They occupied 65 million acres of land with a population of 4.4 million people. (2.4% of the population of Russia), including 480 thousand service personnel. Among the Cossacks, ethnically, Russians prevailed (78%), Ukrainians were in second place (17%), and Buryats were third (2%). Most of the Cossacks professed Orthodoxy, there was a large percentage of Old Believers (especially in the Ural, Terek, Don Troops), and national minorities professed Buddhism and Islam.
More than 300 thousand Cossacks took part in the battlefields of the First World War (164 cavalry regiments, 30 foot battalions, 78 batteries, 175 individual hundreds, 78 fifty, not counting auxiliary and spare parts). The war showed the inefficiency of using large cavalry masses (Cossacks accounted for 2/3 of the Russian cavalry) in a continuous front, high density infantry firepower and increased technical means of defense. The exceptions were small partisan detachments formed from Cossack volunteers, which successfully operated behind enemy lines when performing sabotage and reconnaissance missions. Cossacks as a significant military and social force participated in the Civil War (cm. CIVIL WAR in Russia).
The combat experience and professional military training of the Cossacks was once again used to resolve acute internal social conflicts. By the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 17, 1917, the Cossacks as an estate and Cossack formations were formally abolished. During the Civil War, the Cossack territories became the main bases of the White movement (especially the Don, Kuban, Terek, Ural) and it was there that the most fierce battles were fought. The Cossack units were numerically the main military force of the Volunteer Army (cm. VOLUNTEER ARMY) in the fight against Bolshevism. The Cossacks were pushed to this by the policy of decossackization pursued by the Reds (mass executions, hostage-taking, burning of villages, inciting non-residents against the Cossacks). The Red Army also had Cossack units, but they represented a small part of the Cossacks (less than 10%). At the end of the Civil War, a large number of Cossacks ended up in exile (about 100 thousand people).
In Soviet times, the official policy of decossackization actually continued, although in 1925 the plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) declared unacceptable "ignoring the peculiarities of the Cossack way of life and the use of violent measures in the fight against the remnants of the Cossack traditions." Nevertheless, the Cossacks continued to be considered “non-proletarian elements” and were subject to restrictions on their rights, in particular, the ban on serving in the Red Army was lifted only in 1936, when several Cossack cavalry divisions (and then corps) were created, which proved to be excellent during the Great Patriotic War. Since 1942, the Hitlerite command also formed units from Russian Cossacks (15th Wehrmacht Corps, commander General G. von Panwitz) numbering more than 20 thousand people. During the fighting, they were mainly used to protect communications and fight against partisans in Italy, Yugoslavia, and France. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, the British handed over the disarmed Cossacks and members of their families (about 30 thousand people) to the Soviet side. Most of them were shot, the rest ended up in Stalin's camps.
The very cautious attitude of the authorities towards the Cossacks (which resulted in the oblivion of its history and culture) gave rise to the modern Cossack movement. Initially (in 1988-1989) it arose as a historical and cultural movement for the revival of the Cossacks (according to some estimates, about 5 million people). By 1990, the movement, having gone beyond the cultural and ethnographic framework, began to become politicized. An intensive creation of Cossack organizations and unions began, both in places of former compact residence, and in major cities, where a large number of descendants who fled from political repression. The mass nature of the movement, as well as the participation of paramilitary Cossack detachments in conflicts in Yugoslavia, Transnistria, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Chechnya, forced government structures and local authorities pay attention to the problems of the Cossacks. Further growth of the Cossack movement was facilitated by the decree of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation "On the rehabilitation of the Cossacks" of June 16, 1992 and a number of laws. Under the President of Russia, the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops was created, a number of measures to create regular Cossack units were taken by the power ministries (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Border Troops, Ministry of Defense).

encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .

Synonyms:

Based on modern scientifically substantiated essential characteristics of the Cossacks, in the past it was a complex self-developing ethno-social phenomenon, by the beginning of the 20th century. which absorbed all the main elements of the socio-ethnic and socio-class structure of society and, as a result, was both a sub-ethnos of the Great Russian ethnos and a special military class.

The origin of the ethnonym "Cossack" is not fully understood. Versions of its etymology are based either on its ethnicity (Cossack is a derivative of the name of the descendants of Kasogs or Torks and Berendeys, Cherkas or Brodniks), or on social content (the word Cossack is of Turkic origin, they were called either a free, free, independent person, or a military guard on the border). At various stages of the existence of the Cossacks, it included Russians, Ukrainians, representatives of some steppe nomads, the peoples of the North Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East. By the beginning of the XX century. the Cossacks were completely dominated by the East Slavic ethnic basis. So, the Cossacks are a sub-ethnos of the Great Russian ethnos.

The Cossacks lived in the Don, the North Caucasus, the Urals, the Far East, and Siberia.

Those or other Cossack communities were part of a particular Cossack army.

The language of the Cossacks is Russian. In the Cossack environment, a number of dialects are noted: Don, Kuban, Ural, Orenburg and others.

The Cossacks used Russian writing.

By 1917, there were 4 million 434 thousand Cossacks of both sexes.

Currently, there are practically no exact data on the number of Cossacks and their descendants. According to various estimates, approximately 5 million Cossacks live in 73 subjects of the Russian Federation. The number of Cossacks located in places of compact residence in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, as well as the number of their descendants in the far abroad, is unknown.

The term "Cossack" was first mentioned in the sources of the XIII century, in particular in the "Secret History of the Mongols" (1240), and, according to various versions, has a Turkic, Mongolian, Adyghe-Abkhazian or Indo-European origin. The meaning of the term, which later became an ethnonym, is also defined in different ways: a free man, a lightly armed rider, a fugitive, a lone man, and more.

The origin of the Cossacks and the time of its appearance on the historical arena has not been fully elucidated up to the present time. Disputes among researchers are even on the etymology (origin) of the very word-term "Cossack".

There are many scientific theories origin of the Cossacks (only the main - 18). All theories of the origin of the Cossacks are divided into two large groups: the theories of the fugitive and migratory, that is, alien, and autochthonous, that is, local, indigenous origin of the Cossacks. Each of these theories has its own evidence base, various convincing or not fully convincing scientific arguments, advantages and disadvantages.

According to autochthonous theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks lived in Kabarda, they were the descendants of the Caucasian Circassians (Cherkas, Yases), a conglomerate of Kasags, Circassians (Yases), "black hoods" (Pechenegs, Torks, Berendeys), wanderers (yases and groups of Slavic-Russian and nomadic peoples) and more.

According to migration theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks are freedom-loving Russian people who fled beyond the borders of the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian states either due to natural historical reasons (the provisions of the theory of colonization) or under the influence of social antagonisms (the provisions of the theory of class struggle). The first reliable information about the Cossacks who lived in Chervleny Yar, in addition to scientifically unrecognized evidence in the notes of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (X century), is contained in the annals of the Donskoy Monastery (“Grebenskaya Chronicle”, 1471), “The famous word ... Archimandrite Anthony”, “ A Brief Moscow Chronicle ”- a mention of the participation of the Don Cossacks in the Battle of Kulikovo, is contained in the annals of 1444. Having arisen in the southern expanses of the so-called“ Wild Field ”, the first communities of free Cossacks were truly democratic public formations. The fundamental principles of their internal organization were the personal freedom of all their members, social equality, mutual respect, the ability of each Cossack to openly express his opinion in the Cossack circle, which was the highest authority and administrative body of the Cossack community, to elect and be elected the highest official, ataman, who was first among equals. The bright principles of freedom, equality and fraternity in the early Cossack public formations were universal, traditional, self-evident phenomena.

The process of formation of the Cossacks was long and complicated. In the course of it, representatives of different ethnic groups united. It is possible that in the original basis of the early groups of the Cossacks there were various ethnic elements. In ethnic terms, the "old" Cossacks were subsequently "overlapped" by Russian elements. The first mention of the Don Cossacks dates back to 1549.

In the 15th century (according to other sources, much earlier), communities of free Don, Dnieper, Volga and Grebensky Cossacks arose. In the 1st half of the 16th century, the Zaporizhian Sich was formed, in the 2nd half of the same century - communities of free Terek and Yaik, and at the end of the century - Siberian Cossacks. On the early stages the existence of the Cossacks by their main types economic activity crafts were (hunting, fishing, beekeeping), later cattle breeding, and from the 2nd floor. XVII century - agriculture. An important role was played by military booty, later - by the state salary. Through military and economic colonization, the Cossacks quickly mastered the vast expanses of the Wild Field, then the outskirts of Russia and Ukraine. In the XVI-XVII centuries. Cossacks led by Ermak Timofeevich, V.D. Poyarkov, V.V. Atlasov, S.I. Dezhnev, E.P. Khabarov and other explorers participated in the successful development of Siberia and the Far East.

The Cossacks were united in special state-political, socio-economic and ethno-cultural formations - Cossack communities, later transformed into large structures - troops that received names on a territorial basis. The supreme body of self-government was the general meeting of the male population (circle, council). It decided all the important affairs of the troops, elected military ataman(and during the period of hostilities - marching), military rule. In the field of civil and military organization, internal administration, courts, and external relations, the Cossacks were completely independent. During the 18th century, during the formation of a special Cossack military class, the Cossacks lost these rights. Until 1716, relations between the central government and the Cossacks were carried out through the Posolsky, Little Russian and other orders, then through the board of foreign affairs, and from 1721 the Cossacks were transferred to the jurisdiction of the military board. In 1721, military circles were prohibited in the Don Army (later in other troops).

Since 1723, instead of elected military chieftains, the institute of appointed military chieftains appointed by the emperor was introduced. Since the 18th century to protect the ever-expanding borders of the state, the government forms new Cossack troops: the Orenburg irregular (1748); Astrakhan (1750), or, originally, the Astrakhan Cossack regiment, transformed in 1776 into the Astrakhan Cossack army, in 1799 - again into a regiment, and in 1817 - again into an army; Black Sea (1787); Siberian (1808); Caucasian linear (1832); Transbaikal (1851); Amur (1858); Caucasian and Black Sea, later reorganized into Terek and Kuban (1860); Semirechenskoye (1867); Ussuri (1899). At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 11 Cossack troops: the Don, Kuban, Orenburg, Terek, Transbaikal, Siberian, Ural (Yaitskoye), Amur, Semirechensk, Astrakhan, Ussuri, as well as the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk Cossack divisions (in the summer of 1917, the Yenisei Cossack army), the Yakut city Cossack foot regiment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the local Kamchatka city Cossack equestrian team.

At the stage of existence of the Cossacks as a kind of socio-ethnic community formed from free Cossacks, in the Cossack communities, and later in the Cossack military formations (troops), on the basis of customary law, the fundamental general principles, forms and methods of internal management were developed and strictly observed. Over time, they have undergone certain transformations, but the essence of the established traditional community-democratic principles underlying them remained the same. Significant progress in this area began to occur both in the internal content and in external forms under the influence of the processes of transformation of the Cossacks in the social class plan and its transformation into a specific military service class. This process took place in the 18th - 1st half of the 19th centuries. At this time, the Cossacks lose not only their former independence from the state, but also the most important rights in the field of power and internal control, are deprived of their highest self-government bodies in the person of the military circles and the military chieftains elected by them. It is also forced to put up with the processes of changing many traditional community-democratic rights and traditions.

Cossack troops are included in the general system over time government controlled countries. At the same time, the process of full legislative registration of the specific rights and obligations of the Cossacks and their special social function is taking place.

The process of institutionalization of the highest state administrative structures, which were in charge of all the Cossack troops of the country, continued to actively go on. In 1815, all Cossack troops were militarily and administratively subordinated to the General Staff of the Military Ministry. And in December 1857, a special Directorate of Irregular Troops subordinated to the Military Ministry was formed, in whose competence the leadership of all Cossack and other irregular troops was transferred. On March 29, 1867, it was renamed the Main Directorate of Irregular Troops. And in 1879, on its basis, the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops was formed, which was also directly subordinate to the Military Ministry. On September 6, 1910, the Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops was abolished, and all its functions were transferred to a specially formed Department for the Control of the Cossack Troops of the General Staff of the Military Ministry. Formally, since 1827, the heir to the throne was considered the ataman of all the Cossack troops of the country.

By the beginning of the 20th century, a rather harmonious structure of higher administration and local government. The highest official in each Cossack army was the military chieftain appointed by the emperor (in the Cossack troops of the eastern territories of Russia - simply the chief chieftain.) In his hands was the highest military and civil power on the territory of the army. In those Cossack troops whose territories did not constitute separate independent administrative-territorial units and were located within various provinces and regions (this was typical for the Orenburg, Astrakhan, Ural, Trans-Baikal, Semirechensk, Amur and Ussuri troops), the posts of atamans were occupied concurrently local governors or governors-general (if the territory of a particular Cossack army was part of the governor-general) or commanders of the corresponding military districts, as was the case in the Siberian army. Sometimes the consequence of the existence of such a complex, often peculiar "multi-layered" system of government was a situation in which one and the same person concentrated in his hands several top administrative and military posts at the same time. For example, the commander of the Omsk Military District was at the same time the Chief Ataman of the Siberian Cossack Army, and later, a few years before the February Revolution, and the Governor-General of the Steppe Territory, which included the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions. This state of affairs complicated the exercise of managerial functions by the highest officer of the army and affected their effectiveness.

The Don, Kuban and Terek military atamans, although they exercised their powers only within their Cossack regions, had the rights of governors in the civil part and governors-general in the military. The chieftains headed the highest body of command in the troops - military, regional, military economic boards, administrations or councils. They also appointed chieftains of departments (districts) and approved the personal composition of departmental (district) departments. The Cossack administration included the Military Headquarters, appointed (formally elected at gatherings) atamans of departments (in the Don and Amur Troops - districts. Local bodies of Cossack self-government were represented by gatherings (congresses) of the Cossack population of a particular village, which actually performed the functions of officially liquidated local villages On them, the Cossacks independently, without the intervention of higher bodies of the Cossack military and departmental (district) administration, elected the stanitsa ataman, stanitsa judges and members of the stanitsa board.

The final registration of the Cossacks in a specific military service class was enshrined in the "Regulations on the management of the Don Cossacks" in 1835, which regulated the staff and the internal structure of the troops. His norms were later laid down in the "Regulations" of all other troops. The entire Cossack male population was obliged to carry out a 25-year (from 1874 - 20-year, 1909 - 18-year) military service, including four years directly in the army. All land in the territories of the Cossack regions was transferred to the army as its owner. The principle of egalitarian land use of the Cossacks was established (generals were supposed to be 1,500 acres each, headquarters officers - 400 each, chief officers - 200 each, ordinary Cossacks - 30 acres each). The right of private ownership of land for ordinary Cossacks was absent.

The Cossacks took an active part in all peasant wars and many popular uprisings. Since the 18th century, the Cossacks have been directly involved in all the wars of Russia. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in the Russian-Turkish wars of the 17th-18th centuries, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the Patriotic War (1812) and foreign campaigns (1813-1814), Caucasian war (1817-1864), Crimean War (1853-1856), Russian-Turkish war(1877-1878) and in the First World War. During this period, the Cossacks fielded over 8 thousand officers and 360 thousand lower ranks, of which 164 cavalry regiments, 3 separate cavalry and 1 foot division, 30 plastun (foot) battalions, 64 artillery batteries, 177 separate and special hundreds, 79 convoys, 16 spare regiments and other spare parts. The Cossacks without exception participated in the Civil War, experienced the process of Bolshevik decossackization. The transformations of the 1930s had great social consequences for the Cossacks. XX century.

In 1920, the Council of People's Commissars liquidated the system of Cossack self-government, and the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee extended the general provision for the country on land management and land use. In 1936, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR abolished the restrictions that existed for the Cossacks on military service.

Cossacks on a massive scale fought heroically against the enemy during the Great Patriotic War.

The main economic activities of the Cossacks were agriculture, cattle breeding, and fishing.

The military factor had a dominant influence on the way of life of the Cossacks (in the early stages - a constant threat from the outside, military campaigns; later - a long general military service). There was a special military life of the Cossacks. Agricultural production played an important role. In the guise of a Cossack, the features of a warrior and a hard worker-farmer were harmoniously combined. The Cossacks are characterized high level everyday culture (construction and maintenance of housing and outbuildings, housekeeping, neatness in clothes, cleanliness, etc.) and morality (honesty, decency, kindness, responsiveness). The Cossacks had only monogamous marriage. Before early XVIII century there were simple, but strictly observed marriage rites, later - the church ceremony of marriage. Cossack women were equal members of the Cossack society, keepers of the hearth; raised children, took care of the elderly, energetically engaged in the household. The Cossacks had a well-thought-out traditional system for educating the younger generation. Often families of several generations of Cossacks lived under one roof.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the all-Russian social structure was characteristic of the Cossacks. The Cossacks were distinguished by high religious tolerance. Believing Cossacks - Orthodox, there were also Old Believers, a few Muslims, Buddhists.

In the minds of the Cossacks, traditional worldview principles dominated (love of freedom, loyalty to military duty, oath, diligence, collectivism, mutual assistance, etc.). The ethnic culture of the Cossacks has absorbed its distinctive features as an ethno-social phenomenon, the originality of the spiritual, military, economic and household ways of life, various ethno-cultural components (Slavic-Russian, Turkic-Tatar, actually Cossack). It was expressed in historical memory, the traditional system of values, a peculiar system of values, a kind of spiritual (oral folk art, especially song folklore, dances, the system of education, family and everyday customs, calendar holidays and rituals), behavioral (socionormative), material (dwellings, clothing, household items, etc.) culture, as well as in children's subculture.

Representatives of the Cossack intelligentsia made a significant contribution to the development of domestic and world culture. These are historians V.D. Sukhorukov, S.F. Namikosov, Kh.I. Popov, N.I. Krasnov, E.P. Saveliev, A.F. Shcherbina, S.P. Svatikov, I.F. Bykadorov, A.A. Gordeev, philosopher A.F. Losev, geographer A.N. Krasnov, geologists D.I. Ilovaisky, I.V. Mushketov, physicians S.M. Vasiliev, I.P. Gorelov, D.P. Kosorotov, N.F. Melnikov-Razvedenkov, physicist N.P. Tikhonov, mathematicians V.G. Alekseev, P.S. Frolov, metallurgists N.P. Aseev, G.N. Potanin, composers I.S. Morozov, S.A. Troilin, I.I. Apostolov, M.B. Grekov, singers I.V. Ershov, S.G. Vlasov, B.S. Rubashkin, writers E.I. Kotelnikov, I.I. Krasnov, P.N. Krasnov, F.F. Kryukov, A.S. Popov (Serafimovich), poets N.N. Turoverov, A.N. Turoverov, N.V. Chesnokov, folklorist A.M. Listopadov, artists V.I. Surikov, B.D. Grekov, K.A. Savitsky, N.N. Dubovsky, K.V. Popov, polar explorer G.Ya. Sedov, founder of the domestic film industry A.A. Khanzhonkov and others.

The history of the development of the Cossacks in Russia is complex and contradictory. It is associated with the expansion of the country's territory, the strengthening of its borders, the transformation of the Moscow principality into the Russian Empire. The time and conditions for the emergence of the Cossacks go back to ancient times, and for more than two centuries, the scientific community has been discussing the origin of the Russian Cossacks, the social nature of the early Cossack communities. To this day, these issues are among the controversial topics in Russian historical science - the main problem is the question of the origin of the Cossacks and its early formation and development (ethnogenesis).

The inexhaustibility of this debatable topic is associated with the scarcity and inconsistency of the extant historical sources about that old era, and specifically - the beginning of our era, the first centuries from the birth of Christ. It was at this time that the Sea of ​​Azov and the Don steppes became a platform for active ethnic processes of various origins - Iranian (Scythians, Sarmatians), Slavic, Germanic (Goths) and others. The territory was constantly subjected to invasions, so it is not possible to identify the indigenous ethnic element that existed before these invasions.

In Russian history, the theory of the Slavic and Russian origin of the Cossacks dominated. This version was followed by many pre-revolutionary historians of the 18th-19th centuries, as well as historians of the 20th century. Differences exist on the question of which ethnic or class groups of the Slavs the Cossacks originated from. So, V.D. Sukhorukov argued that “the origins of the Don Cossacks should be seen in the ancient Slavic population, which, according to archaeological discoveries of recent decades, existed on the Don in the VIII-XV centuries.” one

From the fugitive Russian peasants (the so-called theory of "servile" origin) were the origins of the genealogy of the Cossacks S. M. Solovyov and V. O. Klyuchevsky. The historian N.I. Kostomarov differed from them only in his original interpretation of the reasons for the appearance of the Cossacks. In his opinion, the Cossacks are “people's opposition to the state system, which did not satisfy all the people's feelings, ideals and needs. The Russian people, breaking out of the state framework, sought in the Cossacks a new, different social system.

Scientists who claim that the Cossacks are the Russian population of Russia, argue their position by the constancy of the presence of the Slavs in the regions that became the cradle of the Cossacks. In folklore, the ancient Russian heroes who served on the steppe border under the command of the “hardened Cossack” Ilya Muromets appear to be the predecessors of the Cossacks. Folklore evidence is not always taken seriously, but it has undeniable historical value.

Many Don historians considered it humiliating to assume that the Cossacks had a serf-peasant origin. Evgraf Savelyev wrote on this occasion that “peoples called upon to fulfill great historical tasks could not be formed somehow by themselves, peoples and states do not fall from the sky, but are prepared to enter the historical field for many centuries, and that never in history has there was and could not be an example that from the fugitives, and such in Muscovite Russia of the 16th century. there could only be criminals or homeless, walking people who involuntarily left their homeland, a people could be formed, a whole democratic republic, with peculiar customs and customs ...” 3 .

Continuation of the arguments of a historian who lived in late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, we see in modern literature. V. Shambarov in his book “Cossacks: the path of the soldiers of Christ” writes: “Is it plausible that the victims and offended in Russia showed such loyalty to her, gave their lives for her? Rather, they would close with her enemies, as did emigrants in the era of Ivan the Terrible, Nekrasovites, etc. Finally, try to imagine whether brotherhood and common soldering between various bands of robbers is possible? But among the Cossacks, this was a unifying principle - the Cossacks of the Don, Dnieper, Yaik, Terek considered each other brothers. Scientists who claim that the Cossacks are the Russian population of Russia, argue their position by the constancy of the presence of the Slavs in the regions that became the cradle of the Cossacks. This hypothesis is also supported by the fact that Russian believers (Orthodox and Old Believers) numerically dominated the composition of the Cossacks, which originated in Russia. The phrase "Russian Cossack" did not cause rejection among contemporaries. The image of the "Russian Cossack" who came to fight the Golden Horde is preserved in folklore Northeast Siberia. In folklore, the ancient Russian heroes who served on the steppe border under the command of the “hardened Cossack” Ilya Muromets appear to be the predecessors of the Cossacks. Folklore evidence is not always taken seriously, but it has undeniable historical value. Regardless of whether Ilya Muromets really was a “hardened Cossack”, the folklore story about him captures an important position: in the Russian people's consciousness, Ilya Muromets remained a Cossack, a people's defender. The folklore definition of the Cossack as a people's defender from any alien evil spirits corresponds to the historical ideas about the Cossacks as part of the Russian people, as a people's detachment advanced forward, protecting the Russian lands and multiplying them with their military daring and courage. It is also reliable that the population of the Cossack regions was formed by immigrants from Russian principalities - those who did not want to put up with the difficult life of Russian reality and were looking for a better life and more favorable conditions on the outskirts of Russia, within the Wild Field.

This theory is opposed by a directly opposite theory - the hypothesis of the "Horde" origin of the Cossacks, which claims that the Cossacks by origin have nothing in common with the Russian people, in the past they belonged to the peoples who came from Aria, Russified and adopted the Russian language and religion 5. So, the author of the named book mentions General Rigelman, who collected materials on the history of the Cossacks, who wrote that at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the Don Cossacks believed that they were not Russian people, but descended from Cherkasy and other mountain peoples, but Russified. And if someone calls them Muscovites, they answer: “I am not a Muscovite, but a Russian, and then according to the law and the Orthodox faith, and not by nature” 6 .

Some experts - supporters of the "Horde" hypothesis - believe that the Turkic origin of the word "Cossack" also testifies to the origin of the Cossacks themselves: they are of Tatar ("Horde") origin. In defense of the hypothesis of the "Horde" origin of the Cossacks, which boils down to the fact that the ancestors of the Russian Cossacks were integral part military forces of the Tatar-Mongols, a variety of arguments are given: historical evidence of the participation of the Cossacks-Tatars in hostilities dating back to the period of the birth of the Cossacks; facts of borrowing by Russian people of the military culture existing in the Tatar-Mongolian horde, etc. Supporters of the hypothesis of the Tatar origin of the Cossacks point to the participation of light cavalry in the composition of the Mongolian troops, which performed auxiliary tasks: guarded the borders, conducted reconnaissance, started battles, it was behind her that the name was approved "Cossacks". After the collapse of the Golden Horde, parts of this light cavalry ended up on the borders of the Russian principalities and gradually began to merge with the Russian people. According to R.G. Skrynnikov, the original Cossack communities consisted of Tatars, who were joined by Russian elements. Among the Tatars, the familyless warriors who served as the vanguard during the campaigns and movements of the Tatar hordes were called Cossacks. They paved the way for the Tatar troops, carried out reconnaissance and guard duty. Over time, the Tatar Cossacks served under the Baskaks (representatives of the Mongol Khan in the conquered lands who came to Russia to collect tribute), and later began to enter the service of the Russian princes. In the XV century. Tatar Cossacks (Meshchersky or Gorodetsky) settled in Murom land along the tributaries of the Oka River and carried out guard duty there.

Some researchers of the emergence of the Cossack community believed that not only Slavs, but also various non-Slavic tribes participated in its formation: Iranian Scythians and Alans, Turkic Huns and Khazars, Pechenegs, Torks, Polovtsians, Bulgars, Tatars, Finnish Meshcheryaks, Germanic Goths. At the same time, Russians played the main role in the education of the Cossacks.

“Among the various theories about the origin of the Cossacks, it can be taken as more reliable that the Cossack settlements were formed outside Russia and under conditions independent of it. Cossack detachments - a barrier on the southern Russian borders. The relationship of the Cossacks with Moscow has consistently changed: 1) completely independent; 2) served under an agreement with the Moscow princes; 3) served under oath; 4) became part of the Russian state as an integral part of it” 7 .

As stated in the book "Russian Cossacks" 8, "... the emergence of the Cossacks was due to the establishment of the borders of the Ryazan principality, the formation of guard patrols, guards, the arrangement of parking lots, which turned into the XIV century. to border fortified towns (on the rivers Khoper, Don, Bystraya, Quiet Pine, etc.). Some researchers of the emergence of the Cossack community believed that not only Slavs, but also various non-Slavic tribes participated in its formation: Iranian Scythians and Alans, Turkic Huns and Khazars, Pechenegs, Torks, Polovtsy, Bulgars, Tatars, Finnish Meshcheryak, Germanic Goths. At the same time, the Russians played the main role in the education of the Cossacks 9 .

From ancient times, their social life was based on a military organization, characteristic of nomadic peoples. The Cossacks did not belong to nomadic peoples, but their inner life was formed under the influence of nomads. They lived on the distant outskirts of the Russian principalities, were surrounded on all sides by hordes of nomads and therefore were constantly ready for war, for the defense of their land, for repelling the attacks of their neighbors, greedy and greedy for easy prey.

The exact time of the appearance of the Cossacks has not been established. Some researchers attribute it to the 14th century, others to the 16th century, others believe that the Cossacks (or groups similar to them) appeared at a much earlier time - in the 10th century, and maybe even in the 6th century. True, the first information about the Cossacks in the annals dates back to the middle of the 15th century: these are military operations in 1444, when the Ryazan Cossacks participated in the battle with the Tatars. In the second half of the XVI century. The Cossacks already represented a force that was concentrated on the borders of the Russian state and carried out its protection from the nomads.

Some researchers consider the Cossacks as a separate part of the Russian people - a sub-ethnic entity within it. Others recognize them as an independent ethnic community - a separate Slavic people. The point in this dispute has not yet been set. It can only be asserted that the Cossacks were an ethno-class community that developed at the southern borders of the Russian state and for centuries served as the country's defensive shield 10 .

Some researchers believe that the Cossacks form not one, but several ethno-class communities (mainly corresponding to the existing Cossack troops). The unconvincingness of this point of view is due to the fact that “periodically formed new Cossack troops were largely created from the Cossacks of the previously established troops, who moved to the newly developed territories. Zaporozhye, Don and Volga Cossacks took part in the formation of the Kuban Cossacks; Orenburg and Astrakhan - Volga Cossacks; Siberian - Yaik (Ural), Don and Volga Cossacks; Semirechensky - Ural Cossacks; Amur - Transbaikal, Don, Kuban, Orenburg Cossacks; Ussuri - Amur, Don, Ural, Kuban Cossacks; Yenisei - Siberian and Don Cossacks. Thus, in fact, all Cossacks are more or less interconnected by the unity of origin. Nevertheless, there are certain, and sometimes even significant differences between the Cossacks of different troops, and, forming a single social entity, they are at the same time separate sub-ethnic formations” 11 .

As the original, taking shape by the XII century. The southern Russian subethnos is usually considered Tmurakans and wanderers, Russian inhabitants of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov - the closest ancestors of the Cossacks. During the existence of the Mongolian ulus and during its collapse, the culture of the Russian population of the South was influenced by the traditions of the nomads of Central Asia: borrowings from the Mongolian and Turkic languages ​​entered the speech of the Cossacks; some customs have been adopted.

The Cossacks developed, changed, adapted to the new conditions of existence, each time responding to the historical challenge in a new way. Cossacks in the Russian Empire occupied special position: there were Cossack regions, the internal life of which differed from the living conditions of the population of other parts of the country.

“There were 12 Cossack regions in the Russian Empire, eight of which were created for the purpose of state defense by artificial means of the government. Their population was part of the Cossacks, withdrawn from the former regions, replenished with service people and hunters. Only four regions have developed historically, without the intervention of state power. These are the regions of the Don, Grebensky (Terek), Yaik (after the Pugachev rebellion - Ural) and Dnieper Cossacks. The Dnieper army ceased to exist under Peter I, and parts of it were subsequently used to organize the Kuban army” 12 .

Sometimes the opinion is expressed that the Cossacks had not an ethnic, but only a class character: representatives of peoples sharply different in origin from the main - Slavic core of the Cossacks - Ossetians, Kumyks, Nogais, Kalmyks, Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats, Evenks and etc. But, despite some admixture of a non-Slavic element in various Cossack troops, the Cossacks, apparently, should be considered an ethno-class formation of Russian and, in some part, Ukrainian origin. Apparently, the opposition between ethnic and class in the nature of the Cossacks should be removed. Indeed, the Cossacks have fairly clear ethnic and social characteristics, but they are not opposed or interchanged, but simply one or another dominates in certain periods. Thus, ethnicity dominated during the formation of the Cossacks as a developing system (which led to the formation of a special ethnic character). Class characteristics dominated when Russia, open from the south, had no natural borders there and created Cossack settlements as a social barrier against the invasion of warlike neighbors and for its own expansion - a kind of buffer was erected.

First of all, historians insisted on the class definition of the Cossacks. Soviet period. The Cossacks were recognized as part of the Russian people, formed from the fugitive population from Central Russia, and then attracted by the state to serve for the benefit of Russia. In the process of development, the estate becomes privileged, moves away from the common people, ceases to express their interests. The fight against the Cossacks after 1917 was based precisely on the thesis that the Cossacks belonged to the exploiting estates, because the Cossacks owned the land and refused to share it with the peasants on an equal footing, resisting the policy of the Soviet government.

The most justified may be an intermediate point of view, according to which the Cossacks are considered as an ethnic community that forcibly entered the Russian society as a military class. That is why - with the equation of estates in 1917 - the Cossacks did not disappear, did not dissolve, but remained with special features of material, spiritual culture and self-consciousness 13 .

The predominance of ethnic or class features was predetermined by the specific historical and cultural situation. There was a "convergence of the most diverse ethnic and social ingredients, while maintaining a single military-economic organization, a constant supply of new and new groups of newcomers, whose ethnic and social appearance is also very different..." 14 .

It is necessary to dwell on such theories of the origin of the Cossacks as autochthonous and migratory. In Soviet historical science, the migration (“runaway peasant”, “Moscow”) hypothesis, according to which the Cossacks are runaway serfs, has become most widespread. This idea was also supported by G.N. Troshev, who wrote about “democratic magnetism”, which attracted fugitive peasants to the Cossacks: Russian lands"15. In the migration theory, the fact of the flight of peasants from the Moscow state, fleeing serfdom, is used as the main argument in favor of the fact that the Cossacks originated from the peasant settlers, who were made Cossacks by the conditions of life in the Wild Field. The migration ("Moscow") hypothesis can also include other "regional" versions of the origin of the Cossacks - "Ryazan" (the Cossacks were formed by immigrants from the Ryazan principality), "Novgorod" (free Novgorod people, primarily the Ushkuiniki, fishing brought them to the Wild Steppe, where he became the basis for the formation of the Cossacks).

Many historians reject the version of the formation of Cossacks from runaway peasants. Indeed, at the level of identification, the Cossacks oppose themselves to the peasants, and in the “fugitive” people (for Christian reasons) they see rebels who are not obedient to either God, or the Tsar, or the Fatherlands. The annals described conflicts between the Cossacks and the newcomer peasants - the Cossacks refused to recognize them as equals. At the same time, other sources confirm the presence of fugitives among the Cossacks.

Bubnov - Taras Bulba

In 1907, an argot dictionary was published in France, in which the following aphorism was cited in the article "Russian": "Scratch a Russian - and you will find a Cossack, scratch a Cossack - and you will find a bear."

This aphorism is attributed to Napoleon himself, who indeed described the Russians as barbarians and identified them as such with the Cossacks - like many Frenchmen, who could call both the hussars and the Kalmyks or Bashkirs Cossacks. In some cases, this word could even become synonymous with light cavalry.

How little we know about the Cossacks.

In a narrow sense, the image of a Cossack is inextricably linked with the image of brave and freedom-loving men with a stern warlike look, with an earring in their left ear, long mustaches and a hat on their heads. And this is more than reliable, but not enough. Meanwhile, the history of the Cossacks is very unique and interesting. And in this article we will try to very superficially, but at the same time meaningfully understand and understand who the Cossacks are, what is their peculiarity and uniqueness, and how the history of Russia is inextricably linked with the original culture and history of the Cossacks.

Today it is very difficult to understand the theories of the origin of not only the Cossacks, but also the very word-term "Cossack". Even today, researchers, scientists and experts cannot give a definite and precise answer - who are the Cossacks and from whom did they come.

But at the same time, there are many more or less probable theories-versions of the origin of the Cossacks. Today there are more than 18 of them - and this is only official versions. Each of them has many convincing scientific arguments, advantages and disadvantages.

However, all theories fall into two main groups:

• theory of the runaway (migration) emergence of the Cossacks.
• autochthonous, that is, local, indigenous origin of the Cossacks.

According to autochthonous theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks lived in Kabarda, were the descendants of the Caucasian Circassians (Cherkas, Yases). This theory of the origin of the Cossacks is also called eastern. It was she who was taken as the basis of their evidence base by one of the most famous Russian historians, orientalists and ethnologists V. Shambarov and L. Gumilyov.

In their opinion, the Cossacks arose through the merger of Kasogs and Brodniks after the Mongol-Tatar invasion. The Kasogs (Kasakhs, Kasaks, Ka-azats) are an ancient Circassian people who inhabited the territory of the lower Kuban in the 10th-14th centuries, and the Brodniks are a mixed people of Turkic-Slavic origin, who absorbed the remnants of the Bulgars, Slavs, and also, possibly, the steppe Oghuz.

Dean of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University S. P. Karpov, working in the archives of Venice and Genoa, found there references to the Cossacks with Turkic and Armenian names, who guarded the medieval city of Tana* and other Italian colonies in the Northern Black Sea region from raids.

*Tana- a medieval city on the left bank of the Don, in the area modern city Azov (Rostov region of the Russian Federation). It existed in the XII-XV centuries under the rule of the Italian trading republic of Genoa.

One of the first mentions of the Cossacks, according to the Eastern version, are displayed in the legend, the author of which was Stefan Yavorsky, Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (1692):

“In 1380, the Cossacks presented Dmitry Donskoy with the icon of Our Lady of the Don and participated in the battle against Mamai on the Kulikovo field.”

According to migration theories, the ancestors of the Cossacks were freedom-loving Russian people who fled beyond the borders of the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian states either due to natural historical reasons or under the influence of social antagonisms.

The German historian G. Steckl points out that“The first Russian Cossacks were baptized and Russified Tatar Cossacks, since until the end of the 15th century. all the Cossacks who lived both in the steppes and in the Slavic lands could only be Tatars. Of decisive importance for the formation of the Russian Cossacks was the influence of the Tatar Cossacks on the border of the Russian lands. The influence of the Tatars was manifested in everything - in the way of life, military operations, ways of fighting for existence in the steppe. It even extended to the spiritual life and appearance of the Russian Cossacks.

And the historian Karamzin advocated a mixed version of the origin of the Cossacks:

“The Cossacks were not only in Ukraine, where their name became known from history around 1517; but it is likely that in Russia it is older than the Batu invasion and belonged to Torki and Berendei, who lived on the banks of the Dnieper, below Kyiv. There we find the first dwelling of the Little Russian Cossacks. Torki and Berendei were called Cherkasy: Cossacks - also ... some of them, not wanting to submit to either the Mughals or Lithuania, lived as free people on the islands of the Dnieper, fenced with rocks, impenetrable reeds and swamps; lured to themselves many Russians who fled from oppression; mixed with them and under the name Komkov made up one people, which became completely Russian all the easier because their ancestors, having lived in the Kyiv region since the tenth century, were already almost Russian themselves. Multiplying more and more in number, nourishing the spirit of independence and brotherhood, the Cossacks formed a military Christian Republic in the southern countries of the Dnieper, began to build villages, fortresses in these places devastated by the Tatars; undertook to be the defenders of the Lithuanian possessions from the Crimeans, Turks and won special patronage of Sigismund I, who gave them many civil liberties along with lands above the Dnieper rapids, where the city of Cherkasy is named after them ... "

I would not like to go into details, listing all the official and unofficial versions of the origin of the Cossacks. Firstly, it is long and not always interesting. Secondly, most theories are only versions, hypotheses. There is no unambiguous answer about the origin and origin of the Cossacks as a distinctive ethnic group. It is important to understand something else - the process of formation of the Cossacks was long and complex, and it is obvious that representatives of different ethnic groups were mixed at the core of it. And it's hard to disagree with Karamzin.

Some oriental historians believe that the Tatars were the ancestors of the Cossacks, and that, allegedly, the first detachments of the Cossacks fought on the side against Russia in the Battle of Kulikovo. Others, on the contrary, argue that the Cossacks were already on the side of Russia at that time. Some refer to legends and myths about gangs of Cossacks - robbers, whose main trade was robbery, robbery, theft ...

For example, the satirist Zadornov, explaining the term for the emergence of the well-known children's yard game "Cossacks-robbers", refers to "unbridled by the free character of the Cossack class, which was" the most violent, uneducable Russian class.

It's hard to believe this, because in the memory of my childhood, each of the boys preferred to play for the Cossacks. And the name of the game is taken from life, since its rules imitate reality: in Tsarist Russia, the Cossacks were people's self-defense, protecting the civilian population from the raids of robbers.

It is possible that in the original basis of the early groups of the Cossacks there were various ethnic elements. But for contemporaries, the Cossacks evokes something native, Russian. I recall the famous speech of Taras Bulba:

The first communities of the Cossacks

It is known that the first communities of Cossacks began to form as early as the 15th century (although some sources refer to an earlier time). These were communities of free Don, Dnieper, Volga and Grebensky Cossacks.

A little later, in the first half of the 16th century, the Zaporozhian Sich was formed. In the 2nd half of the same century - communities of free Terek and Yaik, and at the end of the century - Siberian Cossacks.

In the early stages of the existence of the Cossacks, the main types of their economic activities were crafts (hunting, fishing, beekeeping), later cattle breeding, and from the 2nd floor. XVII century - agriculture. An important role was played by military booty, later - by the state salary. Through military and economic colonization, the Cossacks quickly mastered the vast expanses of the Wild Field, then the outskirts of Russia and Ukraine.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. Cossacks led by Ermak Timofeevich, V.D. Poyarkov, V.V. Atlasov, S.I. Dezhnev, E.P. Khabarov and other explorers participated in the successful development of Siberia and the Far East. Perhaps these are the most famous first reliable references to the Cossacks, beyond doubt.

V. I. Surikov "Conquest of Siberia by Yermak"