71 Facts About Cossacks

Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia.

Cossack way of life persisted into the twentieth century, though the sweeping societal changes of the Russian Revolution disrupted Cossack society as much as any other part of Russia; many Cossacks migrated to other parts of Europe following the establishment of the Soviet Union, while others remained and assimilated into the Communist state.

Some Turkologists argue that Cossacks are descendants of the native Cumans of Ukraine, who had lived there long before the Mongol invasion.

The Malorussian Cossacks were excluded from this transformation, but were promoted to membership of various civil estates or classes, including the newly created civil estate of Cossacks.

Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times, or to the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks had to obtain their cavalry horses, arms, and supplies for their military service at their own expense, the government providing only firearms and supplies.

Related searches

Cossacks served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders, as had been the case in the Caucasus War.

In 1918, Russian Cossacks declared their complete independence, creating two independent states: the Don Republic and the Kuban People's Republic, and the Ukrainian State emerged.

Zaporozhian Cossacks lived on the Pontic–Caspian steppe below the Dnieper Rapids, known as the Wild Fields.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics, participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.

Zaporizhian Cossacks became particularly strong in the first quarter of the 17th century under the leadership of hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny, who launched successful campaigns against the Tatars and Turks.

In 1604, 2000 Zaporizhian Cossacks fought on the side of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and their proposal for the Tsar, against the Muscovite army.

The registered Cossacks were isolated from those who were excluded from the register, and from the Zaporizhian Host.

The Cossacks considered the Vilnius agreement a breach of the contract they had entered into at Pereiaslav.

Some Cossacks moved to the Danube Delta region, where they formed the Danubian Sich under Ottoman rule.

The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks moved first to the Azov region in 1828, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region.

Cossacks had begun raiding Ottoman territories in the second part of the 16th century.

In 1615 and 1625, Cossacks razed suburbs of Constantinople, forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace.

In 1637, the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined by the Don Cossacks, captured the strategic Ottoman fortress of Azov, which guarded the Don.

The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn their boats and stop raiding by sea, but the activity did not cease entirely.

Plans for transforming the Polish–Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth made little progress, due to the unpopularity among the Ruthenian szlachta of the idea of Ruthenian Cossacks being equal to them and their elite becoming members of the szlachta.

The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Catholic, an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish.

Some Cossacks, including the Polish szlachta in Ukraine, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, divided the lands of the Ruthenian szlachta, and became the Cossack szlachta.

Influential relatives of the Ruthenian and Lithuanian szlachta in Moscow helped to create the Russian–Polish alliance against Khmelnitsky's Cossacks, portrayed as rebels against order and against the private property of the Ruthenian Orthodox szlachta.

The Cossacks established a new Sich in the Ottoman Empire without any involvement of the punished Cossack leaders.

Some Cossacks settled on the Tisa river in the Austrian Empire, forming a new Sich.

Related searches

Some runaway Cossacks returned to Russia, where the Russian army used them to form new military bodies that incorporated Greeks, Albanians, Crimean Tatars, and Gypsies.

In 1860, more Cossacks were resettled in the North Caucasus, and merged into the Kuban Cossack Host.

Cossacks served as border guards and protectors of towns, forts, settlements, and trading posts.

Cossacks served as guides to most Russian expeditions of civil and military geographers and surveyors, traders, and explorers.

The various autochthonous theories popular among the Cossacks themselves do not find confirmation in genetic studies.

The majority of Don Cossacks are either Eastern Orthodox or Christian Old Believers.

The Ural Cossacks spoke Russian, and identified as having primarily Russian ancestry, but incorporated many Tatars into their ranks.

The government's efforts to alter their traditional nomadic lifestyle resulted in the Cossacks being involved in nearly all the major disturbances in Russia over a 200-year period, including the rebellions led by Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev.

Many went to the Cossacks, knowing that the Cossacks would accept refugees and free them.

Cossacks experienced difficulties under Tsar Alexis as more refugees arrived daily.

Divisions among the Cossacks began to emerge as conditions worsened and Mikhail's son Alexis took the throne.

Older Cossacks began to settle and become prosperous, enjoying privileges earned through obeying and assisting the Muscovite system.

The old Cossacks started giving up the traditions and liberties that had been worth dying for, to obtain the pleasures of an elite life.

The Cossacks were Razin's main supporters, and followed him during his first Persian campaign in 1667, plundering and pillaging Persian cities on the Caspian Sea.

Muscovy tried to gain support from the old Cossacks, asking the ataman, or Cossack chieftain, to prevent Razin from following through with his plans.

Cossacks's reply was that the elite Cossacks were powerless against the band of rebels.

The elder Cossacks began to see the rebels' advance as a problem, and in 1671 decided to comply with the government in order to receive more subsidies.

Under Catherine the Great, beginning in 1762, the Russian peasants and Cossacks again faced increased taxation, heavy military conscription, and grain shortages, as before Razin's rebellion.

Many Yaik Cossacks believed Pugachev's claim, although those closest to him knew the truth.

The Don Cossacks refused to help the final phase of the revolt, knowing that military troops were closely following Pugachev after lifting the siege of Orenburg, and following his flight from defeated Kazan.

Related searches

The ordinary Cossacks had to follow and give up their traditions and liberties.

Many of the Cossacks who had remained loyal to the Russian Monarch and continued their service later moved to the Kuban.

Cossacks were considered excellent for scouting and reconnaissance duties, and for ambushes.

Increasingly as the 19th century went on, the Cossacks served as a mounted para-military police force in all of the various provinces of the vast Russian Empire, covering a territory stretching across Eurasia from what is modern Poland to the banks of the river Amur that formed the Russian-Chinese border.

Traditionally, Cossacks were viewed in Russia as dashing, romantic horsemen with a rebellious and wild aura about them, but their deployment as a mounted police force gave them a "novel" image as a rather violent and thuggish police force fiercely committed to upholding the social order.

Alexander granted his request and later in 1879 a group of 9 Cossacks led by Kuban Cossack Colonel Aleksey Domantovich arrived in Tehran to train the Persian Cossack Brigade.

The uniforms of the Cossacks were based on the flamboyant costumes of the peoples of the Caucasus, and what in Russia were viewed as exotic and colorful uniforms were viewed in Iran as a symbol of Russianness.

In September 1906, reflecting the success of the Cossacks in putting down the Revolution of 1905, Polkovnik Vladimir Liakhov was sent to Iran to command the train and lead the Persian Cossack Brigade.

In late 1918 and early 1919, widespread desertion and defection among Don, Ural, and Orenburg Cossacks fighting with the Whites produced a military crisis that was exploited by the Red Army in those sectors.

Ultimately, the de-Cossackization campaign led to a renewed rebellion among Cossacks in Soviet-occupied districts, and produced a new round of setbacks for the Red Army in 1919.

Cossacks who remained abroad settled primarily in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France, Xinjiang, and Manchuria.

Cossacks who were determined to carry on the fight against communism frequently found employment with foreign powers hostile to Soviet Russia.

Cossacks have taken an active part in many of the conflicts that have taken place since the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Cossacks was elected by the Host members at a Cossack rada, as were the other important officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and the clergy.

Russian Cossacks are divided into two broad groups: the Stepnoy, those of the Steppes, and the Kavkas, those of the Caucusus.

Russian Cossacks founded numerous settlements and fortresses along troublesome borders.

Cossacks interacted with nearby peoples, and exchanged cultural influences.

Cossacks initially relied on raiding, herding, fishing and hunting, despising agriculture as lowly.

Rural Cossacks often observe traditional kinship systems, living in large clans of extended family.

Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealising freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against their enemies have contributed to this favorable image.

Related searches

One of Leo Tolstoy's first novellas, The Cossacks, depicts their autonomy and estrangement from Moscow and from centralized rule.

The video game Cossacks: European Wars is a Ukrainian-made game series influenced by Cossack culture.

Cossacks have reestablished all of their hosts, and have taken over police and even administrative duties in their homelands.

Cossacks has the authority to recognize and dissolve new hosts.

Four regiments of Cossacks formed part of the Imperial Guard, as well as the Konvoi—the tsar's mounted escort.

Ethnic, or "born", Cossacks are those who can trace, or claim to trace, their ancestry to people and families identified as Cossack in the Tsarist era.