Quotes about the Cossacks and the Cossacks. Statements about the Cossacks of prominent Russian emigrants

From an article by A.P. Bogaevsky

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“The Bolsheviks, with the words of Trotsky, declared a cruel war on the Cossacks. From February 1918 to this day, the daily extermination of the Cossacks has not stopped. In the war, referring to starvation in the northern provinces for hard work, by shooting several hundred Cossacks deceived by the French, returning to the Don, the Bolsheviks and the Cossacks finish off. There is no longer any law, right or truth - the Cossacks are simply beaten, like Russian people who did not want to forget either their Russian blood or the holy Orthodox faith. And if the dominion of the Bolsheviks continues, nothing Cossack will remain in Russia.”

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Don Cossack Nikolai Turoverov:

“Without Russia and outside of Russia, the Cossacks did not have, do not have and cannot have roads!”

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From a letter of Nekrasov Cossacks to Ataman Bogaevsky (1921)

“You write that our grandfathers left their native Russia, avoiding the persecution of the cruel authorities. We consider it our duty to declare that we consider any authority legally established to be from God and did not know cruelty from it in Russia, but went away from the insults of our own Cossack brothers, who did not agree with us in church hopes and for the most part did not sympathize with our views, the last and made our fathers depart from evil into the creation of good. And now, for more than two hundred years, we have found shelter in Turkey, and, living here, having preserved all our quests, customs and faith, we continue to be faithful sons of the Church of Christ and offer prayers for the Russian Tsar to this day, praying to the Almighty for the speedy end of the summer of interregnum.

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May Christ the Savior protect you and the army of the Don, and may He send the Sovereign Crown Bearer to Russia, who can pacify and introduce truth and order in Holy Rus'.

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Don Ataman, General Krasnov:

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Don Ataman, General Kaledin:

“Russia must be united. Any separate aspirations must be set at the very bud.

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Don Ataman, General Krasnov:

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The position of the glorious Kuban Shkuro in relation to Russia and the independents:

After Pokrovsky, I spoke, greeted with shouts of "Hurrah" and stormy applause from the Rada. Excited and excited by the warm reception, I delivered a speech, carrying out the same idea as Pokrovsky, but expressed it in a milder formulation. I ended my speech with a toast for the commander-in-chief, for the Kuban army, the Cossacks and Russia.

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Ryabovol asked me to nominate my candidacy for atamans.

- You are a natural Cossack, and all our hope is on you. Support us,” he urged me, but I decisively rejected this proposal, referring to the fact that I was still young for such a post, inexperienced in politics, and besides, an enemy of the separatist tendencies of the left elements of the Rada and a supporter of Veli which Russia.

Shkuro.

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IN Shkuro's reminiscences of how the descendants of the Zaporizhian Cossacks perceived themselves:

They did not share Petlyura's separatist ideals at all and were not at all interested in him, considering him to be something like an eccentric, a psychopath.

— What kind of Ukrainians are we, we are Russians, they declared, only we are Cossacks.

The fact is that the left-bank Khokhols - direct descendants of the Cossacks - were proud of their nickname "Cossacks" and dreamed of restoring the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks.

(A. G. Shkuro. Notes of a white partisan)

It is noteworthy that the descendants of the Cossacks did not see any contradiction in the fact that they are both Cossacks and Russians. Such double identification apparently did not bother Shkuro either. But for some reason, modern Cossacks raise the question in the context of OR-OR, as if the Cossacks are not Russians.

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P lastwords Ataman Don Cossacks, P.N. Krasnova, a kind of testament to his nephew Nikolai (who went through 10 years of camps after Lienz ...). These words help in many ways to understand Krasnov's understanding of his entire life path, his struggle, his choices during and after the Civil War:

“... Bitter truth is always more expensive than sweet lies. It was enough self-praise and self-deception, self-consolation, with which our emigration was sick all the time. Do you see where the fear has led us all to look the truth in the eye and admit our delusions and mistakes? We have always overestimated our strength and underestimated the enemy. If it were the other way around, life would not end like this now ...

Whatever happens, don't you dare hate Russia. Not she, not the Russian people - the culprits of universal suffering. Not in him, not in the people, lies the cause of all misfortunes. There was a change. There was sedition. Those who were the first to love and protect their homeland did not love their homeland enough. It all started from above, Nikolai. From those who stood between the throne and the breadth of the people... Russia has been and will be. Maybe not the one, not in a boyar outfit, but in a sermyag and bast shoes, but she will not die. You can destroy millions of people, but they will be replaced by new ones. The people will not die. Everything will change when the time comes. Stalin and the Stalins will not live forever. They will die, and many changes will come... The resurrection of Russia will take place gradually. Not right away. Such a huge body cannot recover immediately ... ".

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Cry of Ataman Dutov

The veche bell of the Cossacks hums loudly and authoritatively. From the distant Don rushes his ringing.

Older brother! Your alarm was heard by the sons of the Urals, they have been waiting for it for a long time. They've been fighting for two years for the great Mother Russia and a free Cossack will.

Grebensky, Sunzhensky, Labinsk, Black Sea, the entire stormy Terek and the glorious Kuban again took up their watchtowers and vigilantly protect Rus'.

Irtysh, remembering the past, sent the descendants of Yermak to strengthen Russian statehood.

And the alarm is getting stronger and stronger, and its sounds are floating in the air wider and wider.
So they reached the Amur and Baikal, joyfully responded in the hearts of the Cossacks, and the formidable regiments grow and grow.

And the alarm is buzzing.

The distant Ussuri stretched out and, hearing native sounds, started up and merged into the general current.

And the alarm sounds...

Quiet Semirechye, squeezed close to China, stretches its hands to its brothers and rejoices at the quick relief, having heard invocative sounds.

Astrakhan is convulsing, but the joyful ringing of the Cossack bell inspires the sons of the Volga.

And the alarm is getting louder and louder...

Sound you too, dear stanitsa, in your veche bells, and you too, sound the tocsin in your villages.

Light the signal milestones...

All the Cossacks stood up, stood up firmly, and there is no end to it.

From the Black Sea to the shores of the Ocean, regiments are menacingly moving. Steel peaks sway like forests.

The old Cossack rejoices, it is easy for him to die, seeing the friendship and power of the Cossack, seeing that the children did not shame his gray hair and remember the former glory.

The young Cossack also rejoices that God brought him to take part in the defense of the Cossack's freedom and to thank Nurse Rus for her worries.

Become, Cossack, denser.

Let the red, crimson, blue and yellow stripes show the whole world that the Cossack is still alive, his fiery heart is alive, his spirit is alive, and his free blood flows quickly, and there is no power to topple this age-old community.

On the blood and bones of their ancestors. free hunting-comon people, Cossack nests were created

Eternally free, alien to intrigues, the Cossack communities always stand for the right of the state. And the Cossack, who is always free, cannot allow unbridledness, betrayal and the sale of his Motherland.

The Cossack was and is a faithful son of the Motherland and loves her more than his life.

And the alarm is buzzing and buzzing.

And the old Cossack takes off his grandfather's sword from the wall, leaves to the defense of Orthodox Rus'.

And the violent heads of young people bow before the gray Cossack head, and their cheerful laughter subsides.

Glory to you. Quiet Don; glory to the exuberant Terek; the glory of the beautiful Kuban; glory to the free Urals; glory to the old Irtysh; glory to the cold Baikal; Glory to Amur and Ussuri.

Free villagers hear the alarm, and its sounds are joyful to them.

Rus' is great, Rus' is quiet, homespun, Rus' is Orthodox; Do you hear the Cossack alarm. Wake up, dear, and strike all the bells in your old Kremlin - Moscow, and your alarm will be heard everywhere .

Cast off, great people, the foreign, German yoke.

And the sounds of Veche Cossack bells will merge with your Kremlin chime, and Great Rus', Orthodox Rus' will be indivisible.

Sound the alarm, Russian people, beat harder, call your sons, and we will all be friends for holy Rus' ...

Newspaper "Russian East" (Chita),

Published according to the almanac "Cossack Circle"

Essays on the history of the Cossacks of the Don and the Lower Volga. "The border gave birth to the Cossacks, and the Cossacks created Russia." L.N. Tolstoy Volgograd region is the cradle of three Cossack troops: Don, Astrakhan and Volga. Each Cossack army has its own path, its own history, but there is much in common. The Russian Cossacks played an outstanding role in the formation, territorial expansion, protection and strengthening of the Russian state. Over the centuries-old history, the Cossacks have done a huge creative work, filled with numerous feats and victories, as well as hardships and losses that fell on the heroic and tragic fate of the Russian Cossacks. As a special ethno-cultural community, the Cossacks managed to create a unique system of organization and management, which was based on the democratic principles of democracy. The experience of the Cossack social life is of great value and worthy of deep and lengthy study. In chronological order, this publication includes the most important historical periods and events of the formation, development, decline and new revival of the ethno-cultural community of the Cossacks within the country and the Volgograd region. Therefore, the presentation of local material is given in close connection with the history of the Russian state. Based on specific historical events and examples, the outstanding role of Cossack societies and individuals in serving the Fatherland is shown, the military-patriotic traditions of the Cossacks of the Don and the Lower Volga, the richest layer of spiritual culture, the life and way of life of the Cossacks from its inception to the present day are highlighted. The study of the history of the Cossacks of their native land within the time frame of Part I of the Essays is intended to ensure the formation among young people, including Cossacks, of feelings of patriotism, love for the Fatherland, tolerance, respect for the history and culture of all ethnic groups of Russia, strengthening friendship and cooperation between the peoples of our country. The publication includes an introduction and eight chapters, as well as a list of literature used in the preparation of the manual and recommended for further study of the history of the Cossacks. After each chapter, questions and tasks are formulated, aimed at consolidating the material covered, enhancing the cognitive activity of students by involving additional sources in the study, including archival documentaries, Cossack folklore, works of art and living testimonies. In all chapters of the publication, the authors tried to pay special attention to personalities, give their brief biographical information, give explanations for incomprehensible words and terms, and illustrate the presentation of the material with appropriate maps. The publication is intended primarily for young students, as well as for all those interested in the history of the Cossacks. These Essays represent the first part, covering the historical period of the birth of the Cossacks of the Don and the Lower Volga and ending with the events of World War I. I. Tolstopyatov, Ph.D., Assoc. worker of the RSFSR

How the role of the Cossacks in the life of the Russian state was assessed by the military leaders of the tsarist army, historians, writers, politicians who lived in exile. The statements are taken from the book “Cossacks. Thoughts of contemporaries about the past, present and future of the Cossacks, published by the Cossack Union in Paris in 1928.

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A. P. BOGAEVSKY, Donskoy Ataman, lieutenant general of the tsarist army.

... Personally, I, a natural Don Cossack, proudly recall the glorious past of my native Cossacks and cheerfully, with bright hope, think about its future.

The phenomenon of exclusively Russian historical life, which was not in any state of the world - the Cossacks from violent freemen, who boldly fought with warlike neighbors, gradually turns into an inseparable part of the Russian state, but with a special way of life and its customs, and becomes a faithful knight Russia.

Of course, not everything in his past was good. There were times when the Don, Ural and other Cossacks brought a lot of trouble and trouble to the Russian government...

However, all this did not prevent the Cossacks in the difficult days of Russia's life from giving all their strength not to its defense.

Vivid examples of this are the total (from the age of 17) participation in the Patriotic War of 1812 of the Don Army, which fielded over 50,000 fighters, of whom up to 20,000 died; in the Crimean War - 82,000; in the Great War - up to 300,000 people, and the tension of the Cossack troops in this war was so great that, for example, the Kuban already in 1916 was no longer able to put more Cossacks into service ...

Whatever the future power in Rus', the Cossack troops will exist. Common sense suggests that the state needs such a healthy, vigorous population accustomed to order. The Cossacks will submit to any new power that will give order and the opportunity to work in peace. It is not at all going to separate from Russia and form its own fantastic Cossack republics, as some of our “independents” dream of this. The Cossacks are well aware that, in addition to moral grounds, such a separation will cause an infinite number of all sorts of complications, not only in relations with Russia, which the Cossacks cannot consider some kind of foreign power, but also within the army, when you have to rely only on your own strength.

But at the same time, ready to serve Russia as an inseparable part of it, the Cossacks have the right to internal self-government and to free it from that exclusive guardianship that manifested itself before the revolution in such sometimes strange forms as, for example, the closure of Cossack educational institutions in the 1980s. x years.

With its own elected circle and an ataman elected from among its Cossacks, each army will quickly achieve complete order and prosperity ...

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A. I. DENIKIN, lieutenant general of the tsarist army

1) In the old days, the Cossacks were a reliable stronghold of the Russian state borders in the wild field, in the Caucasian gorges, in the Siberian expanses and the conductor of Russian power there. The Cossack freemen brought a lot of trouble to "Moscow" (the central government) and even entered into armed clashes with it. But this internal strife, caused, in addition to socio-economic reasons, by immoderate centralization from above and sometimes immoderate love of freedom from below, does not detract, however, from the important historical growth that the Cossacks played in the formation of the Russian state.

2) In the later history of Russia, the Cossacks are already settled, settled. It lives on the lands of peace, far from the theaters of war, in conditions different from the rest of the population of life, a well-established economic structure and a certain well-being. These circumstances made the Cossacks less receptive to revolutionary ideas. After all, even in the old days, more slanderous, and not homely Cossacks, rose. And the Cossacks carried honestly, not knowing desertion, the general military service, participating in all the wars waged by Russia. And in its inner life it was not a “blind tool in the hands of the government”, as the radical public believed, but a conscious state-protective principle.

3) With the beginning of the revolution, the Cossacks were confused. It did not want to “go against the people”, and the people “became mad”. Hence - fluctuations, transitions, falls ...

4) In these troubled years, the Cossack mass never and nowhere showed a desire to break away from Russia. The Cossack officers did not get along with the all-Russian elements - this is true. Both sides - one in defending state interests, the other - Cossack liberties - more than once crossed the boundaries of the necessary. But only a part of the Cossack leaders were sick of independence - some out of delusion, others - selfishly. Ideas such as “the Kubans are an independent branch of the Slavic tribe” ... or about “an independent Cossack nation” were born among people with mournful heads or with a corrupt conscience and did not, cannot have a response in the Cossack mass, who recognizes himself by blood and to the bones Russian .

5) The future of the Cossacks is presented in this form.

The state will free the Cossacks from bearing excessive hardships, but will not endow them with special privileges against their other sons. This last circumstance is not terrible for the Cossacks, since the future structure of the Russian state is conceived as a regional one, on the basis of dispersal of power and broad local autonomies. If, according to cultural and economic conditions, the limits of autonomies will be different, then the Cossacks inhabiting continuous territories have the right to the most favorable conditions for self-government. Within its limits, no doubt, the Cossacks will freely preserve those forms of power, administration, economy and life that are consecrated by historical tradition and are loved by them.

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N. D. AVKSENT'EV, former Minister of the Provisional Government.

... Attachment to the forms of one's social life, one's self-government is the result of the habit of self-government and the ability to appreciate and use it. Attraction to self-organization. Employability, perseverance, resourcefulness and the ability to adapt to new conditions, without giving up, however, at the same time from one's individual or national. Finally, a great, inner love for their small Motherland - the Cossack regions, combined with love for the great Motherland - for Russia.

I know, of course, about the movement of independence among the Cossacks, I also know about the disagreements between certain groups, and about certain failures in the field of landing on the ground. But despite this, for the majority of the Cossacks I consider my characterization to be true ...

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M. A. ALDANOV, Russian writer.

... The concept of the Cossacks in itself is not quite definite. If I'm not mistaken, in Russia there were (and still are?) 11 Cossack troops - neither in anthropological terms, nor in the service class, or even in everyday life, they do not constitute a homogeneous whole.

The future of the Cossacks, of course, is closely connected with the future of all of Russia. There is no need to prove this: centuries are very rarely deleted from history.

That excellent feature of the Cossacks, which you mention and, as a result, which the Cossacks were called free, is both its strongest and weakest side ...

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N. I. ASTROV, public figure.

The Cossacks are a peculiar phenomenon of Russian history. This is a kind of effective force that participated in the construction of the Russian state ...

But together with the Russian people, as an indivisible part of it, it created its borders, being the frontier stronghold of the Russian land, not only colonized its distant outskirts, it, together with the Russian people, created both the economic well-being and power of Russia.

No matter how cunning conjectures and cunning intricacies are invented in our gloomy days in large and small foreign and, to our shame, Russian political kitchens, no matter how demagogues and traitors strive to tear the Cossacks away from Russia, proclaiming it a special Cossack people, the creative participation of the Cossacks in Russian history is sealed with blood. And this seal is forever. Her "fire will not melt, water will not wash away" ...

The fate of the Cossacks is the fate of the Russian people. And the closer the interaction between them, the stronger the organic and spiritual connection, the sooner this fate will change and become clear. The sooner will a free Cossacks arise in a free Russia.

Throughout a long history, the Cossacks not only served the state. It fought for its beloved ideals of equality and self-government, which did not find their realization in the general state orders ...

The way to deliverance is not in separatism, not in the dismemberment of Russia and in the implementation of the principles of true democracy. Under these conditions, the old covenants will find their way into the dear dreams of the free Cossacks.

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A.F. Kerensky, former chairman of the Provisional Government.

... In the future, internal, free and federal Russia, there will be no reason for psychological alienation between individual everyday groups of the Russian people.

By including the Cossacks in the concept of the Russian people, I by no means encroach on the peculiar originality of the Cossack regions. The diversity of local political and social structures only enriches the All-Russian culture, multiplies the creative possibilities of the people, and thereby strengthens the state.

It is quite natural that in the new conditions of free internal state building, the Cossacks within their regions will erase the line between themselves and the so-called non-residents. After all, some local class-military pre-revolutionary "privileges" only covered up the exceptional military hardships that the Cossacks carried and which in fact radically undercut their economic power ...

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A. A. KIZEVETTER, former member of the State Duma, historian, professor.

Two conditions seem to me necessary for the Russian Cossacks to be a fruitful element in the process of internal organization of the future Russia:

1. The future Russian state power will have to build political unity. Russia is not about the suppression of local characteristics of individual regions of the state, but on the development of their internal initiative. Therefore, the Cossack regions will also have to preserve the historically established originality of their way of life.
2. At the same time, the Cossacks themselves will have to prevent two currents fraught with dangerous consequences from taking root in their midst:

a) the idealization of their entire historical past, in which not only the “principles of equality and brotherhood” operated, but also a rather pronounced social struggle between the upper and lower strata of the Cossacks, with all the inevitable consequences of such social dismemberment and inequality;

b) the desire to break the historical tradition, which consisted in the fact that the Cossacks have always thought of themselves as an integral element of the all-Russian statehood and an outpost of its self-defense from external enemies; this genuine historical tradition is now being distorted by those representatives of the Cossacks who, for the sake of independent tendencies and contrary to historical truth, put forward absurd theories that the Cossacks are a special nation, separate from the Russian people.

Respect for genuine historical traditions, not distorted for the sake of biased tendencies, combined with sober political realism - this is what can serve as the only reliable guarantee of the further prosperity of the Cossacks, as one of the independent cells of the Russian state organism.

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General P. P. SKOROPADSKY, former hetman of Ukraine.

…Unfortunately, in elemental times, currents abound, pushing for strife and for the destruction of the present in the name of the past or the future. These currents, negative in their essence, usually give victory to the third ... But the formula "Independence and Union", laid in 1918 as the cornerstone of the agreement between the Independent Ukraine and the Great Don Army, has not lost its significance to this day. Vice versa. The past and present indicate that all those who want to avoid new upheavals, bloodshed and fratricide in the future should lean towards this formula, because it gives breadth and flexibility for the organic resolution of national, economic, social and political antagonisms on the basis of friendly cooperation and thereby contributes to the tension of energies towards creativity, not destruction.

Only this path, directed beyond extremes, can lead to fellowship and cooperation between neighbors...

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P. B. STRUVE, academician, public and political figure.

For those who meaningfully peer into the history of Rus' - Russia, there is no question of whether the Cossacks in this history justified their existence as a special and peculiar force.

Cossack freemen played a double role in the history of Russia.

Firstly, as the only free force taxable in the rest of Russia, as the only free “world” in the great Russian sea of ​​taxable “worlds”.

So it was before the emancipation of Russia, which began in 1762 and was completed in its essence in 1861.

Secondly, as a world or worlds - freely organized, with their freedom gathered into some kind of military brotherhoods among the rest of the free dispersed bulk of the Russian people - the Cossacks, or, more precisely, the Cossacks were and remain the only phenomenon in Russian political reality. The Cossacks are not the essence of the state and at the same time they are not just free communities of randomly and temporarily converged, dust-people carried by the historical wind.

In the future state-building of Great Russia, the Cossacks (I deliberately use the plural here) will more clearly than before reveal their state character, and at the same time, having become more self-lawful ("autonomous"), they will even more clearly reveal their original nature as a special freemen.

How this will happen, no one can say, but all Russian Cossacks and non-Cossacks need to understand and think over the great historical, at the same time, living value of the Cossacks. The Cossacks have a great past, but they also have a future, and a great calling in this future.

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MM. FYODOROV, former minister (before the revolution).

... On the outskirts, the Cossacks were one of the main planters and conductors of Russian culture, the Russian language, Russian statehood, and in this sense, its historical role is undeniable. Both free and service Cossacks always carried out the service of Russia with honor. In times of great trials, the majority of the Cossacks remained true to the Russian state idea and defended Russian state unity...

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A. I. KUPRIN, Russian writer.

Let my eyes not see the hoped-for happiness of Russia, but just as I unshakably believe in the coming recovery and renewal of Great Russia, I believe in the future inextricable link between the Cossacks and her. Centuries of common history, common wars, common religion, common interests, common language speak for this. I confess: regional, private interests and the question of the form of a fraternal union are in the background for me. I only know that it would never occur to the Cossacks to rave about independence, prompted by artificial chauvinism and hatred instigated by a spoon. The old beautiful formula is valuable to me: “We bow to you, White Stone Moscow, and we are Cossacks, on the Quiet Don.”

Cossack liberties will be cherished for our descendants. Justice demands to say that the government of pre-revolutionary times, which still remembered past troubles and troubled years, was not particularly careful with them. But an alliance with a free man is stronger than an alliance with a slave…

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A. S. LUKOMSKY, lieutenant general of the tsarist army.

The Cossacks are blood from blood, flesh from the flesh of the Russian people. It often in an aggravated form reflects both positive and negative character traits of the people who singled out the Cossacks from their environment.

The history of the Cossacks is the history of the expansion of the Russian state, its strengthening and its construction. Having played an exceptional role in the expansion of Russia, the Cossacks, at the same time, in all periods of the life of Russia, both in external complications and in periods of internal unrest, almost always, with selfless devotion to the common Motherland, helped to overcome impending disasters and contributed to the strengthening of the central state power.

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P. N. MILYUKOV, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, historian, professor.

... The strong side is the "broad principles of democracy, brotherhood, equality" indicated in the "questionnaire". Obviously, these features will have to be strengthened and developed in a democratic-republican Russia. And one can only rejoice that these principles live in the consciousness of the Cossacks, separating them from the old Russia and facilitating their transition to the new Russia. The "weak" sides of the Cossacks, I think, are common to him with those aspects of all-Russian life. The nature of the class privilege that separates the Cossacks from other groups of the population, the lack of culture of the agricultural masses, the vices inherent in this level of enlightenment, the feeling of solidarity, both local and all-Russian, that has not passed from instinct into consciousness - all this does not threaten the further existence of the Cossacks, but is subject to mitigation and elimination in the environment of national development, which will be given to the new Russia.

... It is also impossible to subordinate the vital interests of the Cossacks to party, political tendencies, whose supporters argue something like this:

The Cossacks are an estate, therefore, for its existence, an estate system is needed, and therefore, a monarchy is needed.

We will not argue whether the Cossacks are an estate. But their history is not so simple. There were Cossacks without monarchs. And there are monarchies without Cossacks. And if a monarchist is able to think stately, then he must come to the same conclusions that are obligatory for a state-minded republican ...

STATEMENTS ABOUT COSSACKS AND COSSACKS

“The Cossacks have always played an important role in the formation of our statehood: they served the state faithfully, discovered Siberia, the Far East, founded new cities, developed the economy of our large country. Today, the traditions of the Cossacks are being revived. I think that it makes no sense to say that the state is interested in realizing the potential of the Cossacks in our country, in solving those joint tasks that were traditionally solved by the state together with the Cossacks: naturally, in strengthening our country as a whole, in educating young people, strengthening the military patriotic traditions. All this is important in any situation, but it is probably of particular importance at a time when the country is being tested in one way or another. And such trials, unfortunately, as they were, continue to be…”. (From the speech of the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev at a meeting with the Cossack chieftains on March 12, 2009 at the residence of the President of Russia in the village of Gorki).

“I am very pleased that the revival of the Cossacks is taking place, the revival of the unique and original culture of the Cossacks, their role in the life of the Russian state is increasing, and, perhaps most importantly, the feeling of patriotism that has always been inherent in the Cossacks is growing. It can be said without exaggeration that patriotism in the country is growing, and the Cossacks set a good example with their work and their attitude towards the Motherland. (From the conversation of the President of Russia V.V. Putin during a meeting with the Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Cossack Affairs, Hero of Russia, Colonel-General G.N. Troshev on May 30, 2007).

“The patriotism of the Cossacks, their devotion to national interests are becoming more and more in demand these days. It is no coincidence that military units of the Ministry of Defense, including frontier posts and ships of the fleet, are equipped with Cossacks. They are involved in the protection of public order and the state borders of Russia. (From the greeting of the Governor of the Moscow Region, Hero of the Soviet Union B.V. Gromov to the participants of the Great Circle of the Cossack troops of the Russian Federation on May 25, 2003, in Stavropol).

“The moral guidelines of the Cossack youth remain the same: this is spirituality, this is the strengthening of our Orthodox faith, the strengthening of our Cossack forces, and therefore, today, in my opinion, grandiose transformations are taking place for the Cossacks. Our President made it clear to all forces, the whole society that he believes in the Cossacks, that the Cossacks have always faithfully served the Russian state, preserved Russia and increased Russia. And we, the descendants of our famous ancestors, must continue this important and necessary work.” (From the speech of the Supreme Ataman of the Union of Cossack troops of Russia and abroad, Ataman of the Great Don Army, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Cossack General V.P. Vodolatsky on II th International Congress of Orthodox Cossack Youth May 15-17, 2009).

“The experience gained by the Russian Cossacks in the protection of public order, in the creation of cadet corps, Cossack educational institutions, in cooperation with border guards, the Russian army and navy, in the protection of biological resources, environmental activities, and the education of the younger generation, should be used in the Astrakhan region. The Cossacks have always served, are serving and will continue to serve Russia…” (From the address of the Governor of the Astrakhan Region, Cossack Colonel A.A. Zhilkin to the delegates of the Large Circle of the Astrakhan District Cossack Society of the Military Cossack Society “The Great Don Army”, September 2007).

“The Cossacks have always been one of the social forces influencing the development of a centralized state. The Cossacks were the defenders of the country, eventually turning into a serious military force that the state used against its opponents ... The Cossack communities were a kind of military brotherhood bound by the bonds of the community, faith, Orthodoxy ... ”(From the appeal of the Archbishop of Astrakhan and Enotaevsky, His Eminence Jonah to the delegates Large circle of the Astrakhan District Cossack Society of the Military Cossack Society "Great Don Army", September 2007).

“Creating conditions and incentives for the further development of the original Cossack culture, Cossack youth military sports societies, patriotic clubs, the introduction of Cossack education and the improvement of work in the field of military patriotic education of young people on the heroic past and present will be the key to faithful service to our Fatherland of the new generations of Cossacks. (From the speech of the Vice-Governor - ChairmanGovernment of the Astrakhan Region K.A. Markelov on I th meeting of the working group on the affairs of the Cossacks of the Astrakhan region on April 10, 2009).

Bubnov - Taras Bulba

In 1907, an argo 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 these are 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. Kasogs (Kasakhs, Kasaks, Ka-azats) are an ancient Circassian people who inhabited the territory of the lower Kuban in the X-XIV centuries, and wanderers are a mixed people of Turkic-Slavic origin, who absorbed the remnants of the Bulgars, Slavs, and also, possibly, the steppe Oguzes.

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 of ​​\u200b\u200bthe modern city of 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 Kiev 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 an original 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 heart 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 Rus' in the Battle of Kulikovo. Others, on the contrary, argue that the Cossacks were already on the side of Rus' 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, 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.