Russian Ethnic Clothes: Cossack History


Figure 1.--We have no information on this image, but believe the boy is a Russian who was dresed up as a Cossack to have his photograph taken. Russian boys before the Revolutioin were taught that the Cossaks were intrepid frontiersmen who opened Siberia and helped desimate Napoleon's Grand Army. Image coutesy of the MD collection.

There are many legendary figures in Cossack history. One of the most famous is Yermack who in the 16th century led the Cossocks into Siberia, fighting indigenous tribes. Bogdan in the 17th century was the scourge of the Poles, avening the murder of his son and mistress. Stenka Razin terrorized the Turks. Other Cossacks like Mazeppa and Pugachev, threatened the Tsarist throne. The Cossacks are perhaps best known for effectively harassed Napoleon's Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow after the 1812 invasion. The retreat began as an orderly withdrawl back to Warsaw and supplies prepositioned in Poland. The Cossacks who by the 19th century were the main element in the Tsarist calvary, began to prey on stranglers and the long drawn out French line of retreat. Gradually the Cossacks and Russian Army turned the Grande Armée into fleeing rabel. Napoleon himself escaped. His Army was virtually destroyed. Napoleon called them "a disgrace to the human race". The Cossacks took no prisionors and robbed the dead and dying. French soldiers referred to them as the "vultures of the battlefield". The Cossacks played a role in the Great Game, the contest between Russia and Britain over Central Russia. In the Russian Revolution, many Cossacks supported the Tsar but were suppressed by the Red Army. They were percecuted by Stalin in the 1930s. Some fought with the Germans and were either killed in the War or by Stlain after the War.

Origins

The Cossocks originated with people settled the steppes of southeastern Europe in the region around the Black Sea and Caucasian Mountains between the Caspian Sea and the river Volga west to the river Dniester. The Russian steppes was had been crossed again and again by successive migratins and invaders. The Cossacks were the reulting mixture of these peoples and the Slavic people who settled the area. Byzantine writers in the 10th century were the first to described the Cossacks as a separate people who lived along the River Don. They were first mentioned in the old Russian chronicles during 1261.

Siberia

There are many legendary figures in Cossack history. One of the most famous is Yermack who in the 16th century led the Cossocks into Siberia, fighting indigenous tribes.

Poland

Bogdan in the 17th century was the scourge of the Poles, avening the murder of his son and mistress.

Turkey

Stenka Razin terrorized the Turks.

Internal Threat

Other Cossacks like Mazeppa and Pugachev, threatened the Tsarist throne.

Napoleonic Wars

The Cossacks are perhaps best known for effectively harassed Napoleon's Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow after the 1812 invasion. The retreat began as an orderly withdrawl back to Warsaw and supplies prepositioned in Poland. The Cossacks who by the 19th century were the main element in the Tsarist calvary, began to prey on stranglers and the long drawn out French line of retreat. Gradually the Cossacks and Russian Army turned the Grande Armée into fleeing rabel. Napoleon himself escaped. His Army was virtually destroyed. Napoleon called them "a disgrace to the human race". The Cossacks took no prisionors and robbed the dead and dying. French soldiers referred to them as the "vultures of the battlefield".

The Great Game

The Cossacks played a role in the Great Game, the contest between Russia and Britain over Central Russia.

World War I

Cossacks served in the Tsar's Army when World War I broke out in 1914. The Don Cossacks in early 1917 as the Russian Army began desintegrating under remorseless German pressure defected and returned home. Tsar Nicholas II had granted the Cossacks in the Don area. There were about 2 million Cossacks in the Don region as well as 1.8 million peasants. Many had no land, other were tenant farmers.

Russian Revolution

Many Cossacks supported the Tsar in the Russian, but eventually the Cossacks aligned themselves with te Germans who forced the Bolshevicks to sign the humiliating Treaty of Breast-Litosk (1918). The Cossacks wanted to create an independent state under German protection. This might have occurred only American intervention enabled the Allies to defeat the Germans on the Western Front. The Germans were forced to renounce the Breast-Litosk Treaty. Even without German support, the Cossack's refused to accept the authority of the Bolshevick Governmenbt. In particular they opposed the nationalization of their land through the Soviet Land Decree. The Cossacks fought with the Whites in their counter revolution, but primarily in defense of their land in Don area. There were some occassional forrays with the Whites beyond the Don region and conducted vicious pogroms in seized villages and cities. Eventually Bolshevik partisans and the Red Army defeated the Don Cossacks in 1919. They were disarmed and their land distributed to peasants in the region.

Stalinist Terror

They were percecuted by Stalin in the 1930s.

World War II

Cossacks after the NAZI invavion of the Soviet Union fought on both sides of the desperate struggle conducted on the Eastern Front. Precise statistics are not available, but most historiand believe that most Cossacks fought with the Red Army. There were, however, a substantial number that fought with the Germans. Many were employed in bloody German anti-partisan activities. Few had any particular ideological affinity with the NAZIS, but as aresult od Stalimist policies (Collectivization and Decossackization), many were anti-Soviet. They dreamed of an independent or autonomous Cosakia. The British turned over Cossacks that fought with the Germans to the Soviets after the War. The Soviets killed them or committed to the Gulag. They also instituted reprisals aganst the Cossack population.

Sources

Ure, John. The Cossacks: An Illustrated History (Overlook), 288p.






HBC




Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Russian Cossack page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Countries] [Styles]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing ethnic pages:
[Main Russian ethnic page]
[Main ethnic page]
[German] [Greek] [Irish] [Native American] [Scottish]




Created: April 28, 2003
Last updated: 7:08 PM 11/19/2007