Cossacks In the Russian Empire

Conquest of Siberia by Yermak, painting by Vasily Surikov.

From the start, relations of Cossacks with the Tsardom of Russia were varied; at
times they supported Russian military operations, and at others conducted rebel
lions against the central power. After one of those uprisings at the end of the
18th century, Russian forces destroyed the Zaporozhian Host. Many of the Cossack
s who chose to stay loyal to the Russian Monarch and continue their service late
r moved to the Kuban. Others choosing to continue a mercenary role escaped contr
ol by taking advantage of the large Danube delta.
By the 19th century, the Russian Empire had annexed the territory of the hosts a
nd controlled them by providing privileges for their service. At this time the C
ossacks served as military forces in many wars conducted by the Russian Empire.
Cossacks were considered excellent for scouting and reconnaissance duties, as we
ll as undertaking ambushes. Their tactics in open battles were generally inferio
r to those of regular soldiers such as the Dragoons. In 1840 the hosts included
the Don, Black Sea, Astrakhan, Little Russia, Azov, Danube, Ural, Stavropol, Mes
herya, Orenburg, Siberia, Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Sabaikal, Yakutsk
and Tartar voiskos. By the 1890s the Ussuri, Semirechensk and Amur Cossacks were
added; the last had a regiment of elite mounted rifles.[85]
Cossack patrol near Baku oil fields, 1905
By the end of the 19th century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax
-free status in the Russian Empire, although they had a 20-year military service
commitment (this was reduced to 18 years from 1909). They were on active duty f
or five years, but could fulfill their remaining obligation with the reserves. I
n the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million. T
hey were organized as independent regional hosts, each comprising a number of re
giments.
Treated as a separate and elite community by the Tsar, the Cossacks rewarded his
government with strong loyalty. His administration frequently used Cossack unit
s to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 190
5. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the
Cossacks. By the early 20th century, their decentralized communities and semi-fe
udal military service were coming to be seen as obsolete. The Russian Army Comma
nd, which had worked to professionalize its forces, considered the Cossacks as l
ess well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussars, dragoons, and lancer
s of the regular cavalry.[86] The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-ridi
ng skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were fre
quently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or pictur
esque escorts.
Cossacks in World War I and February Revolution[edit]
Wiosna roku 1905 (Spring of 1905)
Cossacks patrol atUjazdowskie Avenue inWarsaw, p
icture of 1906 byStanis aw Mas owski (National Museum in Warsaw)
At the outbreak of World War I the mounted Cossacks made up 38 regiments, plus s
ome infantry battalions and 52 horse artillery batteries. By 1916 their wartime
strength had expanded to 160 regiments plus 176 independent sotnias (squadrons),
the latter employed as detached units.[87]While about a third of the regular Ru
ssian cavalry was dismounted in 1916 to serve as infantry, the Cossack arm remai
ned essentially unaffected by modernization.
During the initial stages of the February Revolution of 1917, the three Cossack
regiments stationed in Saint Petersburg proved in the words of a senior officer
to be "extremely slack and indecisive" when deployed in support of the overstret
ched police. While less than three thousand Cossack reservists and new recruits
from the poorer regions of the Don and Kuban regions were involved, their inacti
on (and that of the primarily ceremonial Konvoi) came as a psychological blow to
the Tsarist authorities in the city and encouraged defections from other units.

[88]
Civil War, Decossackization and Holodomor of 1932 33[edit]
In the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution, various Cossacks
supported each side of the conflict. Cossacks formed the core of the White Army,
but many also fought with the Red Army. Some Cossack units in the Ukrainian ser
vice participated in pogroms against Jews in Ukraine.[89] Following the defeat o
f the White Army, the new Communist regime instituted a policy of harsh repressi
ons, the so-calledDecossackization, which took place on the surviving Cossacks a
nd their homelands. In 2003, historian Shane O'Rourke announced finding document
ary evidence that the Soviets had issued orders for exterminating the Cossacks,
and that "ten thousand Cossacks were slaughtered systematically in a few weeks i
n January 1919."[90] He says this "was one of the main factors which led to the
disappearance of the Cossacks as a nation."[90] During Decossackization, the new
regime also divided traditional lands of Cossack Hosts among new Soviet republi
cs and various autonomous republics of non-Cossack peoples. Cossacks were banned
from serving in the Red Army.
Histories of the 21st century document that hundreds of thousands of Cossacks we
re killed by the Soviet Government during Decossackization. According to Michael
Kort, "During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, th
e Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks",
[91] including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks.[92] The Denikin regime alleged that i
n 1918 19, 5,598 were executed in the provinces of the Don; 3,442 in the Kuban; and
2,142 in Stavropol. Historian Leonid Futorianskiy disputes these recent claims.
He argues that during the preceding White Terror of the Krasnov regime, between
25 and 40 thousand Cossacks were killed.[93] The Cossack homelands were often ve
ry fertile. During the Soviets' 1930s collectivisation campaign, many Cossacks w
ere killed or died of starvation, as did the kulaks.
The Soviet famine of 1932 33, called Holodomor by Cossacks,[94] impacted the people
very hard. Ukraine, lower Volga, Don, Kuban, and Terek territories (the Northern
Caucasus) had high fatalities from starvation.[94] The famine caused a populati
on decline of about 20 30% in these territories (the population decline in the rural
areas, populated largely by ethnic Cossacks, was even higher, since urban areas
were less affected by the famine); Robert Conquest estimates the number of fami
ne-related deaths in the Northern Caucasus to be about 1 million.[95] Government
officials expropriated grain and other produce from rural Cossack families, lea
ving them to starve and die.[96] Many families were forced from their homes in t
he severe winter and froze to death[96]
Mikhail Sholokhov's letters to Joseph Stal
in document the conditions and widespread deaths,[97] as do eyewitness accounts.
[94][96]
In 1936, under pressure and appeals from Cossack communities, the Soviet governm
ent lifted the ban on Cossacks serving in the Red Army.[98]