Exercise 6. Switching attention . The teacher gives commands:
Visual attention - an object far away (door),
COSSACKS: ORIGIN, HISTORY, ROLE IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
The Cossacks are an ethnic, social and historical community (group) that, due to their specific characteristics, united all Cossacks, primarily Russians, as well as Ukrainians, Kalmyks, Buryats, Bashkirs, Tatars, Evenki, Ossetians, etc., as separate subethnos of their peoples into a single whole. Until 1917, Russian legislation considered the Cossacks as a special military class that had privileges for performing compulsory service. The Cossacks were also defined as a separate ethnos, an independent nationality (the fourth branch of the Eastern Slavs), or even as a special nation of mixed Turkic-Slavic origin. Latest version it was intensively developed in the 20th century by Cossack historians-emigrants.
The origin of the Cossacks
Public organization, everyday life, culture, ideology, ethnopsychic way of life, behavioral stereotypes, folklore of the Cossacks have always significantly differed from the order established in other regions of Russia. The Cossacks originated in the 14th century in the uninhabited steppe spaces between Moscow Russia, Lithuania, Poland and the Tatar khanates. Its formation, which began after the collapse of the Golden Horde, took place in a constant struggle with numerous enemies far from developed cultural centers. No reliable written sources have survived on the first pages of Cossack history. Many researchers tried to discover the origins of the Cossacks in the national roots of the ancestors of the Cossacks among various peoples (Scythians, Polovtsians, Khazars, Alans, Kirghiz, Tatars, Mountain Circassians, Kasogs, Brodniks, black hoods, Torks, etc.) or considered the original Cossack military community as a result of genetic ties of several tribes with the Slavs who came to the Black Sea region, and this process was counted from the beginning of the new era. Other historians, on the contrary, proved the Russianness of the Cossacks, emphasizing the constancy of the presence of the Slavs in the regions that became the cradle of the Cossacks. The original concept was put forward by the émigré 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. For a long time, the dominant official point of view that the Cossack communities emerged 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 also has a weak evidence base and is not supported by serious sources. The question of the origin of the Cossacks is still open.
There is no unanimity among scientists on 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 the Don (kasogi, x (k) azars), from the self-name of the modern Kirghiz - kaisaks. There were other etymological versions: from the Turkish "kaz" (ie goose), from the Mongolian "ko" (armor, protection) and "zakh" (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 annals 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 Zaporozhye Sich (existed until 1775), and the servicemen were represented by “registered” Cossacks who received a salary for service in the Polish-Lithuanian state. Russian service Cossacks (policemen, regimental and sentry) were used to protect the abyssal lines and cities, receiving for this salary and land for life. Although they were equated with "service people by the device" (archers, gunners), in contrast to them, they had a stanitsa organization and an elective system of military control. They existed in this form until the beginning of the 18th century. The first community of Russian free Cossacks arose on the Don, and then on the Yaik, Terek and Volga rivers. In contrast to the service Cossacks, the centers of the emergence of the free Cossacks became the coasts of large rivers (Dnieper, Don, Yaik, Terek) and the steppe expanses, which left a noticeable imprint on the Cossacks and determined their way of life.
Each large territorial community as a form of military-political unification of independent Cossack settlements was called the Voiskom. The main economic occupation of the free Cossacks was hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. For example, in the Don Host until the beginning of the 18th century, arable farming was prohibited on pain of death. As the Cossacks themselves believed, they lived "from grass and water." War was of great importance in the life of the Cossack communities: they were in constant military confrontation with hostile and militant nomadic neighbors, therefore one of the most important sources of livelihood for them was military booty (as a result of the campaigns "for zipuns and yasyrs" in Crimea, Turkey, Persia , to the Caucasus). River and sea trips on plows were made, as well as horse raids. Often several Cossack units united and carried out joint land and sea operations, everything captured became common property - duvan.
The main feature of public Cossack life was a military organization with an elective system of government and democratic order. The main decisions (questions of war and peace, the election of officials, the court of the guilty) were made at general meetings of the treasury, stanitsa and military circles, or Rada, which were the highest governing bodies. The main executive power belonged to the ataman, who was replaced annually by the military (koshevoy in Zaporozhye) chieftain. During the hostilities, a marching chieftain was elected, whose submission was unquestioning.
Diplomatic relations with the Russian state were maintained by sending winter and light villages (embassies) to Moscow with an appointed chieftain. From the moment the Cossacks entered the historical arena, their relations with Russia were distinguished by ambivalence. Initially, they were built on the principle of independent states with one enemy. Moscow and the Cossack Troops were allies. The Russian state acted as the main partner and played the leading role as the strongest side. 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 on the southern and eastern borders of the Russian state, covering it from the raids of the steppe hordes. Cossacks also took part in many wars on the side of Russia against neighboring states. For the successful fulfillment of these important functions, the practice of the Moscow tsars included the annual sending of gifts, cash salaries, weapons and ammunition to individual Troops, as well as bread, since the Cossacks did not produce it. All communications between the Cossacks and the tsar were conducted through the Ambassadorial Prikaz, that is, as with a foreign state. It was often beneficial for the Russian authorities to represent the free Cossack communities as completely independent from Moscow. On the other hand, the Moscow state was dissatisfied with the Cossack communities, which constantly attacked Turkish possessions, which often ran counter to Russian foreign policy interests. Often periods of cooling occurred between the allies, and Russia stopped all assistance to the Cossacks. Moscow's discontent was also caused by the constant departure of its subjects to the Cossack regions. The democratic order (all are equal, no authorities, no taxes) became a magnet that attracted more and more enterprising and courageous people from the Russian lands. The fears of Russia turned out to be by no means groundless - during the 17-18 centuries the Cossacks were at the forefront of powerful anti-government uprisings, from its ranks came the leaders of the Cossack-peasant uprisings - Stepan Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Emelyan Pugachev. The role of the Cossacks was great during the events of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century. Having supported False Dmitry I, they made up a significant part of his military detachments. Later, the 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, nobles already prevailed in the second militia, but at the council of 1613 it was the word of the Cossack atamans that was decisive in the election of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. The ambiguous role played by the Cossacks during the Time of Troubles forced the government in the 17th century to pursue a policy of drastic reduction of the Cossack service units in the main territory of the state. But on the whole, the Russian throne, taking into account the most important functions of the Cossacks as a military force in the border areas, showed patience and sought to subordinate it to its power. In order to consolidate loyalty to the Russian throne, the tsars, using all the levers, managed to achieve by the end of the 17th century the acceptance of the oath by all the Troops (the last Don Army was in 1671). From voluntary allies, the Cossacks turned into Russian subjects. With the incorporation 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 conquests. 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. In the same year, Peter I abolished the election of military atamans and introduced the institution of order atamans appointed by the supreme power. The Cossacks lost the last remnants of independence after the defeat of the Pugachev revolt in 1775, when Catherine II liquidated the Zaporozhye Sich. In 1798, by the decree of Paul I, all Cossack officer ranks were equated to the general army, and their owners received the rights to the nobility. In 1802, the first Regulations for the Cossack troops were developed. In 1827, the heir to the throne was appointed as the august ataman of all Cossack troops. In 1838, the first drill regulations for the Cossack units were approved, and in 1857 the Cossacks came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate (from 1867 Main Directorate) of the irregular (from 1879 - Cossack) troops of the War Ministry, from 1910 - into the subordination of the General Staff.
The role of the Cossacks in the history of Russia
For centuries, the Cossacks have been a universal branch of the armed forces. It was 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 and Seven Years Wars, during the Italian and Swiss campaigns of A. V. Suvorov in 1799. The Cossack regiments were especially distinguished in the Napoleonic era. Led by the legendary ataman M. I. Platov, the irregular army became one of the main culprits in 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. Ermolov, "the Cossacks became the surprise of Europe." Not a single Russian-Turkish war of the 18-19 centuries did not do without Cossack sabers, they participated in the conquest of the Caucasus, the conquest of Central Asia, the development of Siberia and Of the Far East... The successes of the Cossack cavalry were explained by the skillful use of grandfather's tactical techniques, unregulated by any statutes, in battles: lava (coverage of the enemy in loose formation), the original system of reconnaissance and guard service, etc. These Cossack "turns" inherited from the steppe dwellers 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 1875 Act lasted 20 years, starting at the age of 18: 3 years in the preparatory category, 4 in active service, 8 years on privilege and 5 in the reserve. Each came to the service with his own uniform, equipment, melee weapons and a riding horse. The Cossack community (stanitsa) was responsible for the preparation and performance of military service. Service itself, 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, assigned the land won by the blood of their ancestors to the Cossack army on the basis of collective (communal) property. The army, leaving a part for the military reserve, divided the received land between the villages. The village community on behalf of the army was periodically engaged in the redistribution of land shares (ranged from 10 to 50 dessiatines). For the use of the allotment and exemption from taxes, the Cossack was obliged to carry out military service. The army also allocated land plots to the Cossack nobles (the share depended on the officer's 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 occupation 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 Urals, as well as in the Don and Ussuriysk Troops, hunting in Siberia, winemaking and gardening in the Caucasus, Don etc.
Cossacks in the 20th century
At the end of the 19th century, in the depths of the tsarist administration, projects for the elimination of the Cossacks were discussed. On the eve of the First World War, there were 11 Cossack Troops in Russia: Donskoe (1.6 million), Kuban (1.3 million), Terskoe (260 thousand), Astrakhan (40 thousand), Ural (174 thousand), Orenburg (533 thousand), Siberian (172 thousand), Semirechenskoye (45 thousand), Zabaikalskoye (264 thousand), Amur (50 thousand), Ussuriysk (35 thousand) and two separate Cossack regiments. They occupied 65 million acres of land with a population of 4.4 million. (2.4% of the population of Russia), including 480 thousand service personnel. Among the Cossacks, ethnic Russians prevailed (78%), in second place were Ukrainians (17%), in third place were Buryats (2%). Most of the Cossacks professed Orthodoxy, there was a large percentage of Old Believers (especially in the Ural, Tersk, Donskoy Troops), and national minorities professed Buddhism and Islam.
More than 300 thousand Cossacks took part on 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 ineffectiveness of using large horse masses (the Cossacks accounted for 2/3 of the Russian cavalry) in conditions of a continuous front, high density of infantry firepower and increased technical means defense. The exceptions were small partisan detachments formed from Cossack volunteers, who successfully operated behind enemy lines when performing sabotage and reconnaissance missions. The Cossacks, as a significant military and social force, participated in the Civil War. Combat experience and professional military training of the Cossacks was again used in solving acute internal social conflicts. By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of November 17, 1917, the Cossacks were formally abolished as an estate and Cossack formations. 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. Cossack units were numerically the main military force Volunteer army in the fight against Bolshevism. The Cossacks were prompted to this by the policy of decossackization carried out by the Reds (mass shootings, taking hostages, burning villages, inciting nonresidents 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 Civil War a large number of Cossacks ended up in emigration (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 it unacceptable "to ignore the peculiarities of Cossack life and the use of violent measures in the fight against the remnants of Cossack traditions." Nevertheless, the Cossacks continued to be considered "non-proletarian elements" and were subject to restrictions in their rights, in particular, the ban on serving in the ranks of the Red Army was lifted only in 1936, when they created several Cossack cavalry divisions (and then corps), which showed themselves excellently during the Great World War II. Since 1942, the Hitlerite command also formed units of Russian Cossacks (15th corps of the Wehrmacht, commander General G. von Panwitz) numbering more than 20 thousand people. During hostilities, 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 transferred the disarmed Cossacks and their family members (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 emerged 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 politicize. The intensive creation of Cossack organizations and unions began, both in the places of the former compact residence, and in large cities, where during the Soviet period a large number of descendants settled, fleeing political repression. The massive nature of the movement, as well as the participation of militarized Cossack detachments in the conflicts in Yugoslavia, Transnistria, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Chechnya, forced government structures and local authorities to pay attention to the problems of the Cossacks. The further growth of the Cossack movement was facilitated by the resolution of the Supreme Soviet 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 Cossack Troops was created, a number of measures to create regular Cossack units were undertaken by power ministries (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Border Troops, Ministry of Defense).
Who are the Cossacks? There is a version that they trace their ancestry to fugitive serfs. However, some historians claim that the Cossacks go back to the VIII century BC.
The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in 948 referred to the territory in the North Caucasus as the country of Kasakhia. Historians attached particular importance to this fact only after Captain A. G. Tumansky in 1892 in Bukhara discovered the Persian geography "Gudud al Alem", compiled in 982.
It turns out that there is also the "Kasak Land", which was located in the Azov region. It is interesting that the Arab historian, geographer and traveler Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Hussein (896–956), who received the nickname of the imam of all historians, reported in his writings that the Kasaks who lived beyond the Caucasus ridge were not highlanders.
A stingy description of a certain military people who lived in the Black Sea and Transcaucasia is found in the geographical work of the Greek Strabo, who worked under the "living Christ". He called them kosakhs. Modern ethnographers cite data on the Scythians from the Turanian tribes of Kos-Saka, the first mention of which dates back to about 720 BC. It is believed that it was then that a detachment of these nomads made their way from Western Turkestan to the Black Sea lands, where they stopped.
In addition to the Scythians, in the territory of the modern Cossacks, that is, between the Black and Azov seas, as well as between the Don and Volga rivers, the Sarmatian tribes ruled, who created the Alanian state. The Huns (Bulgars) defeated it and exterminated almost all of its population. The surviving Alans hid in the north - between the Don and Donets, and in the south - in the foothills of the Caucasus. Basically, it was these two ethnic groups - the Scythians and Alans, intermarried with the Azov Slavs - that formed the nationality called the Cossacks. This version is considered one of the basic in the discussion about where the Cossacks came from.
Slavic-Turanian tribes
Don ethnographers also connect the roots of the Cossacks with the tribes of northwestern Scythia. This is evidenced by the burial mounds of the III-II centuries BC. It was at this time that the Scythians began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, intersecting and merging with the southern Slavs who lived in Meotid - on the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov.
This time is called the era of "the introduction of the Sarmatians into the Meots", which resulted in the tribes of the Torets (Torkov, Udzov, Berendzherov, Sirakov, Bradas-Brodnikov) of the Slavic-Turanian type. In the 5th century, there was an invasion of the Huns, as a result of which part of the Slavic-Turanian tribes went beyond the Volga and into the upper Don forest-steppe. Those who remained obeyed the Huns, Khazars and Bulgars, receiving the name Kasaks. After 300 years, they converted to Christianity (approximately in 860 after the apostolic sermon of Saint Cyril), and then, by order of the Khazar Kagan, they drove out the Pechenegs. In 965, Kasak Land came under the control of Mctislav Rurikovich.
Darkarakan
It was Mctislav Rurikovich who defeated the Novgorod prince Yaroslav near Listven and founded his principality - Tmutarakan, which stretched far to the north. It is believed that this Cossack state was not at the peak of power for long, until about 1060, but after the arrival of the Polovtsian tribes, it began to gradually fade away.
Many inhabitants of Tmutarakan fled to the north - to the forest-steppe, and together with Russia fought with the nomads. This is how the Black Klobuki appeared, which in Russian chronicles were called Cossacks and Cherkassians. Another part of the inhabitants of Tmutarakan received the name of the Podonsk roamers.
Like the Russian principalities, the Cossack settlements were in the power of the Golden Horde, however, conditionally, using broad autonomy. In the XIV-XV centuries they started talking about the Cossacks as a formed community, which began to accept fugitive people from the central part of Russia.
Not Khazars and not Goths
There is another version, popular in the West, that the Khazars were the ancestors of the Cossacks. Its supporters argue that the words "Husar" and "Cossack" are synonyms, because in the first and second cases we are talking about combat horsemen. Moreover, both words have the same root "kaz" meaning "strength", "war" and "freedom". However, there is one more meaning - this is "goose". But here, too, the champions of the Khazar trail speak of the horsemen-hussars, whose military ideology was copied by almost all countries, even the foggy Albion.
The Khazar ethnonym of the Cossacks is directly stated in the "Constitution of Pylyp Orlik", "... the old military Cossack people, which used to be called the Kazar people, were first raised by immortal glory, spacious possessions and knightly honors ...". Moreover, it is said that the Cossacks adopted Orthodoxy from Tsargrad (Constantinople) during the era of the Khazar Kaganate.
In Russia, this version in the Cossack environment causes a fair abuse, especially against the background of studies of Cossack genealogies, whose roots are of Russian origin. Thus, the hereditary Kuban Cossack, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Shmarin, in this regard, expressed anger: “The author of one of such versions of the origin of the Cossacks is Hitler. He even has a separate speech on this topic. According to his theory, the Cossacks are Goths. West Goths are Germans. And the Cossacks are the Ost-Goths, that is, the descendants of the Ost-Goths, allies of the Germans, close to them in blood and in a warlike spirit. In terms of belligerence, he compared them with the Teutons. On the basis of this, Hitler proclaimed the Cossacks the sons of great Germany. So why should we now consider ourselves the descendants of the Germans? "
rev. from 03/18/2016 - (times of Great Scythia)
The view of modern historians on the origin of the Cossacks, I must say, is peculiar. The places of origin and settlement of the Cossacks are called Don, Kuban, Terek, Ural, Lower Volga, Irtysh, Amur, Transbaikalia, Kamchatka. In fact, this also includes the territory of Alaska and even California.
The origin of the word Cossack is also explained in different ways. Contemporary researchers with one voice they say that the Cossacks are people who, starting from the 16th century, left for the outskirts of Russia, being fugitive serfs. Someone says they were hunters. Someone says that they ran wild and became robbers, getting involved in a war with Muslims. But these are fairy tales, shameless, contrived and invented.
The Cossacks are a peculiar, interesting and not understood in the West and even in Russia people or ethnos. Although they speak Russian, they are not really Russian people. Until the 17th century, they themselves did not even consider themselves to be the Russian people, that is, the Great Russians. They were different. They were proud to be Cossacks.
They did not know what betrayal was, they did not know what cowardice was, but in fact, they were warriors from the cradle. This also determined a completely different psyche of behavior. The psyche is not slaves, but free people, masters of their lives. Therefore, the question arises - where are they from? For they themselves no longer remember this.
Take the Germans. They call themselves Deutsch, the Italians call them Germans, the French Alemanni. Or the Turks. They are offended that they are called Turks. In Persian, a Turk is a vagabond and a thief. And the Cossacks, all, are called in one word - Cossack.
At one time, Siberia was conquered by the Cossacks, all attempts of the Turks to attack the south of Russia and the Crimean Khan were repulsed. The war, which lasted no less than 500 years, ended in victory for the Cossacks. In fact, Russia itself did not actually defend itself in the south. Everything was thrown into the war with the West, while in the south they did not even try to help the Cossacks. The surrender of the Azov fortress under the Romanovs is very indicative in this respect.
Turkey and the entire Muslim world were restrained only by the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks, holding everything on their shoulders. At the same time, it was unbearably difficult, it was a war that lasted from century to century. The Turks destroyed half of Europe, they even reached Vienna. They took Hungary and Romania. But here they could only reach the Crimea. And then, already in the 18th century, it became ours, Sevastopol was founded. And this happened only thanks to the support of the Cossacks.
Around the 3rd millennium BC. NS. The Aryan population penetrates the territory of the modern Taklamakan desert, western China, and builds a powerful empire there. In Chinese mythology, she is called Laolun. The Chinese themselves, when they were digging up this territory, were very surprised to find the skulls of pure Caucasians and huge, huge cities. Now all this has gone under the sand. Therefore, in order not to further upset the Chinese, Taklamakan, Gobi, the Yellow River, were closed to the public after a powerful underground nuclear test.
When this territory began to turn into a desert, the Aryan population was forced to move further to the West and to Hindustan, where there is a more humid climate, rivers flow, and it rains. The same Velesov book writes about this. At the same time, one should not forget that Ural Rus was already in Europe. The first wave reached the territory of the Danube and Pannonia.
But in the Vedas, you can find references that dasyus lived on the territory of Eurasia at that time. Inhumans, shaggy terrible monsters with incredible strength, who are also called rakshasas in the Vedas. They are sometimes referred to as the Paleo-European tribes. This is a mixed Cro-Magnon-Neanderthal population, which prevented the settlement of the Aryan people.
It turns out that the military class moved ahead of the Aryan tribes on horseback, freeing the territories from dasyu. Moreover, these were horses, which we do not even know now. The horses found in burial mounds did not look like Mongol horses. They were high gait, fast, very tall, similar to Akhal-Teke horses. Remember, all our horse warriors. There are no heroes like Hercules on foot.
These pioneers were called then equestrian ases. And their leader was called the prince - the equestrian ace. A black or white horse was used to determine the prince in battle.
As a result of this resettlement, the remnants of the dasyus or dogheads were driven either to the mountains of the Caucasus, Pereneev, Palmyra, or to other impassable places. And on the outskirts of the settlement of the Aryans, the force settled, which later formed the Don army, the Kuban army, the Terek army and the Siberian army.
Persian sources call the population of southern Siberia, Central Asia, the population of the Gobi in one word - Saks or Saxons. And the sword of this people has always been called cromosax - cutting edge. Sachs is a slash. People who were able to single-handedly fight a hundred such as dasus were called asses. This is how the word kassak, equestrian ace, appeared. Later it was transformed into a Cossack, apparently the same as Asia in Asia. Moreover, according to the initial letter, Az is a descendant of the gods, an earthly form that benefits the Earth itself.
It turns out that the Cossacks are a pure Aryan population of the military class, which continued to live their way, their own life, which they have always lived. Everything was decided by the Cossack circle, where everyone was equal. Ataman was elected for one year. In field conditions, he was obeyed unconditionally, the discipline was iron. If there was peacetime, the chieftain was the same as everyone else. It was the highest democracy, so to speak.
By the way, Veliky Novgorod preserved exactly the same democracy in its city. In fact, Novgorodians can be considered the same Cossacks from the military class, but who came from the Baltic.
The descendants of those dasyus who withstood the war were obviously the Kartvelians. The Chinese language has Georgian roots, the roots of the Basques who lived in Spain. Once upon a time, Paleo-Asians spoke the same language and fragments of this language got into both the Chinese language and the languages of the Georgians and Basques.
There are eight language groups in the Caucasus today. The Ossetian family, which speaks the ancient Persian language, can be especially distinguished. You can remember Afanasy Nikitin, the 15th century, when he visited the territory of India. He calmly spoke with the Iranians in Russian, in India he was also calmly understood without any translators.
In the Old Russian language, the river was called by one word - don. Therefore, the Ossetians still have Sadon, Nandon, Vardon (Kuban), Danat (Danube), Eridan (Rhine). Where is Raine? Already Western Europe.
Do not forget about the Hercynian Forest, between France and the Elbe (Labe), where the Rhine flows. Roman authors wrote about him. It is even called the cradle of the German people.
When Charlemagne in the 9th century unites three territories, Germany, France and Italy, a powerful empire is created. As a result, this entire empire, united by the Merovingians, fell upon the Western Slavic tribes. Many scientists, since the 19th century, including Savelyev, Lomonosov, believed that the territory of Germany is a cemetery of the Slavs. "Where the strength of the Germans passed, there is already a grave there."... There was total extermination, cutting out to the last person. Cannibalism was going on. Read the national Germanic epic, it is all there and they are proud of it. The predatory warlike gene pool has survived in the Germans to this day.
Interesting fact. In the trilogy "The Matrix" there is such a hero as Merovingen. A very ancient program that has already survived several versions of the matrix. Merovingen loves to speak French and sells information. Is this coincidence a coincidence? But this is so, for lovers of imaginative thinking. A reason for reflection.
Braniborg - Brandenburg, Nikulinborg - Mecklenburg, Pomorie - Pomeranian, Strelov - Sagittarius, Drozdyany - Dresden. The Laba River became the Elbe, the Rhone - the Rhine. You can also remember Arkona, Retra.
Why are we talking about this now? And to the fact that there were no aces on this territory, that group of the military class that could give them worthy resistance.
Even Herodotus, on the territory of the Sea of Azov, the northern part of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Kuban, describes an interesting people - Meots and Sindy or Indians. They had a slightly different anthropology. They made up the Azov army of the Kuban Cossacks. This is the only Cossack people who had dark hair and skin. Correct Aryan features of body and face, but dark eyes. Apparently, having visited India, this ethnos took in the blood of the Indians or Dravids. By the way, Ermak Timofeevich was from this group. Part of the Sinds and Meots, having left the Kuban in the 13th century at the mouth of the Dnieper, created the Zaporozhye Cossacks.
TIMES OF GREAT Scythia and Sarmatian
We do not know the real self-names of the Scythians and Sarmatians. Only one thing can be said, the father of Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan War who built Rome, with all his kind on 30 ships 1200 BC. went to Troy. The ancient Cossack family went under Troy to help the Trojans in the fight against the Achaean Union (a military-political union of the cities of Ancient Greece on the Peloponnese peninsula).
And Aeneas, after the defeat at Troy, on 20 ships leaves first to Carthage, and then to Italy, crosses the Tiber and there, thanks to his efforts, Rome is built. It has now been proven that the Etruscans spoke the Old Russian language. Obviously, their resettlement took place during the Trojan War.
Slavomysl writes about this in Svetoslav's monologue:
"... I honor the Romans, they are relatives to us, they remember Aeneas, as we do,
The ridiculous fiction about him was rejected by Virgil, who measured the myth with the common sense of the Hellenes.
I don’t blame the Trojans either. Who knew the harmony of svarog, they rewarded Rome from the ashes of Troy
And they did not take the land away from the Etruscans: without complaining, those brothers by blood, like brothers, accepted .. ".
The Greeks called them Scythians. They were also called chipped. Translation from Russian is not required, but in English there is a consonant word school - school. But this is so, again from figurative thinking.
"... The Scythians are barbarians, but the Scythian maidens, trapped in temples, at the feet washed by Nepra, are plunging Hellas ...
... But the Magi from Nepra will be summoned, and they are already ranked among the Hellenes: Vseslav the prophetic Anacharsis was called,
Lyubomudr, Rossich from Golun, is Heraclitus of Ephesus ... The Slovenian breed is fertile,
Lyubomudry, Svetozary and Vseslavs are not uncommon in Russia
And mothers will not stop giving birth on Nepra and Rosi.
Consolation for the neighbors, well, the Russians are not at a loss ...
... The face of a Hellene is many miraculous, like Herodotov's fables about the Scythians ... "
Therefore, the Scythian, translated from Greek, is a shield-bearer. They're just the first to have shields, wooden shields covered in bull skin. At that time, neither the Assyrians, nor the Greeks, nor even the Egyptians had shields. If anyone made them, it was woven from a vine. And the Sarmatians, among other things, were engaged in leather dressing.
Scythians and Sarmatians are actually one people who called themselves the Russa, and their military class was the Assaki. The Türks, in the XIII century, having come to the territory of Kazakhstan, began to call themselves Assaks or Cossacks, imitating the Scythian tribes.
The word russa is a sacred word, so it is read in two directions. Ur is the sky. Uranus is the god of the sky. Therefore, russa is an ace who came from heaven through the light. This word has been known since the days of Oriana. Therefore, this was the name of the Scythian army and the Sarmatian army.
Getae are one of the names of the military class. The word hetman was born from it. In the 8th century BC, when the Scythians crossed the Volga, the Tagar culture, they attacked the Cimmerians, who lived in southern Europe up to the Danube. The Cimmerians were tribes related to the Scythians, but refused to obey them. As a result, the Cimmerians leave for Asia Minor. The Scythians invade the territory of Media through the Caucasus. They defeat the Medes, defeat the Persians, defeat the Assyrian troops and reach the borders of Egypt. They have been reigning in this territory for 28 years without fear of being attacked by the Slavs. This suggests that it was one people. Then they again return to Eastern Europe and until the 3rd century BC. live on this earth.
Interestingly, all the jewelry of those times, the purely animal style that existed among the Scythians, is attributed to the Greeks. They still find vases, pendants, various products, and everything is superbly made. The Greeks did not have a jewelry school of this level.
Not in a single Greek colony, not in Chersonesos, not in Phanagoria, not in Phasis, not a single workshop was found where this gold or silver was cast. When they began to excavate Scythian burial mounds in Siberia, they began to find jewelry made in the same style, but even more beautiful. How could the Greeks reach Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Altai?
But all culturologists unanimously say: the work of Greek masters. And the Scythians, it turns out, had huge cities. Houses were built in cities, skins were made, weaving and metallurgy were developed. The population did not know what the west was and no one from the west was allowed to visit them. The military class closely watched the advance of the Greeks. Herodotus, having arrived and studied the Scythians, did not even know that all of Scythia was covered with giant cities, and without walls. They didn't need walls. If the people are powerful, they do not need fortress walls. Remember Sparta - they had no fortress walls.
The Kushans who left for India, the Parthians who left in the 3rd century BC. to Iran, the Massagets, about whom the Greeks, Saks or Saxons spoke, are all one and the same people. A people who spoke the same language, had one faith, simply settled over a vast territory.
Incredibly, the Scythians defeated the 700 thousandth army of Darius, and defeated the Macedonian one. Moreover, at first the Macedonian himself was defeated, having crossed the Danube with an army of 40,000. Then he moved to Persia, and from Persia he is again going to act against the Scythian people. This battle is described by Nizami, an Azerbaijani poet, the work "Iskander". But nobody talks about it. It is not customary to say that the Macedonian was defeated and stopped in this territory, while he was captured.
An interesting thing, in 320 BC, when Macedonia was defeated by Rome, part of the Macedonians, 70 percent, moved to the Baltic. They left and created a principality of cheer there. Niclot is the prince of cheers. Then they move to the territory of Novgorod and build Pskov. It turns out that the Macedonian did not even understand with whom he was fighting.
In the 3rd century BC. the Sarmatians cross the Volga and fall on the Scythians. The Scythians, in fact, deserve it. They began to imitate the culture of the West and dragged the Greek gods to their territory in Eastern Europe. With this they provoked the blow of the Sarmatians. The Sarmatians swept through their territory up to the Danube. In fact, there was a civil war.
As a result, the pro-Western Scythians fled, some to the Crimea, some across the Danube. The rest went to the North, mixing with the Russian population. Lomonosov called them the white-eyed freak.
Thus, the Sarmatians put a dead barrier on the advance from west to east. They also stopped Rome in due time. The Parthians beat Rome in the south, the Sarmatians beat Rome in the west, on the Danube, and the Kushans crush the Indian kingdoms, creating there a surge of new Aryan blood and a new direction in the development of religion.
At this time, the Huns were moving across Central Asia, seizing modern Kazakhstan and approaching the banks of the Volga.
And all this is led by the military class, which we called Cossacks, Assaks or Getae.
Mark Crassus in 57 BC set out with his legions to Parthia. Against Crassus, the Parthian king sends his commander Suren. The Parthians attack Crassus and all of his 22 legions who survived are sent in chains across the deserts of Iran to work for the Parthians. Rome had never known such a defeat before.
At this time, the Aorses, Roxalans, Alans, Yazygs, attacked the Roman border beyond the Danube. Trajan in one of the battles in the Carpathians loses seven legions at once during the battle with the legendary Carpathian prince Igor. For the first time, the Roman legions fell under the blows of the Russians not with swords, but with axes. For the first time, the invincible Roman infantry and the infantry of the Carpathian people met. In this battle, the Carpathian cavalry did not enter the battle. The heavy, armored cavalry of the cataphracts, with spears of 4-5 meters, lamenar armor and people in armor, stood aside and just looked at the many hours of the wheelhouse of the infantry with the infantry.
Not a single army could withstand the blow of the Sarmatian cavalry at that time. The Russian heavyweight is the warhorse of those times. But here the Russian infantry destroyed the Roman infantry, completing the advance of Rome to the north, into the Carpathians.
Modern historians believe that the Sarmatian yoke hung over Eastern Europe for 600 years. Six centuries of blood. Academician Rybakov thinks so, explaining this by the fact that the Chernigov culture moved 100 km to the north after the invasion of the Sarmatians. What yoke can there be if there is one language, one culture, one race, all one.
But the Chernigov culture really departed, because it was not needed in the steppe. The Sarmatians who came are a nomadic people, and they needed huge pastures to provide themselves with food and cattle with pastures. Rome moved millions, and millions had to fight with it too.
The Scythian kingdom, which was formed on the territory of the Crimea, was completely subordinated to the Sarmatians. Rather, even to say the Sarmatian queens, because the Sarmatians had more power than the kings. The female half was free, like the men, they were warriors. The memory of the Amazons is also the memory of the Sarmatians.
In fact, the heavy Sarmatian cavalry consisted of the ancestors of the Cossacks and they inherited their skills in horse control and battle control. A powerful heavy spear remained on the Don until the 20th century. If the Kuban Cossacks were considered light cavalry, then the Don Cossacks were heavy. Back in 1914, during the First World War, the Cossacks raised the Germans in Austria, Romania and Germany itself to these peaks. This tradition has been preserved from those very times.
INVASION OF THE GOTSK UNION
4th century. Historians do not say who the Goths are or where they came from. We know they are Germanic: Visigoths and Ostrogoths. But where did they come from in the Black Sea region? They have their own historian - Jordan. But the name Jordan is not Gothic, but rather southern. He wrote Gothic history. But under Jordan, you could write anything you wanted.
He writes that Germanarich conquered all the Slavic peoples, he crushed the Roxalans, the Aors, and subdued the Slavs from the Black Sea to the Baltic.
But the Goths were not Germans then, they were Iranians... Iranians who did not want to live among their peoples on the territory of Bactria and Sogdiana (modern Turkmenistan). They moved north. They bypassed the Caspian, crossed the Volga and reached the mouth of the Don, spreading over the territory of southern Russia. During the arrival of the Goths, there was not a single serious battle... Not a single chronicle tells about battles with the Goths.
The fact is that the Goths spoke Old Russian. Even Jordan himself writes that the Gothic warrior easily talked with the Slavic warrior, with the Alan, with the Roxalan. But the problem is that the Goths, having come to the Crimea, adopted Christianity. Jordan is silent about this. They became Christians according to the Arian rite. This made them treat their fellow tribesmen as enemies. The Goths came as a close people, but having adopted Christianity, they became enemies. They left Central Asia precisely because they did not accept Zoroastrianism. Then they still retained the Vedic worldview. But apparently they lost their priests. There was a military class, but there was no priestly class. And when they came to the Crimea, they accepted the priestly class in the form of Christians.
Read Shambarov, Jordan - each Goth had 4-5 wives. There was a polygamous family, so the army was huge.
We have already said that there is a concept of get or assak. The hetman is the one who controls the geth. Therefore, the Goths are apparently a transcription of Jordan. In fact, these were the same getae, the military class, but which changed the principles of Vedic civilization. And again, it was a war and a civil war. A terrible and terrible war. Alans were with the Goths - heavy powerful cavalry. On the Vedic side, too, was the most powerful cavalry, the same as that of the Goths.
When the two cavalry of the Sarmatians and the Goths converged in battle, the clang of weapons was heard for many kilometers around. Jordan writes that for a short time, Germanarich subjugated the peoples of the north. But obviously it was just a truce. There could be no complete submission, for Christianity did not go to the North.
Then Jordan writes that Hermanarich, at the age of 100, decided to marry again and a young girl was brought to him. But it so happened that she fell in love with his son. He kills his own son, and the brothers injure Germanarich himself. The girl is torn apart by horses.
The felling begins again. Sloven, the prince, who ruled on the Volkhov in Novgorod, participates in this felling. He comes to the territory of southern Russia and on the Danube in the fierce battle Germanarich dies, not even realizing that his entire army was killed.
At the same time, the Alans, the allies of the Goths, are fighting the invasion of the Huns. The Huns began to cross the Volga and the Alans, being residents of the North Caucasus, met the Hunnic alliance with weapons, since they were already Christians at that time.
The Huns did not go to Russia to conquer it, they understood what was happening on it. The Goths shed Vedic blood, and the Huns came to the aid of Russia. The surviving Alans go to the mountains, the Huns invade the territory of Eastern Europe and drive out the Goths.
Some of them passed through the Taman Peninsula through the Sivash broke into the Crimea and stabbed the Gothic alliance in the back, which Germanarich could not stand. The Slavs strike from the north and the Huns strike from the south.
The remaining Goths leave for the Danube, this is already the 5th century, and the Huns leave for Transcaucasia. Why exactly in Transcaucasia? And there was Armenia, the Christian state. Balamber's army completely defeated Armenia, Georgia, marched across Asia Minor and almost reached Egypt.
But at this time the Goths returned, led by the grandson of Germanarich Amal Vinitar. Vinitar - conquering the Veneti. The Goths trampled on Austria, where the Veneti were.
Huns threatened Byzantine Empire, the Christians in Egypt were also terrified. The Library of Alexandria was already hiding. It was necessary to force Balamber to return. And he, having learned about the invasion of the Goths, turned north. Does this remind you of anything from the time of the invasion of Batu?
At this time, Bus Beloyar is trying to stop the Goths. Buse won one battle against Amal Vinitar, the Goths were defeated. But he decides not to go to the second battle, but to wait for Balamber. He was a strong magician and saw well that he would perish and his people would perish. Therefore, Bus persuades the people to wait for Balamber.
But under his pressure, he enters the fight. As a result of a terrible battle, all his soldiers were killed. Seventy wounded elders were picked up by Amal Vinitar, including Bus himself, and crucified them in a pit over the waters of the Dnieper.
When the Huns found out about this, they drove their horses day and night. They even left the infantry, there was only one cavalry. At this time Sloven came up again. At the mouth of the Dnieper, the two armies of Slovenia and Balamber again came together with the Gothic alliance.
In a fierce struggle, a battle went on for two days. The Goths were broken, Amar Vinitar died, and the Goths were thrown across the Danube. It was then that Bayan wrote his hymn to the victory over Amar Vinitar. It was performed by the Russian army in the palace of the Danube Kiev. Yes, there was such a Kiev.
The Goths, finding themselves behind the Danube, moved to the Byzantine Empire. They destroyed 40,000 Valenta's army, ravaged the entire north of the Byzantine Empire, broke into Gaul, Italy, took Rome and destroyed it almost to the ground.
The West, having created an artificial people through Christian ideology, disaccustomed them to engage in cattle breeding and agriculture, they ceased to feed themselves. They could only plunder already. And when the stomach overpowered the ideology, they fell upon their own allies.
The Huns cross the Danube and build their state on the territory of modern Hungary. Until now it is called Hungaria. And what is interesting, when the Huns disappear from the field of history, the Hungarians also speak Russian. Why? Because the Hun language never existed. There was only Old Russian. There the Moravian state emerged. After the death of Attila, part of the Hunnish people returned to the territory of Russia and mixed with the Russian people.
The Assaks on the one hand and the Assaks on the other hand, the Gothic Getae and the Hunnic Getae, fought among themselves. Again we see a hard, terrible internecine struggle, which is reflected in historical chronicles as a struggle between two peoples. But in fact it was a riot of one people, organized, as usual, by a third party.
KAGANATY
The 6th century begins. The Hunnic state disintegrates, part of the Huns returns to the territory of Eastern Europe, forming the Antes state. Initially, the name apparently implied the opposite of the West. An - that which is opposite is opposite.
The Middle Ages began in the West. The beginning of the formation of the Frankish Empire. Clovis, Pepin. They build their empire, subjugate Longobord, seize the territory of Italy, Rome no longer exists. Unite modern france, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. A huge, huge power that obeys the emperors of the Merovingian clan.
Things are no better in the East. The Hunnic union was replaced by the union of the Turkic tribes or the Turkic kaganate. Another ethnos, another psychology. They adopted the skills of cattle breeding from the Huns, but did not know agriculture. With excellent cavalry, China is constantly tormented. But China still copes with them. The Turkic Kaganate splits into Western and Eastern. Their struggle begins among themselves. As a result, the eastern one is subject to China, and the western one flows away to the west.
In the region of the northern Caspian, they stumble upon sedentary Avar tribes. Although the Avars are considered Iranians, they are not really Iranians. In fact, these are the descendants of the Paleoasians, mixed with the Aryan population. Their faith and culture were not Aryan. Nobody touched them, because they were engaged in agriculture and sold their bread to semi-nomadic peoples. They were shamanists. An ancient culture that fell out of both Western and Eastern.
But the Turks attacked the Avars, and they had to flee. Avars cross the Volga in the delta region, it is 512 years old, and stop.
For the first time, the Avars use the scorched earth tactics. Nobody has done this before them. They waited for spring, while the ants sow bread, until they sprout and ripen. And then they attacked, not the Ants, but their fields and cattle.
They burned all the grain fields and destroyed all the livestock. Their light patrols were worn throughout southern Russia, destroying everything. It is for this that they were called images in the Russian chronicles.
They did not touch only the Don and the Kuban, because there was the cradle of those who were called Cossacks. The Avars passed to the north. They reached the Kama and the territory of Ukraine, reached the mouth of the Danube, and from there began to move back to the east.
As a result, a huge number of Russians were left without a livelihood. Moreover, the Avars summoned the Russian leader and killed him during the negotiations. With the onset of winter, the population began to simply die of hunger. And the Avars took entire cities with absolutely no struggle.
There were no crops in the Don and the North Caucasus, the population lived by cattle breeding and fish, so the Avars did not meddle there. In addition, they had no great desire to meet the heavy cavalry of the Assakhs.
Then the Don Cossacks turned to Siberian Rus, to the Savirs tribe, the most powerful tribe that lived on the territory from the Urals to the Yenisei. Even the Turks did not touch Savirov. They knew they shouldn't go north.
Savirs receive the embassy of the Assaks from the Don, realizing that the Avars can only be defeated together. Savirs practically throw western Siberia, Grastiana is left, their capital on the banks of the Ob. The Turks open the corridor and the Savirs leave to the west.
Savirs come to the Don Assaks and Alans, joining with them in the Northern Donets. A bloody war begins with the Avar Khaganate. The Avar kagan leaves Eastern Europe for Pannonia in Hungary and there he creates his own headquarters.
But the strike of the Slavs from the east and Charlemagne from the west on the Danube completely destroys the Avars. The extermination was complete, even the children were not spared. It was a completely different people. While it was possible to come to an agreement with other peoples, it was impossible to come to an agreement with the Avars. They were totally destroyed. This is how the Avar Kaganate ended its existence.
It is the military class of the savirs of the North and the Assaks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, the lower reaches of the Volga that saves the Slavic people. On the territory of Ukraine, 100 km from Kiev, the Savirs, together with the Assaks, are building their capital on a hill - Chernigov.
The Turks occupy the territory left by the Savirs. But not all savirs left. As a result, there is a mixture of Turks and Savirs without war. In fact, this is how the ethnos of the Siberian Tatars emerged, a mixture of the Turkic and Slavic populations. At the same time, Slavic psychology is practically preserved. They are warlike, tend to argue, fight, but at the same time they are simple, reliable, honest.
When the Siberian cities arose, the Siberian Tatars, although they were Muslims, were calmly accepted into the Cossacks. They fought with China, Manchuria, the Japanese and never betrayed. There were cases when they were even the first to get into a fight, and then they had to help.
In the west, the Turks, approaching the Caspian Sea, crushed a small people of farmers, who called themselves the Hassaks or Khazars. There were few of them and, having lost one battle, as the chronicles write, they take Turkic citizenship. Above them is a Turkic kagan from the Ashin clan.
At the beginning of the VIII century, when Khazaria became stronger, she attacked the Bulgarian nomad camps. The Bulgarians were then fair-haired, blue-eyed, in fact a mixture of Savirs with Turks. As a result, part of the Bulgarians went to the north behind the Savirs, and Khan Asparukh took the other part to the Danube, where Danube Bulgaria appeared.
When the Khazar kagans convert to Judaism, they turn to the Vatican to help manage the Slavic population. The Vatican sends two brothers to Chersonesos: Cyril and Methodius. Knowing Greek, they study the Russian language in Chersonesos, so that later they can teach Christianity to the Slavic peoples.
COOKERS AND POLOVETS
After the death of Khazaria, the Pechenegs come. Blue-eyed, fair-haired, remnants of the same savirs, but who already spoke the Turkic language. They began to torment Russia from the south. But they did not meddle on the Don. The territories occupied by the Assaks were dangerous for them. But that was not for long, by the 10th century they had become allies of Russia. Gradually, the Pechenegs move to Bulgaria, mixing with the local population, they adopt the Bulgarian language. At the same time, Turkic words appear in the Bulgarian language.
The Cumans come to replace the Pechenegs, and the Mongols come after them. If the Pechenegs came with the Vedic religion, then the Polovtsians came already as Christians. They adopted Christianity in Central Asia.
Therefore, the Polovtsians, together with the Russian Christian princes, are happy to storm the Vedic cities. A terrible turmoil begins, which lasted a whole century. Only Yaroslav the Wise was able to stop her, passing off all his daughters for Western rulers and marrying everyone.
When the Mongols came, they began to destroy the Polovtsians. To better understand who fought with whom, and who defended whom, it is necessary to approach this issue not from the ethnic but from the ideological side. In fact, there was a confrontation between the Vedic and Christian ideologies. Therefore, the Polovtsy and Mongols, and many others, could often be seen both from one side and the other.
We have already written about the Mongols, so we will skip this period a little. Let's start from the moment when the Mongols or Tatars accept the aggressive world religion and attack the "infidels", eradicating them literally at the root. It is then that the Don is empty. The population is leaving with whole families and clans. Moscow, Ryazan, and Dnieper Cossacks appear. The Horde began to sell thousands of Kipchak Christians to Egypt and Turkey. Then the Don could not defeat the Horde. Novgorod could not help either. At that time he was busy fighting the Livonian and Teutonic orders. A confrontation with the Muslim world begins, which lasts from the 15th to the 19th century. In fact, 500 years of blood.
This is how Belovezhskaya Pushcha arose. The population from Belaya Vezha went to the Belarusian woodland and took refuge there. The Mongols swept across the Don, across the Kuban, but the blood of the Assaks was preserved. In order to somehow survive, the Assaks were forced to accept Christianity, but they preserve the Cossack circle, preserve electivity, preserve military education, preserve blood.
Circassians now live in the mountains next to the Kuban Cossacks. The Circassians have Russian blood, Tatar, Kartvelian. They speak four dialects, a lot of Turkic words. By faith they are Muslims. But among them, natural Aryans are still periodically born.
And further. Before the advent of Christianity to Russia, the steppes of the Irtysh region and East Kazakhstan (Kazakstan) were inhabited by the Slavic-Aryan caste of warriors - the Cumans (Polovtsians), who guarded the southeastern border of Russia. The Cumans had a cult of the Family. His pillar-like stone sculptures, made with extraordinary skill from limestone and marble, they put on the graves of their relatives. Tens of thousands of such statues stood on mounds and maidans, at crossroads and river banks. Until the 17th century, they were a necessary part and decoration of the steppe. Since then, most of the statues have been destroyed and only a few thousand have ended up in museums. For example, the Assaks who lived in Kazakhstan, having become Muslims, lost their blood and turned into Kazakhs.
By 1916, counting 4.4 million people and occupying lands from the Black to the Yellow Sea, the Cossacks in the 20th century were the most serious opponents of those who were supporters of the idea of the destruction of Russia. Even then, 11 Cossack troops still existed: Amur, Astrakhan, Donskoe, Trans-Baikal, Kuban, Orenburg, Semirechenskoe, Siberian, Tersk, Ural and Ussuriysk.
Therefore, in the party programs and propaganda literature of the Social Democratic parties, the Cossacks, after unsuccessful attempts to involve them in the revolutionary movement, were called “the stronghold of tsarism,” and in accordance with the party decisions of those years, they were subject to destruction.
As a result: no population, no cities, no villages. Some nameless ruins. Even memories were eradicated.
In ancient times, states on our land did not touch their borders as they do now. Between them there were giant spaces in which no one lived - it was either impossible due to the lack of living conditions (no water, land for crops, you cannot hunt if there is little game), or it was simply dangerous because of the raids of the nomadic steppe dwellers. It was in such places that the Cossacks were born - on the outskirts of the Russian principalities, on the border with the Great Steppe. In such places, people gathered who were not afraid of a sudden raid of the steppe inhabitants, who knew how to survive and fight without outside help.
The first mentions of Cossack detachments date back to Kievan Rus, for example, Ilya Muromets was called an “old Cossack”. There are references to the participation of Cossack detachments in the Battle of Kulikovo under the command of the governor Dmitry Bobrok. By the end of the XIV century, two large territories were formed in the lower reaches of the Don and Dnieper, on which many Cossack settlements were created and their participation in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible is already indisputable. The Cossacks distinguished themselves in the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and in the Livonian War. The first Russian charter of the stanitsa guard service was drawn up by the boyar M. I. Vorotynsky in 1571. According to it, the stanitsa (guard) Cossacks or stanitsa men carried out the guard service, while the city (regimental) Cossacks defended the cities. In 1612, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia Don Cossacks liberated Moscow and expelled the Poles from the Russian land. For all these merits, the Russian tsars approved the Cossacks' right to own Quiet Don forever and ever.
At that time, the Ukrainian Cossacks were divided into the register in the service of Poland and the grassroots, which created the Zaporizhzhya Sich. As a result of political and religious pressure from the Rzecz Pospolita, the Ukrainian Cossacks became the basis of the liberation movement, raised a series of uprisings, the last of which, led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, achieved its goal - Ukraine was reunited with the Russian kingdom of the Pereyaslav Rada in January 1654. For Russia, the agreement led to the acquisition of part of the lands of Western Russia, which justified the title of the Russian tsars - the sovereign of All Russia. Muscovite Rus became a gatherer of lands with a Slavic Orthodox population.
Both the Dnieper and Don Cossacks at that time were at the forefront of the struggle against the Turks and Tatars, who constantly raided the Russian lands, devastating crops, driving people into captivity and bleeding our lands. Countless feats were accomplished by the Cossacks, but one of the most striking examples of the heroism of our ancestors is the Azov seat - eight thousand Cossacks, capturing Azov - one of the most powerful fortresses and an important communication center - were able to fight off the two hundred thousand Turkish army. Moreover, the Turks were forced to retreat, having lost about one hundred thousand soldiers - half of their army! But over time, the Crimea was liberated, Turkey was pushed out from the shores of the Black Sea far to the south, and the Zaporizhzhya Sich lost its importance as an advanced outpost, finding itself several hundred kilometers inland in peaceful territory. On August 5, 1775, by the signing of the Russian Empress Catherine II of the manifesto "On the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich and its reassignment to the Novorossiysk province", the Sich was finally disbanded. The Zaporozhye Cossacks then split into several parts. The most numerous moved to the Black Sea Cossack army, which carried border guards on the shores of the Black Sea, a significant part of the Cossacks was resettled to protect the southern borders of Russia in the Kuban and Azov. The Sultan allowed the five thousand Cossacks who left for Turkey to found the Transdanubian Sich. In 1828, the Trans-Danube Cossacks with Koshev Yosip Gladky went over to the side of Russia and were pardoned personally by Emperor Nicholas I. Throughout the vast territory of Russia, the Cossacks began to carry out border guards. No wonder the king-peacemaker Alexander III once aptly remarked: "The borders of the Russian state lie on the archak of the Cossack saddle ..."
Donets, Kuban, Tertsy, and later their brothers in arms, the Urals and Siberians were the permanent combat vanguard in all the wars in which Russia fought almost without respite for centuries. The Cossacks especially distinguished themselves in Patriotic War 1812 year. The memory of the legendary commander of the Don Ataman Matvey Ivanovich Platov, who led the Cossack regiments from Borodino to Paris, is still alive. The very regiments about which Napoleon would say with envy: "If I had Cossack cavalry, I would have conquered the whole world." Patrols, reconnaissance, security, distant raids - all this daily hard military work was carried out by the Cossacks, and their battle formation - Cossack lava - showed itself in all its glory in that war.
In the popular mind, the image of the Cossack as a natural equestrian warrior was formed. But there was also the Cossack infantry - scouts - who became the prototype of modern special-purpose units. It originated on the Black Sea coast, where the scouts carried a difficult service in the Black Sea floodplains. Later, the plastuns' divisions also operated successfully in the Caucasus. Even their opponents paid tribute to the fearlessness of the scouts - the best guards of the cordon line in the Caucasus. It was the highlanders who preserved the story of how the plastuns besieged at the Lipkin post chose to burn alive - but not surrender to the Circassians, who even promised them life.
However, the Cossacks are known not only for military exploits. They played no less a role in the development of new lands and their annexation to Russian Empire... Over time, the Cossack population moved forward into uninhabited lands, expanding the state boundaries. Cossack troops took an active part in the development of the North Caucasus, Siberia (Ermak's expedition), the Far East and America. In 1645, the Siberian Cossack Vasily Poyarkov sailed along the Amur, entered the Sea of Okhotsk, discovered Northern Sakhalin and returned to Yakutsk. In 1648, the Siberian Cossack Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnev sailed from the Arctic Ocean (the mouth of the Kolyma) to the Pacific Ocean (the mouth of the Anadyr) and opened the strait between Asia and America. In 1697-1699 the Cossack Vladimir Vasilievich Atlasov explored Kamchatka.
Cossacks during the First World War
On the very first day of the First World War, the first two regiments of the Kuban Cossacks went to the front from the Yekaterinodar railway station. Eleven Cossack troops of Russia fought on the fronts of the First World War - Donskoe, Ural, Terskoe, Kubanskoe, Orenburg, Astrakhan, Siberian, Transbaikal, Amur, Semirechenskoe and Ussuriyskoe - not knowing cowardice and desertion. Their best qualities on the Transcaucasian front, where only 11 Cossack regiments of the third order were formed in the militia - from the Cossacks of older ages, who sometimes could give odds to cadre youth. Thanks to their incredible stamina in the heavy battles of 1914, it was they who prevented the breakthrough of the Turkish troops - far from the worst at that time! - to our Transcaucasia and together with the arriving Siberian Cossacks, they threw them back. After a tremendous victory in the Battle of Sarykamysh, Russia received congratulations from the allied commanders-in-chief, Joffre and French, who highly appreciated the power of Russian weapons. But the pinnacle of martial art in Transcaucasia was the capture of the mountain fortified region of Erzurum in the winter of 1916, in the assault of which the Cossack units played an important role.
The Cossacks were not only the most dashing cavalry, but also served in intelligence, artillery, infantry and even aviation. Thus, the indigenous Kuban Cossack Vyacheslav Tkachev made the first long-distance flight in Russia along the route Kiev - Odessa - Kerch - Taman - Yekaterinodar with a total length of 1,500 versts, despite unfavorable autumn weather and other difficult conditions. On March 10, 1914, he was seconded to the 4th aviation division after its formation, and on the same day, Tkachev was appointed commander of the 20th aviation detachment attached to the headquarters of the 4th army. In the initial period of the war, Tkachev made several reconnaissance flights, very important for the Russian command, for which, by order of the army of the Southwestern Front of November 24, 1914, No. 290, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, IV degree (the first among the pilots).
The Cossacks showed themselves very well in the Great Patriotic War. In this most severe and difficult time for the country, the Cossacks forgot the past grievances, and together with the entire Soviet people rose to defend their homeland. The 4th Kuban, 5th Don Volunteer Cossack Corps passed with honor until the end of the war, participating in major operations. 9th Plastun Red Banner Krasnodar Division, dozens of rifle and cavalry divisions formed at the beginning of the war from the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban, Terek, Stavropol, Orenburg, Urals, Semirechye, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Guards Cossack formations often performed a very important task - while mechanized formations formed an inner ring of numerous "cauldrons", Cossacks, as part of mechanized cavalry groups, burst out into the operational space, disrupted enemy communications and created an outer encirclement ring, preventing the release of enemy troops. In addition to the Cossack units recreated under Stalin, there were many Cossacks among famous people during the Second World War, who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or Plastun units, but in the entire Soviet army, or distinguished themselves in military production. For example: tank ace # 1, Hero Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless; Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - ancestral Ural Cossack, a native of Omsk; Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral A.A. Golovko is a Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya; gunsmith designer F.V. Tokarev - Don Cossack, a native of the village of Yegorlyk Region of the Don Cossack; Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Front, General of the Army, Hero of the USSR M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Ust-Medveditskaya Oblast of the Don Cossacks, the commander of a squadron of the guard, Captain K.I. Nedorubov is a Hero of the Soviet Union and a full Knight of St. George, as well as many other Cossacks.
All the wars of our time that have happened already Russian Federation, also did not do without the Cossacks. In addition to the conflicts in Transnistria and Abkhazia, the Cossacks took an active part in the Ossetian-Ingush conflict and in the subsequent protection of the administrative border of Ossetia with Chechnya and Ingushetia. During the First Chechen Campaign, the Russian Ministry of Defense formed a motorized rifle battalion named after General Yermolov from volunteer Cossacks. Its effectiveness was so high that it scared the pro-Kremlin Chechens, who saw in the appearance of Cossack units the first step towards the revival of the Terek region. Under their pressure, the battalion was withdrawn from Chechnya and disbanded. During the second campaign, the 205th motorized rifle brigade, as well as commandant companies serving in the Shelkovsky, Naursky and Nadterechny regions of Chechnya, were equipped with Cossacks. In addition, significant masses of Cossacks, having signed a contract, fought in "ordinary", that is, non-Cossack units. More than 90 people from Cossack units received government awards as a result of hostilities, all Cossacks who participated in hostilities and clearly fulfilled their duties received Cossack awards. For 13 years, the Cossacks in the south of Russia have been annually holding field training camps, within the framework of which command-staff training with unit commanders and officers, fire, tactical, topographic, mine and medical training are organized. Cossack units, companies and platoons are headed by officers of the Russian army with combat experience who took part in operations in hot spots in the Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions. And the Cossack mounted patrols became reliable assistants to the Russian border guards and the police.
Which only stories not exists O volume , where and when appeared Cossacks ! Some generally sincerely convinced , what Cossacks — this is separate people like Russians or Ukrainians . A how all was on the very business ?
Where did the Cossacks come from?
For the first time, when describing the hostilities of the Russian troops, service Cossacks, who made up the border guards mainly from the local population, begin to be mentioned from the middle of the 15th century. As part of the Russian army, Cossack units appear in the middle of the 16th century. as one of the categories of service people "by the device" (ie, by the sovereign's recruitment).
The word "Cossack" has Turkic roots and means "free man", "daredevil". Cossacks in the 15th - early 16th centuries named all free people who lived on the steppe outskirts of the Moscow state. The ranks of the Cossacks were replenished by Russian fugitive peasants and slaves who settled in distant "Ukrainians", often outside the lands under the control of the Moscow sovereigns. The predecessors of the most famous of them - the Don Cossacks - some researchers are inclined to consider the "brodniks" of the Azov region mentioned in the chronicles, sometimes taking part in the internecine wars and campaigns of the Russian princes, sometimes together with the Polovtsy and Mongols. However, its supporters could not confirm their hypothesis with convincing evidence. Like the Bulgarians and Polovtsians, the "rodeans" were assimilated by the peoples who came in the 13th century. with the Mongols in the Azov and Black Sea steppes, becoming part of the Tatar people.
Undoubtedly, the first Cossacks were natives of the steppe hordes, united in detachments subordinate to their own leaders, who were promoted at the expense of their military talents and courage. During the great campaigns of the Horde khans, the Cossacks joined their armies, in peacetime they hunted for robbery and theft of cattle. Over time, the ranks of the Cossacks began to pour in Russian daredevils, the so-called "zapolyane", who left for the steppe ("zapolnye") rivers "to the youth." They adopted the way of life of the "Horde" Cossacks, their economic activities, and most importantly, the methods of waging the steppe war. Traces of life together persisted for a long time. The famous Russian historian S.M. Soloviev cited an interesting example in support of this: in the 16th century. one of the main Don atamans was Sary-Azman, and the ataman of the Azov Cossacks was S. Lozhnik.
Apparently, the Ryazan land, located on the border of Russia and the "Wild Field", became the cradle of the Russian Cossacks proper. The first mention of the Ryazan Cossacks dates back to 1443. The detachments of the Tatar prince Mustafa, who then arrived in Ryazan, were attacked not only by the army of Moscow governors, but also by Mordovian skiers and Cossacks who came “on their mouths (skis. - V.V.) with sulitsa and with spears, and with sabers. " Together, the enemy was defeated. The extremely important role played by the inhabitants of the Ryazan borderlands in the formation of the Cossacks is confirmed by many other documents that have come down to us. So, in 1501, the ambassador Alakoz, who arrived from Kafa, asked the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III to hire "ten Ryazan Cossacks who would know [the roads] on the Don." Grand Duke sympathetic to the request of the ambassador and addressed the appropriate order to the dowager princess of Ryazan Agrafena. In this case, Ivan III did not fail to confirm the prohibition for Russian people to go "to youth" to the Don. Disobedient families were to be executed or sold into servitude. This prohibition is also evidenced by another document - the message of Ivan III to Princess Agrafena, dated 1502. Addressing her, the Moscow sovereign demanded that the Ryazan authorities take the most decisive measures against the Don Cossacks and those Russian people who "will go to the Don as tyranny in their youth."
In those same years, the Cossacks were born in the Russian lands, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Escaping the heavy oppression of the landlords, many residents of the Dnieper region fled "over the rapids" to the steppe rivers flowing into the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. The first reliable news about the settlements of the Cossacks in the lower reaches of the Dnieper dates back to 1489 and 1492. Fr. Tomakovka (Tomakovskaya Sich on Butsky Island), then - about. Khortytsya, with the preservation of the Sich on Tomakovka. After the destruction of the Tomakovskaya Sich by the Tatars in 1593, the Cossacks moved their main settlement to about. Bazavluk.
Over time, the Russian element among the Cossacks who settled on the Dnieper and Don became predominant. Nevertheless, even at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. the “Horde Cossacks” also remained in the “Pole”, making audacious attacks on the Russian “Ukrainians”. Gradually they were pushed aside to Azov. Their further fate is unknown, but it is quite possible that they became part of the Don Cossacks. At the same time, there was an intensive process of unification of the Turkic and Russian Cossacks, which was reflected in the documents. In 1538, they wrote from Moscow to the Nogai Horde: “Many Cossacks go to the Field: Kazan, Azov, Crimean and other minions, Cossacks; and from our Ukrainians the Cossacks, having mixed with them, are walking around. "
How the Cossacks began to serve the Moscow sovereigns
Defending their interests, the Cossacks constantly faced forces hostile to the Russian state - Turkey, the Crimean Khanate, the Nogai Horde. At the same time, a few, but well-organized Cossack detachments inflicted serious damage on the enemy, forcing him to reckon with himself. True, at first the Cossacks fought against the Tatars, proceeding from their own interests. Proceeding from their own needs, the Cossacks often made robbery raids on the Moscow possessions. However, Orthodox Moscow Russia was still much closer to the Cossacks than the "Mohammedan" Tatar khanates. So they began to become more and more involved in the orbit of Moscow influence, performing, at first periodically, and with time more and more often, the service of the Moscow sovereigns.
The struggle of the Russian Cossacks against the Tatars and Nogai took on the most fierce character at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. At this time the Ryazan and Meshchera Cossacks already felt themselves masters on the Don. To secure the approaches to the Azov fortress, the Turkish government decided to knock the Cossacks off this river. In 1519, the Janissaries were sent against them, who received an order to occupy the mouth of the river. Voronezh. The Moscow government, alarmed by the approach of Turkish troops to the Russian possessions, proposed to Istanbul to establish a clearly marked border on Khopr, but the Crimean invasion of 1521 canceled these plans. However, the Turks could not establish themselves on the Don and Voronezh. "Zapolyane" from Ryazan and Seversky places continued to develop the Don region in more favorable conditions - after the invasion of Muhammad-Girey, the Moscow authorities stopped persecuting the Cossacks. Moreover, the Russian “Ukrainian governors”, undoubtedly, with the knowledge of the government, began to instruct the “zapolyans” to “take people out to the field, something that our enemy’s people want to come to our Ukrainian places and famously want to commit, and they would not go unknown.” The Cossacks also carried out other orders from Moscow. So, in 1523, Russian and Turkish ambassadors who went down the Don were accompanied by 5 villages of Ryazan Cossacks.
The government, seeking to calm down the Cossack robberies and use their military experience to combat the Tatar threat, began to attract free Cossacks to the state border service. As border guards, service Cossacks first appeared in the southern "Ukrainians", where there was a constant danger of an enemy attack. They played a very important role in the reorganization in 1571 of the guard and village service, replacing the detachments of the boyar children who were returned to the regimental service.
Until the middle of the 16th century, the free Cossacks were not included in the Russian army, but their actions in the southern Russian steppes became more and more noticeable. The Moscow authorities could not ignore this circumstance. The presence of a common enemy brought Moscow's interests closer to the Don and Zaporozhye Cossacks. Gradually, places of permanent residence of the Cossacks arose in different areas of the Wild Field, and as a result, the formation of various Cossack troops began.
Don Cossacks
The first temporary Cossack settlements on the Don appeared in the second third of the 16th century. These were "winter quarters and yurts" in which the Cossacks could settle their families. Gradually, in place of some of them, “small towns” arose, enclosed by the simplest fortifications (a ditch, a rampart with a tyn). In them, the Cossacks took refuge during a sudden attack by the Tatars, kept supplies and weapons. The first reliable information about the Cossack towns dates back to the 40s. XVI century In 1548, a "prison" was mentioned, which the atamans M. Cherkashenin and I. Izvolsky put on the "Veliky Perevoz" (Perevolok). In addition to this fortified settlement, there were 3 or 4 "cities" on the Don, in which Sary-Azman ruled, possibly on the "flood" rivers there were other Cossack settlements.
The Moscow authorities have not yet controlled the Don Cossacks, recognizing the fact that "those robbers live on the Don without our knowledge, but they are running away from us." Their number grew. Not only Ryazan "zapolyane" went to the Don, but also freemen from the Seversk land and even the West Russian lands. By the middle of the XVI century. Cossacks mastered the Don and Dnieper steppes and began to harass the Tatars in their uluses. With undisguised alarm about the actions of the Don people in 1551, the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I wrote to the Nogai prince Ismail, according to whom, “the Cossacks from Ozov will rent money and will not give water on the Don. And that is why great insults are inflicted on the Crimean king ”.
The Don Cossacks made the first known campaign against the Crimea in 1556. An army led by the ataman M. Cherkashenin, who headed the Cossacks who lived on the Seversky Donets, on plows along the river. Mius descended into the Sea of Azov, crossed it and ravaged the vicinity of Kerch. The Cossacks sent two "tongues" captured during the campaign to Moscow.
The influx of the Russian population to the Don increased at the end of the 16th century. in connection with the strengthening of taxation oppression in the central regions of the Russian state, devastated by the Livonian War and the oprichnina. Among the people leaving for the Don there were many criminals who fled from the Moscow state from a well-deserved punishment. They played into the hands of the old Cossack custom of not handing over the fugitives to the Russian government. This tradition turned out to be tenacious and survived until the time of Peter I.
Episodic contacts between the government and the Don Cossacks began in the late 40s - early 50s of the 16th century, and in the 70s. have become permanent. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the fact that all diplomatic and trade relations of the Russian state with the Crimea and Turkey went along the Don. At that time, the Don Cossacks did not yet have a single military organization, therefore, to ensure the safety of this route, the government had to contact the elected authorities of individual yurts and detachments stationed along the banks of the rivers of the Don basin.
The first mention of the "device" of Don Cossacks for Moscow service dates back to 1549. Having sent ambassador I. Fedulov to the Nogai, Tsar Ivan IV suggested that they begin joint actions against the Crimea, reporting that he had already "ordered the Cossacks with his Putivl and Don Crimean uluses to fight and do unfriendliness to the king. " From the beginning of the 1550s. Don Cossacks were included in the Russian troops serving "on the Field". The Don and Volga Cossacks took part in the fight against the Nogai, they conquered Kazan and Astrakhan as part of the Moscow armies, fought on the battlefields of the Livonian War, served in border Russian fortresses, receiving fodder and sometimes local salaries for the service.
In addition to sentinel and marching service, the government resorted to the help of the Cossacks to guard embassies and trade caravans, promising them salaries, mainly in cloth, saltpeter and lead, which the Cossacks badly needed. For the successful fulfillment of such assignments, the atamans were allowed to "clean up" for the "Don service" even the Seversk servicemen, who retained their estates.
Volga Cossacks
After the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, the Volga became another center of the free Cossacks, where the Don people crossed from the Don and in search of booty descended on their ships into the Caspian Sea. Trade caravans and Nogai nomads became the object of their attacks. In the official papers of that time, the names of the Cossack leaders who robbed on the Volga were preserved: V. Meshchersky and P. Putivlets. Initially, the government tried to negotiate peace with the Volga Cossacks. In 1557, ataman L. Filimonov was sent to the Volga, enjoying the full confidence of Moscow. But the Volga Cossacks did not obey Filimonov and, having killed the ataman, attacked a trade caravan going down the Volga and plundered it. The sovereign's treasury, which was then sent to Astrakhan, was also plundered. This attack was the first documented action of the Cossacks against the Russian government. The Moscow authorities could not leave him without consequences. Troops were sent to the Volga, which put things in order there, but it was not possible to completely clear the Volga of the Cossacks, and soon the attacks resumed. For example, back in 1581, government troops had to chase the Cossack detachment of Ataman D. Britous, who was eventually taken prisoner and hanged.
Yaik Cossacks
Forced to leave the Volga, the Cossacks returned to the Don, but some of them, on the contrary, moved further to the East - beyond the Volga. In late June - early July 1581, a detachment of the ataman Nechai attacked the Nogai, devastating their capital Saraichik, located in the lower reaches of the Yaik River (Ural), thereby laying the foundation for the Yaik Cossacks. The Cossacks finally established themselves on Yaik in 1586, setting up a permanent town on the Kosh-Yaitsky Island opposite the mouth of the Ilek River. The Nogays tried to destroy the Cossack fortress, besieging it for a long time, but having suffered defeat, they were forced to retreat. By the end of the XVI century. Cossack towns were located throughout Yaik. From 1591 the Ural Cossacks served in the ranks of the Russian army. The Yaik Cossacks recognized the power of the Moscow Tsar under Mikhail Fedorovich, and before that, according to their recollections, "they lived ... for a long time arbitrarily, under no whose power." Like the Don, the Yaik Cossacks originally lived in small communities that formed around the towns. A single Cossack region (Host) arose on Yaik in the 50s. XVII century In the art of war, the Yaik Cossacks were not inferior to the Don Cossacks, maintaining close contact with them, receiving replenishment and help from there, and, if necessary, shelter. In the years 1636-1637. I. Ya. lived in the Don town of Golubye. Polenov, who in 1636 was a captain in the army of the Yaik Cossacks who took the Persian city of Farabad.
Tersk Cossacks
In the second half of the XVI century. several detachments of the Volga Cossacks, moving along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, reached the river. Terek in the North Caucasus and Grebensky mountains, where a new Cossack region began to take shape. The first reliable mention of the free Cossacks in the North Caucasus dates back to 1563, but the small number of free people who settled here initially forced them to act in alliance with the Russian voivods, who sought to gain a foothold in the North Caucasus. An important milestone in the history of the Terek and Grebensk Cossacks was the construction in 1567 of the Tersk town, founded at the confluence of the Sunzha and the Terek. Despite the temporary withdrawal of the tsarist troops from the Terek in 1571, the Cossacks remained in the Caucasus, holding out there until the reopening of the Terek city in 1578. Their townships even grew at the expense of "similar" people leaving the south. In 1592-1593. 600 free Cossacks "from Terk" attacked the Turkish possessions on the Taman Peninsula, plundered and burned the settlements of the Temryuk fortress. During the Time of Troubles, like other Cossack yurts, some of the Tertsy "stole". It was here that the False Peter movement began, supported by 300 Cossacks led by ataman F. Bodyrin. Secretly from the other Tertsy who remained with the governor P.P. Golovin, the rebels went to the Volga to rob merchant ships. The reason for the mutiny was the non-payment of the Tsar's salary to the Cossacks. Subsequently, the 4,000-strong army of False Peter marched out to Putivl and took part in the uprising started by G.P. Shakhovsky and I.I. Bolotnikov.
The events of the Time of Troubles led to a significant reduction in the number of Terek Cossacks, in the 17th century. united in a relatively small Terek Cossack army. If in 1638 there were 356 "free atamans and Cossacks who live on the Terka River", then in 1651 there were 440 Terek and Greben atamans and Cossacks.
