Cossacks
16th Century






The Cossacks in the 19th century



In the late 18th century, the lands on the Dnjestr, Dnjepr and Don which the cossacks had held for generations were settled by farmers called in from the Balkans, Germany and elsewhere. The ZAPOROZHIAN HOST was dissolved (1774).
Being a cossack was a lifestyle. Many cossacks, rather than giving up their cossack identity, moved into lands where they dould live in their old ways - existing cossack hosts were enforced/reshaped by the immigration of cossacks, new cossack hosts were formed - the KUBAN HOST (officially founded 1794), the TEREK HOST, the ORENBURG HOST, the SEMIRECHEN HOST, the SIBIRIAN HOST, the USSURI HOST, the ASTRAKHAN HOST and the AMUR HOST.
The cossacks were Russia's frontier society. Yet they were not that rebellious any more; Russia's modernized army was too strong for them. Cossack regiments continued to serve in the army until after World War I; here they supplied a valuable service to the Russian state. Cossacks also often functioned as tax collectors, known for their ruthless methods in enforcing payment.







EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Cossacks Page, by Artiom Kochukov
Cossack, database entry from NUPI, ethnologic-historical
The Cossacks, from A Short History of Austria-Hungary, by the Encyclopedia Britannica 1914, posted at Don Mabry's Historical Text Archive
Century of Rebellion, from Russian Culture
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 8th 2004

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