Cossacks displayed their democratic and warrior ideals in distinctive song, folklore and dress, for example the baggy, striped trousers, the single forelock of hair and the practice of wearing military uniform when off-duty. They were presided over by an elected leader, the ataman, who also mustered men for military service. These settlements were governed by assemblies of adult males responsible for allotting land and imposing judicial sentences. Hosts were not subdivided into the counties and villages of the Russian peasantry but into military districts and large settlements called stanitsas. As these warrior bands coalesced into organised communities, the tsarist state subordinated them through methods varying from oaths of allegiance and legal charters to brutal suppression of revolt.Ĭossacks nevertheless retained much of their political structure and culture.
#COSSACKS WW1 PROFESSIONAL#
The Don, Terek and Ural Cossacks, on the other hand, originated independently through the mingling of Tatar nomads and Slavic frontiersmen living on the steppe grasslands in the 15 th century, who made a living as professional soldiers or by raiding surrounding settlements. Some, including the Zabaikal, Amur and Ussuri hosts, were created by the regime to guard its long southern border and facilitate expansion into the Far East. Each had its own territory, administration, economy, religious preference and traditions. The Cossacks exemplify this complexity.īy 1914 there were eleven separate Cossack communities, known as hosts, or voiska. They were distinguished not just by position in law but by cultural markers. It comprised manifold groups that emerged in different processes and adapted to the estate order. Historians such as Gregory Freeze, however, have argued that Russia’s social structure was more dynamic and complex. In return, the imperial regime granted the Cossacks collective allotments of land and exemption from taxation. The Cossack estate’s duty was universal male military service in mounted formations. Russian society in the 18 th century is commonly described as a hierarchical system of estates, in which the state categorised the population according to service rendered.
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